Some intrepid fans have been able to reproduce the lost tracks from the BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 Satellaview SoundLink event and have createdBS F-Zero Deluxe, a patch to incorporate them into the SNES game.
The Satellaview was a digital satellite delivery (or broadcast) add-on for the Super Famicom. Like many prototypical digital distribution platforms, data retrieved from the service was only stored temporarily and could be overwritten whenever you downloaded something else. As such, if someone wanted to preserve a game, they had to dump it immediately before overwriting it, and obviously, few people did.
Against all odds, some games from the service were preserved, including the first BS F-Zero Grand Prix, which was composed of four separate broadcasts. This included five original tracks and four new races, which replaced the four racers of the original game. However, BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2, which consisted of two broadcasts, was considered lost. Despite a $5000 reward offered by the community, no one stepped forward with the data.
However, while the data itself was considered lost, a fan uploaded a playthrough of the BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2 to YouTube in 2018. Using a number of elaborate techniques, project programmer Guy Perfect, was able to accurately duplicate the tracks withinF-Zero. The entire process (along with a lot of deeper insight into the Satellaview itself) is detailedin this articleon Press The Buttons.
The team then compiled all the Satellaview features and created theBS F-Zero Deluxepatch/expansion forF-Zero. This patch includes all 10 Satellaview exclusive tracks compiled into two BS-X cups, as well as the four additional vehicles, which are available alongside the originals. There’s also a new ghost time trial mode.
I should perhaps point out that there was a previous release calledBS F-Zero Grand Prix 2, but this was based on the broadcast “BS F-Zero 2 Practice,” and wasn’t part of Grand Prix 2 proper. It doesn’t include the five recreated tracks. Also of note is the fact that the courses don’t include original music, since the music was streamed to the SatellaView and wasn’t actuallyplayed by the SNES hardware(there was also an announcer in the original broadcast).
TheBS F-Zero Deluxepatch is available via archive.org. I’d also recommend reading the article onPress the Buttons, as it really highlights the lengths the team went to preserve these tracks.
