Any Donkey Kong Homebrews?

[ATARIPITBULL]

I don't know if its been done, but has anyone ever tried to make a better Donkey Kong than the one Atari made? I hate that the Atari Donkey Kong only has 2 screens to play and the flames on the blue screen don't even folow you, or that Donkey Kong only throws single barrels and not doubles like the real arcade game. Has anyone here thought of making a better one like Atariage did with Pac-Man?

 

[Feralstorm]

There's been a lot of thought expended on it. Not aware of any really serious efforts yet, however.

[jpfalcon2003]

That would be cool if it did happen though. DKJr. as well. Even though it has 3 screens of the 4, where is the fruit in the game. That really needs to be added in the new version if one is done.

[kirin jensen]

I think it would be interesting to see an 8k hack a la Nukey's hack of Pac-man.

 

It's likely that you could get pretty close to the arcade version with 8k instead of 4k.

[ATARIPITBULL]

That's what I'm saying, can someone PLEASE DO THIS, hell even give it a AtariAge label like the one for Pac-Man. Albert, Nukey, Rob Kudia, NeoTokeo2001, ANYBODY!!!!!!!

 

[Atariboy2600]

YES I TOO wanted to see a full Donkey Kong game, and didnt I hear a story on Coleco make the 2600 DK very bad grafix on purpose?? If so we Atari gamers was cheated out of a very good DK game for the 2600, I mean look at the guy who made Ladybug! He gave his all on it and itsz the best god damn arcade port I never seen!

Edited October 27, 2006 by Atariboy2600

[+Wonder007]

Yes, imagine a full Atari 2600 Donkey Kong version....that would be very sweet!!!

[Shawn]

Why not just make a version of DK 3? IT would be possible and probable to get a very nice version of DK 3 on the 2600.

[+batari]

DK 3 sucks.

 

Opinions aside, a while back I started hacking the lift screen into the original DK. Latest progress, including source, was posted here. I have abandoned the project so maybe someone wants to take it over?

[NE146]

DK 3 sucks.

 

I really thought that for over 2 decades... but now I see the light! Well it was more a paradigm shift when I stopped thinking of it as a direct sequel to dk/dkjr and realized:

 

1. It's a shooter. Probably best seen as a cartoon version of Galaga / Galaxian type games. and;

 

2. You can clear the levels by shooting all the bugs (i.e. you DON'T have to shoot Donkey Kong off the screen). As a matter o' fact as you get to the higher levels, it gets next to impossible to shoot Kong away and the only way to clear it is to shoot all the bugs. (While keeping Kong at bay with a couple of shots here and there).

 

So now.. when I view it as a shooter to go for clearing stages and beating my old high scores, I dig it

[ZylonBane]

YES I TOO wanted to see a full Donkey Kong game, and didnt I hear a story on Coleco make the 2600 DK very bad grafix on purpose?? If so we Atari gamers was cheated out of a very good DK game for the 2600, I mean look at the guy who made Ladybug! He gave his all on it and itsz the best god damn arcade port I never seen!

2600 Ladybug is also a 32K cart... EIGHT TIMES the size of Donkey Kong. :roll:

[jpfalcon2003]

I think DK3 would be great on the 2600 or 7800

[Pixelboy]

I think it's inevitable that someday within the next few years, someone out there is going to do a better version of DK on the 2600. Like several others, I consider it one of the great homebrew holy grails, even though I'm more into the ColecoVision than the Atari 2600. johnnywc almost got into it earlier this year, but it wasn't to be. Still, I like to believe it's going to get done eventually.

 

There are a few obstacles to acknowledge about making an improved 2600 DK. First and foremost, Coleco's offering might be the worst-looking of the home conversions of the game, but it still plays well enough to be fun, and considering the strict limitations of the hardware, it's still a very good effort. johnnywc himself said that if he was to do a better version, it would probably be a hack of the original ROM. The problem in that is that many homebrew programmers will think about it and won't see much room for improvement, so they won't embark on the endeavour.

 

Secondly, to do an improved version of DK necessarily implies that it should be closer to the arcade version, and that's a huge challenge any way you look at it. You're looking at months and months of work, on a console that isn't well-suited for platformers like DK. Mario's animation is hard enough to pull off (although looking at Crystal Castles, I think a more fluid Mario should be possible), and there's also the AI of the barrels and fireballs to consider. Just looking to have a less blocky-looking Donkey Kong at the top of the screen offers a programming challenge.

 

I don't know the first thing about programming the 2600, but I know DK is a big challenge. And I like to think someone will someday rise to that challenge. That's why I consider it a holy grail of sorts.

[Feralstorm]

Why not just make a version of DK 3? IT would be possible and probable to get a very nice version of DK 3 on the 2600.

 

DK3 is Galaga with a monkey in it.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing a 2600 version of it, but it wouldn't placate my desire to see an improved Donkey Kong (or DK jr. for that matter) the tiniest bit.

[sandmountainslim]

Add me to the list wanting to see a new version of DK.

I am really unconcerned with the damned graphics but would like to see a version with all four screens, even if it LOOKS like Kangaroo!

WP

[ATARIPITBULL]

Come on now Atari game makers, as you can see, we the people of Atariage want a complete Donkey Kong game cartridge.

 

:!: :!: :!:

[Atariboy2600]

YES I TOO wanted to see a full Donkey Kong game, and didnt I hear a story on Coleco make the 2600 DK very bad grafix on purpose?? If so we Atari gamers was cheated out of a very good DK game for the 2600, I mean look at the guy who made Ladybug! He gave his all on it and itsz the best god damn arcade port I never seen!

