Archive Source

This article analyzes the Star Fox 2 2D art and graphics workspace preserved in the Gigaleak — specifically from the NEWS_04 archive, a 96 MB Nintendo NEWS workstation backup.

Path in archive: NEWS_04.tar → home/arimoto/SF2/

The arimoto home directory belongs to Masanao Arimoto, a graphics engineer who maintained multiple active projects on this machine. His directory contains three major Zelda workspaces and one Star Fox 2 branch. This SF2 folder represents the presentation and interface side of the project — 2D graphics banks, palettes, screen layouts, and object definitions — rather than the 3D polygon authoring workflow (which is preserved in NEWS_05).

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Glossary

SF2 — The internal codename for Star Fox 2 used across the NEWS_04 archive. Found in the arimoto/SF2 workspace directory, containing approximately 1236 files spanning 2D graphics, screen layouts, object definitions, and palettes. The SF2 directory preserves work from July 1993 through September 1995, making it one of the latest visible Star Fox 2 graphics-side workspaces in the Gigaleak.

Watanabe, Tsuyoshi — Graphics supervisor on Star Fox 2. Born March 13, 1968. Previously worked on A Link to the Past, where he contributed to Dark World art and intro cinematics. Within the SF2 workspace, a tiny watanabe subfolder (8 files) contains obj-*, color-*, and spt_2 assets, suggesting a shared sample or handoff subset tied to his polygon design work on the 3D side (preserved in NEWS_05).

Arimoto, Masanao — Graphics engineer and workstation owner. Home directory (arimoto/) in the NEWS_04 backup contains the SF2 2D workspace, three separate Zelda project folders (DELDA, zelda, GB-zelda), and Sugiyama’s multi-project overlay. Known for early NES-era graphics work on The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. Likely served as a senior graphics authority coordinating both 2D and 3D asset pipelines during Star Fox 2 production.

CAD — Computer-aided design file format (.cad extension). Found extensively in NEWS_05 Star Fox 2 workspace, representing 3D polygon models and assemblies. Absent from NEWS_04 SF2 folder, confirming the split between 2D presentation-side and 3D polygon-authoring workflows.

CGX — Character and graphics bank format. The dominant graphics asset type in SF2 workspace (189 files total). Typically paired with .COL (palette) and .SCR (screen/layout) files in triplet workflows. Used for sprite sheets, tile art, character portraits, and object-side graphics.

SCR — Screen or layout assembly format. Contains composed arrangements of graphics and palettes (140 files in SF2). Likely represents level screens, menus, HUD elements, and game-state visualizations that combine multiple .CGX banks with palette data.

COL — Palette or color set format. Maps color values to graphics assets (132 files in SF2). Used to control the appearance and variation of .CGX and .SCR data. Late -a variants suggest region-specific or gameplay-phase-specific palette adjustments.

OBJ — Object-side or enemy-side asset definition (83 files in SF2). Distinct from .OBX, likely representing behavioral or structural data for interactive game elements, enemies, projectiles, and animated sprites. Concentrated in obj and o subfolders.

OBX — Object-side companion or variant format (6 files in SF2). Paired with .OBJ files, possibly representing alternate object states, behavior layers, or composition variants. Rare in the archive, suggesting specialized use cases.

BAK — Backup or prior-state file (686 files, 55% of SF2 total). Heavy prevalence indicates aggressive iteration with preserved older versions. Allows reconstruction of design evolution within specific graphics families. Most common in the t subfolder (screen layouts).

Gigaleak — Large archive of Nintendo internal documentation, source code, and workstation backups released in 2020. Includes NEWS tape sets (NEWS_04, NEWS_05, etc.), source code repositories, and design documentation spanning NES, SNES, Game Boy, and other platforms. The SF2 workspace is one of the most detailed preserved views of late-stage SNES game production.

NEWS_04 — A 96 MB Nintendo NEWS workstation backup tape containing primarily graphics-side material. Preserved in the Gigaleak. Contains three Zelda project folders (DELDA, zelda, GB-zelda) and the Star Fox 2 2D workspace (SF2). Represents a snapshot of mixed multi-project workstation usage, likely from mid-1995.

NEWS_05 — Companion workstation backup to NEWS_04, focusing on Star Fox 2 3D polygon authoring. Contains .cad (CAD models), .anm (animation), and .nca (model/animation containers). Complements the 2D presentation-side data preserved in NEWS_04 SF2 folder.

Triplet workflow — The repeated pattern of three paired file types: .CGX (graphics) + .COL (palette) + .SCR (layout). Dominant in s and m subfolders. Suggests a stable production pipeline where scene or stage assets were assembled from graphics banks, colorized, and composed into game-ready layouts.

