ColecoFan1981 Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 In regards to the ColecoVision version of Donkey Kong, which was the pack-in cartridge for said system, there were versions of it produced with both 16K and 24K ROM chips. The 24K ROM version was known to be the earliest, and then Coleco programmers decided to cut 8K of this to 16K sometime during 1983. There are notable differences between the 16K and 24K ROM versions of DK: The broken ladder glitch on the girder board does the following: *24K ROM version - Mario disappears after execution of the glitch and then re-appears after about 15 seconds on the top girder next to DK. However, Mario may lose a life when this is done because sometimes DK may throw a barrel the very instant Mario lands on DK's girder. *16K ROM version - Executing this glitch causes Mario to fall down the girder and instantly go on to the rivets board. Other notable differences: *24K ROM version has a maximum time limit of 8000 bonus points. *16K ROM version pushes this maximum to 99900 bonus points. But if this counter turns over at 00000 points, Mario will die instantly. *24K ROM version - when Mario dies, the background music continues playing for a few timer ticks. *16K ROM version - when Mario dies, the background music cuts out instantly when the death fanfare plays (timer's still ticking, though). *24K ROM version - place Mario next to Pauline's hat, seen on the right side of the rivets board, and jump up from below and the hat magically disappears. MODERATOR NOTE: Move this topic if necessary. ~Ben 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Neat! I always love reading about this stuff. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwiliteZoner Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 (edited) Neat! I always love reading about this stuff. Tempest I agree with you Tempest I love this kind of stuff. Speaking of Donkey Kong. Has anyone ever discovered a dsk image of the Adam version of Donkey Kong? Edited February 13, 2009 by TwiliteZoner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubledown Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I have a .dsk image of the ADAM in-house 5 screen Donkey Kong Jr., but I've never seen one for Donkey Kong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph74 Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 I have a .dsk image of the ADAM in-house 5 screen Donkey Kong Jr., but I've never seen one for Donkey Kong. Well, I think I confirm a SuperDK Disk version does exist, as I had all three (DKJ, DK, and Zaxxon) on floppy converted from DDP by NIAD back in the day. They were like $10 each to convert and you had to send the tapecase cover as proof of ownership of the original game. These days, I don't have any Adam floppies or a Adam Floppy drive left even. I'm surprised no one has this out there, even the TOSEC set of Adam stuff is missing it. I'll let ya know if I can find it-- I think I still have the original DDP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph74 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I have a .dsk image of the ADAM in-house 5 screen Donkey Kong Jr., but I've never seen one for Donkey Kong. Well, I think I confirm a SuperDK Disk version does exist, as I had all three (DKJ, DK, and Zaxxon) on floppy converted from DDP by NIAD back in the day. They were like $10 each to convert and you had to send the tapecase cover as proof of ownership of the original game. These days, I don't have any Adam floppies or a Adam Floppy drive left even. I'm surprised no one has this out there, even the TOSEC set of Adam stuff is missing it. I'll let ya know if I can find it-- I think I still have the original DDP. Sent a quick email to a fellow Adamite, and came up with this... enjoy! Super_Donkey_Kong.zip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Cade Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Now what emulator will run this properly? MESS make a "mess" of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph74 Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Now what emulator will run this properly? MESS make a "mess" of it. Worked fine on AdamEm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubledown Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Works fine on a real ADAM too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph74 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Works fine on a real ADAM too! What are the odds?! