DKC Atlas Forum

Hi, everyone. I'm very new here. I plan on making a Donkey Kong 2 Hack where DK is a playable character. I'm sure this has been thought of before, but I'd like share my thoughts here. I originally posted on romhacking.net, but they didn't like the idea and so that's why I'm posting here. Let me know your thoughts.

The following hack idea and project that you are about to see has been a dream of mind for many years. The images you see here actually date back to 2009 yet I kept everything secret since I was just wanting to keep it to myself. Now I am finally releasing it because I have not worked on it at all lately.

The main goal of this hack is a simple one and I'm sure many other people have though about doing something like this before, but I guarantee that they probably didn't have the exact vision that I have in mind. So here it goes... the goal is to simply make Donkey Kong a playable character in DKC2 and try and recreate him with all this original abilities to the fullest extent.

I grew up on this game in the 90's in fact I remember getting it on Christmas one year and boy it was an awesome game. DKC2 to me is just one of those special games that was absolutely essential to own if you had a SNES.

The graphics were some of the best computer graphics that I had ever seen since I didn't own a personal computer.

When I beat DKC2 I always wanted there to be some type of special bonus like Donkey Kong as a playable character, but to my disappointment that was never a feature in the original game.

Now, like 20 years later I'm trying to recreate that dream of mine to have DK as a real playable character by the use of rom hacking!

To be honest here, I really don't know much about ASM hacking which is a shame, however just because a person doesn't know a certain programming language doesn't mean that they can't design a great game.

I've taken some programming courses and know logic and math pretty well, but one thing that I shine at in video game designing.

As we all know, video gaming isn't all about just one certain skill. There are artists, story writers, level and character designers, programmers, music composers, marketers and much more.

So I present my idea for what it is... an idea and to better express my idea I created some screenshots, that were actually made in photoshop, but they exist to show how to overcome some key problems with trying to recreate the original DK in DKC2.


Here is a basic title screen. I wrote out the letters out with the original letters from DKC1. The letters probably need to be moves just slightly upwards a little so that they don't get cutoff from the bottom of the screen.




Here is one of the menu select screens. Originally I wanted to have it such that you could select any combination of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong, but I'm sure someone out there will tell me that this would be extremely hard to do and that it would be much easier to just overwrite one character over the other and not have 3 possible characters to choose from. Nonetheless to make DK exist in the menu select just copy his image from the menu from DKC1's select screen.




Menu images from DKC1 could be easily put into a menu in DKC1.




Since DKC1 and DKC2 are very similar this is what led me to the possibility that this goal could actually be achievable. On the over-world instead of having Dixie Kong's head present after beating a level its now DK's head and instead of having Dixie walking on the over-world its again DK. The animations for Donkey Kong where taken directly from DKC1.




Here is a problem that was resolved by using some clever manipulation from certain animations from DKC1. In DKC2 Diddy and Dixie have to cling to the walls draped in honey. This never happens in DKC1, but here I took a frame from DKC1 where DK crawls on the ground (crawling is not present in DKC2) and turned it 90 degrees and now it looks as if he is sticking on the honey wall. Tricks and techniques by carefully choosing appropriate frames of animation of Donkey Kong from the trilogy can be used to overcome obstacles such as this one.




The problem presented here lies in the fact that there where no levels in DKC1 that had wind blowing upwards causing the characters to display a free falling type of animation. The frame you see DK in this screen shot comes from his animation where he starting "dancing" when he gets too close to the edge of a cliff. The original animation is turned 90 degrees to make him appear as if he is free falling.




Here is a big problem. In DKC1 none of the ropes were climbable that were in the horizontal direction, but its actually a pretty easy fix. Just take DK's original animation and once again turn it 90 degrees and just like magic he is compatible with these new types of ropes.




Here is yet another huge obstacle that was overcome by using DK's animation from DKC1. In DKC2 there are hooks which the characters can swing on, but the swinging motion is not side to side, but instead forwards and backwards. Luckily Donkey Kong does this exact animation in the intro screen in DKC1!!! Even though DK never uses this animation in-game, that's not to say that it can't be used in game in a hack! What a PERFECT match!




Originally I was hoping to make DK compatible with Dixie and Diddy, but it might just have to be Dixie or Diddy.




Here is a screenshot that I'm actually very proud of. The Donkey and Diddy image here actually come from the 2-player competitive mode in DKC1. The idea is that they are not facing each other and are competing against each other, but here I put them on top of an image of K.K. Rool giving the impression that Donkey and Diddy had actually worked together to defeat their opponent and that they are proud or are boasting about their job well done. There is a lot of creativity that goes into hacking!




