Donkey Kong Arcade Accurate NES Port

[Tanooki]

That Dell IPS monitor looks solid.

 

I wish I knew electronics well enough. I'd kill to have that inside my neo geo cabinet and get that insanely heavy aging CRT out of it. It's at the start of showing its age and the weight of the thing is painful anytime it needs moving.

[Great Hierophant]

I bought the monitor about seven years ago and it does allow itself to be rotated 90 degrees. I didn't use it much for MAME because my graphics card at the time had a hard time driving the monitor seamlessly in Windows' vertically oriented mode.

 

The max resolution is 1280x1024, so I can only run the Nt Mini in 720p mode. While the monitor does not have a 1:1 setting through the OSD menu, it does a fantastic job of stretching the game with the Nt Mini.

[Tanooki]

That actually sounds real nice. I wonder how hard it would be to swap out a CRT for something like that for an arcade cabinet.

[MrMaddog]

So glad to finally see a NES hack/homebrew of DK that uses the PCM channel for the bass booms!

[Sbeehive]

Hmmm. This looks amazing but for the life of me I can't get it to work on either my Power-Pak or NT mini. Is there some sort of trick to getting it working?

[Great Hierophant]

Hmmm. This looks amazing but for the life of me I can't get it to work on either my Power-Pak or NT mini. Is there some sort of trick to getting it working?

It works with the PowerPak either with Nintendo-made systems or the Nt Mini, but it will not work with the Nt Mini's flash cart functionality.

[Sbeehive]

It works with the PowerPak either with Nintendo-made systems or the Nt Mini, but it will not work with the Nt Mini's flash cart functionality.

Yeah I've put in into my Power-Pak and tried it on the NT-Mini, AVS, and a toploading NES but no dice so far. I noticed on your video you have a much fancier powerpak mapper intro than my pack.

 

So I'm guessing its a mapper issue than? I downloaded all of Loopy's and some of the minor ones from here https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/PowerPak. I did not download any of TheFox's originally. For some reason I find it hard to get good info on what mappers to use for this damn thing (although it is awesome).

Edited November 21, 2017 by Sbeehive

[Great Hierophant]

I redid the video, partly because I was embarrassed about how poorly I played the first time around, partly to show off the port and the Nt Mini more :

 

 

When it comes to the PowerPak, I install the latest official beta mappers, the loopy mappers and the PowerMappers, in that order. Some files will be overwritten, but that's OK. Then I can add more targeted mappers. See here for links http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2016/03/nes-powerpak-and-everdrive-n8-mapper.html

[Andromeda Stardust]

See here for links http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2016/03/nes-powerpak-and-everdrive-n8-mapper.html

Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist.

 

EDIT: you have spaces at the end of the link.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2016/03/nes-powerpak-and-everdrive-n8-mapper.html

Edited November 25, 2017 by Kosmic Stardust

[Sbeehive]

I redid the video, partly because I was embarrassed about how poorly I played the first time around, partly to show off the port and the Nt Mini more :

 

 

When it comes to the PowerPak, I install the latest official beta mappers, the loopy mappers and the PowerMappers, in that order. Some files will be overwritten, but that's OK. Then I can add more targeted mappers. See here for links http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2016/03/nes-powerpak-and-everdrive-n8-mapper.html

Awesome resource, thanks! That finally did the trick.

[Atari PAC-MAN Fan]

I redid the video, partly because I was embarrassed about how poorly I played the first time around, partly to show off the port and the Nt Mini more :

 

 

When it comes to the PowerPak, I install the latest official beta mappers, the loopy mappers and the PowerMappers, in that order. Some files will be overwritten, but that's OK. Then I can add more targeted mappers. See here for links http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2016/03/nes-powerpak-and-everdrive-n8-mapper.html

 

I feel the sound effects could use some work.

 

Otherwise, It's close to perfect!

[Andromeda Stardust]

I loaded the ROM on my PC and noticed it's 40kb Nrom (mapper 0). I'm trying hard to figure out why this would have trouble playing on Powerpak, with any mapper set, since mapper 0 is essentially no mapper hardware at all.

