Better 7800 Donkey Kong?

[ApolloBoy]

For it was a Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Jr. cartridge.

 

This one had all four screens, in arcade order, with intermissions.

 

This was the only NES version I'd ever played. This was why, when I picked up an NES in 2000, I was surprised to find out that this was NOT the standard version.

Donkey Kong Classics doesn't have the intermissions, nor does it have all 4 screens (except for DK Jr, which does).

[Lord Helmet]

For it was a Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Jr. cartridge.

 

This one had all four screens, in arcade order, with intermissions.

 

Neither NES Donkey Kong nor NES Donkey Kong/DK Junior feature all 4 screens.

[kenfused]

The 7800 version is 48K of ROM and the 8-bit computer version is 16K so the 7800 version should be 3 times better

 

 

I need to look at the dump closer, 48K sounds like a lot for the quality of the game.

Edited July 15, 2008 by kenfused

[CV Gus]

For it was a Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Jr. cartridge.

 

This one had all four screens, in arcade order, with intermissions.

 

Neither NES Donkey Kong nor NES Donkey Kong/DK Junior feature all 4 screens.

 

 

Well, the standard versions do have all four screens for DK Jr.

 

But I'm dead serious here- the game was for the regular NES, and it was complete. SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, must also know of it. It even has intermissions. Since this was the only version I'd ever played on the NES, I was astonished to discover that it was unusual. Trust me, I know the difference.

 

Besides, on the CV, there is a 4-screen version of DK Jr. on cartridge. I purchased it from ADAM's House some years ago. So why not a rare "super" version for the NES?

 

As far as any version goes- you have to remember that a system's fullest abilities were rarely used. There was actually a five-screen version of Gorf for the CV, but the bean counters wanted the memory to be kept down. It was clearly the same with the NES, 7800, etc.

[Vic George 2K3]

I'd surely love to see the pie factory screen hacked into 7800 Donkey Kong.

[Lemmi]

if this is ever done, you can count on my $$$ for it as i did for beef drop

[Lord Helmet]

But I'm dead serious here- the game was for the regular NES, and it was complete. SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, must also know of it.

 

I think you're that someone, somewhere

[Pacfan97]

The 5200 (8-bit conversion) version has the pie factory. How come the 7800 version doesn't?

[frogstar_robot]

The 5200 (8-bit conversion) version has the pie factory. How come the 7800 version doesn't?

 

The A8 version has long been hailed as one of the better home ports because it was one of the few versions to include the pie factory. If the 5200 version is an A8 conversion then it IS the A8 version just using different controllers (and internal registers and memory map....).

 

If another version of DK was the starting point for the 7800 and no additional features were added then it inherits those attributes. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. An awful lot of DK ports seem to act like the original ColecoVision one.

Edited January 7, 2010 by frogstar_robot

[Dauber]

Personally, I'd like not only to see the "pie factory" in the A7800 version, but I'd also like to see the Easter eggs -- like going up right next to Donkey Kong's foot and jumping and getting 200 points a jump...

[TrekMD]

If this ever became real, I'd buy it in a second. Particularly with POKEY sound.

[brojamfootball]

If this ever became real, I'd buy it in a second. Particularly with POKEY sound.

Agreed!

[Pacfan97]

Is it coming soon?

[GroovyBee]

Is it coming soon?

Only when you've finished it .

[gdement]

If this ever became real, I'd buy it in a second. Particularly with POKEY sound.

Unfortunately I think POKEY would be a problem, since the Ballblazer boards only support 32KB. The Commando boards are too uncommon/expensive. A custom board would work, but I don't think an appropriate board has yet been designed. Somebody could do it but it would inflate the cost for sure.

 

I think you could get up to 80KB (64KB+16KB chips) on old bankswitched carts without needing heavy modding. So a board like that with xboard support would be pretty economical. Not many people have xboards though.

[jaybird3rd]

I think you could get up to 80KB (64KB+16KB chips) on old bankswitched carts without needing heavy modding. So a board like that with xboard support would be pretty economical. Not many people have xboards though.

You can get up to 144K (128K + 16K) onto a C300565. And yes, the XBoard would be ideal for this, since it would eliminate the need to put POKEY in the cartridge.

[gdement]

I think you could get up to 80KB (64KB+16KB chips) on old bankswitched carts without needing heavy modding. So a board like that with xboard support would be pretty economical. Not many people have xboards though.

You can get up to 144K (128K + 16K) onto a C300565. And yes, the XBoard would be ideal for this, since it would eliminate the need to put POKEY in the cartridge.

The problem with 128KB EPROMs is the 32 pins. Not a big deal to hack that into a devcart but I'd be uncomfortable with it for distribution.

 

In terms of the work involved though, it might not be any more of a pain than installing 2 separate 28 pin chips.

Edited January 8, 2010 by gdement

[jaybird3rd]

The problem with 128KB EPROMs is the 32 pins. Not a big deal to hack that into a devcart but I'd be uncomfortable with it for distribution.

 

In terms of the work involved though, it might not be any more of a pain than installing 2 separate 28 pin chips.

I've gotten around this problem by moving the capacitor closest to the ROM to the underside of the board, and by "rolling" the nearest resistor slightly away from the ROM. This frees up just enough space to squeeze a 32-pin EPROM onto the board.

 

But it's pointless worrying about that until we actually have an improved version of Donkey Kong. It's too bad that the source code for this game--and for Donkey Kong Jr. and Mario Brothers, for that matter--seems to have been lost. I've tried reading the output of DiStella, run against another 7800 game, and that headache-inducing experience makes me think that rewriting 7800 Donkey Kong from scratch would be easier than disassembling and reverse-engineering it. In either case, nobody seems to want a POKEY-enabled Donkey Kong on the 7800 badly enough to do the work.

 

I'm also inclined to agree with something Ken said earlier: 48K seems awfully large for this game. Perhaps it was implemented using something other than assembly (Forth, maybe?), or perhaps the 7800 version was a conversion from some other platform and not fully optimized for the 7800.

[Armonigann]

But I'm dead serious here- the game was for the regular NES, and it was complete. SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, must also know of it.

 

I think you're that someone, somewhere

[gdement]

makes me think that rewriting 7800 Donkey Kong from scratch would be easier than disassembling and reverse-engineering it.

That would be my attitude about any game really. I hate modifying other people's code. I much more enjoy starting from scratch and doing things my own way.

Finding old 7800 source code is fine from a historical standpoint, but it really doesn't interest me as anything to build projects from.

[Pacfan97]

Can't wait.

 

I must remember it might take weeks or months to get this done.

 

So I must be patient.

[Classic Pac]

I always thought the graphics could of been a tad better

[Pacfan97]

Heres a modified screenshot of the pie factory. The ladders can move up and down.

[gdement]

Can't wait.

 

I must remember it might take weeks or months to get this done.

 

So I must be patient.

Nobody is working on this (unless you are)

[Pacfan97]

Can't wait.

 

I must remember it might take weeks or months to get this done.

 

So I must be patient.

Nobody is working on this (unless you are)

 

D'oh!!!