Stop 'n' Swop

Stop 'n' Swop is an infamous scrapped feature from Banjo-Kazooie. The intended purpose was to unlock the hidden locations of seven special items, including six Mystery Eggs and the Ice Key, which the player could then transfer to Banjo-Tooie.

Stop 'n' Swop was eventually implemented into the Xbox Live Arcade port of both games. The Xbox Live Arcade port of Banjo-Tooie also featured the Stop 'n' Swop II menu, with a use of unlocking game pictures and themes for the Xbox 360.

Banjo-Kazooie
The only instance where Stop 'n' Swop is referenced during normal gameplay is in the 100% completion ending, after Banjo and Kazooie obtain all 100 Jiggies. The ending shows Mumbo Jumbo holding up a few photographs: two of them depict a Mystery Egg and the other one depicts the Ice Key.

It is possible for Banjo and Kazooie to unlock the location of a Stop 'n' Swop item and then obtain it from that location. To do so, Banjo must enter the Sandcastle of Treasure Trove Cove and hit the letter panels in a specific order to spell out a sentence.

There is a unique menu displaying the Stop 'n' Swop items that Banjo had obtained. It is unknown what accomplishment would have resulted from the items, as they are devoid of functionality or purpose in the game itself.

Banjo-Tooie
A few of the Stop 'n' Swop items were repurposed for Banjo-Tooie, the Ice Key and the pink, yellow, and light blue Mystery Eggs. Aside from the Yellow Mystery Egg, Banjo and Kazooie can obtain each item by defeating a Banjo-Kazooie Game Pak enemy. After obtaining an egg, Banjo and Kazooie must return to Heggy's Egg Shed, where Kazooie must use her Hatch ability on the egg to unlock a feature. The Ice Key was used for unlocking a Mega Glowbo that can transform Kazooie into a dragon.

Banjo-Pilot
Stop 'n' Swop is referenced by Cheato in Banjo-Pilot. Upon completing most of the game, Cheato sells an item called "STOP 'N' SWOP" for 999 Cheato Pages. This only results in Cheato saying, "So you want to know about Stop 'N' Swop, eh? I hope you're ready. Here goes...Why don't you stop annoying me and swop this game for a nice book or something?"

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
In Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, the player can unlock vehicle parts by obtaining Stop 'n' Swop items from the Xbox Live Arcade port of Banjo-Kazooie. Drawings of the Mystery Eggs appear throughout Showdown Town, and a Mumbo Crate appears at one of the drawings for each Mystery Egg obtained in Banjo-Kazooie. Banjo and Kazooie can take the Mumbo Crates to Mumbo's Motors for unlocking more vehicle parts.

Additionally, for each Stop 'n' Swop item added to the Banjo-Tooie on Xbox Live Arcade, the player can unlock up to seven additional vehicle blueprints in the L.O.G.'s Lost Challenges DLC for Nuts & Bolts.

Other Stop 'n' Swop references include an imprint of the Ice Key on top of Boggy's Gym and the large, fake Stop 'n' Swop eggs in Banjoland containing Gruntbots. Trophy Thomas also accuses the player of cheating using Stop 'n' Swop during one of his challenges, and during a trivia, Lord of Games asks a question regarding a failed connection between Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, of which the answer is "Stop 'n' Swop".

Bottles also offers a "Stop 'n' Swop Truth" in exchange for 6,000 Music Notes. It is impossible to attain this amount since only 5,000 Music Notes appear in the game. An unused text string reveals that Bottles would have said, "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you, and we couldn't show that in a game with this rating. Put it out of your mind and think happy thoughts! Thanks for the notes!"

Banjo-Tooie (Xbox Live Arcade)
The Stop 'n' Swop items have a different role in the Banjo-Tooie port on Xbox Live Arcade, as the three Mystery Eggs and Ice Key cannot be obtained unless the player has a save file for the Banjo-Kazooie port or Nuts & Bolts (including its demo).

A gold, silver and bronze Mystery Egg are featured in place of the preexisting eggs. They can still be hatched by Kazooie to achieve the same three unlockable, along with three additional features each: a gamer pic, an Xbox theme and the Stop 'n' Swop II submenu. The Ice Key retains its purpose for unlocking the Mega Glowbo.

History
For a few years, the feature remained hidden in Banjo-Kazooie. There is evidence suggesting that the feature was never implemented entirely because of some hardware revisions done to the Nintendo 64 in 1999. Originally, the player had up to ten seconds to swap the cartridges, but the circuitry in later revisions dropped the limit to one second, theoretically making this impossible.