These images where actually taken from the GBA version of DKC1, but as long as it works it works.








So there is some of the concepts at least in a visual form. There are many other obstacles to overcome that are not mentioned like the piggy back ability that is present in DKC2. What frames of animation would you use for that? Well this is where you looks at all three games in the series: DKC1, DKC2 and DKC3 and you just look for fitting animations out of all of the animations that Donkey Kong has available. Like maybe the animal friend riding animation could be used to make DK "ride" Diddy.

The main point here was to show at least in concept that many challenges can actually be achieved by simple recycling of animation that already exist in the other games and that it could actually be doable since both games are so similar.

Another concept image that I need to create here is the victory dance that happens when the player beats a level. There is no such dance when beating a level in DCK1, so does there exist such a victory dance animation from DCK1 that can be used in DCK2? Yes there is! Remember the dance that DK does in the intro in DKC1 with the boom box? That's the animation that will be used!

Here is the dancing animation from DKC1 on the left and hopefully anyone could see that this would be a perfect match for the end of level dancing animation. I doubt the boom box could be imported too, but if it could that would be very awesome.




And yet another concept image that I need to create is the intro you see when you first meet a boss. The animation that shows in DCK2 is an eye popping animation where their eyes literally pop out of their heads in shock of the sight of the boss. Does this animation exist somewhere in DCK1 so it can be adapted in DKC2? Actually yes it does! It exists when in the into cut scene in DCK1 when Cranky throws a TNT barrel at DK for dancing to his boom box!

Here on the left you can see DK with his eyes bulging out. This animation would be used as the into to the boss fighters where the characters eyes also bulge out!




Here is a character that can't be beaten with a regular hit from Diddy or Dixie, but remember in DCK1 how DK could always take out those big tougher enemies? You know what that means... DK would be able to take this guy out with a single blow whereas Diddy would still only aggravate him.




Most of all of the key animations already exist thus making the implementation of DK in DKC2 fairly doable. Since the games are so similar its almost as if its a perfect match or at least its as perfect as it gets in terms of rom hacking.

So why am i making this post again? I'm making this post because this is a dream that I would one day love to see it come true. I always wished it as a kid and now though the power of rom hacking this dream can actually come true.

Even though I don't really know any ASM coding that's not going to stop me here. There are plenty of talented individuals who work on projects all the time here and I guess what I'm asking is that hopefully someone would want to help work on this project.

I just feel as if the this game idea of mind seriously just needs to be made. Why not make it? Almost anyone who played any of the original games would most likely appreciative a throwback to an old classic such as DCK2. And its only just a character hack keeping all of the original levels unchanged.

But a main point here that I'd like to make is that if this hack does get worked on and quality has to be acceptable meaning that the final results can't be all glitched and unattractive.

DK should also be a little sluggish just like is in DKC1. DK should act as closely if not exact as he doesn't in the original DCK1 game. That's the only way to truly capture the character here. This also means porting over his sounds too!

So I will end this post with an old document that I wrote about certain ideas and information regarding the project and I'll post it below and if you can offer advice or help out and think that this is worth while project feel free to let me know. Thanks for reading and I hope this inspires somebody!

Ignoring the difficulty of inserting sprites into the game,

Phyreburnz, a member here, has done plenty of custom sprites that fit most all of the "missing situations" in the trilogy (where only Kongs from a certain game have certain abilities).

DKCLB is going to take practically forever, so if you can manage to gather enough talented individuals to get this going as a hack, why not?

Hi Erockbrox, welcome to DKC Atlas.

This is an epic first post, and a great idea; hopefully some of our resident hackers and ASM gurus will offer their feedback and support.

You've done a great job of matching DK's existing sprites to DKC2's pose/animation needs. I'm not sure how feasible custom sprite work would be, but as Simion mentioned, our talented pixel artist Phyreburnz has taken it upon herself to extend the move sets of each playable Kong. She's even shared some links recently to make it easy to check them all out: http://dkca.net/f/p37395

Honestly, I have no idea how difficult it would be to add/switch all of the graphics, physics, etc., but I know a lot of people missed playing as DK in the sequel to his starring-roll game, so you would be a hero to many by pulling this off!

