Chapter 1: Mumbo’s Secret Pictures
Summary:
Up first, a cutscene that is pretty much the same as in our universe, but I have to keep it to set the scene.
Notes:
First, some notes before we get started. Stop n Swop was a feature Rare was preparing for their classic N64 platformers back in the 90s. It involved some secret items, specifically literal Easter eggs, a key made of ice, and possibly several other items Rare hadn't thought of before the plug was pulled by Nintendo during the development of DK64. This was going to be something magical, turning a quirk of the hardware most people didn't know about into a feature. When you power off on older Nintendo 64 systems, there's a window of roughly 20 seconds where some packets of data remain in memory. Rare's idea was to use this to transfer items between games during an era before DLC. The "mystery eggs" are actually still collectable in Banjo Kazooie via developer codes that leaked online, but nothing can be done with them in the state Rare left them in. There's an argument to be made that Stop n Swop is the most famous piece of cut content in gaming history, and I thought, "what if Nintendo never shut this feature down?" This project is my attempt to explore that timeline.
Chapter Text
Stop n Swop: Chapter 1: Mumbo’s Secret Pictures
Banjo and Kazooie are relaxing on the beach as Mumbo comes down from a coconut tree.
Mumbo: Hey… Mumbo got secret pictures!
Kazooie: Nice one, bone brain! What’s on them?
Mumbo: Got pictures of things you missed. Secrets used in next game!
Banjo: Oooh…did you hear that, Kazooie? We’re going to be in another game!
Kazooie: Great, so let’s see the pictures then, skirt boy!
Mumbo: Did you get all 100 jigsaw pieces?
Banjo: We sure did, Mr. Mumbo!
Kazooie: Yeah, so show us your secrets, mask midget!
Mumbo: Pictures show things you missed. Secrets that are far new game Banjo-Tooie!
Banjo: Banjo-Tooie! Sounds great, is it any good?
Mumbo: Mumbo’s jaw dropped in awe…
Kazooie: Hey, why isn’t it called Banjo-Kazooie-Tooie? I better be in it too, short stuff!
Mumbo: Banjo-Tooie make Banjo-Kazooie look like joke. Mumbo show you pictures of stuff can use in new game! Here, take look…
And we head into a gameplay video. Treasure Trove Cove, with Banjo headed for Sharkfood Island.
Mumbo: Find first secret on the beach!
Kazooie: Hey shorty, how did you make that rock rise up?
Mumbo: Hurr…hurr…Mumbo not telling!
Banjo: Wow… a secret cavern!
Mumbo: Bear and bird must climb to top…
The gameplay video moves into them doing just that.
Kazooie: What’s up there, dumbskull?
Mumbo: Wait and see, o filthy feathered one…
Banjo: Gulp…it looks rather high…
Kazooie: Don’t worry Banjo, it looks like I have to get us up there!
At this point, the Banjo in the gameplay video reaches the top of the cavern, where he finds… a pink egg with a ? on it. Who knows what’s inside… we head to a gameplay video of Freezeezy Peak next.
Mumbo: Next secret found in snow!
Banjo: That’s Wozza’s cave… we’ve already been in here…
The gameplay video moves to the cave in front of the Orange Jinjo.
Kazooie: Hey, what was that egg for on the beach? Tell us!
Mumbo: Bird be quiet, watch picture…
Kazooie: What’s through here?
Banjo: Corr, a giant Ice Key!
Kazooie: I know where I’d like to stick that…
Mumbo: Another secret can get in desert.
Gameplay video starts up with Banjo in Gobi’s Valley, heading into a tomb. Kazooie: Nice, Mumbo, please tell us what the eggs and key are for…
Mumbo: No, bird rude to Mumbo, not tell!
Banjo slams a button in the gameplay video, opening…
Banjo: I wonder what’s in here?
The sarcophagus opens to reveal a blue egg with a ? on it.
Kazooie: Huh, it’s only another stupid egg…
Banjo: Wow! How do we get to those?
Mumbo: Mumbo not telling. Find out in future Rare games!
And from there we head to a part of the ending not important to this story, so I’m not putting it down...
Chapter 2: Leader of the Bunch
Summary:
The Kongs investigate a mysterious fridge, while Banjo sends them the Ice Key.
Chapter Text
Stop N Swop Chapter 2: He’s The Leader of the Bunch…
One year after seeing the Mumbo’s Secret Pictures cutscene in Banjo-Kazooie, you’ve been waiting for a future Rare game to get the items shown in Banjo-Kazooie’s secret ending. While you are waiting for Banjo-Tooie, you take a break from theorizing to play through Rare’s big release for November 1999, Donkey Kong 64. You attempt to 100% complete it, naturally. While exploring the Crystal Caves, you find a lever while going after one of Chunky’s Golden Bananas. When you pull it, you see a surprising cutscene of the ice blocking you from the Ice Key in Wozza’s Cave in Banjo-Kazooie shattering. For all I know, you’re like, “Did that just do what I think it did?”, as a payload is set up for Banjo-Kazooie to read. So you power off the N64 and slam in the Banjo-Kazooie cartridge. Headed back into Wozza’s cave, the ice you’ve been staring at for a year is broken, like magic. The game even plays some celebratory music when you go in, which is a nice touch. Let’s call it the “Stop n Swop Fanfare.”
