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Back in the 90s, Nintendo worked alongside St. Giga in Japan to bring forth exclusive software for their Super Nintendo system at the time, all this through broadcast satellite transmission, which ended up being titled "BS" (which stands for Broadcast Satellaview).

A good number of Nintendo first party franchises were available for to the service, like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and also F-Zero.

The BS titles which originally released back then were saved into memory, and it's due to this specific hurdle that many, many titles from the BS era of the Super Nintendo have become increasingly rare to track down and preserve, and the passing of time doesn't help in this regard, since the hardware in whicj the games were saved are rotting away or most likely have their internals failing and erased by now.

While some titles from then have been regained and restored, like the BS Zelda titles, others like F-Zero haven't seen much luck, since a couple entries from the F-Zero broadcasts haven't been found as of yet, with a $5,000 US dlls bounty currently on going for anyone that might have existing copies of said games, or rather, the two missing week broadcasts that remain for F-Zero to have its entire BS catalog preserved.

Given the missing content, in 2018 a Japanese YouTuber by the name of "kukun kun" uploaded the original broadcast from the missing F-Zero media, showcasing the entirety lf the games on his videos. While this didn't include the original dumps of the games, it helped for romhacking enthusiasts to take action int he matter.

In a collaborative effort between romhackers "Guy Perfect"; who made the "e+ Complete" romhack for F-Zero GP Legend on the GBA, FlibidyDibidy, LuigiBlood, Porthor and Power Panda, they managed to recreate from scratch, making frame by frame comparisons Kunlun Kun's videos, the entirety of the BS media for F-Zero that was missing, effectively making 1:1 recreations of each and every track from the original broadcasts back in the mid 90s.

Together with Did You Know Gaming, the incredible work of the romhackers has been made accessible and available for everyone so that players can now experience this lost media from F-Zero's history made from the groundup.

While the original ROM dumps from the BS broadcasts are still missing, the search for them continues, as well as the 5k bounty too, but in the meanwhile, these recreations will make this lost media accessible to the world, in yet another instance of how great and important the romhacking community is when it comes to passionate and impressive endeavours.

 

[Flame]

Might be called BS. but if it's cool like BS Zelda. We have something good here.

 

[JuanMena]

QUICK! GET IT BEFORE IT GETS NINTENDO NINJA'D!
Weird... Internet Archives is telling me the file is malicious.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

the paradox: they claim to have made a 1:1 recreation, but nobody can check if the affirmation is actually true. If it's possible in the future, then the "1:1 recreation" is not needed anymore.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

$5000 bounty? Gosh, someone really wants to play those tracks.

Is it safe to assume that these "Lost tracks" won't be in F-zero 99 at all? I don't think nintendo is one of those companies that don't keep source codes or back ups of their own stuff... (and before someone mentions that virtual console roms was download from internet)

 

[SylverReZ]

QUICK! GET IT BEFORE IT GETS NINTENDO NINJA'D!
Weird... Internet Archives is telling me the file is malicious.

That can be bypassed if you place into a RAR file (password-protected) and then add it in say a .7z archive.

 

[RupeeClock]

The process by which they recreated the tracks from gameplay footage is insanely cool, I'd love to see a detailed breakdown of it.

 

[ZeroFX]

someone got lots of time in his hands.

 

[Kwyjor]

I don't think nintendo is one of those companies that don't keep source codes or back ups of their own stuff...

Surely you didn't miss the news of the gigantic quantities of retro stuff in the recent "gigaleaks"?

(and before someone mentions that virtual console roms was download from internet)

They had an iNES header; people make too much of a big deal about that.

 

[ertaboy356b]

I read that sa Bullshit F-Zero.

 

[LightBeam]

I've started to watch the video when it released but ...


I do remember downloading a BS F-Zero GP 2 rom for my miyoo mini a few months ago ... What was it then ??