2600 Ladybug is also a 32K cart... EIGHT TIMES the size of Donkey Kong. :roll:

 

 

Well then that means only one thing. remake the game from the start, who said we can only use the origanil is that what we trying not to use? We wanted a Donkey Kong Remake not a hack version of an already crappy game.

Edited October 28, 2006 by Atariboy2600

[kirin jensen]

YES I TOO wanted to see a full Donkey Kong game, and didnt I hear a story on Coleco make the 2600 DK very bad grafix on purpose?? If so we Atari gamers was cheated out of a very good DK game for the 2600, I mean look at the guy who made Ladybug! He gave his all on it and itsz the best god damn arcade port I never seen!

2600 Ladybug is also a 32K cart... EIGHT TIMES the size of Donkey Kong. :roll:

 

 

Well then, that means only one thing: remake the game from the start. Who said we can only use the original; isn't that what we're trying not to use? We wanted a Donkey Kong Remake not a hack of an already crappy game.

 

A hack can often be one hell of a change. Look at the Adventure and Pacman hacks Nukey's done.

[supercat]

There are a few obstacles to acknowledge about making an improved 2600 DK. First and foremost, Coleco's offering might be the worst-looking of the home conversions of the game, but it still plays well enough to be fun, and considering the strict limitations of the hardware, it's still a very good effort. johnnywc himself said that if he was to do a better version, it would probably be a hack of the original ROM. The problem in that is that many homebrew programmers will think about it and won't see much room for improvement, so they won't embark on the endeavour.

 

Actually, I think 2600 dk looks better than it plays. I think there'd be a lot of room for improvement on an 8K SuperChip cart. Without a SuperChip, things would be a bit trickier since RAM is rather tight.

 

The biggest thing I'd like to see added, besides the other screens, would be double-buffering the barrels and firefoxes and allowing the firefoxes vertical movement. The basic idea with the barrels would be that there would be two independent sets, one shown on even frames and one on odd frames. This would cause 30Hz flicker on all the barrels, but would allow for two barrels to share a scan line, making jumping much more interesting. I'd cut the number of firefoxes in each set to 2 (earlier boards) or three (later boards) but allow vertical movement provided that a firefox couldn't cross the scan line of another firefox in the same set.

[+batari]

YES I TOO wanted to see a full Donkey Kong game, and didnt I hear a story on Coleco make the 2600 DK very bad grafix on purpose?? If so we Atari gamers was cheated out of a very good DK game for the 2600, I mean look at the guy who made Ladybug! He gave his all on it and itsz the best god damn arcade port I never seen!

2600 Ladybug is also a 32K cart... EIGHT TIMES the size of Donkey Kong. :roll:

 

 

Well then that means only one thing. remake the game from the start, who said we can only use the origanil is that what we trying not to use? We wanted a Donkey Kong Remake not a hack version of an already crappy game.

I agree with the above assertions that DK could be done better if programmed from scratch. However, and I mean a big however, Mario is still an active gaming icon to this day and Nintendo is still very aggressive at protecting their trademark. I don't think you could just call it Monkey Dong without also changing the characters and maybe even some of the gameplay to avoid attention from Nintendo.

 

I would think that hacking Coleco's version would avoid any legal trouble from Nintendo. And isn't Coleco out of business, or at least very unlikely to pursue any legal action?

 

But I'm no lawyer.

[mos6507]

I'd rather see someone go finish Elevator Action. That game didn't see many home ports the way DK did.

Edited October 29, 2006 by mos6507

[+johnnywc]

YES I TOO wanted to see a full Donkey Kong game, and didnt I hear a story on Coleco make the 2600 DK very bad grafix on purpose?? If so we Atari gamers was cheated out of a very good DK game for the 2600, I mean look at the guy who made Ladybug! He gave his all on it and itsz the best god damn arcade port I never seen!

2600 Ladybug is also a 32K cart... EIGHT TIMES the size of Donkey Kong. :roll:

 

 

FYI - Lady Bug is 16K. Still 4 times larger than Donkey Kong, so point is still taken. If the question is whether a better, more complete DK can be done today in 16K using today's tools, the answer is a big YES. Of course, that can be said about almost anything.

 

IMO, 2600 DK is pretty darn good (especially graphically), and as probably as good as you can get in 4K. Even in 16K - do we need to see an inferior port of DK on the 2600 with very good ports existing on almost every other system? Personally, I'd rather see that time and effort spent on something else that maybe has not been done to death on the classic systems (Elevator Action, Mappy, a good hockey game, etc.).

Edited October 30, 2006 by johnnywc

[Feralstorm]

Makes sense, but then the same things have been said about Pac-Man, so it's hardly without precedent.

 

While I agree 2600 DK is well done graphically, I think gameplay is the bigger issue. the 'one barrel/fireball per level' does a good job of minimizing flicker, but cuts the challenge of the game greatly (I have the same issue with 2600 Mario Bros.)

[vdub_bobby]

The unusual thing about making a better DK 2600 game is that the two existing levels are already just about as good as they are going to get; supercat's minor improvements would help them a bunch but it's really just some quality hacking.

 

But adding the two other levels would probably require two new kernels programmed from scratch.

 

Writing a better DK would be a strange mix of hacking and original coding.

[Godzilla]

this thread has links to my original threads with all the pix.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...c=83014&hl=

 

I've done a LOT of work, making the graphics, defending them, and talking

in the forums to try to get 26 dk done, but nothing TOO much ever came of it. If you look in those forums you will find -ROMS- from Lost Monkey and Adavie both backing up the plausibility of my DK ideas. if anyone is ever serious let me know, I can make all the gfx :-)