[Great Hierophant]

I loaded the ROM on my PC and noticed it's 40kb Nrom (mapper 0). I'm trying hard to figure out why this would have trouble playing on Powerpak, with any mapper set, since mapper 0 is essentially no mapper hardware at all.

 

It uses battery backed RAM to save the high scores and perhaps add more RAM to the system, something that no real mapper-less NES cart did with the exception of Family BASIC, which only used 2K or 4K. The save file indicates usage of 6KB of external RAM. Kevtris may not have anticipated this kind of usage.

 

However, I finally managed to get it working with the Nt Mini's built-in flash cart functionality. It took some simple modifying of the ROM, but my fix works seemingly perfectly.

[Jess Ragan]

Since it's a tate game, a lot of sprites wind up on the same horizontal line, causing a lot of flicker. I kind of wish the developer would have used scrolling instead to alleviate this. Still, it's an impressive effort!

[+Black_Tiger]

Since it's a tate game, a lot of sprites wind up on the same horizontal line, causing a lot of flicker. I kind of wish the developer would have used scrolling instead to alleviate this. Still, it's an impressive effort!

 

Most/all of the flicker would be eliminated if they weren't needlessly using sprites for things that should be tiles.

[Trebor]

This is a really fine port of my favorite classic (golden-age) Arcade game. Some sound and palette issues aside, the flickering is somewhat severe at times, but understandable. Not as disconcerting, albeit noticeable, is the port needs no overscan present to be displayed fully.

 

While a moot point for most (all?) modern day flat panels, a CRT can range in this area significantly. The developer's capture on a Phillips TV is showing roughly a 6 line overscan, which is slightly below the average of 8. The bottom ramp is cut off considerable, but not horribly, from view:

 

 

 

For those wondering how much of the port's bottom area would be cut off from their particular display, Double Dragon's lower right hand playfield glitch may be referenced:

 

 

Open the spoiler below for the comparisons of no [0], under-average [4], average [8], over-average [12], right-side overscan, leveraging the Mesen emulator:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, and not demonstrated above, how much overscan is present for the left-side of the display will determine how much of the top area would be cut off.

*EDIT: See below spoiler for an example of another television (SANYO), where there is cut-off from the top and bottom of the display.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regardless, great job by the developer translating the Z80 to 6502. Additionally, a smart move utilizing samples for Kong's laugh and the bass booms. A very nice touch and hallmark sounds of the Arcade original.

 

Here is my playthrough to midpoint Level 4. Sorry, not my best or even typical game playing, but the attempt was during New Year's Eve last night and distractions were constant:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYKlD9CTh2I&t=18s

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Here is my playthrough to midpoint Level 4. Sorry, not my best or even typical game playing, but the attempt was during New Year's Eve last night and distractions were constant:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYKlD9CTh2I&t=18s

Awesome run. Anyone who can get to 150m (loop 5) is a true champ. Most never even see the cement factory, much lest play the barrel stage twice in loop 4.

 

Does this game have a Japanese stage order option? I always preferred playing that version. Donkey Kong PK for 7800 (sold by tep392 of Atariage) have both versions in the option menu. It is landscape mode unlike this port but one of the best home cinsole ports I have plated thus far. Sadly my crt won't stand on end and I can't play sudeways...

[Trebor]

Does this game have a Japanese stage order option?

 

Not that I am aware of...It is US order and 1 player only.

Press start to insert a coin and then press start again to begin the game.

[Great Hierophant]

Awesome run. Anyone who can get to 150m (loop 5) is a true champ. Most never even see the cement factory, much lest play the barrel stage twice in loop 4.

 

Does this game have a Japanese stage order option? I always preferred playing that version. Donkey Kong PK for 7800 (sold by tep392 of Atariage) have both versions in the option menu. It is landscape mode unlike this port but one of the best home cinsole ports I have plated thus far. Sadly my crt won't stand on end and I can't play sudeways...

