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DK Arcade 2600 - Playable Demo!


Byte Knight

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For those of you who don't frequent the programming or homebrew threads, here's another version of DK for your enjoyment! Hot on the heels of Joe Musashi's excellent DK VCS, iesposta and I would like to announce DK Arcade 2600. What's different about this version? All four levels in full-screen glory!


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The playable demo below features all four levels but will end after the rivet level (Level 4). We suggest turning Phosphor Effect on in Stella (Command-p) to help with the flicker up top.


Let us know your thoughts and post your high scores!


10/16/14 Update to work with Harmony Encore!



• You can now play as Pauline (created for the 2 women on AtariAge!).


• Japanese and US level order selection for release version.


• Titlescreen to select player / level order.


• By popular demand, Mario moves quicker up and down ladders.


• Fireballs descend ladders quicker.


• Difficulty level increases.


• Alarm sound when timer drops below 100.


• Numerous sound updates and bug fixes.



Here's the easy version:




And here's the version with level difficulty increases:



Thanks to RevEng and Bogax for technical help, and Atari Brian for beta-testing.

DK23Arcade2600.bin

Edited by Byte Knight
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Yeah the hammer on the upper level will mess you up and Philadelphia Experiment you into the girder that you have to "climb" out of if you don't fall to your death just trying to get it. You should be able to get it by standing under it or it should bounce you back onto the platform like the arcade

 

There are some sprite collision issues when you have the hammer, I've had barrels pass right through me. Too much flicker?

 

Also, it's F%$#@! relentless.

 

Way too hard for a first screen. Then the "pie" screen. Good god, 100 MPH

 

The change direction in mid-jump though not arcade accurate is pretty much necessary to have any chance at all

 

You can fall off the top left girder on the elevator screen. And the elevators are too fast.

Edited by godzillajoe
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Yeah the hammer on the upper level will mess you up and Philadelphia Experiment you into the girder that you have to "climb" out of if you don't fall to your death just trying to get it. You should be able to get it by standing under it or it should bounce you back onto the platform like the arcade

 

Also, it's F%$#@! relentless.

 

Way too hard for a first screen. Then the "pie" screen. Good god, 100 MPH

 

The change direction in mid-jump though not arcade accurate is pretty much necessary to have any chance at all

I call it "cartoon physics," changing direction mid-jump. Necessary when the barrels get too close together.

I've never seen grabbing the hammer and ending up in a girder. That both of you describe. (And I've played it A LOT!)

That's why playing the demo and posting feedback is important!

Thanks!

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This is getting a cart release? I like the demo quite a bit. Doh. Didn't see the high score part of the post. I played through all of the stages. I like how DK was mirrored to form the falling DK in the rivet stage.

 

This is what I have noticed so far:

Falling barrels seem to go through most of Mario before killing him.

Seems almost too easy to wait on the ladder to DK while avoiding the fire on the pie stage.

Elevators seem to be a bit fast.

Barrel seems to go through Mario's head when it's at the top of a ladder on the first stage.

You can go through the bottom right platform in the elevator stage using the ladder.

It seems impossible to jump on the first elevator from the bottom platform in the elevator stage.

I jumped through platforms a couple times on the elevator stage when it seemed like Mario should have made it.

Edited by BrianC
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Ok, I guess we're still in the beta-testing phase! ;) It's amazing that after playing the game 100's of times that you can still miss some bugs... Also, I was worried that the ramp level was too easy but clearly that's not the case.

 

iesposta - I think they're talking about Mario getting stuck in the girder and not the hammer itself. I'll fix that.

 

Mario can change direction in mid-air or else the ramp level would much be too hard to beat. Also on the ramp level, there are "friendly collisions" so a barrel must collide with Mario's belt in order to kill him. This is necessary so that when he jumps he won't collide with a barrel on the ramp above him. I think I'll make the friendly collisions only when he's jumping...

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This is getting a cart release? I like the demo quite a bit. Doh. Didn't see the high score part of the post. I played through all of the stages. I like how DK was mirrored to form the falling DK in the rivet stage.

 

This is what I have noticed so far:

Falling barrels seem to go through most of Mario before killing him.

Seems almost too easy to wait on the ladder to DK while avoiding the fire on the pie stage.

Elevators seem to be a bit fast.

Barrel seems to go through Mario's head when it's at the top of a ladder on the first stage.

You can go through the bottom right platform in the elevator stage using the ladder.

It seems impossible to jump on the first elevator from the bottom platform in the elevator stage.

I jumped through platforms a couple times on the elevator stage when it seemed like Mario should have made it.

 

We tried to make the Pie Level an easier level like the arcade game.

 

When Mario's on the bottom platform, wait until the topmost elevator hits the top then jump. I'll see what I can do about adjusting the jumping so he doesn't fall through platforms.

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yeah. I did that. I just wasn't sure if falling through the platforms like that was supposed to happen. After playing the N64 DK in DK64, I realized the platform speed isn't as off as I thought. And after playing the pie level on N64, behavior for that seems correct, as well.

 

It's amazing seeing a port like this on the 2600 that outclasses most of the ports that came out back in the day. The Colecovision version didn't even have springs on the elevator level.

Edited by BrianC
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Damn fine job on this! Favorite release thus far, but yes - the barrels AND pies are relentless. Way too many of them right off the bat. Strange how you can change direction or need to keep pointing the joystick in the direction you want to go while jumping too.

 

Noticed that DK is split down the middle on the Pie Factory stage, like he needs to be stitched together. The line is more prevalent on real hardware. And only part of him shows on the 1st stage, ladder in front of his left side - but am guessing that might have to do with some display limitations?