That said, have you heard of Simion32's DELTA project? It's a ways off being complete and playable, but the man's got vision; this project will include a way to build a game with all of the elements from the SNES DKC trilogy, completely unencumbered by the limits of ROMs, emulators, etc. If you haven't heard about it, you really ought to check it out:

DELTA Project subforums

The DKC Level Builder in particular is what you will eventually be able to use to fulfil your dream of having DK playable in DKC2 levels. It won't be possible for a while, but it's food for thought.

Oh, please feel free to use any of my custom sprites that Qyz linked you to. I have to admit that I did put off doing the wind animations, but I'll get started on that.

I have done some still frames of the different bonuses, but the ones I did had all 4 Kongs (for the DKC4 project). If you aren't happy with the images from the GBA games, I can give you some suggestions. What I did was use the renders of the Kongs.

Here's an example of what I mean:


I took the bash the baddies images from DKC2, (added Kiddy from his bash the baddies thing), and added a render from just the plain 'ol renders from Rare (downsized and lowered the amount of colours):


I also must say that I LOOOOOOOVE your bash the baddies image with DK and Diddy on K. Rool. Awesome idea!

If there is anything that you need edited, be it sprites, menu screen images, or bonus images, feel free to ask me. I would be glad to help with your project, but that's about all I can help out with. I'm an artist, not a programmer

I shall provide support for your project, since that's all I can do for you. Here, take a banana to munch for a great post. May your dream one day come true!

Whoa! I did not see this post coming! I wish you luck on your project! I wonder how you did all those image mockups, though.

Thanks for your reply's!!!

I don't know if this needs to go to the rom hacking section because it was originally intended to be a rom hack, but I'm new here so I tried my best to post it in the right place.

The hack is in its early stages since I'm more of a game designer than a programmer, but I do have some programming experience and I hope to really one day make this dream of mine come true.

Phyreburnz, those sprites of yours are indeed awesome! I will take a took at all of them and I'll let you know if I'm going to use them. Really like how you took a big DK pic and turned it into a sprite. Very cool! I haven't seen your wind animation, but I'll check to see if I can't find it as soon as possible!

[edit]Just looked at your work Phyreburnz and OMG!!! I am speechless! All of the major problems that I've been thinking about solving for this hack...... you have pretty much already solved! THIS IS OUTSTANDING! And your work and skill is excellent! I just saw the animation of Donkey Kong on the double rope switching from rope to rope and it looks flawless! Your work is going to be an absolute resource for my hack. Thank you so much for all that you have done! Unbelievable.

Gaz, I made all these concept screenshots in photoshop by taking screen shots of the actual games in my SNES emulator. They represent the ideas that I one day want to make happen for real!

Thanks everyone for their support, I'll post updates when I make progress.

I think I'm going to try and swap the graphics on the main overworld screen of Dixie with DK using YYCHR because thats just a graphics and pallet swap and it shouldn't be too bad for starters.

If there are any talented ASM programmers that are willing to offer help that would be great. The original idea is to make this a hack of Donkey Kong Country 2.

There's only one explanation: I must be insane...

In the SMWCentral topic linked above, I wrote:Ever wanted to play as Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Country 2? Introducing Donkey's Kong Quest, a hack of the game which will allow you to do that! D.K. replaces Dixie; all of his sprites, sound effects, and abilities (e.g. the hand slap) will be ported from the first DKC.

Work on this hack began in late May, and it will likely be unfinished for a long time. There are still many obstacles to overcome.

For one, you're probably wondering what I should do about the actions that D.K. lacks sprites for. Well, Phyreburnz at the DKC-Atlas forums has made custom sprites for many of them, using bits and pieces of existing sprites (e.g. moving across horizontal ropes). They aren't perfect, but they're better than nothing!

I would say more, but considering time is short, I'll leave you with these screenshots:

...and yes, this is the secret project I mentioned in my profile and here.

84 animations down; 78 to go. Woo!

Wowsers.

That's an amazing effort so far; feel free to post some screenshots here to get people's imaginations soaring.

You mentioned something in the linked SMW Central thread that I thought I'd point out (but I have no account there):

On SMWC, Mattrizzle wrote:It will mostly be a vanilla DKC2 with Donkey Kong instead of Dixie, though some levels will need slight alterations. For instance, without Dixie's Helicopter Twirl, Rickety Race's end of level target can't be hit hard enough to win a prize.

Rickety Race shouldn't be a problem, since Diddy can hit that target from the necessary height. You're given a DK barrel at the start of the level, and there's no way to lose a Kong, so all you'd have to do is switch to Diddy to get the prize. Besides, it's not a crucial prize like the DK Coin in Web Woods, so it wouldn't be too big a deal if you happened to only have DK.