Upon collecting the Ice Key in Banjo-Kazooie, the game screams a payload to the N64 memory, a payload telling DK64 the Ice Key is ready to be used. After Banjo is finished remarking, you power off, and slam in DK64. At boot, the part with the dancing Nintendo 64 logo, the game reads the payload and, upon file selection, grabs the Ice Key and shows a cutscene of a Big Icy Door in Crystal Caves. So you head over there to open the door, and as the Stop n Swop fanfare plays once again, you find a..pirate compass? (Author’s note: Not even Rare knows what was going to be behind the Big Icy Door, because they never got that far into the concept before Nintendo shut them down. Same thing with the contents of the ? Eggs.) In our timeline, when you're in this room, going after some items for Chunky, there's this weird swing of the camera towards a wall with nothing on it, and at one point in the games development, this directed you to interact with the Big Icy Door that Nintendo forced Rare to remove..
The compass is labeled, “Property of Captain Blackeye”. At this point, a cutscene plays of the Banjo-Kazooie fridge in DK’s treehouse swinging open. The game’s like, “you should go check this out…” (fun fact: a unfinished version of this cutscene is still in the game’s data in real life, accessible via a glitch.) And at this point this project goes full fanfiction. DK heads into the shower and the door closes. You hear a faint “guh-huh! Bree!”, and when you press A, who comes out? Banjo and Kazooie, fully playable, with all their moves, which is a treat. You can now swap to Banjo at anytime by coming back here. Just go back in the fridge and you hear DK say “OK!”, and after another A press, you’re back playing as the Kong you entered with. But if you think that’s everything I have in store, oh, you couldn’t be more wrong.
The Creepy Castle level now has an Ice Key like item: a golden statue of DK. Think Indiana Jones. Like the Ice Key, you will not be able to get it from its pillar without a future Rare game. And it’s probably not the one you’re thinking of, because several of the games Rare intended for this project never actually released in our reality for one reason or another. And after unlocking the Big Icy Door, I make some edits to the secret ending. You know, the one where Cranky Kong is holding auditions for the new DK game on the Dolphin, the code name what we would eventually call the GameCube. In this alternate universe, Berri makes a cameo to tease the player once again with Stop n Swop related info. She says she’s preparing for her Birthday, and Cranky, in his usual grumpy tone, is having none of it. You wouldn’t know who she is, because a 5 year old me probably wouldn’t know about what Nintendo announced at E3 that year. This leads into the Stop n Swop content of Twelve Tales: Conker 64, the unreleased E rated game that would become what we know in this timeline as Conker’s Bad Fur Day. I think that’s a good place to end things for now..
Chapter 3: Conker’s Quest
Summary:
Banjo meets with one of Conker’s cousins, and DK climbs to the top of a windmill.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
It’s been a while since DK 64, and Conker 64: Twelve Tales has released. Again, 100% completion is something you aim for. So, after everything is completed, you’re going through Cukoo Village looking for anything related to the multi year Easter egg hunt you’ve been on. You hear rumors from an NPC that one of Conker’s cousins leaves his yellow treasure out on the table during winter. “During winter” is the key words. A payload is set for Banjo-Kazooie to read, so you power off and slam in Banjo-Kazooie, headed to Click Clock Wood. You head to Nabnut’s house during the winter, and there it is on the table… the Yellow ? Egg. You know the drill, Stop n Swop fanfare, and after Banjo is finished remarking, you put in Conker. Upon boot, the N64 grabs the Yellow ? Egg and a cutscene plays of Knowit the Owl. You should probably take it to him… You do just that, and after a short conversation, (with “DLC” dialogue, as referenced in the real life Stop n Swop patent) the egg is opened to reveal a Golden Slingshot that you can use on new files. It can fire unlimited Golden Conkers for attacks, which could be useful for speedruns… After this, you see a cutscene of Berri waiting for you inside the windmill. After going in there, you see Berri talking about something at the top of the windmill.