 

Oh… and no flaming barrels on the first stage with a mind of their own either? That would surely ramp up the difficulty. lol

 

Be nice if you could choose the order of stages also. Could this be done with the flip of a difficulty switch? While the Japanese order is obviously correct, I still prefer the way we all grew up playing it. :)

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Noticed that DK is split down the middle on the Pie Factory stage, like he needs to be stitched together. The line is more prevalent on real hardware. And only part of him shows on the 1st stage, ladder in front of his left side - but am guessing that might have to do with some display limitations?

 

Be nice if you could choose the order of stages also. Could this be done with the flip of a difficulty switch? While the Japanese order is obviously correct, I still prefer the way we all grew up playing it. :)

 

Glad you're liking the game. We made Kong one sprite (1/2 Kong hiding behind a ladder) instead of two on some of the levels to cut down on the flicker up top. Kong starts to split apart on the Pie Level due to excessive g-forces. ;) I may be able to fix that.

 

The full release of the game will feature both American and Japanese level orders as mentioned in the first post.

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There are still issues with the tuning of the melodies and sounds. For example the intro melody ends up wrong. It should go something like this: G - A - C - A - G - A - F, and your melody ends up rather with something higher then F and lower than F#. The sound when you destroy the enemies or jump over them should end up with C# - A, yours is out of tune at F - D... (I did not have patience to analyze all the notes from that sound). Also the melody when level is finished is out of tune. It should be something like: F - G - A - F. Not sure about rest...

 

I'm not a musician just what I can hear sounds wrong. If there is sonebody capable of disassebling the arcade ROM then that would be the best way to get the right tones.

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There are still issues with the tuning of the melodies and sounds. For example the intro melody ends up wrong. It should go something like this: G - A - C - A - G - A - F, and your melody ends up rather with something higher then F and lower than F#. The sound when you destroy the enemies or jump over them should end up with C# - A, yours is out of tune at F - D... (I did not have patience to analyze all the notes from that sound). Also the melody when level is finished is out of tune. It should be something like: F - G - A - F. Not sure about rest...

 

I'm not a musician just what I can hear sounds wrong. If there is sonebody capable of disassebling the arcade ROM then that would be the best way to get the right tones.

You are correct!

The notes that can be made are always off key, except for F4 - that one is dead on.

See gyruss 2600: http://youtu.be/S08q8le7ajY

(Using the Pitfall 2 DPC and the new DPC+ music like in Stay Frosty 2, we can create exact notes and sounds by banging the volume register every scan line. "batari Basic" doesn't allow this type of music making - you need cycles every scan line to update the music. (If it is added in the future, some things will have to be given up because there are only so many cycles.)

 

The best you can do is come close.

F5 is +5 sharp, A5 is -17 flat, C6 is +2 sharp. So the end of the tune - going from A5 to F5 - you are hearing a "-17 flat A" and a "+5 sharp F" that stands out as "not quite right" to human ears.

 

I could use D-E-G-E-D-E-C, but then again E5 is -12 and C5 is +2, not as jarring as the current tune, but still out. Lower frequencies may not be as annoying than higher frequencies that are slightly out.

I can try it.

 

Also I never could get the jump over sound right. I'll look at those also. :D

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Still think it's too hard. But it sure is fun. I finally made it through all four screens. I hope you take the time to polish the rough edges, it's pretty impressive already but could be amazing with a few tweaks if possible.

 

Today I was killed by a barrel while holding the hammer. I don't think that should be possible while standing still.

 

And maybe those triplet cement pies could be spaced out a bit more.

 

Just my opinion because it really is unforgiving for "Level 1"

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Here's something else - the same spot I get embedded in a girder, I can also grab the hammer one level below where you'd normally grab it. 75m is where you'd fall through floors or get stuck often. The fireballs on the last stage should really appear from the edges, but they are appearing on the inside of the rivets.

 

Climbing up between the pies isn't as hard as it looks...so it can stay as is.

Edited by Crimefighter
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Here's something else - the same spot I get embedded in a girder, I can also grab the hammer one level below where you'd normally grab it. 75m is where you'd fall through floors or get stuck often. The fireballs on the last stage should really appear from the edges, but they are appearing on the inside of the rivets.

 

Climbing up between the pies isn't as hard as it looks...so it can stay as is.

The fireballs used to start at the edges, but it was easy to trap them on the edges, so we moved them in.

In this demo, I see they start even closer to the center than before. I had to change the way I play Level 4.

Byte Knight leans toward making it initially difficult. I can't really say if this is good or bad. I like it hard, and I also like the arcade (which is quite unforgiving), but then there are compromises because this is an Atari 2600 designed five years before the arcade version even existed. I don't think i would play it much if it were very easy.

 

Right there is a way to increase difficulty. Start Level 4 with the fireballs at the edges, and later Level 4's start fireballs out closer to the center.

I still think the elevator Sproings should start out as a single one with three different bounce points, and later have two Sproings. :) It seems hard now, but once you figure out where to stand, it is not so tough. With 3 different jump points it makes you watch and move if necessary as to keep playing.

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This may have been addressed but is there a reason you can't climb up the half ladders on the barrel screen? Sometimes that comes in handy when an impossible barrel jump situation occurs

 

Also, here's a weird one. Start the game and just hold down the button so you're jumping in place. After the fifth jump, you die. This happens anywhere in the game though, just jump around constantly and you die.

Edited by godzillajoe
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