74 replies to this topic

[darryl1970]

I just checked to see if anything had changed. I was playing Pkong, and I discovered that the background music doesn't start back up after un-pausing the game. It could just be the Emulator, but I thought I'd let you know. (I still like your music better than some of the ported content from the 8-bit) Great job!

[tep392]

darryl1970, on Sat Nov 20, 2010 12:34 AM, said:

I just checked to see if anything had changed. I was playing Pkong, and I discovered that the background music doesn't start back up after un-pausing the game. It could just be the Emulator, but I thought I'd let you know. (I still like your music better than some of the ported content from the 8-bit) Great job!

Thanks for spotting that. I'll take a look at it later. Shouldn't be too difficult to fix.

Perry

[tep392]

Try this one. Pause is working correctly now.

Attached Files

•  dk7800_pokey.a78   48.13K   145 downloads

[DracIsBack]

tep392, on Fri Nov 19, 2010 10:29 AM, said:

I have to wonder what the original programmers were thinking when they did this game. Even if the Pokey wasn't an option for them, the TIA can do much better than this. Xevious is a good example of TIA sound done right.

Yeah - that's a peeve of mine too with a bunch of games in the 7800 library. Yeah, the sound chip is limited and all, but a lot of games sound really bad even compared to what the chip can pull off.

[Lendorien]

When looking for games to buy for the 7800, I tried out Donkey Kong for the heck of it. The music was awful. This hack makes the game a whole lot more playable. You did a fantastic job.

One comment... Perhaps one could look into adding High Score Cart compatibility while you're at it? I have no idea how involved that would be, but since you're hacking it anyway, it might be cool to add that functionality for the XM module. I'm sure some of the other homebrewers who have more intimate knowledge of the HSC could help you out.

Edited by Lendorien, Tue Dec 7, 2010 2:47 AM.

[Corby]

tep392, on Thu Oct 28, 2010 10:59 PM, said:

Well maybe not a surprise. I finished working on this a few weeks ago and thought it was time to put it out and let people play test it. To be honest, I haven't been able to spend much time playing it, so it might have some undiscovered bugs. Hopefully not.

One caveat though. I haven't made any changes to the graphics or game play and don't intend to. I'm sure some will be disappointed, but there is still no 4th level. It just isn't practical to do without any documented source code.

You will probably recognize the sounds if you've spent any time playing the 400/800 version. I haven't modified any of the sounds, so I'm sure there are some differences from the arcade version. Let me know if anything is glaringly off and I'll see what I can do.

One thing I have to point out is that this is only playable in emulation or on an XBOARD modded machine or on the Expansion Module. It won't work on a pokey cart because the Pokey mapping overlaps the code. I’ve only tested on Prosystem13, so I’m not sure if it will work on the other emulators.

Let me know what you think.

Regards,
Perry

Is there no way of getting the source code, to make the 4th level???? Because someone has already done it..for the NES!

http://www.retrousb....products_id=103

[Trebor]

Corby, on Mon Dec 27, 2010 2:49 AM, said:

Because someone has already done it..for the NES!
http://www.retrousb....products_id=103

That someone is for all intent and purposes 'Nintendo' themselves. Europe received that version of Donkey Kong (sub-titled 'Original Edition') with red Wii consoles to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the NES.

http://www.gamesrada...404102554434010

There's speculation as to whether this is the "original" intended release for Europe which was shelved for the sake of cost, or a later add-on/hack of the original Donkey Kong release. Of course, the title screen was updated to reflect the year 2010.

The ROM is floating around and is not hard to find. Works great under most NES emulators. The boys at retrousb just burned the ROM to cart (Typical Mapper: 3/Board: CNROM). No hate towards retrousb though, I have purchased both their USB adapters for classic controllers as well as (when they use to make them) the full controller with adapter. Great products and no problems.

This "newly" released port still fails in many regards as hammer placement is still wrong on the first level. There is no 'How High Can You Get' screen, no alternating music after rescuing Pauline (Same tune everytime). Donkey Kong does grab Pauline and climb up the ladder, which is a plus, but makes no taunting laugh, which is another fail. Also, although it includes the pie/cement factory level, Donkey Kong does not move side-to-side, but stays in one spot. There are other issues as well (Such as you have to play in the Japanese board order), but I'll limit it to the aforementioned.

Regardless, cool to see and a shame Nintendo didn't release this version from the get-go.

EDIT: For the curious, attached is a screen capture of the Pie/Cement Factory under Nestopia with the NTSC filter.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by Trebor, Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:52 PM.

[darryl1970]

Trebor, on Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:39 PM, said:

Corby, on Mon Dec 27, 2010 2:49 AM, said:

Because someone has already done it..for the NES!
http://www.retrousb....products_id=103

That someone is for all intent and purposes 'Nintendo' themselves. Europe received that version of Donkey Kong (sub-titled 'Original Edition') with red Wii consoles to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the NES.

http://www.gamesrada...404102554434010

There's speculation as to whether this is the "original" intended release for Europe which was shelved for the sake of cost, or a later add-on/hack of the original Donkey Kong release. Of course, the title screen was updated to reflect the year 2010.

