CorTat-G Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Hello, I would like to know if the anyone out there could make a port of Donkey Kong for the Genesis, I'm not talking from scratch, I'm talking about ripping the actual ROM onto the Genesis, then tweaking it by moving the Scores/lives to the side of the screen for more clarity of the playfield. Like how Frogger is on the Genesis(I'm pretty sure that's a exact rip). I'm sure the Genesis is capable of such a thing, but, then again, I know next to nothing about computing. Here is a mock screenshot I made: Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 (edited) Short answer no. The hardware is different enough and the Genesis is slow enough not to allow for emuation. You could easily recreate Donkey Kong though. That's how they did Frogger. If you feel strongly enough about the project even a beginner such as yourself can make it happen using BASIC: http://devster.monkeeh.com/sega/basiegaxorz/ Edited August 18, 2012 by theloon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 From what I understand, even ports are a ton of work. I don't understand much in programming world though....only that people who do it are my heroes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godslabrat Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Stupid question but... Why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Yurkie Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 I sure would be awesome if someone did choose to program classic arcade ports for the Genesis. The Genesis should be plenty powerful enough to handle perfect ports, the only thing being the aspect ratio for vertical games, which could be done like you show in your mock up with the score and other info displayed on the right side of the screen. A Genesis homebrew scene for classic ports like exists for the 7800 and ColecoVision would be a wonderful thing, especially considering how cheap and reliable the hardware is. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Yurkie Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Galaga first though please. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Galaga first though please. Awwwww yeah! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the.golden.ax Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Galaga first though please. Galaga first though please. Awwwww yeah! Galaga collection with classic, galaxian, etc... and Galaga 90 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Musashi Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Actually, the Donkey Kong arcade version runs on a Z80, which is also in the Genesis. So at least the game logic code should directly run on the Genesis. The graphics are 16x16 pixels for the sprites and 8x8 for the background, which should also map well to the Genesis hardware. Sound might be more compilcated. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 I'm not sure if there's an advantage to using the original code. The look and feel can be easily reproduced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Musashi Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 If someone wanted to go for an arcade perfect port, this should save quite some time. Given the simplicity of the graphics, personally I would even think that re-programming the game logic and getting it bug free would require most of the time. (This should not be underestimated. When Pitfall II was ported to the C64 and the Atari 800, they tried two variants: The Atari 800 version reused the code from the Atari 2600 and the C64 version was written from scratch. In the end the C64 version took a month longer for testing and debugging). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HatefulGravey Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 I have no idea why this would be done, but I can tell you a CIB version of Donkey Kong would make its way to my collection for sure. Again, I don't know why that sounds so bad ass, but it certainly does. It would need a box and manual to make it worth owning for me (as all my Sega Gen/CD stuff is going boxed only) but it would be pretty darn cool. Maybe a black grib box.... oh yeah that would do nicely. Wish I had what it took to program homebrews for these older systems, I might just love it if I could get to a point that it wasn't a pure chore to do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 If it can be done on a Coco 3, I'm sure it can be done on the genesis 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Yurkie Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 If it can be done on a Coco 3, I'm sure it can be done on the genesis I had the pleasure of playing the Coco 3 version at the MGC back in 2010, it is an incredibly well done port. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted August 19, 2012 Share Posted August 19, 2012 If it can be done on a Coco 3, I'm sure it can be done on the genesis I had the exact same thought! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocalH Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 (edited) I'm not sure if there's an advantage to using the original code. The look and feel can be easily reproduced. The advantage of using (or at least porting) the original code is making the game control identically to the original. There are a few crappy Super Mario Bros clones for the Genesis, for example, that were programmed from the ground up (admittedly rush jobs by people just looking to make a few bucks). There is one good and accurate port, done by Mairtrus. He actually uses the original graphics data (converted on-the-fly), a palette provided by me, emulates the sound hardware, and ported the code more or less directly. The only real difference that I'm aware of is that the minus world bug doesn't act the same (world 36 is not the "looping 2-2" of the NES game, but then again the FDS version of SMB also had a different minus world). It would definitely be possible, but it would be easiest to do if there were a full disassembly of arcade DK out there as much of the heavy lifting would already be done. Edit: Looking closer at that mockup, I decided I wanted to see what it'd look like at 1:1 pixel resolution. I did not aspect-correct the original-style DK logo (as this was a quick and dirty job, it would need to be vertically squished to look proper on an NTSC console, or slightly vertically stretched to look proper on PAL), nor did I quantize the logo to 16-colors using Genesis-style 9-level RGB. However, I felt such a layout might look a little better, and the logo fills up some of the extra space well. Might even throw in a "©1981 NINTENDO" on two lines in the classic font if you want to use up a couple more rows. Edited August 28, 2012 by LocalH 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 A Genesis homebrew scene for classic ports like exists for the 7800 and ColecoVision would be a wonderful thing, especially considering how cheap and reliable the hardware is. Agreed. Not even sure if there is a Genesis homebrew scene is there? BTW I would definitely buy a Donkey Kong cart, especially if it came with a nice homemade case insert and manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocalH Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum There haven't been many cart releases (Pier Solar is probably the most high-profile one that I can think of, and that was even a 100% original game to beat it all) but there's plenty of coding going on. The focus tends to be on more original stuff although sometimes there are ports of games (if you've ever heard of Uwol: Quest for Money, it was ported to the Genesis). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodzillaIsMyCopilot Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 One thing that a lot of you may not have stopped to think about is the controller mapping - once the game is started, you could plug in any number of classic controllers. Nostalgia abounds! This thread really fascinates me. I have 2 Genesis', one of which I'm trying to unload, and I never use the damn thing. Classic games being ported could change that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 Shouldn't Sega fanbois be content with Congo Bongo? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocalH Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Way to be derogatory there with the use of the term "fanboi". That's like saying that Nintendo "fanbois" should be content with Mario instead of Sonic, when the two games are similar only in basic concept. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Shouldn't Sega fanbois be content with Congo Bongo? Booo We want Donkey Kong!! I'll buy it, loose cart or CIB! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 By the way....is there a shot this is actually happening? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gemintronic Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 (edited) I don't think so, at least not my the original poster. Maybe Mairtrus could be convinced to run his NES to Genesis recompiler on the NES version: http://devster.probo...play&thread=613 Also, anyone who feels strong enough about this can use a BASIC compiler known a BasiEgaXorz to do it themselves fairly easily: http://devster.monke...ga/basiegaxorz/ P.S. I was kidding about Congo Bongo. I just can't seem to get into that game Edited August 30, 2012 by theloon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 P.S. I was kidding about Congo Bongo. I just can't seem to get into that game +1 One of my least favorite "popular" games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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