DKC Atlas Forum

[Qyzbud]

I've had Candy's dialogue available on the site for several weeks now, and am now preparing to expand DKC Atlas' In-game Text resource to feature Cranky and Funky's dialogue, too. Some generous members sent me other dialogue text a while ago (in rough form), but I've only now found the time to get back into development of this section. I have updated the In-game Text* section with all regular dialogue for the helper Kongs, but much of it is in 'rough' form, still. If you would like to help by pointing out any errors or omissions, or by providing a screenshot of any dialogue which hasn't been 'verified' yet, please do so here.

[Cody]

Let Diddy hold out the TNt in Manic Mincers.

Is that how TNT is capitalized in the game? I don't think I've ever seen that sentence, and after trying, couldn't get Cranky to say it... I'm not too sure.

[Qyzbud]

I opened up the ROM to have a look... only to find the string TNÔ

That 'Ô' is just what I referred to on the page as an 'encrypted character combination'. The Ô acts as a combination of a T and a line break... I guess the replacement algorithm Simion used to 'decrypt' the text inserted the lowercase tee rather than an uppercase one. It should indeed read 'TNT'. Well spotted.

[Simion32]

replacement algorithm

I thought I said there was no fancy stuff. I just replaced them manually using Notepad. My mistake.

EDIT: In which case, I could actually design an algorithm, but I'm working on the GFX extraction tool as of now.

[Stone]

Nice stuff.

I was really surprised seeing so many different quotes in a DKC game, especially Cranky Quotes.
Maybe some text was not translated into german

All this fun can't be good for you! I bet they wasted half the memory already-just on this section alone!

[Qyzbud]

Simion... I didn't think algorithms were fancy, by your amazing technical standards.

Okay, so you typed a 't' there, did ya? We know the culprit now. No more blaming of innocent algorithms...

[Simion32]

Simion... I didn't think algorithms were fancy, by your amazing technical standards.

They aren't, but Notepad's replace function is the fanciest thing within notepad. Hey... look: "but he'll wanôto charge for it" I must have forgot to make the replace use the Match Case option... there's the true culprit! (By the way, that Ô was the only one in the entire text.)

Enough rambling on about my search-and-replace typo; can I go ahead and get the DKC2 text for you Qyz?

[Qyzbud]

After opening the DKC ROM myself and looking at the text, I've realised that those glyphs you replaced are actually quite useful for formatting the game text as it appears in-game... Could you maybe use an algorithm to have DKC's (and DKC2's) text formatted just as it's displayed when seen in the game? Otherwise, it might make sense for me to just extract it myself.

What do you think?

Also, some quotes from the DKC text you sent me were grouped together incorrectly.

Example:

Code: Select all

Look!...look at this!...as I rock, my beard swings! Waste of frames in my opinion! Aye!
That was when we had real game play, that was! And this was developed with the latest state-of-the-art 3D workthingys, was it?

This should end up being formatted like so:

Code: Select all


Look!...look at this!...as
I rock, my beard swings!
Waste of frames in my opinion!

Aye!  That was when we had
real game play, that was!

And this was developed with
the latest state-of-the-art
3D workthingys, was it?



I found it to be a bit of work to rearrange that kind of stuff. Do you think you would have the know-how to have it automatically come out looking like that, or maybe should I do it myself from scratch?

I really appreciate how much you've been able to help with everything, and anything that saves me time is great, but I certainly don't want to take more of your time away from your own projects, of course... especially since I'm looking forward to the results of them so much.

[Simion32]

Could you maybe use an algorithm to have DKC's (and DKC2's) text formatted just as it's displayed when seen in the game? Otherwise, it might make sense for me to just extract it myself.I found it to be a bit of work to rearrange that kind of stuff. Do you think you would have the know-how to have it automatically come out looking like that, or maybe should I do it myself from scratch?

Right now I'm trying to wrap my head around the bit math involved in emulating a SNES (partially, anyways). Maybe once I finish the GFX extraction tool I could make something like that. I do think I will need to extract text for the DKCLB, so this may end up being one of my "pending" projects on the DKCLB's to-do list. Right now, I need to concentrate on getting the extraction tool done.