Alternate branch — Subfolder with -a suffix variants (e.g., ma for m, oa for o). Concentrated in mid-to-late 1995 (July–September). Indicates explicit revision or alternate versions of screen/object assets, possibly for regional variation, build iteration, or late-stage polish.

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Overview

Masanao Arimoto’s SF2 directory is the strongest and latest branch in the whole NEWS_04 archive. Its newest sampled files reach 19 September 1995, which is later than the material we saw concentrated in NEWS_05.

This is also a very different side of Star Fox 2 from the CAD-heavy 3D workflow. Instead of .cad, .anm, and .nca, this workspace preserves 2D graphics banks, palettes, screen layouts, and object-side resources. That suggests the archive captures the presentation and interface side of the project rather than the polygon authoring pipeline.

SF2 Folder Profile

arimoto/SF2 contains about 1236 files:

Extension	Count	Interpretation
.BAK	686	Very heavy iteration with many preserved prior states
.CGX	189	Graphics banks and character/tile art
.SCR	140	Screen/layout assemblies
.COL	132	Palette sets for those graphics/layouts
.OBJ	83	Object-side resources
.OBX	6	Object-side companion variants

The internal subfolders are much more informative once you add date ranges and extension balance:

Subfolder	Files	Date range	Dominant types	Reading
t	325	1993-07-09 to 1995-06-03	.CGX, .COL, .SCR, many .BAK	Large numbered screen/layout batch
s	172	1993-08-27 to 1995-08-31	.COL, .SCR, .CGX	Structured a* scene bank with regular triplets
m	129	1993-10-15 to 1995-08-18	.SCR, .COL, .CGX	Structured b* scene bank
ma	47	1995-07-03 to 1995-08-30	.SCR, .CGX, .COL	Explicit late alternate branch for m
o	164	1993-11-19 to 1995-09-19	.OBJ, .CGX, .OBX, small .SCR/.COL set	Main object/enemy-side branch and latest-edited area
oa	25	1995-07-07 to 1995-09-19	mostly .CGX	Explicit late alternate branch for o
obj	96	1994-02-04 to 1995-06-26	mostly .OBJ	Object library / object-store bucket
watanabe	8	1994-03-16 to 1994-10-24	obj-*, color-*, spt_2	Tiny handoff or shared sample subset
mt	1	1994-11-21	lone .OBX	Residual single-file bucket

That split is important. t, s, and m look like long-running banked layout groups that started in 1993. ma and oa appear much later, only in mid-to-late 1995, which strongly suggests explicit alternate or revised sub-branches created near the end of work.

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A Clearer SF2 Taxonomy

The naming prefixes are repetitive enough that they start to form a real internal taxonomy rather than a loose pile of files.

1. t - Numeric layout banks

The t folder is dominated by numbered families such as 0-*, 1-*, 2-*, 6-*, 7-*, 15-*, and 16-*. Typical triplets include:

• 0-2.CGX, 0-2.COL, 0-2.SCR
• 0-6.CGX, 0-6.COL, 0-6.SCR
• 1-1.CGX, 1-1.COL

This looks like a broad numbered scene or bank repository. It is graphics-heavy and layout-heavy, with only .CGX, .COL, .SCR, and backups. So t is best read as a large screen/tile bank rather than an object store.

2. s - a* scene group

The s folder is unusually consistent. Its top prefixes are a0, a1, a7, a10, a11, a14, a15, a16, a18, a27, and a28. Representative file groups include:

• a0.CGX, a0.COL, a0.SCR
• a10.CGX, a10.COL, a10.SCR
• a15.CGX, a15.COL, a15.SCR

This is one of the cleanest sections of the archive. It looks like a scene-set or stage-set bank with a stable triplet workflow of graphics, palette, and composed screen files.

3. m - b* scene group

m behaves very similarly to s, but its naming family is b* rather than a*. Its heaviest prefixes are b7, b1, b8, b9, b10, b14, b15, and b16. Representative file groups include:

• b1.CGX, b1.COL, b1.SCR
• b10.CGX, b10.COL, b10.SCR
• b14.CGX, b14.COL, b14.SCR

This strongly suggests s and m are parallel production buckets inside the same broad graphics system. They may separate different screen families, gameplay contexts, or region/build groupings.

4. ma - late alternate b* branch

ma is much smaller and much later. Its files are concentrated in 1995-07 to 1995-08, and almost everything carries a -a suffix:

• b0-a.CGX, b0-a.COL, b0-a.SCR
• b7-a.CGX, b7-a.COL, b7-a.SCR
• b16-a.CGX, b16-a.SCR

That makes ma look like an alternate or adjusted branch of m, not a separate independent system. The naming is too close to be coincidence.