Those points aside, Rare intentionally included some targets that only certain Kongs could score prizes from (Rattle Battle and Klobber Karnage* spring to mind), so having this issue in Rickety Race would be quite inconsequential, really.

*You actually can hit the target hard enough in Klobber Karnage (and even access the final bonus) regardless of which Kong you have — with a little help from a repositioned Klobber...

OMG!!!!!!!

NO way!!!!!

You are a legend Mattrizzle!

Please let me know if I can help you in anyway.

Also feel free to use any of my screenshots or concepts.

This is unbelievable!

We need to talk about this!

@ Erockbrox: Nice mockups! I will indeed use some of these ideas (and give credit where it's due, of course!).

That said, there are several obstacles to overcome:

• Optimizing custom sprites, and converting them to a format that can be used in the game. SNES sprites use 15 colors plus transparency, while some of Phyreburnz' sprites use more than that amount (I'm assuming this is because some of the sprites used were ripped using screenshots from different emulators). Color optimization aside, sprites have to be broken into 16x16 and 8x8 tiles before being copied and pasted into the ROM, and a table of coordinates need to be created for each tile, which are used by the game to "build" the final sprite.
• Aside from this, space is the biggest issue, and the ROM cannot be expanded easily. D.K. is larger than Diddy and Dixie, so most of his sprites are going to take up more space in the ROM than whichever Kong is replaced.
• Also, most graphics that aren't sprites are compressed (e.g. those pictures of the Kongs in the menus and bonus stage descriptions). In order to circumvent this for Brigand Barrage, I had to store the title screen and menu graphics without compression, necessitating the removal of other data. In that case, it was okay because most of the game was unused, aside from the boss battles.

I made the decision to replace Dixie with D.K. for three reasons:

1. Dixie holds objects over her head, just like D.K.
2. Dixie has one move that Diddy doesn't (helicopter spin), just like D.K. (hand slap).
3. Dixie is slower than Diddy. In fact, her running and walking speeds are identical to D.K.'s, which means I don't have to change four bytes in the ROM!

A few ideas that have been bouncing around in my head:

• As was mentioned in the original post, stomping on Kruncha's head with Donkey Kong should defeat him, but only for the blue version, and even then, only if he isn't red with anger. The pink Krunchas should be stronger, just like the grey Krushas in DKC1.
• I'm still debating what to do with Click-Clack. As an armored enemy, I feel like he should behave similar to Army--one stomp from D.K. should put him out of commission--but he differs from Army due to the fact that roll attacks defeat him as well. This means D.K. wouldn't be able to pick up a Click-Clack without Diddy's assistance. This might not be an issue, as I can't think of an instance where throwing one is absolutely necessary.
• The bananas that Klanks spawn when bumping them from behind in Rickety Race behave very similarly to the bananas that appear when hand slapping an enemy in DKC1, so I might be able to use the former for the latter here.

Maybe this could help you, Matt: during the creation of Donkey Kong Country X, I came up with a brown-colored variant of the Click-Clack called a Chip-Chop. Chip-Chops are basically termites: they'll eat (read: destroy) any object that is made out of wood. This would include small crates, steel-rimmed barrels and DK Barrels. It would be unwise to roll attack a Chip-Chop because of their sharp pincers, meaning a jump attack would instantly kill them. The blue bugs would stay the same.

If you want to make use of Click-Clacks better, turn them into keys to a locked door. For example, in Parrot Chute Panic, there's a small crate you can use to break open a door to a secret passageway and alternate path, avoiding some Zingers along the way.

Mattrizzle wrote:
That said, there are several obstacles to overcome:

• Optimizing custom sprites, and converting them to a format that can be used in the game. SNES sprites use 15 colors plus transparency, while some of Phyreburnz' sprites use more than that amount (I'm assuming this is because some of the sprites used were ripped using screenshots from different emulators).
  

This was probably because Phyreburn'z used the sprites that were already ripped by somebody else off of spriters resource and the odds of everyone using the same emulator aren't too likely.

Also, most graphics that aren't sprites are compressed (e.g. those pictures of the Kongs in the menus and bonus stage descriptions). In order to circumvent this for Brigand Barrage, I had to store the title screen and menu graphics without compression, necessitating the removal of other data. In that case, it was okay because most of the game was unused, aside from the boss battles.

is the compression/decompression routines known for this game?