If you mean you need the text in the game's graphical font (a cool idea, by the way), I can do that with the extraction tool. I don't know how the text is displayed just yet, but I'll know soon enough, just as with everything else . This code:

Code: Select all

7e1Df5 cd
7e1Df6 ab    (# = abcd)

is the text timer. it counts up until the next message is displayed, and repeats this. Oh, and I studied the code you found (7e1DF7 ##), and it seems that this is Cranky's text number, and cranky will always say a maximum of ten things. What "text group" is displayed is determined by some other value, which just happens to be in the processor when it increments Cranky's text number. I'll try hacking that to see where exactly the number is coming from. Ill try tracing when it accesses the text offset, that should make hacking this much easier!

[Qyzbud]

Could you maybe use an algorithm to have DKC's (and DKC2's) text formatted just as it's displayed when seen in the game?

If you mean you need the text in the game's graphical font (a cool idea, by the way), I can do that...

I actually didn't mean that, but I have indeed considered it. I think that would be novel, but not very useful.

You know what would be cool though? Creating a flash/javascript applet which sits at the top of the in-game text page, and looks/acts exactly like what you see when you visit Cranky. He'll be there rocking back and forth, and the applet will read from a mini database of Cranky's phrases, and displays them (or just the best ones, maybe) just like in the game; green text fade effect and all! That may be something fun to add in the future.

PS. I was actually planning to do something like this for the splash page, or home page... Then the real stuff took priority.

[Stone]

So many unused Cranky quotes? Has Rare just forgotten including them? Because I always wondered what to do with Jungle Hijinxs tips in the last world...
Those team-specific quotes would be nice, too.

[Qyzbud]

I must confess that I'd never really played DKC in team modes, so I honestly don't know if all of those are unused... I'm hoping some community members here could correct me, if Cranky does indeed use those quotes. It's strange, isn't it? Rare created gameplay tips for practically every level, but only included the first world's tips in the game. Bizarre... especially (as you said) when you are told about 'The crafty Croctopus in Coral Capers' when you are talking to Cranky in Kremkroc Industries or Chimp Caverns... Heh, I know he's senile, but seriously...

It's cool getting to see all of this 'beta' text, though, don't you think? Makes the in-game text section much more interesting.

[Stone]

Now I really want to know if the english text unused in the game was traslated into other languages.
Testing the multiplayer quotes could be done by testing the Emu's Netplay function

[Qyzbud]

Indeed! That's a good project for you and a friend.

I think some of the unused quotes may have been used in the GBA port, but I haven't played it lately. Maybe I should.

[Kiddy14]

They are used Qyz, I remember Cranky told me once something about Trick Track Trek

[Qyzbud]

Thanks for that, tal... I'll make sure to mention this on the in-game text page. I don't really cover the ports, but this eventual use of the unused text seems highly relevant to DKC Atlas, as it regards content which was originally intended for DKC on SNES, but is only used elsewhere... I imagine this sort of thing happens in games from time to time, but it's an interesting scenario to observe, nonetheless!

[Kiddy14]

Yeah, at first I though the new Rare Team for the Port actually did those "tips" and they were all new. Then I read those "unused" texts and get everything cleared...

I wonder if they removed it because they couldn't make the game to play Cranky's exclusive world tips and decided to only post 1st World's, or decided to only post the 1st World's since it's the easiest one =P Because in the GBA version, he says a tip based on which world you are, and since the SNES version uses the same Cranky's Cabin for all the game... Somehow simmilar to what happens with the GBA's Kong Kollege, since it changes the background depending on which world you are...

[Qyzbud]

Seems funny to think they couldn't do location-based text... I mean, this is Rareware. Heck, they taught crocodiles to walk on two legs for the game.

[Kiddy14]

XD! Yeah, that's true =P
Probably they dropped them as they dropped DKC2's K. Rool Death's Music, but that's off-topic.