A platforming challenge awaits you, and at the top you collect the Stop n Swop item for Twelve Tales, the Bag of Cash (a reference to this timeline’s Bad Fur Day.) You can even hear it yelling the same voice clips from Bad Fur Day. But to get up there, there’s another “transformer” you need to use, because the only person able to get up there is DK. You go into a miniature version of the “beauty machine” from Grunty’s Lair and come out as DK. As you’re climbing up, DK uses a new move, a hand slap similar to the one from Bananza. And after collecting the Bag of Cash, Conker says that he’ll find a thing to spend this on someday, but it’s going into his savings for now. That should be your cue to wait for a future Rare game release, specifically Banjo-Tooie. Anyway, you’re probably working your way through Jet Force Gemini at this time, which in our timeline has seemingly nothing related to Stop n Swop. But what if it did?
Notes:
The next chapter was going to be Banjo Tooie, but it completely slipped my mind that Jet Force Gemini released mere months after DK64. In our timeline, it has no known links to Stop n Swop, but what if it did? Maybe it would help you get the Golden Kong Statue... Hmm. What if?
Chapter 4: Persistent Play: Alternate Timeline E3 2001 reveal
Summary:
Let’s jump a couple of years into the future, when Nintendo notices Stop n Swop is popular, and plans to go even further during the GameCube generation.
Chapter Text
Stop N Swop: Persistent Play
The Nintendo Stop ‘n’ Swop System
(An Alternate Timeline, 1999–2006)
Phase 1 – The Discovery (1999–2000)
- Banjo-Kazooie → Donkey Kong 64 → Banjo-Tooie creates playground legends.
- Kids rush between cartridges swapping secrets; it’s bigger than Pokémon trading.
- Rare’s “Stop ‘n’ Swop Network” becomes a system seller for the N64.
- Nintendo notices: players are buying entire libraries to see all the rewards.
Phase 2 – Nintendo Codifies the Feature (2001, GameCube Era)
- Instead of dropping the idea, Nintendo builds “Persistent Play” into the GameCube hardware.
- Every GameCube disc can write small “Stop Blocks” of data onto the memory card.
- Cartridges are gone, but the idea evolves:
- Finish Luigi’s Mansion → swap to Smash Bros. Melee → Luigi’s ghost vacuum unlocks as an item.
- Finish Pikmin → swap to Metroid Prime → Samus gains a “Pikmin hologram” side ability.
- Stop ‘n’ Swop becomes a Nintendo-wide standard, not just Rare’s quirk.
Phase 3 – The “Nintendo Network of Secrets” (2002–2004)
- Nintendo formalizes a Stop ‘n’ Swop Seal of Quality.
- Any 1st or 2nd party game must include hidden data packets that connect to at least 2 other games.
- Cross-franchise unlocks:
- Mario Sunshine → Wind Waker: Collect Shine Sprites → unlocks a Mario-themed sail for Link’s boat.
- Animal Crossing → Fire Emblem: Villagers gossip about Marth and unlock his portrait in the museum.
- Metroid Prime → F-Zero GX: Samus unlocks as a bonus pilot.
- A Nintendo Secrets Club forms in Nintendo Power, with charts and codes for what to swap.
Phase 4 – Revolution: Stop ‘n’ Swop 2.0 (2006, Wii)
- Wii doubles down: the system memory + SD cards mean swaps are instantaneous.
- The Wii Menu itself is designed around “channels” that talk to each other — a direct legacy of Stop ‘n’ Swop.
- Examples:
- Mii data swaps into Mario Kart Wii (your Mii racer learns Smash Bros. taunts if you’ve played Brawl).
- Twilight Princess detects Mario Galaxy save data → unlocks a “Star Cloak” for Link’s wolf form.
- Wii Sports remembers Animal Crossing → villagers appear as tennis spectators.
Design Philosophy
- Nintendo reframes Stop ‘n’ Swop as:
- “Reward the Player, Not Just the Purchase.” Owning multiple Nintendo games unlocks more joy.
- It becomes the anti-DLC model: buy games, get content free across the system.
- This reinforces Nintendo’s ecosystem lock-in: to see everything, you need to be “all in” on Nintendo.
Legacy in This Timeline
- Players talk about Stop ‘n’ Swop the way we talk about achievements/trophies, but more magical because it’s hidden and physical.
- Smash Bros. becomes the ultimate Stop ‘n’ Swop hub, pulling from every franchise automatically.
- Nintendo avoids the heavy reliance on paid DLC because their identity is built on secret free unlocks.
In short: If Stop ‘n’ Swop had survived, Nintendo would have leaned into a hardware-embedded, cross-game unlock system that defined the GameCube and Wii. Instead of being famous cut content, it might have become the backbone of Nintendo’s connected ecosystem , years before Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.
E3 2001 – Nintendo GameCube Persistent Play Presentation (Alternate Timeline)
[The lights dim. A montage plays — Mario racing, Link slashing, Pikmin marching, Samus scanning. The footage freezes. The words “CONNECTED PLAY” flash on screen.]
Satoru Iwata (President of Nintendo, translated from Japanese):
“Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Today, you will see not only the power of Nintendo GameCube… but also how our games can speak to one another in a way no system has ever attempted.