I made the decision to replace Dixie with D.K. for three reasons:

1. Dixie holds objects over her head, just like D.K.
   

Brilliant never considered that before.

Dixie has one move that Diddy doesn't (helicopter spin), just like D.K. (hand slap).

I have actually been wondering if the DK hand slap was possible to implement in DKC2 because its a new move. If it can be done then I will be super super excited!!

Dixie is slower than Diddy. In fact, her running and walking speeds are identical to D.K.'s, which means I don't have to change four bytes in the ROM!

Hahahahaah. I honestly never knew that! It seems almost as if when they designed DK2 they modeled Dixie right after Donkey Kong. So it only makes sense to convert Dixie to Donkey Kong.

A few ideas that have been bouncing around in my head:

• As was mentioned in the original post, stomping on Kruncha's head with Donkey Kong should defeat him, but only for the blue version, and even then, only if he isn't red with anger. The pink Krunchas should be stronger, just like the grey Krushas in DKC1.
  

I totally agree with this and think its a great idea. One advantage of using DK in the original DKC is that he has that stronger jump attack and so that should transfer into DkC2.

I'm still debating what to do with Click-Clack. As an armored enemy, I feel like he should behave similar to Army--one stomp from D.K. should put him out of commission--but he differs from Army due to the fact that roll attacks defeat him as well. This means D.K. wouldn't be able to pick up a Click-Clack without Diddy's assistance. This might not be an issue, as I can't think of an instance where throwing one is absolutely necessary.

yes its true that click clack and army are almost the same enemy. i think it probably should be that donkey kong does indeed kill click clack with one jump attack just like he can kill army in dkc1. even though donkey kong will never be able to throw click clack it does follow the same logic.

The bananas that Klanks spawn when bumping them from behind in Rickety Race behave very similarly to the bananas that appear when hand slapping an enemy in DKC1, so I might be able to use the former for the latter here.

that is amazing news to here. so you would use that function of the bananas spawning from the roller coaster races to then trigger the banana that spawns from donkey kong slapping the ground! WOW! again brilliant!

Here are a few things to consider as well.

In DKC1 DK and diddly kong would do a special animation if they got too close to the edge of a cliff. this is not present in DKC2 so maybe its okay if that animation isnt ported over because it doesnt really exist in dck2.

Also there are special barrels where only diddy or dixie are allowed to go inside so a graphic of donkey kong will have to replace the current graphic of dixie that is on the barrel in those levels.

And for the ending normally DK breaks free of the chains and punches kk rool right? Well I say let DK still punch him its just that he doesn't fall down instead you just take DK's original location and then make him walk up to KK rool and punch him that way. if that makes sense. i think that's the easiest way of solving that situation. let me know if you can think of a better one.

and it might make lots of sense to have donkey kong save dixie in the final boss battle because at the end of the special ending diddy, dixie and donkey all watch on the edge of a cliff looking at the island sinking into the ocean and kk rool in a boat sneaking away.

Erockbrox wrote:...it probably should be that donkey kong does indeed kill click clack with one jump attack just like he can kill army in dkc1...

Then again, the yellow Knik-Knaks in DKC3 are nearly identical to Click-Clacks, and Kiddy can't defeat those in one stomp.

...there are special barrels where only diddy or dixie are allowed to go inside so a graphic of donkey kong will have to replace the current graphic of dixie that is on the barrel...

Done. I already made the sprite for the updated version of DKC: Boss Blitz, so all I had to do was insert it into this hack.

Great work!

This is incredible!!!

Yeah, I got my sprites from TSR. It didn't even occur to me to see how many colours were used... I do know that the click clack ones were all jacked up (at least at the time I had downloaded it, it may be fixed by now).

I'll have to go through mine and fix them. I wish somebody had said something earlier about that....

I never noticed a colour-count issue with your sprites, Phyre, as I never actually used them — I just admired them. Honestly, though, most users probably wouldn't need the sprites to adhere to a strict 4-bit palette as with a ROM hack like this. If you do decide to optimise them, it might be important for a project like this one that the palette be indexed with particular colours, in a particular order, to match the palette Mattrizzle's currently using. I'd hate for you to spend a long time tweaking your custom graphics only for them to need more adjustments. Hopefully Mattrizzle will be in touch soon to clarify this stuff.