 

Play it laying on your couch sideways

 

He mentioned that he will add the Japanese progression the next time he updates the ROM.

[Beer Monkey]

Does enabling the sprite doubling on the NT mini reduce the flicker? Though, this doesn't seem like flicker, exactly.

 

You'd think the game could be coded to leverage the NT Mini by assuming the sprite doubling.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I need to load this on my AVS/Powerpak and give it a spin. Only problem my 1600x1200 swivel monitor (which will accept a 1280x720p signl in 4:3 aspect) is DVI only, and my monoprice HDMI switch with analog audio out refuses to pass on signal to it (said switch works fine on my 1080p ASUS).

[Great Hierophant]

Does enabling the sprite doubling on the NT mini reduce the flicker? Though, this doesn't seem like flicker, exactly.

 

You'd think the game could be coded to leverage the NT Mini by assuming the sprite doubling.

 

Virtually eliminates flicker entirely, watch my video for comparison.

[+darryl1970]

Played this on my NES. It's very impressive. It caused a kink in my neck, but it was worth it. Not too bad in emulation, with my rotating monitor though!

 

The Nintendo 4-screen version of Donkey Kong, release for the Wii, has nothing on this.

As a technical proof-of-concept, it fulfilled my longtime suspicion that the NES was capable of something more arcade-like.

 

I would love to see this version recreated for the horizontal monitors, because nothing else does DK justice. (NES version laid out like SGM version) The 4-screen Wii version has a very glitchy Cement factory, to say the LEAST.

Also, the original NES versions were too easy, and they screwed up to many game elements, including the scoring. (eg: 100 each when jumping two barrels)

 

I suspect, however, that converting this to a horizontal monitor would be a complete rewrite.

 

This version really made my day.

[+darryl1970]

I watched the long video from the NES forum post, and it looks like the game mechanics are spot on. The programmer said he converted the Z80 arcade code to 6502. This is very interesting to me because I have been curious if the arcade code, which runs in a 60hz loop, could be directly ported on a 6502 machine while maintaining the same loop time. When I did Donkey Kong XM, I kept the original 7800 ports 20hz loop for game and graphics updates. This created some trouble for me because of the way the arcade version handles animation and collision detection. I'm considering a port of Donkey Kong II but want to directly port the arcade code to 6502 and keep the 60hz update. I would only update the graphics to keep the screen horizontal. I don't know how many CPU cycles per frame the NES has available compared to the 7800, but based on this work, I'm hopeful that it might be possible.

I'd LOVE to see something like this recreated for the A8.

 

There is a C-64 version, which seems to have accurate arcade mechanics. I am guessing that they based it off of the C-64 Ocean port.

I DO NOT LIKE the graphic overhaul. I would rather have seen arcade-accurate graphics. The gameplay, however, is about spot on.

I also have greater faith in the A8's ability to reproduce arcade-like sounds.

 

The C-64 Ocean version (and possibly this one???) appears to be based off of the Amstrad version, by Ocean. I assume they had to convert the Z80 to 6502. They probably then converted the Amstrad software sprites to use the C-64 sprites.

I wonder if the Amstrad's software sprites would convert to A8 software sprites?

 

I really enjoy Landon's version, especially with the graphic overhauls we worked on; but I can't help but feel the A8 could do something like this.

 

Commodore 64 Arcade-like Donkey Kong (except for "modernized" graphics)

[Andromeda Stardust]

The 4-screen Wii version has a very glitchy Cement factory, to say the LEAST.

I have played that version many times on real hardware (as a repro cart from RetroUSB), and have gotten as far as the fourth loop, and never noticed glitches or otherwise glaring issues. Though I haven't played it in an emulator with save states to see how the progression breaks down at higher levels, however at my current skill level I've never found fault with this port.

 

RetroUSB did a minor bugfix on the bus conflicts issue in the leaked ROM so that it works flawlessly on real hardware. In fact I dumped my RetroUSB repro which has exactly 3 bytes changed from the official dumped ROM, so that is probably where the fix was applied.