There's an update on Nicki Tens' Krystal cosplay in progress. The mask has been printed and sanded. The backplate hinge for her to attach and detach the mask is almost done (some warping). Nicki next plans to airbrush the mask to get the right colors and texture. She's concerned about the complexity of it, and so plans to operate on a test print from another model before trying to paint the Krystal mask.

There have been some further developments on the task of getting Krystal playable in Star Fox Adventures and other research into the game since the last post about the progress.

First and foremost, two new researchers have appeared and are working on the same problem along with Nightcast. They're sharing information and code as they work out how things work. Those two people are RenaKunisaki and Strychnine. RenaKunisaki is working pretty closely with Nightcast in the Krystal Archive Discord, while all three of them are commenting on Strychnine's research thread over at RustedLogic.

My understanding of the progress is limited, but here's what I can determine. They have successfully figured out how to switch Fox's model with Krystal's, even in areas where Krystal isn't part of the normal game data. This can be accomplished in a hacky way by forcing the game to load a new area with Krystal not being unloaded, but in this case, they're doing something more clever. Using Gecko codes, every time a new map's data is loaded by the game, Krystal's model is being loaded in as well at the end, so it's always available. This code is doing the same for the textures.

Without using this loader, individual models and textures can be manually loaded too. That's the approach Strychnine appears to be following currently. This appears to have the added benefit of allowing Krystal to have the Staff. Not sure if the Staff is actually usable yet.

Next up, they are starting to look at loading/modifying the animations. Generally, Krystal's model can use Fox's animation bones since they are so similar, but there may be ways of using more appropriate Krystal-specific animations and otherwise making adjustments that are needed to avoid quirky behavior. After that, they want to find ways to update the voice acting to match Krystal's voice and then on to more exotic projects. One goal is to mod the game to allow two players, with Fox and Krystal being playable at the same time.

RenaKunisaki has posted some open source tools and code related to this project. Some of it can already decompress data from the game disc. Other stuff available is a patch that helps do the Krystal model loading.

Some other fun things were tried, like replacing Tricky with the CloudRunner that Krystal rides at the start of the game. It yielded interesting results.

In related news, Nightcast yesterday figured out how to activate a separate executable on the Kiosk disc version of Star Fox Adventures. It is believed to be Dinosaur Planet N64, or what's left of it. The code actually runs briefly, but alas, it doesn't get far right now. The executable tries to load some files, some of which don't exist. How much can be gleaned from this code, and what it can do, will depend on how well (or if) replacement data can be inserted for these files. If they can figure it out though, it could be that part of the original N64 game could be playable. That's entirely speculation, however. Don't get your hopes up just yet.

We'll keep following these developments as they happen. I suspect within a few weeks, we'll have something that the average gamer (with a completely legitimate, purchased copy of the game) can use to modify their game to play as Krystal's model, at least in some areas. Can't wait to see what's next!

Apologies if any of this is inaccurate. I'm seeing all this as an outsider looking in and only a partial understanding. Feel free to make corrections in the comments.

Hey guys. Sorry about missing posts from last Wednesday through Friday. I meant to do several posts, but I just ran out of time what with Halloween preparations and spooking children at my door before giving them candy. Crying children count: 2, hopefully more next year. :P

On top of that, I immediately had to go on a business trip to the burning, deserted state, California.

So here I am, in California, and somewhat busy with work stuff. I went ahead and posted three stories tonight to make up the missing ones, but I can't promise any more updates until I get back. Consider it a break. I will try to post if there is big news, of course, but regular posting should resume on Monday, November 11th.

UndyingNephalim has been hard at work updating the graphics for his fangame, Star Fox: Event Horizon to have larger, more readable text for in-game dialog. He's also been working on the other parts of the user interface, making the menus more Star Fox-like. To show some of this off, he just posted a video of the entire first level of the game. Check it out.

Only the pure of heart can enter the Krazoa Shrines. Pure, chaotic, fighting hearts!

Late last year, BehemothProgrammer created a playable Krazoa Shrine level mod for the original Super Smash Bros for the N64. From the screenshot, it looks like it provides two off-stage floating platforms, a central floating platform, a medium-sized stage, and possible extra ledges up above the pillars. You can download it and read more about it on the post. Now if only we could get a Krystal mod in the game...

Two months ago, we posted a preview about this animation. Now, TheIronGauntlet has completed his newest Krystal animation. It's got hand-drawn animation, 3D animation, voice acting, and some custom music. Well done.

Krystal has to make it back to the Great Fox by 17:00 hours. With just minutes to spare, she punches it back towards home. Unfortunately, some enemy fighters decide to get in her way. Check out the animation to find out what's making Krystal take those risks.

Carlossalzar64 posted a remix of Fox & Krystal's Theme on Twitter today. The song from Star Fox Adventures was redone using the lo-fi instruments of SNES music.

He's done other Star Fox music too, like Aquas and Galleon Battle Theme.

It's been a while since we've had a new Star Fox track on OCRemix. B-laze created this new song called "Crosswind". You can download it on the OCRemix page. It's a mashup of a synthwave remix of the SNES Corneria theme, with a bunch of sound effects and voice clips from Star Fox 64.

This is my catch-up post for missing Friday. Happy Monday!

One of the fun things I did when I was researching the DeviantArt Krystal fanarts was find out what was the oldest Krystal fanart in existence. Now, it may not be possible to know for certain, because the earliest fanart may never have been posted, or it was posted on some personal site that is now long gone. Then there's the wrinkle about how Krystal from Dinosaur Planet was known from demos playable at E3 2000, two years before Star Fox Adventures released. If I remember correctly, the now-defunct Krystal Lovers Association was actually an update to an older fan forum based around the Dinosaur Planet Krystal and predated Star Fox Adventures itself as well. Additionally, DeviantArt launched in 2000, just a couple years before Star Fox Adventures, and it had just started getting popular around 2003. FurAffinity didn't even exist until 2005. So we can only go so far with what we have.

Keeping that in mind, what's the oldest Krystal fanart on DeviantArt? Well, it's still a hard question to answer.

The oldest Krystal-related image I could find was Krystal Banner by KDragon. This was posted to DeviantArt on October 27, 2002, one month and 5 days after Star Fox Adventures was released.

This is a banner image. For those of you too young to remember what those were... back when the internet was just starting to become popular, but before Facebook and YouTube, most people hung out in forums. They're like Discord, but anyone could make a channel called a "thread", and you usually typed out whole paragraphs instead of quick chats. I'm being a bit facetious here. Forums still exist, but they aren't anywhere close to as popular as they once were. Anyway, people would post banners and text about their favorite things in their signature, which would appear after each post they made, like an email signature. And there was a thriving group of people who would make banners for different things. The Krystal Archive had its own banner image a while back. I don't have access to it right now, though, or I'd show you.

However, this banner (and most others), doesn't contain original art. This one is just screenshots with some text. What's the oldest actual fanart that was made originally about Krystal?

The oldest Krystal fanart I could find was SD Fox and Krystal by nokitty. This was posted to DeviantArt on November 7, 2002, one month and 11 days after Star Fox Adventures was released.

It's a quick sketch, and pretty small, but it's definitely Krystal (and Fox, OTP 4-eva!). Very cool little artwork.

As a bonus, the first Krystal-exclusive fanart I was able to find was Krystal from STFADP by pika-bunny. This one was released on November 8, 2002, a day later.

Do you know older Krystal artwork?

Here's a quick Krystal speed paint by 電袋 (or Denbukuro on Twitter). Check out the finished fanart on Twitter.