As for the Click-Clack issue; DKC3 does show that armoured bugs can survive jump attacks from heavy Kongs (as Mattrizzle pointed out), but whichever way such things are handled in this hack, DK could always use his hand slap move to flip them over. It'd be nice for that ability to have more uses — especially since DKC2 (currently) lacks hidden banana caches for DK to unearth...

I believe caches were planned for DKC2, but nobody caught on when the first one came out, so Rare opted for invisible items instead.

OMG!! really nice!! also i don't think the sprites could be a problem, because on this forum exist those.

More screenshots:


Several of the animations for DK riding the animal buddies are now finished. Rattly and Squawks haven't been touched yet, as they require custom animations. Those will be worked on after I'm done porting the existing animations from DKC1.


All of DK's animations for vertical ropes are in as well (idle/climbing up and down/turning).


Here's the second team palette for DK in Two Player Contest mode. This screenshot also reminds me that some of the text needs to be changed.

That's still not all...

I'm definitely interested in giving this game a test run. Do you, by any chance, take beta testers?

Haven't thus far. I test things on my own prior to release, and if anyone else spots any bugs afterwards, I fix them.

Here's a list of bugs I've spotted so far, all of which are related to DK's hitbox:

• On many levels where a barrel cannon is positioned above the end of level target, DK can bounce off the target and enter the barrel cannon, interrupting the goal sequence. The only way out after this is to lose a life, or use the start + select button combo in a completed level.
• DK can't pass under the low-flying Zingers in Clapper's Cavern, even if he crouches.
• His hit detection when landing on an enemy from above is a bit dodgy. Sometimes, he will clip through the top of it and get hurt instead of defeating it.

This is phenomenal!

Fixed Funky's surfboard so that it doesn't use D.K.'s palette (formerly Dixie's). I didn't use HDMA for this.


Kruncha can now be taken out by a stomp on the head from D.K.

Here's how I did the latter:

My body is ready for this.
Take my bananas okay?

I'm diggin' these new features, Mattrizzle.

It was nice to see your hacking notes regarding Kruncha's newly assigned heavy-Kong vulnerability; it would be interesting to hear how you solved the surfboard palette issue, too.

Rux Ton wrote:Take my bananas okay?

There's a button for that, remember...

Oh my I forgot!

brb pushing bananas.

The surfboard still shares a palette with something else on the screen, but it's not that noticeable unless you look at it a number of times closer...

Well, without pulling up my sleeves and doing any real detective work, I'm going to guess that you added some extra colours to the coin counter numeral palette, and shared that one with Funky's board. I'm leaning toward that option because it has similar colours to the yellow of the surfboard, only seems to need/use a fraction of the colours a palette can hold, and you mentioned it as a possible resource here.

Of course, I could certainly be mistaken.

Not at all. You hit the bullseye!

Sadly I don't have much to contribute (besides opinions and bananas, of course), but let me just say how absolutely brilliant this idea is! It seems like all possible problems each have their own solution if you look hard enough. Not to mention everyones hard work and determination. Even with such a simple idea, this stil requires a lot of work, and I'm glad to see that people are willing to contribute to it to help someones dream.

I don't want to sound too corny but basically, y'all rock! I'm sure many peoples dreams will be fulfilled thanks to your help.

Need to ask: what happens when DK stomps on an ANGRY Kruncha? Will he still defeat it, or will he get hit and possibly end up scratching his head?

Stomping an angry Kruncha still hurts DK. None of the vulnerability flags were altered for his angry state, nor were any flags but his stomping vulnerability (when the player is DK) altered for his initial state. (For those who want to know, the flags for his angry state are at 33B193-33B194 in the U version 1.0 ROM.)

Here is how I justify that:

• In DKC1, Krusha wasn't fazed by rolling/cartwheeling into him from the side, nor did DK's hand slap attack do anything but make Krusha drop a banana and laugh at you. I think Kruncha should behave similarly, except he becomes angry instead of laughing at you.
• Angry Kruncha is most similar to a moving Rockkroc. Both run back and forth in a designated area, and are almost invincible. The only things that are inconsistent between them is how Rockkroc cannot be defeated by barrels, and is susceptible to DK's hand slap in the Japanese version.
• It also keeps with the design choice to make several indestructible enemies red in the original trilogy (e.g. Queen B, King Zing, red Zingers, and red Buzzes). This can't really be considered a rule, as there would be a few enemies who would break it (e.g. purple Klaptraps and grey Kritters were made red in DKC1 GBA, and in DKC3 red Knik-Knaks are no stronger than Flitters)

I saw the updated screenshots and WOW I'm impressed! So here's my comments.