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoFan1981 Posted November 14, 2009 Author Share Posted November 14, 2009 (edited) Seeing as the CV used a Z-80A processor, as did the original arcade Donkey Kong machine, here's all my thoughts about the game timer on the 24K ROM version: The instructions would be thus, that on the 24K ROM version, the timer never goes past 8000 bonus points. The game timer on both the 24K and 16K versions starts at 4000 bonus points (although the game timer does go past 8000 points on the 16K ROM version if you manage to get to level 6), which is achieved by taking the level number and multiplying that by 10 ($0A hex), and then adding 30 ($1E hex) to the result. Level 1 = (1 * 10) + 30 = 4000 bonus points Level 2 = (2 * 10) + 30 = 5000 bonus points Level 3 = (3 * 10) + 30 = 6000 bonus points Level 4 = (4 * 10) + 30 = 7000 bonus points Level 5 = (5 * 10) + 30 = 8000 bonus points For the 24K ROM version, the Z-80 logic would then check to make sure if the value stored in register A is 80 (#50 hex) in the ROM, and if it exceeds said value, to force it back down to 80. Level 6 = (6 * 10) + 30 = 9000 bonus points (truncated to 8000 on 24K version) Level 23 = (23 * 10) + 30 = 400 bonus points (the 8-bit byte exceeds 255) On the arcade version, the infamous kill screen is arrived at because after you reach level 22, the ROM recognizes that as a large-enough number to lose the Carry flag, making said result mod 256 of it. The Carry flag deliberately clears each time before a number is doubled, and the calculation is (22 * 10) + 40 = 260, which is greater than 256 by 4 (no 8-bit hex code number goes past 255, or #FF hex), to give level 22 a very short starting bonus of 400 points. I believe the kill screen for the 16K ROM version of the CV Donkey Kong occurs at level 97 (for all those who managed to get there) because it having a five-digit game timer, it can never go past 99,000 points, for which I believe is instant death. As I said before, the 24K ROM version never has the game timer going past 8000 points. ~Ben Edited November 14, 2009 by ColecoFan1981 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoFan1981 Posted October 12, 2010 Author Share Posted October 12, 2010 (edited) OK, so I've used dZ80 to disassemble both cartridge version ROMs, but I would like to consult whether or not I can have these ASM files distributed to all of you here who are interested, as I do not want to be seen as a copyright infringer? What I would like for you to figure out in both ASMs are what each and every instruction/argument listed does so that I can change the part of the code that's causing Mario to fall through the up elevator from his starting position after jumping (24K ROM only) on the elevator board (on the 24K version, he also falls through the up elevator if you run to the up elevator from the second girder). I'd also like to know if there is a possible instruction/argument that may trigger a kill screen like that of the arcade version (both 16K and 24K). Thank you, Ben Edited October 12, 2010 by ColecoFan1981 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 I didn't know there were two different versions out there. Which is better? What else is lost going from 24k to 16k...that's 1/3 of the code! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcade124 Posted July 22, 2016 Share Posted July 22, 2016 (edited) I don't believe the kill screen is level 97. Has anyone gotten to either level 6 or so OR around 133,00 points? I got both today, and something weird occurred... A few levels earlier, a green barrel sprite appeared at the bottom of the screen. I reached 134,000 points. I think I was on level 5 or 6, playing on the rivets screen. All of a sudden, the game returned to a glitched title screen, and then progressed to a glitched select screen. I started a game, and it was chaos. DK's barrels were clumped around him, and Mario was walking near the top of the screen and climbing invisible ladders. However, when I completed the screen, everything was normal again, as if I had started the game over again. This was done on emulation, but I think it'd happen on hardware as well. Edited July 22, 2016 by arcade124 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q*bertkid Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 I have been playing both versions of this game for about a week now, I have 5 copies of each and have test this on all 5. One thing I noticed on the 24k version, is once you get the 4th fireball on the rivet stage Mario gets slower but only for this stage. He moves up and down the ladders like a turtle. But once you clear the stage and continue to the next level he is back to normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toiletunes Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 Are there label variations, or do you have to play to tell them apart? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 Are there label variations, or do you have to play to tell them apart? I don't think there are. I believe they look the same. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q*bertkid Posted October 25, 2016 Share Posted October 25, 2016 You can play them and use the ladder trick on the first level or you can open them up the 24k has 3 chips and the 16k has 2 chips or you can look at the board sticking out of the cart look for a hole in the gap between the connectors all of my 16k carts have this hole. