My New 2600 Donkey Kong Conceptual Gfx Now 4 Boards N bin!

[Godzilla]

After a few hours of photoshop, i came up with the following:

 

 

Some explanations:

 

The score at top is modified from the score pixels of solaris

 

A general graphic template was 2600 miner 2049er.

The girders use the same resoultion as miner. The enemies and hammers use the same pixel size as the enemies and objects in miner.

 

Mario and Pauline share pixel size with 2600 mario brothers.

 

I have been very unhappy with ladders on the 2600. just a bunch of dashes, never bars on the side. It looses the slender ladders of the arcade, but I used pieces of pesco's maze to make ladders with proper bars on the side. Just to stick to the 'as close to arcade as possible' motif, I also cut off the sides to give the usual 'dash' ladders that even more closely resemble the arcade game.

 

Donkey Kong was drawn with the same pixel size as the original 2600 donkey kong, just to show what could be.

 

(No single object has more than two colors per scan line, the entire image is only 8 colors. Many colors are shared, pauline breaks this rule, but then she has a section of the screen to her self, vertically.)

 

*reference images (2600 & Arcade)*

 

[oesii]

ok, that's too much writing and conceptualizing and not enough programming, get to work and make this game

[ZylonBane]

Those screens assume the 2600 playfield can do three colors (blue and two shades of brown) in any arbitrary position. This is not the case.

 

Now this is much more plausible. Although Kong himself is probably not doable as shown with all the other stuff on the same level with him.

 

[ATARI TROLL]

HOPEFULLY THIS ISN'T A PHOTO TEASE. I HOPE THERE WILL BE A GAME VERSION CLOSE TO THOSE PICS IN PLAYING. IF NOT OH WELL

 

CHEERS

 

JACL

[Video]

I see the final pic as closer to reality, if someone hacks this game.

 

Though the first few could be possible (with a lot of epedimic sezieurs thrown in as the sprites flash badly)

[D.Yancey]

You could hack the graphics forever on the existing version and would never get Kong to "roll out the barrels" like in the photo. Even then, there is still everyone's complaints about only 2 screens and the fireballs not moving on ladders in the 2nd screen, etc. However, I'd still like to see this idea become reality.

[King Atari]

It's almost impossible to hack DK into something good looking, I've taken a few shots at it, and it mostly looks garbled. Actual programming is the only thing that can save this game. I can see that second screen shot happening on the 2600, though perhaps with some flickering.

[Goochman]

OK,

 

We can make the first lvl look better - the Girder lvl looks ok in my book - How the hell are you going ot do the Bouncing Girder or Pie Factory on the 2600?

 

I think the 2 boards are the best your gonna get anyway

[Godzilla]

well the girders could be made single color in my illustration. that would fix the two browns there. Basically my concept was throwing down the gauntlet. Of course I'm no programmer, but I used nothing but graphics that a 2600 had made to generate the image. Id love to see how close a talented coder could get to the pictures I made. I'd be happy to draw any and all frames of animation/gfx any coder needed.

[ventrra]

It's almost impossible to hack DK into something good looking, I've taken a few shots at it, and it mostly looks garbled. Actual programming is the only thing that can save this game. I can see that second screen shot happening on the 2600, though perhaps with some flickering.

 

Same here. Even trying to alter the code at a base level got me poor results.

I wouldn't mind the flickering so much, myself. I can play Pac-Kong without any bad effects

[Godzilla]

I agree. this was done with the thought of reprogramming the game. and maybe using something silimilar to the supercharger where you have actual ram, 6kb per level maybe? dk = 4 super charger loads?

i mean look at frogger :-)

[Video]

There's quet a few programmers that have made new games rather than hacks. If any wanted to tackle it, I imagine we could get a great DK going. Possibly even with a title screen and the missing two maps.

[Godzilla]

That was my thought. Especially with the history and continued popularity of mario, who got his console start with Donkey Kong on the 2600, it would be nice to see that start properly represented. Instead of the hurtful pain it is now.

[Robert M]

Godzilla,

 

That's a bold concept picture. Its not impossible (except for a couple minor pixel detail issues), but the flicker would be intense. Here are some suggestions for reducing flicker.

 

1. Change the spots in the barrels to the color of the girders

2. Change one of the colors of the fireballs to the color of the girders.

3. Eliminate the high score. It can always be shown on the title screen instead.

4. Change the hammer heads from brown to the girder color, and elimnate the pixels of the ends of the Hammers making them rectangles.

 

Cheers!

[King Atari]

If someone were to program a new version, I'd personally like to see the levels, sound, and gameplay more faithfully represented, then worry about the other two screens. Would the other two really come off all that well anyways?

[Goochman]

If someone were to program a new version, I'd personally like to see the levels, sound, and gameplay more faithfully represented, then worry about the other two screens. Would the other two really come off all that well anyways?