It'd be nice for that (hand slap) ability to have more uses — especially since DKC2 (currently) lacks hidden banana caches for DK to unearth...

It would be nice, but I can’t think of any great uses right this moment, however I’m starting to really like the idea of hidden banana caches especially since RARE originally planned for them.
Not only that, but then it might add to the game because it’s something new to look for and is a surprise!

Normally I’m against ideas like this because your adding something to the game and making it non-vanilla, yet for some reason I’m really liking this idea!!!



I like the swinging one that was custom created and based after Kiddy Kong, but I still find the horizontal one to be the better approach mostly because it has a small hit box and the frames of animation should all fit since it’s a small sprite. The Kiddy Kong one is really big so it might be harder. That's just my opinion. Or if the Kiddy Kong style one doesn't work you could always resort to this one. The one where you take his current animation and just flip it 90 degrees.

DK can't pass under the low-flying Zingers in Clapper's Cavern, even if he crouches.

Maybe if DK could use that crawling animation for a frame or two that he had in DK1 where he lays real low in the crawl position, maybe that would fix it. But it’s complicated because I’m assuming that you have it such that when DK ducks he does the normal duck like in DK1 and not the crawl. So maybe…. Maybe you could do a special circumstance where if you press duck in that one section instead of ducking he uses the crawl pose such that he can fit. As if he knows that he can't make it and so he must crawl! LOL

Maybe program the game so that when DK is on ice instead of doing his regular duck he does the crawl position. So DK would have two different ducks, the regular one and then the lower one just for when he is on ice. Make the game check first to see if he is on ice or not and if he is then do the special duck!

Another solution is that you could just move the enemies up just a tiny bit just enough to allow DK to pass though while ducking. This is the EASY solution and so what if the gap is a little extra big, if it needs to be that big then it has to be that big.

His hit detection when landing on an enemy from above is a bit dodgy. Sometimes, he will clip through the top of it and get hurt instead of defeating it.

Maybe check out the coding regarding DK hit detection in DK and see if you can duplicate it.

This is freaking GENIUS! I have to ask, if you hand slap him and he turns red do you have enough time to escape before he charges??? Or will the hand slap be implemented later since I don’t think you have done it yet?

In DKC1, Krusha wasn't fazed by rolling/cartwheeling into him from the side, nor did DK's hand slap attack do anything but make Krusha drop a banana and laugh at you. I think Kruncha should
behave similarly, except he becomes angry instead of laughing at you.

I agree with this 100%! The idea is that similar characters in DK2 behave similar to their respective characters in DK1 and this is the correct logic so to speak that needs to happen.

Angry Kruncha is most similar to a moving Rockkroc.

Actually…… I think angry Kruncha is most similar to the RED tinted Krusha. Remember there is that red tinted Krusha in DK1 where you can only beat him if you have the TNT while riding those platforms with arrows printed on them?

So I say angry Kruncha should not be defeated by a normal head stomp.

And can angry Kruncha be killed with a TNT barrel?

Also when DK rides on Squack the bird I was originally thinking about using the animation from when DK swings back and forth on ropes in DK1.

Several of the animations for DK riding the animal buddies are now finished. Rattly and Squawks haven't been touched yet, as they require custom animations.

OMG. I just had a radical idea!

What if you don't use Rattly at all and just use the Winky the FROG from the original DK1!



The reason for this is because it requires no custom animations from Donkey Kong! And Rattly and Winky are pretty much the exact same. However I don't know if their hit boxes are the same or not. Let me know if this method is any easier. So instead of making donkey ride Rattly, you turn Rattly into Winky! You may have to change diddy ride stance back to the one used in DKC1, but again no custom animations are needed for Donkey. And Winky would get a new move too, he would now be able to super jump, something that he didn't have in the original. Plus it would be a nice throwback to DK1 to have the frog in it. Let me know what you think!



Looks at Rattly's animations...



Well...... it appears that Winky does indeed have more animations. And if this were done then a new logo on the animal sign would have to be made. The whole sign doesn't have to be remade only the animal logo. Since the frog logo exists on the cart then possibly it would be made to fit on the sign. Just use the perspective option in photoshop.

All I have to say is that Mattrizzle you really are doing outstanding work! This is super amazing and I’m pretty sure that this hack is going to be BIG when released. Anyone who played any of the originals would surely love to play this version!!!!

Winky may have more bounce in his hops, but Rattly has mid-air hopping capabilities.