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q*bertkid Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 http://bayimg.com/FAinMaAGj 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted June 22, 2021 Share Posted June 22, 2021 Necro bump on this. Did anyone ever figure out what if anything was cut out of the 16K version? Was it just code optimization and bug fixes? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoFan1981 Posted March 10, 2022 Author Share Posted March 10, 2022 On 6/22/2021 at 4:50 AM, Tempest said: Necro bump on this. Did anyone ever figure out what if anything was cut out of the 16K version? Was it just code optimization and bug fixes? The 16K version was programmed in France at Nice Ideas, and it was this version that had the five-digit timer going up all the way to 99,000 bonus points. When you die, the background music ends before the death fanfare plays (just as in the arcade version). A bug was fixed in the elevator level, where you tried to get Mario on the up elevator from his starting position and he fell through it. ~Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1980gamer Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 I don't know which is which, but one version you can grab items from lower girders on the rivet stage and the other version you cannot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoFan1981 Posted March 10, 2022 Author Share Posted March 10, 2022 18 minutes ago, 1980gamer said: I don't know which is which, but one version you can grab items from lower girders on the rivet stage and the other version you cannot. The original 24K ROM version would be the one, but not the 16K ROM version. ~Ben 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 On 6/22/2021 at 6:50 AM, Tempest said: Necro bump on this. Did anyone ever figure out what if anything was cut out of the 16K version? Was it just code optimization and bug fixes? The primary reason for the change from the 24K 3-Prom original version to the 16K 2-Prom version was code optimization for cost savings due to the high cost of PROM chips at the time. As ColecoFan1981 and others in this thread have pointed out, bug fixes and other changes were also made to the 16K version. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johannesmutlu Posted April 6, 2022 Share Posted April 6, 2022 On 2/11/2009 at 10:10 AM, ColecoFan1981 said: In regards to the ColecoVision version of Donkey Kong, which was the pack-in cartridge for said system, there were versions of it produced with both 16K and 24K ROM chips. The 24K ROM version was known to be the earliest, and then Coleco programmers decided to cut 8K of this to 16K sometime during 1983. There are notable differences between the 16K and 24K ROM versions of DK: The broken ladder glitch on the girder board does the following: *24K ROM version - Mario disappears after execution of the glitch and then re-appears after about 15 seconds on the top girder next to DK. However, Mario may lose a life when this is done because sometimes DK may throw a barrel the very instant Mario lands on DK's girder. *16K ROM version - Executing this glitch causes Mario to fall down the girder and instantly go on to the rivets board. Other notable differences: *24K ROM version has a maximum time limit of 8000 bonus points. *16K ROM version pushes this maximum to 99900 bonus points. But if this counter turns over at 00000 points, Mario will die instantly. *24K ROM version - when Mario dies, the background music continues playing for a few timer ticks. *16K ROM version - when Mario dies, the background music cuts out instantly when the death fanfare plays (timer's still ticking, though). *24K ROM version - place Mario next to Pauline's hat, seen on the right side of the rivets board, and jump up from below and the hat magically disappears. MODERATOR NOTE: Move this topic if necessary. ~Ben What if the 24K version contained the pie factory but not the 16K version,in such case that 8K drop would,ve be a bummer,but for what i do know is that the adam version does contain the pie factory,now while nintendo was impressed with the colecovision version of donkeykong and the colecovision system is also based on the Z80 cpu just like the arcade version of donkeykong, i wonder why on earth nintendo opted for a 6502 chip in their nes? I heard a strange story that nintendo did this to save on space on it’s motherboard and that game developers were more familiar with the 6502 chip,wich is strange because why did nintendo otherwise opted for a z80 chip for their gameboy later on? you might would,ve expect it the other way around,mmm but my biggest concern is,was the 6502 chip not cheaper then the z80 chip???? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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