An important piece of gaming history has been preserved today, as a leaker has released the ROM files for Project Dream, a canceled proof-of-concept for a Rare-developed pirate RPG that would eventually become the basis for the beloved Banjo-Kazooie series.
You can check out a video of the alpha footage below, and if you do, you'll probably find it hard to believe that this game was originally intended to release on the 16-bit Super Nintendo. The sole character model and jungle environments look more advanced than anything that released on the SNES, and it was only a prototype for the full game, which was canceled and reworked by Rare in 1997 after 16 months in development, largely due to technical problems.
To be clear, Rare itself hasn't been shy to talk about or even show footage of Project Dream, but this is the first time it's been made widely available online. The leaker, who only says they obtained the prototype "from someone who got it from someone, who got it from somewhere," says in a manifesto-style writeup that they chose now to release everything to help offset all of the evils of the world.
"With the current state of the industry and Microsoft's current heartless gutting and mismanagement of Rare and other companies it controls, plus with how long it's been, I feel it's more important to make sure this is properly preserved, and the ROM dissected by people with far more knowledge on how to do such things," says the leaker.
"I hope by releasing this, that it also inspires other people to release what they have as well. I know the Twelve Tales Conker 64 prototype is out there somewhere, but sadly, this is the only thing that I have."
It's hard to get much more explicit than that, but the uploader, who goes by FvckAsha&Phil online – an apparent reference to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and her predecessor, Phil Spencer – goes even further to explain why Project Dream is surfacing online now of all times.
"There is little joy left in the industry, as it relentlessly marches towards AI, layoffs, l anti-preservation and ownership tactics, and, in Microsoft’s case, the support and approval of literal genocide in Gaza.
"Let's get the last beautiful things hiding on our hard drives out there for everyone. That's all we have left," says the leaker, imploring readers to "Please delete Microsoft and Sony from your lives, install Linux, boycott Switch Game Key Cards and buy Nintendo Switch 2 titles that still come with the full game on the cartridge.
"Your dollar is the only thing that counts in our late stage capitalist hellscape."
Rare was heavily impacted by Microsoft's unprecedented downsizing that began in July with the gutting of 1,600 jobs and which will result in a further 1,600 redundancies by the end of the company's 2027 fiscal year. Rare's would-be next game, Everwild, was canceled in the blitz after six years of development. This is amid a seemingly endless era of downsizing in the games industry that saw an estimated 45,000 cut jobs between 2022 and 2025.
We'll never know if Project Dream would've joined the ranks of the best SNES games of all time.
