That's just the transcript directly taken from here

[a fake interview, sorry]

The Rumors are back. The once powerful Rare is yet again losing valuable members of it's game design and development staffs. We took the saying 'Where there's smoke, there's fire' to heart and went out trying to find the answers to why. We were fortunate enough to catch up with one of Rare's ex-employees, not from this most recent wave of departures, but one who left at the beginning of the year. The interview took a surprising and unexpected turn, and at times, we couldn't believe what we were hearing. Not about the current situation at Rare, but information from the past. Brace yourself, and check out the complete transcript from the interview.

CJ: First let me say thanks for this opportunity to talk with you.
RE: No problem.

CJ: So how are things going for you since you left Rare?
RE: So far so good. I had already accepted a position with Codemasters prior to my departure, so I didn't have any down time. Codemasters is a much smaller development shop, which for the most part is good. I feel as though we have more creative freedom which is what I was looking for.

CJ: Would you characterize that as the main reason for the mass exodus of talent at Rare? The lack of creative freedom?
RE: I wouldn't necessarily call it a mass exodus. Yeah, they've loss some good people, but it's not like everyone has walked out. Several of us just got fed up, so we left. Beating down our creativity was definitely part of it, but it's more than that. It's more like having a strict parent telling you don't do this and don't do that. It's just the environment there. Guess we should have been careful what we wished for.

CJ: Wished for? What do you mean?
RE: I guess we saw the grass as being greener with Microsoft coming in. Nintendo had always been strict with our compliance to their ideas or standards as they would call it. We figured things would be better after the deal went through.

CJ: So Microsoft was just as strict as Nintendo?
RE: Oh no, Microsoft is much stricter, the my way or the highway type. Nintendo was more of the this is how you should due it. You don't have to, but we highly recommend you do. Highly recommend.

CJ: And if you didn't follow Nintendo's recommendations?
RE: I'm not sure. Rare always did. A perfect example is the disk drive debacle. Nintendo was pushing for game development for the Nintendo 64 disk drive add on. They were taking heat for continuing with the cartridge based games and wanted a wide variety of games for the disk drive upon it release. So we started work on the disk based Donkey Kong 64.

CJ: I'm confused now, the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive was never released. Are you saying the Donkey Kong development was wasted?
RE: Actually, the drive finally was released in Japan, on a limited basis. But Nintendo had planned on releasing it back in 1998, but it just kept hitting one delay after another. It's too bad tough, because the disk drive was going to allow us to create expansions for so many games. We converted Donkey Kong back to a cart game, but we lost some real cool features. We had been messing around with Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong, moving a key back and forth between the two. There's some screenshots floating around with Donkey Kong in Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Kazooie in the Donkey Kong disk drive game. The possibilities were going to be endless.

Screenshots showing the Donkey Kong 64 Disk Drive game and Banjo Kazooie linkage.

CJ: Is that how Banjo Kazooie was going to link up with it's sequel, through the disk drive?
RE: That would make sense, but no. Banjo Tooie was always intended to be a cart game.

CJ: So they would link in a different way?
RE: Yes, but I wouldn't call it linking exactly. You could link a cartridge and a disk game because they would both be plugged in and running simultaneously. Banjo Kazooie would be able to transfer information to Tooie, but the two games wouldn't be linked.

CJ: How could you transfer data between cartridge games?
RE: By magic! [laughter] Actually, if you programmed it properly, you could store data in the 64's memory that would be available to the next game that was loaded. At least at first you could. Unfortunately, certain things changed with the Nintendo hardware and it became impossible to store the data for the next game. It really was a disappointment. A lot of work went into using that capability, and it was all for naught.

CJ: So there is no transfer between Banjo Kazooie and Tooie?
RE: Unfortunately, no. Everything was coded, but with the hardware change, we had to make changes to Tooie. Kazooie was going to transfers four eggs to Tooie. We actually joked about it in Grabbed by the Ghoulies. There was a picture showing if you took the eggs and the ice key to the gameshow platform, went through the transport pot, and then went up to the locked door, it would be open.

Screenshot from Grabbed by the Ghoulies.

CJ: You said four eggs, aren't there six?
RE: That's true. We put the two extra eggs in Banjo Kazooie to protect against people hacking the game. If you had all six, then you wouldn't be able to do anything with them.

CJ: So how would you get the four eggs you needed?
RE: After completing certain tasks in Tooie, Blackeye the pirate would give you secret codes you could use in Banjo Kazooie to gain access to the eggs. Use them on the sandcastle floor just like cheat codes.

CJ: So which eggs did you need?
RE: Have you seen the screen with all the eggs and ice key, the totals screen titled Stop 'N Swop?

CJ: Yes.
RE: Basically, you don't get the outside eggs, you only get the four in the middle. One of the bad eggs was in the winter of the last level and the other was in the barrel in the basement of the mansion. We put an 'X' by that one, and put 1881 on the other barrels. If you look at the screen, when the key spins it kind of makes a graphical 88 in the middle. That may have been too subtle, but it's clever. Someone actually asked us about that barrel in a pre-release interview and we laughed about it in our response.

Screenshots showing the 'X' barrel, 1881, and the graphical 1881 (two screenshots merged).

CJ: So how would you get the items into Tooie then?
RE: After warping through the pot, one of the doors in the transformation room opens. Don't go back into the warp pot though, or the door will close. Just go through the door and to the end of the corridor, and you will get a message from Grunty complaining about Blackeye. You'll then be prompted to turn the game off and put in Tooie.

The open transformation room door and an unhappy Grunty.

CJ: That's great. And these can be used in Tooie?
RE: Unfortunately, no. Like I said, we made changes to Tooie because we couldn't get the data to it.

CJ: Ok. So what where they intended to be used for?
RE: Each egg was going to give you a Mega Glowbo, after it was hatched. You could use these for special transformations. The only one left in the game is the transform of Kazooie to a dragon. There was a polar bear transform for Banjo, and the other two were designed but never coded.

CJ: So people without Banjo Kazooie could never get the transformations.
RE: That's the reason they couldn't be vital to the completion of the game. They would be fun and useful, but not needed. We had put a special cheat in the game for people who didn't have Banjo Kazooie, so they could get all the transformations as well. I think it was supergloking or something like that.

CJ: And what did the ice key open in Tooie?
RE: Sorry, I breezed right over the ice key. It is used to open the door in Banjo Kazooie. When you go through the warp pot, it sparkles blue and pauses before you warp. If you look at the Stop 'n Swop screen, the key will be gone. If you warp back through the pot, the door closes and you'll have no way to reopen it. That wasn't intentional, just a programming mistake that wasn't caught in testing.

Using the Ice Key to open the transformation room door.

CJ: Well, this is some interesting stuff. Sorry we've gotten so far off track. Any cool concepts like that brewing at Codemasters that you'd like to share.
RE: All development shops have cool concepts and visions they try to incorporate. But you know I can't let you in on any specifics. Listen to me, I sound just like Rare.

CJ: Fair enough. Well, were glad things are going well for you. Best of luck in the future and thanks for giving us some of your time.
RE: Any time.

So that's it. We intended to ask about any upcoming development efforts at Rare, but were distracted by the incredible revelations about the Banjo Kazooie - Tooie connection. You never know where these interviews will take you.

'til next time,
Joe.