The ROM is floating around and is not hard to find. Works great under most NES emulators. The boys at retrousb just burned the ROM to cart (Typical Mapper: 3/Board: CNROM). No hate towards retrousb though, I have purchased both their USB adapters for classic controllers as well as (when they use to make them) the full controller with adapter. Great products and no problems.

This "newly" released port still fails in many regards as hammer placement is still wrong on the first level. There is no 'How High Can You Get' screen, no alternating music after rescuing Pauline (Same tune everytime). Donkey Kong does grab Pauline and climb up the ladder, which is a plus, but makes no taunting laugh, which is another fail. Also, although it includes the pie/cement factory level, Donkey Kong does not move side-to-side, but stays in one spot. There are other issues as well (Such as you have to play in the Japanese board order), but I'll limit it to the aforementioned.

Regardless, cool to see and a shame Nintendo didn't release this version from the get-go.

EDIT: For the curious, attached is a screen capture of the Pie/Cement Factory under Nestopia with the NTSC filter.

Definite shame. I was SO disappointed in the NES version, and I value my life too much to waste time trying to find the better version in the tedious Donkey Kong 64! I can see why they moved the hammer, because they did a terrible job programming the fireball (being stuck below). I am guessing the hammer would have no affect on the fireball, so they moved it out of the fireball's range. Additionally, the fancy jumps (jumping the same direction as a barrel) do not work, so it's not possible to get out of some of the arcade jams. I'd still like to experience the NES version of the 4th screen. I wonder if is for sale for emulators somewhere.

[Trebor]

darryl1970, on Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:29 PM, said:

I can see why they moved the hammer, because they did a terrible job programming the fireball (being stuck below). I am guessing the hammer would have no affect on the fireball, so they moved it out of the fireball's range.

Hmmm...Not quite sure what you mean by the fireball 'being stuck below'. The fireball climbs ladders and is destroyed by the hammer the same as the arcade. Attached is the fireball on the second platform on the first board.

My biggest gripe with the fire objects is they do not turn "blue" when Jumpman has the hammer in hand.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[darryl1970]

Trebor, on Wed Dec 29, 2010 3:32 PM, said:

darryl1970, on Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:29 PM, said:

I can see why they moved the hammer, because they did a terrible job programming the fireball (being stuck below). I am guessing the hammer would have no affect on the fireball, so they moved it out of the fireball's range.

Hmmm...Not quite sure what you mean by the fireball 'being stuck below'. The fireball climbs ladders and is destroyed by the hammer the same as the arcade. Attached is the fireball on the second platform on the first board.

My biggest gripe with the fire objects is they do not turn "blue" when Jumpman has the hammer in hand.

The fireball will not go past the second level on the barrel screen, on the NES. The arcade fireball (not Firefoxes from the rivet screen) can follow Mario to the top. It appears that they moved the hammer from the second level to the third, so they didn't have to program the fireball getting hit by the hammer. Limiting the fireball to the first two levels limits the challenge, as well as only having two preset patterns for the barrels DK throws down the screen.

[Trebor]

darryl1970, on Wed Dec 29, 2010 5:19 PM, said:

The fireball will not go past the second level on the barrel screen, on the NES. The arcade fireball (not Firefoxes from the rivet screen) can follow Mario to the top. It appears that they moved the hammer from the second level to the third, so they didn't have to program the fireball getting hit by the hammer. Limiting the fireball to the first two levels limits the challenge, as well as only having two preset patterns for the barrels DK throws down the screen.

Ahhh...Thanks for the clarification.

The patterns for the barrel throws annoys me. Especially the launch of the first one, it changes for each start of the next level and is sadly missing in the NES port(s). In the Arcade, the first level allows you to walk all the way across to the ladder for climbing up to the second platform without issue. The second level, cuts it kind of close, but you can still make it. By the third level, the barrel beats you to the ladder and you must jump over it first.

[tep392]

It's been a while since I've updated this thread. I've been stalled a bit waiting for the XM to ship so I can fully test. In the mean time, Pac-man Prime has made an awsome label for the cart. Here's a sample.

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

[gambler172]

Hi tep
if it will be released on cart,count me in.
greetings Walter

[Lendorien]

Hey Tep,

Did you ever do anything with Dig Dug? I know you'd talked about doing that one next.

[tep392]

Lendorien, on Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:10 AM, said:

Hey Tep, Did you ever do anything with Dig Dug? I know you'd talked about doing that one next.

I plan on doing that one after I get my DK carts made. Unfortunately, I can't do anything until I get a XM in my hands. I have no way to test the Yamaha sound code without it since the emulators don't support the XM yet.

[Trebor]

Hi tep,

The file posted here: http://www.atariage....ost__p__2142994

Loops under MESS at the BIOS/logo screen. A MESS Dev has looked into it and discovered the following:

"The modified version of Donkey Kong uses a non-standard cartridge scheme that
is not currently supported by MESS. The game reads ROM at $4000-$7FFF but
writes to the POKEY at that same range."