 

I agree - The 3rd level would prob look like junk - The pie factory would prob look like the alpo factory

 

If the first lvl we're cleared up a bit Id be happy - the Girder lvl doesnt look too bad IMHO.

 

Then the sound and we're set!

[King Atari]

Exactly. I can put up with a few levels missing if it means playing exceptional versions of the ones that are there.

[Godzilla]

Godzilla,

 

That's a bold concept picture.   Its not impossible (except for a couple minor pixel detail issues), but the flicker would be intense.   Here are some suggestions for reducing flicker.

 

1. Change the spots in the barrels to the color of the girders  

2. Change one of the colors of the fireballs to the color of the girders.

3. Eliminate the high score.  It can always be shown on the title screen instead.  

4. Change the hammer heads from brown to the girder color, and elimnate the pixels of the ends of the Hammers making them rectangles.

 

Cheers!

 

Thanks for the tips. I know that I've got some scanline color issues. the girders may also need to be made monochromatic.

The fireball already uses the red from the girder, and its body color is the same color as the barrel. Do I need to change the body color of the fireball? or maybe just make it black... could make it the same color as the barrell? you will see both of these in the next screen shots. (of course in reality they probably couldnt exist on the same scanline. I added a gradient effect to fire, I think it helps.

 

Anyway in response to the feasability of the other screens in 2600 donkey kong, here they are :-)

 

Just another note, ALL the board layouts are taken directly from the arcade levels in a mask and scaled into the 2600 res. These screens do not draw all the way out to the edges, which may with how much is being drawn.

 

 

WHO WILL TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE :-)

[Goochman]

Id love to see a prototype of just those screens running on a 2600 without major flicker - if so they would be some of the best 2600 screens ever!

[NE146]

I dig em! I'm thinking it probably won't be 100% reproduceable on a 2600, but I'm sure something could come pretty close.

 

Maybe if we bug Thomas again..........

[ZylonBane]

Those screens are all 240 scanlines high. Not much relevance to us NTSC folk.

[NE146]

Those screens are all 240 scanlines high. Not much relevance to us NTSC folk.

 

It's the old "naysayers vs. the people who dare to dream" thing

 

Well.. you can dwell on conceptual screenshot pixel possibilities all friggin day... but that's not the point I think. The point is I'm sure (as I'm sure you are as well) that Donkey Kong CAN be done better on the 2600.. for sure!

 

Hey, look at me.. I did that Pacman 2600 screenshot years ago. For several reasons it wasn't possible (score and fruit on the same line, white dots, etc.). But then out came Rob's hack.. and voila! It was a reality. Conceptual screenshots are just that. Conceptual Not that the pacman screenshot was the basis for the following.. but it gives you an idea of where this Donkey Kong thing could go.

 

CONCEPTUAL

 

ACTUAL #1

 

And if you wanna really go out there...

ACTUAL #2

[raindog]

Not that the pacman screenshot was the basis for the following..  

 

Actually, your mockup was entirely the basis for my hack. The differences are only a function of limitations in the 2600 and/or the Ms. Pac-Man code I didn't know how to code around at the time. El Destructo and scottith have since done better, even if they still have some issues to work out

[Godzilla]

Not that the pacman screenshot was the basis for the following..  

 

Actually, your mockup was entirely the basis for my hack. The differences are only a function of limitations in the 2600 and/or the Ms. Pac-Man code I didn't know how to code around at the time. El Destructo and scottith have since done better, even if they still have some issues to work out

 

and I can only hope the hours I spent on my DK concept images can offer similar inspiration to others. That really is and was the whole point. If there is one thing I've learned about the 2600 it's that nothing is impossible.

 

The newly discovered 2600 rubiks cube prototype manages 8 colors per scanline. more than enough to make my screens a reality...

 

I think the best hack candidate might be miner 2049er (though really this would require a recode from the ground up to get close to the concepts, imho.)

[ZylonBane]

The newly discovered 2600 rubiks cube prototype manages 8 colors per scanline. more than enough to make my screens a reality...

I really, really wish you'd learn a little (or a little more) about 2600 programming so you'd stop saying things like this. Advanced 2600 graphics programming is purely the art of squeezing whatever effects you can out of the particular screen layout of your game. So reasoning that, in all cases, "If game X can do Y, then game Z can too!" is pure fantasy.

 

Take Rubik's Cube as an example. It can do all those colors per scanline because it's a reflected playfield with (mostly) large gaps between color changes, and no sprites to worry about. Basically the CPU is free to do nothing but jam on the color registers.

 

If you're going to do mockups, you may as well do them within the capabilites of the system. So keep it to 320x200, limit the color changes to a per-scanline basis, and try to find a 2600 palette file. Then you'll actually be doing mockups, not just "low-res version of arcade screenshot".