In January 2001, shortly after the release of Banjo-Tooie, a fansite called Rare Witch Project discovered how to unlock the Stop 'n' Swop items without the use of a cheating device. This information was publicized in the February 2001 issue of N64 Magazine and via a column in the April 2001 issue of Nintendo Power.

Seven years later, at E3 2008, it was announced that the Xbox Live Arcade port of Banjo-Kazooie would implement the Stop 'n' Swop feature as it was originally intended. It would be used in correspondence to unlocking content in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

On January 27, 2009, Rare announced the Xbox Live Arcade port for Banjo-Tooie and that Stop 'n' Swop would also be implemented.

Cyan Mystery Egg
The Cyan Mystery Egg is found in the cellar of Mad Monster Mansion, in a barrel marked "1881"; it is a reference to Atic Atac, one of Rare's first games. Before entering the code one should note that the barrel is sealed with an "X". When Banjo and Kazooie enter this barrel, there is also water where this egg nestles.

The code is "CHEAT DONT YOU GO AND TELL HER ABOUT THE SECRET IN HER CELLAR".

Pink Mystery Egg
The Pink Mystery Egg is found in Sharkfood Island, a small mark of land in Treasure Trove Cove that, upon entering the code, rises to turn out to be a cave. Mumbo reveals it after the game is finished with all 100 Jiggies.

The code is "CHEAT OUT OF THE SEA IT RISES TO REVEAL MORE SECRET PRIZES".

Blue Mystery Egg
The Blue Mystery Egg is found in Gobi's Valley, behind an unopenable door which Gobi sits by before leaving the desert. The egg can be found inside a sarcophagus in the proceeding room. Mumbo reveals it after the game is finished with all 100 Jiggies.

The code "CHEAT A DESERT DOOR OPENS WIDE ANCIENT SECRETS WAIT INSIDE" opens the tomb door.

Green Mystery Egg
The Green Mystery Egg is the second egg to be found in Mad Monster Mansion; there seems to be no discernable reason for this, though. The egg is found in the bathroom, on top of Loggo.

The code is "CHEAT AMIDST THE HAUNTED GLOOM A SECRET IN THE BATHROOM".

Red Mystery Egg
The Red Mystery Egg is found in the captain's quarters in Rusty Bucket Bay, accessed by breaking one of the windows. And here, this egg is rotating on the captain's bed.

The code is "CHEAT THIS SECRET YOULL BE GRABBIN IN THE CAPTAINS CABIN".

Yellow Mystery Egg
The Yellow Mystery Egg is found in Click Clock Wood in Nabnut's house in the winter season. To reach it, one must enter through the window.

The code is "CHEAT NOW BANJO WILL BE ABLE TO SEE IT ON NABNUTS TABLE".

Ice Key
The Ice Key is perhaps the most mysterious Stop 'n' Swop item, predominantly because it is the only item that can be seen during normal play. It is found in Wozza's cave, in a small alcove; if the player uses first person mode, they can see through the ice to see the key twirling, but there is no way to get in. However, typing in the following code removes the unbreakable ice wall. Mumbo reveals it after the game is finished with all 100 Jiggies.

The code is "CHEAT NOW YOU CAN SEE A NICE ICE KEY WHICH YOU CAN HAVE FOR FREE".

Banjo-Tooie
Even though Rare dropped the Stop 'n' Swop idea, they decided to add three of the Mystery Eggs and the Ice Key to Banjo-Tooie. Each of these items unlocked a secret in the game.

Ice Key
In Banjo-Tooie, the Ice Key could be found in a cave around the sandy area of Jinjo Village. It unlocks a large Ice Vault that holds the Mega-Glowbo. The Mega-Glowbo can be used in Humba Wumba's wigwam at the entrance of Witchyworld to transform Kazooie into a Dragon.

Pink Mystery Egg
The egg is in Spiral Mountain, in front of the mountain. By bringing it to Heggy in Wooded Hollow, Banjo will be able to use a new move.

Blue Mystery Egg
It is behind the waterfall in Spiral Mountain. It unlocks the homing eggs cheat in the code chamber at Mayahem Temple.

Yellow Mystery Egg
The egg is found in Heggy's House, but it must be hatched by Kazooie. It unlocks the Jinjo in Squackmatch multiplayer.

Trivia

 * In , one of the chalkboards in the schoolroom references Stop 'n' Swop with a mathematical equation: "[egg] + [egg] + [egg] + [egg] + [key] = ?".