We call this feature… Persistent Play. ”
[Applause, murmurs in the crowd.]
Shigeru Miyamoto (smiling, stepping onto stage):
“For many years, we dreamed of making the worlds of our games closer together. On Nintendo 64, our friends at Rare experimented with this idea, hiding special eggs and a key that could travel between adventures.
Now, with GameCube, this concept becomes a system-wide feature. Every Nintendo game can share secrets.”
[The screen shows a GameCube disc sliding into the system. On-screen text: “Persistent Play Engaged.”]
Demo Reel:
- Luigi’s Mansion save data detected. When starting Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi carries his Poltergust as a taunt.
- Pikmin data detected in Metroid Prime. Samus scans a “Pikmin Fossil” entry in her logbook, complete with lore text.
- Animal Crossing data detected in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. A villager sails by in a cameo boat.
- Mario Kart data detected in F-Zero GX. Captain Falcon’s car displays a Mario emblem when unlocked.
[Crowd cheers loudly — journalists scribbling notes.]
Iwata:
“Persistent Play is very simple. The system remembers your adventures. When you bring another game home, it finds those memories and creates something new. Sometimes it is a costume. Sometimes it is a new character. Sometimes… it is a surprise.”
Miyamoto (holding up a GameCube controller):
“It is like finding a hidden warp pipe between games.”
[Laughter, applause.]
Final Surprise:
[Screen fades to black. Suddenly, Mario walks onto the Pikmin battlefield in a rendered clip, commanding Pikmin like Olimar. The crowd erupts.]
Iwata: “These connections will be everywhere, waiting to be discovered. This is not extra content to purchase — it is our gift to players who love Nintendo.”
Tagline Appears on Screen:
“Persistent Play – Only on Nintendo GameCube”
[Standing ovation. The press dubs it “Nintendo’s secret weapon” of E3 2001.]
Nintendo Power Exclusive!
The Secrets of Persistent Play
(Nintendo Power, Holiday 2001)
What is Persistent Play?
Nintendo GameCube introduces a brand-new feature: games that remember each other. If you’ve played one adventure, your next one just might change in surprising ways. From new characters to bonus items, Nintendo calls it Persistent Play. We call it the biggest secret system since the Konami Code.
How It Works
- Play a game and save your file.
- Insert another GameCube disc that supports Persistent Play.
- Watch for the “Persistent Play Detected!” icon when you load the game.
- Discover new costumes, dialogue, characters, or entire features.
Pro Tip! You don’t need to do anything special — your GameCube remembers automatically.
Cross-Game Unlocks We’ve Discovered So Far
Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Luigi’s Mansion save detected: Luigi equips the Poltergust 3000 as a taunt animation.
- Animal Crossing save detected: Tom Nook appears as an assist trophy!
- Metroid Prime save detected: Samus’ Fusion Suit becomes selectable early.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- Mario Sunshine save detected: Link gets a “Sunshine Sail” with the FLUDD logo.
- Animal Crossing save detected: Villagers send bottles with letters across the ocean.
- Smash Bros. Melee save detected: Unlocks a hidden “Smash Crest” shield design.
Metroid Prime
- Pikmin save detected: A rare “Pikmin Fossil” is added to the Scan Log, complete with lore text.
- Wind Waker save detected: Chozo Ruins statues wear stylized Hylian carvings.
- Mario Kart save detected: Samus’ gunship horn honks like a kart.
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
- F-Zero GX save detected: Unlocks Captain Falcon’s Blue Falcon kart.
- Zelda save detected: A Triforce emblem banner appears at Peach Beach.
- Luigi’s Mansion save detected: The mansion becomes a playable battle stage.
Animal Crossing
- Wind Waker save detected: Villagers gossip about “a boy in green who sailed the seas.”
- Smash Bros. Melee save detected: Special furniture set styled like a Smash stage.
- Metroid save detected: Space Pirate armor shows up in Tom Nook’s shop as a collectible.
Rare Extras!
Nintendo isn’t saying how deep this goes, but we’ve confirmed that Persistent Play supports:
- New text statements in NPC dialogue.
- Hidden sound effects and music tracks.
- Entirely new actions and moves for existing characters.
- Secret bonus characters in certain games (we’re looking at you, Smash!).
Sidebar: Did You Know?
- The idea began on Nintendo 64 with Rare’s Stop ‘n’ Swop, using leftover memory between cartridges. GameCube’s Persistent Play is the evolved form — now built into the system itself.
- Developers can hide data that only appears if you own two, three, or even fourdifferent games.
Final Word
Nintendo has turned owning multiple games into a treasure hunt. Think you’ve unlocked it all? Think again — Persistent Play has more secrets waiting in the discs already sitting on your shelf.
Nintendo Power Challenge: Write in and tell us your Persistent Play discoveries — we’ll publish the best in our next issue!