I'm still debating what to do with Click-Clack. As an armored enemy, I feel like he should behave similar to Army--one stomp from D.K. should put him out of commission--but he differs from Army due to the fact that roll attacks defeat him as well. This means D.K. wouldn't be able to pick up a Click-Clack without Diddy's assistance. This might not be an issue, as I can't think of an instance where throwing one is absolutely necessary.

in that case, maybe just make DK not be able to take him out with a single jump. This maybe less awkward because people are used to being able to pick up click clack.

Also don't forget the ending screen.

I don't think the original ending screen works showing Dixie in it, so the original DK ending screen would probably take its place.







However, if Dixie is the one who gets rescued then that special ending where all three of them diddy, dixie and donkey are by the water would make logical sense.

So maybe Dixie really needs to be the one who needs to get saved.

And what about the 1 up ballons? Will they be the DK2 style or will they have Donkey shaped ones like in DKC1?

The existing balloons for each level have been (in order) Donkey, Diddy and Dixie. I would say keep the Diddy life balloons.

I was actually considering making D.K. the main Kong again. That would mean making him the character you start as instead of Diddy, changing the extra life balloons and life counter icon back to their DKC1 equivalents, and making D.K. appear in Diddy's place at the Cranky's Video Game Heroes screen.

I agree that Dixie shouldn't be on the game over screen, but I wonder if one of the renders of D.K. in a cage could be used instead of just reusing the one from DKC1. A render of Diddy edited to look like he's hurt could be paired with it.

Mattrizzle wrote:I was actually considering making D.K. the main Kong again. That would mean making him the character you start as instead of Diddy, changing the extra life balloons and life counter icon back to their DKC1 equivalents, and making D.K. appear in Diddy's place at the Cranky's Video Game Heroes screen.

I agree that Dixie shouldn't be on the game over screen, but I wonder if one of the renders of D.K. in a cage could be used instead of just reusing the one from DKC1. A render of Diddy edited to look like he's hurt could be paired with it.

I too think that Donkey Kong should be the main character of this game and I also think that having the Donkey Kong shaped balloons would be a great match for the hack.

By having the original Donkey Kong life balloons it will also add that extra feel that you are indeed playing a different version of DKC2. And I think by making small changes like that you can really change the entire atmosphere of the game. The whole game will feel and look new and honestly I bet you that lots of people are going to enjoy this hack. Anyone who loved the originals would LOVE to play this!

Also I just checked out the balloons on spriters resource and it looks as if Diddy's balloon is 5 frames of animation whereas DK's balloon is 7 frames. I wonder if more frames could be added or if the 7 frames would be cut back to only 5 frames.

And honestly I never even thought of changing the balloons to reflect Donkey Kong until just recently.



And I also agree to make Donkey the one on the Video Game Heroes page and not Diddy.

Do you think the Mini-Drums should return in your fan game? They can emit Neeks, Click-Clacks and Spinys. Don't know about the Klampons.

I think the main goal is that its just an elaborate character hack with keeping the core of the original game intact.

The DK balloons would only emphasize and complement that goal as portraying DK as the leading character as he was in the first game.

Those sheets are missing sprites. All variants of the extra life balloon have 8 animation frames.

One more thing I'd like to add.

In Donkey Kong Country 1 there is a small life balloon that is animated which shows the number of lives you have.

In Donkey Kong Country 2 there is a small diddy kong icon non-animated which shows the number of lives you have.

So for the hack would there just be a small donkey kong icon non-animated next to the lives or...

Will the original small life balloon that is animated from the original be put in from the original DKC1?

Don't forget that the small life balloon also makes a popping sound when you die will that be converted over as well?

@Erockbrox: Ah, there's a good question to ponder...

@Mattrizzle: You're quite right.

With all the errors, omissions and inconsistencies being noticed with sprite collections elsewhere, it's starting to feel like it'd be really helpful for us to have our own definitive DKC sprite (and other graphics) resource here at the Atlas. Shouldn't be too hard to put together after the extensive studies and extraction efforts we Atlasites have already done, and continue to do.

Qyz, that would be absolutely WONDERFUL if we had our own sprite sheet collections. I can't stress that enough!!!

Cool beans, I agree. I'll put it on the to-do-soon list.

Yes I also believe that this is a good idea. Since spriters resource is slacking it is imperative that we have such sprite sheets. good idea!

Exist some videos about this project? also i never saw a hack snes room donkey kong game with resources from another DK...