Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship Scribes Excerpts
The following excerpts detailing the development of Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship was originally published on Rare’s Scribes letter page. We’ve scoured each edition for that year in order to provide you with every mention of the title to be found in Rare’s posted answers in chronological order below.
We’ve also included a link above each heading which will re-direct to the original letters page that the question was featured in should you wish to view it in the original context – otherwise you’ll find that the entries below only focus on answers related to Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship for a comprehensive listing for any fan wanting further information on pre-release content, hidden easter eggs, abandoned features and development secrets:
Dear Scribes,
You’ve probably been asked this many times before but I’m much too lazy to check all the past mailbags. Any chance of having a remake of Solar Jetman (back from the NES) on Xbox Live Arcade? Considering it was only published by Nintendo out in Europe…?
Also, Captain Skyhawk would be nice too. I loved those games, and my NES doesn’t work too well these days. Even with the Game Genie. And if this game ever were released, some kind of unlimited lives would be a must for it.
Andrew
PS. Please answer for real if it is maybe possible one day and just hasn’t been done, or if there are too many legal hurdles?
A lot of the stuff that Rare developed in the late ’80s and early ’90s is murky in terms of ownership, so it’s difficult to pick out individual titles and say “definitely 100% ours”. If we really had our hearts set on bringing one of them back, we’d have to jump through those hoops as and when they came hulaing perilously into our faces. Until then, we can’t really give you an answer. Having said that, original IP like Captain Skyhawk and the games featuring Jetman would be riper for revisiting than any of the licensed stuff.
This is also another fine opening for stalwart programmer Brendan to relive the olden days: “I do have a soft spot for Captain Skyhawk because it was my first published game, and it’s the only one for which I’ve received any fan mail. On the other hand, it didn’t exactly set the world alight sales-wise, and I never really liked the name.
“For me, the biggest hurdle for this is simply that it doesn’t fit with Rare’s current direction. We’re almost entirely focused on Natal for game control. Can you imagine playing Captain Skyhawk with your hands outstretched, pretending to be the plane? Shouting ‘Neeeoouuurrrggghhh’ to do a barrel roll, and yelling ‘da da da da’ to shoot? Hang on… that gives me an idea!
“I won’t say it’ll never happen, but sadly I bet it’ll never happen.”