Early Star Fox Concept Art Rescued: Origins of Nintendo’s Legendary Franchise Preserved
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Published on: May 18, 2022
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Early Star Fox Concept Art Rescued: Origins of Nintendo’s Legendary Franchise Preserved
The Star Fox series, though not among Nintendo’s highest grossing franchises, holds a distinctive place in video game history.
The original Star Fox, launched on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1993, broke new ground by utilizing the revolutionary Super FX chip—co-developed with UK-based Argonaut Software—to render immersive 3D graphics previously unseen on home consoles.
Despite Star Fox Zero being the last mainline release in 2016 for the Wii U, the brand endures an enthusiastic following and is fondly remembered for its daring technical ambitions and dynamic cast of characters.
Recently, a significant artifact linked to the birth of Star Fox came to light when an original piece of early development artwork surfaced after narrowly escaping disposal.
Chris Stokes, a Linux systems engineer and former employee at PKR—a company owned by Jez San, who founded Argonaut Software—shared the story of how he discovered a rare illustration featuring the original Star Fox team.
He recounted that while being shown around PKR by Jeremy Longley (co-founder of Lost Toys and a former Bullfrog developer), he found the artwork among boxes filled with belongings of Jez San.
Stokes recognized its importance due to Jez San and Argonaut’s direct involvement in developing both Star Fox and the seminal Super FX chip.
Stokes further explained the artwork’s near-loss: “When PKR faced closure, staff were told that anything left on the fifth floor would be discarded.
Knowing the drawing’s significance, I retrieved it before it could be lost.” Intent on confirming the piece’s provenance, Stokes reached out to both Jez San and the gaming press.
Jez San corroborated the artwork’s authenticity, recalling that it was a gift from Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, though the identity of the actual artist—possibly either Takaya Imamura or Katsuya Eguchi—remained uncertain.
"Most likely, it's Eguchi who drew that.
Check out the Star Fox credits and it'll be the main designer," San remarked.
However, artistic credits on the original Star Fox list Imamura as the main graphic designer and Eguchi as director, leaving ownership ambiguous.
To resolve the matter, renowned developer Dylan Cuthbert, who worked alongside Nintendo during Star Fox’s development before founding Q-Games, consulted with Takaya Imamura.
"Imamura confirmed it as one of his early Star Fox drawings.
He produced quite a few, many of which Nintendo may have archived.
This piece may have played a role in naming several main characters, including Fox, Slippy, and Peppy, while Falco's name had already been decided by Imamura himself," Cuthbert relayed.
He added that the artwork could have originally belonged to himself, stored along with other development materials, some of which are now presumed lost.
Unfortunately, while the rescued illustration survived, Stokes clarified that no other development artifacts—such as the elusive source code for 'X,' another pivotal Argonaut and Nintendo collaboration—remained from those boxes.
This serves as a poignant reminder of the fragile legacy of video game history, where iconic assets can disappear without preservation efforts.
Ultimately, the survival of this foundational Star Fox concept art ensures an important chapter in Nintendo and Argonaut’s shared legacy remains intact.
With Cuthbert arranging for Imamura to officially sign the piece, the origins and authorship of one of Nintendo’s most innovative franchises have now been permanently preserved for future generations of gamers and historians, further cementing the impact of both Star Fox and its developers on video game culture.