 

[retrospect]

That sounds a bit misleading about the BS Zelda titles. Aren't large parts of them made-up to fill in the gaps? Or perhaps my knowledge is out of date.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

The satellaview thing is such a whacky insane idea. Was always cool to see Nintendo being experimental and innovative with tech back in the day.

 

[AmandaRose]

I do remember downloading a BS F-Zero GP 2 rom for my miyoo mini a few months ago ... What was it then ??

BS F-Zero 2 was unsurprisingly the follow up to BS F-Zero that is talked about in this thread.

BS F-Zero was split into parts and some parts were missing and some were dumped for us to be able to play.

BS F-Zero 2 was not split into parts and someone dumped the game thus why you have it.

 

[Ralkila]

That's a real fan right there, 5k sounds like a commitment.

 

[LightBeam]

BS F-Zero 2 was unsurprisingly the follow up to BS F-Zero that is talked about in this thread.

BS F-Zero was split into parts and some parts were missing and some were dumped for us to be able to play.

BS F-Zero 2 was not split into parts and someone dumped the game thus why you have it.

Oh alright, I thought it was talking about BS F-Zero GP 2, I always thought it was the followup to « F-Zero », neat stuff thanks for the clarification

 

[SaulFabre]

Amazing. Great long great times for the Satellaview

 

[Ligeia]

BS F-Zero 2 was unsurprisingly the follow up to BS F-Zero that is talked about in this thread.

BS F-Zero was split into parts and some parts were missing and some were dumped for us to be able to play.

BS F-Zero 2 was not split into parts and someone dumped the game thus why you have it.

Thanks, I always get confused by this F-Zero BS mess... I assumed the F-Zero Final hack had all the BS content added to the base game, I guess that's not correct then ? What tracks are missing ?

 

[RetraCarteR]

Okay, there seems to be some confusion in this thread as to where certain courses come from and what lost content this hack recreates, so let me break it down:

In late 1996 and early 1997, BS F-Zero Grand Prix (sometimes referred to as "Grand Prix 1" to differentiate it from the second one) was broadcast in four parts, all of which have been dumped and preserved. Most of the courses featured were just recycled from the original game, but there were some new ones. In terms of new content, it introduced four new vehicles (the Blue Thunder, Luna Bomber, Green Amazone, and Fire Scorpion) and four new courses (Sand Storm I, Sand Storm II, Silence II, and Big Blue II).

BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2, which broadcast in the summer of 1997, is a bit more complicated. In June, a few months before the full Grand Prix 2 was actually broadcast, Nintendo broadcast a sneak preview called BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 Practice, which was supposed to allow players to get familiar with some of the tracks. Grand Prix 2 Practice featured all four vehicles and all four new courses from Grand Prix 1, along with one additional new course, Mute City IV, and a new "Ghost Race" feature for time trials. The layouts of the four courses brought over from Grand Prix 1 were also slightly tweaked and refined. Grand Prix 2 Practice has been dumped and preserved, and it's what most people are talking about when they say they've played BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2.

In August, Nintendo broadcast the full version of Grand Prix 2 in two parts. In addition to the five courses included in Grand Prix 2 Practice, it introduced five more new courses (Forest I, Forest II, Forest III, Metal Fort I, and Metal Fort II). Neither of these two parts has been dumped or preserved, which means that those five courses have been lost to time for the past 25+ years. This is what the creators of this ROM hack had to recreate based on old VHS recordings. The ROM hack brings together all of the content from the original game, Grand Prix 1, Grand Prix 2 Practice, and the full Grand Prix 2.

Of course, most of this is explained in the manual that's included as a PDF in the download.

 

[Vorde]

Surely you didn't miss the news of the gigantic quantities of retro stuff in the recent "gigaleaks"?

They had an iNES header; people make too much of a big deal about that.

IIRC those leaks weren't from Nintendo, they were from the iQue company; a chinese entertainment company that Nintendo worked very closely with and they shared more with them than they likely feel they should have lol