5. o and obj - object-side branch

o and obj are where the archive becomes more object-heavy. Representative filenames include:

• e0-0.OBJ, e0-1.OBJ, e1-3.OBJ
• d0-1.OBJ, d1-1.OBX, d3-3.OBX
• cm.CGX, w0.CGX, pm.CGX

The dominant prefixes inside o are e3, w0, mm, e0, w2, e4, e1, d3, and d0. Inside obj, the heaviest families are d3, d2, d4, w0, and d0.

That split suggests a two-layer system:

• obj as a denser object library bucket with many .OBJ definitions
• o as a broader working object branch where those objects are paired with graphics, a few palettes, and occasional .OBX companions

The presence of .OBX beside .OBJ suggests paired object-state, alternate composition, or behavior-related companion data. Whatever the exact format, this is clearly different from the pure scene-bank logic of t, s, and m.

6. oa - late alternate object branch

oa looks like an alternate object-side graphics branch. The repeated -a suffixes imply variants or adjusted revisions:

• e0-a.CGX
• e3-a.CGX
• pm-a.CGX
• w0-a.CGX

The date range matches late 1995, and the naming mirrors o too closely to read any other way. oa is best understood as an explicit late alternate graphics branch for object families already present in o.

7. watanabe - tiny handoff subset

The watanabe folder contains only eight files:

• color-date.CGX, color-date.COL, color-date.SCR
• obj-0.CGX, obj-0.COL, obj-1.CGX
• p_col.COL
• spt_2.cgx

This is too small to be a real working branch. It reads more like a shared sample, handoff, or imported subset tied to Watanabe’s side of the Star Fox 2 workflow.

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How the Buckets Relate to Each Other

Taken together, the strongest interpretation is:

• t, s, and m are structured screen/layout banks
• ma is a late alternate revision layer for m
• obj is an object-definition store
• o is the active object/enemy working branch
• oa is a late alternate revision layer for o
• watanabe is a tiny shared subset or handoff residue

That is much more specific than simply saying the folder contains “art assets”. It suggests a real internal organization where scene banks and object banks were kept separate, then selectively forked into -a revision branches during late 1995 cleanup or adjustment work.

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What the Date Ranges Tell Us

The date spread strengthens that reading:

• t, s, m, and o all begin in 1993
• obj only starts showing up in 1994
• ma and oa only appear in mid-1995, right near the latest visible Star Fox 2 edits
• o and oa carry the latest timestamps, both reaching 19 September 1995

So the most plausible sequence is:

1. long-running scene and object banks are built from 1993 onward
2. an explicit object library (obj) stabilizes during 1994
3. late 1995 creates focused alternate branches (ma, oa) for final adjustments
4. the object-side branch remains active slightly later than the scene-bank side

That last point matters because it hints that late visible work was not broad world-building anymore. It looks more like targeted object, enemy, presentation, and polish changes.

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Inferred Workflow Inside SF2

The repeated file groupings imply a local workflow that looks something like this:

flowchart LR
  A["<b>Scene or object family</b><br>a*, b*, d*, e*, w* naming"] --> B["<b>Graphics bank</b><br>CGX"]
  B --> C["<b>Palette pairing</b><br>COL"]
  C --> D["<b>Composed layout</b><br>SCR or object-side OBJ/OBX"]
  D --> E["<b>Backup before change</b><br>BAK copy"]
  E --> F["<b>Late alternate branch</b><br>-a variants in ma / oa"]

That is exactly the kind of detail that a clean source archive would normally erase. NEWS_04 preserves it because the machine was backed up in the middle of active production use.

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Notable Filenames

A few filenames make the branch easier to interpret:

• open-logo.CGX and open-logo-5.CGX - very likely title or opening-logo work
• logo.SCR - direct evidence of composed logo layout
• character-L.CGX, character-La1.CGX - character-bank or portrait/state art
• e9-96.CGX, e9-97.CGX - late numbered revisions in September 1995
• w0.CGX, w2.COL - compact numbered assets tied to object-side folders

The timestamps are the most important part. The densest and newest files cluster in July-September 1995, which makes this one of the latest visible Star Fox 2 graphics-side workspaces in the NEWS tape set.

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What Remains to Study

• Scene bank mapping: Matching the a* and b* families to specific Star Fox 2 gameplay contexts or level sets
• Object taxonomy: Building a catalogue of the e*, d*, w*, and c* prefixes and their in-game roles
• palette variation analysis: Understanding the late -a palette swaps and what they signify
• revision history: Using .BAK files to reconstruct iteration timelines within specific families