Can this please be corrected?

Thank you.

[Mitch]

Since this is an XM only port it doesn't work in MESS because MESS doesn't emulate the XM.

Mitch

[tep392]

Trebor, on Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:33 PM, said:

Hi tep,

The file posted here: http://www.atariage....ost__p__2142994

Loops under MESS at the BIOS/logo screen. A MESS Dev has looked into it and discovered the following:

"The modified version of Donkey Kong uses a non-standard cartridge scheme that
is not currently supported by MESS. The game reads ROM at $4000-$7FFF but
writes to the POKEY at that same range."

Can this please be corrected?
Thank you.

There are no standard cartridge schemes that support 48k at $4000-$FFFF and POKEY. The only way it will work in MESS is if the emulator supports the XM module or the XBOARD. It will work in ProSystem13 because it doesn't emulate the hardware precisely and allows me to read ROM and write POKEY at the same memory locations.

[MaximRecoil]

tep392, on Sat Feb 18, 2012 11:26 PM, said:

Trebor, on Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:33 PM, said:

Hi tep,

The file posted here: http://www.atariage....ost__p__2142994

Loops under MESS at the BIOS/logo screen. A MESS Dev has looked into it and discovered the following:

"The modified version of Donkey Kong uses a non-standard cartridge scheme that
is not currently supported by MESS. The game reads ROM at $4000-$7FFF but
writes to the POKEY at that same range."

Can this please be corrected?
Thank you.

There are no standard cartridge schemes that support 48k at $4000-$FFFF and POKEY. The only way it will work in MESS is if the emulator supports the XM module or the XBOARD. It will work in ProSystem13 because it doesn't emulate the hardware precisely and allows me to read ROM and write POKEY at the same memory locations.

It works perfectly for me in MESS, though I'm using a really old version from 2003 (MESS 0.74b).

[Trebor]

MaximRecoil, on Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:53 AM, said:

It works perfectly for me in MESS, though I'm using a really old version from 2003 (MESS 0.74b).

Thanks for the info. It also does not work in MESS 0.111 from 2006.

So, just to summarize, a MESS version from nine years ago it works on, but defintiely anything six years ago or newer it doesn't work on.

Undoubtedly, due to better emulation and not allowing the writes it previously did. Still wish there was a way to get this running in a verison of MESS within the last several years...lol.

[tep392]

Trebor, on Sat Mar 24, 2012 12:48 PM, said:

MaximRecoil, on Sat Mar 24, 2012 10:53 AM, said:

It works perfectly for me in MESS, though I'm using a really old version from 2003 (MESS 0.74b).

Thanks for the info. It also does not work in MESS 0.111 from 2006.

So, just to summarize, a MESS version from nine years ago it works on, but defintiely anything six years ago or newer it doesn't work on.

Undoubtedly, due to better emulation and not allowing the writes it previously did. Still wish there was a way to get this running in a verison of MESS within the last several years...lol.

Does MESS emulate the XBOARD? If it does, I can make it work with that.

[Trebor]

tep392, on Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:52 PM, said:

Does MESS emulate the XBOARD? If it does, I can make it work with that.

I'm not sure. I've inquired about it under the MESS board here:
http://forums.bannis...78219#Post78219

Edited by Trebor, Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:19 AM.

[GroovyBee]

Trebor, on Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:19 AM, said:

tep392, on Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:52 PM, said:

Does MESS emulate the XBOARD? If it does, I can make it work with that.

I'm not sure. I've inquired about it under the MESS board here:
http://forums.bannis...78219#Post78219

I could be wrong but I doubt that it does. You can specify that your ROM image needs POKEY in the v1 *.a78 header block but you can't specify the base address of the POKEY or that your ROM image needs XBOARD. MESS would need to implement the v2 *.a78 header format I proposed here :-

http://www.atariage....header-changes/

[Yurkie]

Very interesting thread. 3 questions please.

1. Is the XBOARD still available?
2. Has anyone with the XBOARD installed played this on a real 7800 using one of CPUWHIZ's cartridge PCBs?
3. Will there be a conflict if the XM is plgged into a 7800 that has the XBOARD installed?

Thanks in advance for any/all answers.

[GroovyBee]

Yurkie, on Mon May 21, 2012 2:06 PM, said:

1. Is the XBOARD still available?

This is the XBOARD home page :-

http://www.x-game.se...ucts/xboard.htm

It was last updated in 2008 according to the info at the bottom of the page. A link on the page goes to the atarimax website (for availability) but a quick scan over the products that are shown finds no mention of XBOARD.

Quote

2. Has anyone with the XBOARD installed played this on a real 7800 using one of CPUWHIZ's cartridge PCBs?

I can't comment because I don't have an XBOARD.

Quote

3. Will there be a conflict if the XM is plgged into a 7800 that has the XBOARD installed?

I wouldn't recommend that you do that. Its pretty much one or the other. Although software could be written by the developer to determine if their game has access to an XBOARD or an XM and to act accordingly.