DKC Atlas Forum

[Qyzbud]

This might sound like an odd topic, but I couldn't think of a better way to encourage everyone to share things they've noticed in the DKC trilogy scenery.

DKC and its sequels have always been graphically rich, and that's no secret to anyone. Some areas are full of detail, much of which may not be noticed at first or second glance.

Possibly one of the best examples of this detail (or clutter, as Wrinkly would probably have called it, rest her soul) is Cranky's Monkey Museum in DKC2.

Here's a screenshot to jog your memories:

Enhanced screenshot of Cranky's Monkey Museum in DKC2

dkc2_monkey_museum_enh.png (61.78 KiB) Viewed 172165 times

There were lots of things I noticed bit by bit over the years, such as the minecart in the foreground (pretty obvious, don't know why it took me so long to see it), the DK toy/figurine atop the Killer Instinct arcade machine, and the old, rusted steel keg just by the door... but one thing I didn't notice until just yesterday is that a Golden Expresso Token is on display just to the right of Winky's aquarium!

Did anyone else notice that there?

I've never heard it mentioned before, but then people don't tend to mention stuff if it appears obvious to them...

Feel free to post your own screenshots and point out/inquire about any unusual or obscure details of any DKC trilogy scenery.

[Kowbrainz]

Mm... I didn't notice until just last week that K.Rool has a SNES controller in his airship like Cranky Kong... wonder if the two challenge each other to a game of DKC, two player contest in their spare time.

[Qyzbud]

I'll bet they do...

So did you know about the Expresso token in Cranky's museum?

[Kowbrainz]

I remember being told a long time ago about Expresso and Winky in Cranky's room... but although I could find Winky straight away, I never actually knew where (or what) to look for Expresso until now. :/

[Tiptup Jr.]

K. Rool has a pair of lucky dice in the Flying Krock. You can only see them for a second or two when he's heading toward the right side of the screen and you jump past him.

There is also a human doll and a teddy bear in Swanky's Sideshow. The bear is explainable, but do you guys think that there are humans in the Norhtern Kremisphere? It could just be a coincidence, of course, but it seems strange that such a toy exists in the world of Donkey Kong Country.

[Qyzbud]

Good point about the human doll... Interesting.



"You can tell a lot about a world's culture by the way they entertain their children."
(if anyone can pick that reference, they will get 10 million awesome points)

And here's a look at The Flying Krock's interior... Fluffy dice and all!

NTSC Version:


Man I love what Rare do with their renders. But wait- are those peanuts on the floor?

Edit
PAL Version:


(for those who want to play 'spot the difference' )

[Stone]

Yeah Cranky's monkey museum, a really nice place.
In my childhood memories the idea remained that some of the museums featured other things.
I checked it and made screenshots a few days earlier, and it seems that my head tricked me

[CM August]

Quyzbud: In the GBA version they're identifiable as a type of rucksack, but I'm not totally convinced about the SNES version. You can kind of see it, but... guess I'm just used to thinking of them as giant peanuts. If they are rucksacks they're most likely parachutes.

Fun fact for non-PAL gamers: that background is slightly different in the PAL version. The controller has its PAL/Famicom colors, and more interestingly, that large airlock door to the left has been bashed in. Very interesting.

[Tiptup Jr.]

Why would they change that door for the PAL version? That's, like... the weirdest thing I've ever heard. STOP N' SWOP!!!

[nickp17]

LOL@ the peanuts on the floor. Never noticed that.

[Qyzbud]

I just updated my post above so that you guys can see the difference between PAL and NTSC designs of the Flying Krock's interior.

My take on the scenario is that sometime between the PAL and NTSC releases of the game, Cranky's SNES controller broke (he gets a little fired up sometimes when gaming, you see), so he smashed a hole in K. Rool's airship and nicked the fat croc's controller. Instead of tackling Cranky (who is a little too badass to be messed with), K. Rool just flew his zeppelin to Australia and stole my controller - which explains why it went missing some years ago...

[BlueTronic]

KRool has one of those dice things above the seats I guess he wanted his plane to be luxurious (but then again, if he wanted luxury, he should've cleaned those peanuts and bananas and oil drums off the floor. GOD what a mess! )

[CM August]

Everything's packed fairly neatly to the side, except for the rucksacks/peanuts. I love how he has crates of bananas everywhere, too.

[Jomingo]

My take on the scenario is that sometime between the PAL and NTSC releases of the game, Cranky's SNES controller broke (he gets a little fired up sometimes when gaming, you see), so he smashed a hole in K. Rool's airship and nicked the fat croc's controller. Instead of tackling Cranky (who is a little too badass to be messed with), K. Rool just flew his zeppelin to Australia and stole my controller - which explains why it went missing some years ago...

Yes, and my dog actually did take a vacation to the bahamas.

[BlueTronic]

So that's where that little guy came from!

[nickp17]

@ the dog.

and why are they peanuts I wonder?

[Simion32]

They look like balls of yarn/string to me. Or coconuts.

I wonder what's in that small chest next to the one with bananas in it?

[BlueTronic]

They look like chopsticks or something. Maybe KRool's chinese.

[nickp17]

This thread is great.

[Jomingo]

Chinese K. Rool = awesome.

[cfh]

I bet he's Godzilla's retarded cousin or something.

[Jomingo]

That could be his next costume change, K. Roolzilla.

[Qyzbud]

I think it would be really cool if K. Rool's crown was somewhere to be found in DKC2/DKC3. I think incidental item cameos are great. The Monkey Museum is full of them, of course... and seeing stuff like the OIL drums in the Kaptain's airship and outside Klubba's Kiosk was really neat.



My ponderings here:
Look just above where it says 'pay'... What do you suppose that chart is for?
How did that tire find itself stuck around the support post, under the bridge?
...and more vexing; what is that awful pink stuff next to the chest at the bottom-left?

[Simion32]

...and more vexing; what is that awful pink stuff next to the chest at the bottom-left?

Looks like some very oddly-tinted barrels. Maybe they are filled with something dangerous, such as poison? Bright colors are used on warning signs, and even some animals in nature that have bright colors are poisonous, so there's a possibility that they are pink to warn passersby...

[CM August]

I think it would be really cool if K. Rool's crown was somewhere to be found in DKC2/DKC3.

Check out the first cabin in Pirate Panic, to the left next to the sword.

[Kowbrainz]

I think it would be really cool if K. Rool's crown was somewhere to be found in DKC2/DKC3.

Check out the first cabin in Pirate Panic, to the left next to the sword.

Hand this fellow a banana!

Wow... it's really interesting to see the amount of detail Rare puts into their games... moreso in games like Banjo-Tooie and Grabbed by the Ghoulies which were swimming with all sorts of cameos from their other titles, but it's great to see the team were at it long before those games...

[Qyzbud]

Hot damn, you're totally right. I always wondered why the sword cast that peculiarly shaped shadow... I never even noticed the crown. Even after being quizzed about the interior of this cabin by Swanky.

Banana where banana's due-

For those not playing at home:



Hey- the Skull & Crossbones on the flag looks like it has a human skull, rather than a Kremling's. And what do you suppose is on the table? Some kind of green and blue artwork?

[CM August]

That's not the only instance of seeing a human skull-and-crossbones either. If you check out the main world map, the animated flag on top of K. Rool's keep is also the conventional Jolly Roger rather than the Kremling equivalent. The flags you can spot in the K. Rool's Keep and The Flying Krock maps, on the other hand, are a little more iffy.

The green and blue thing may be an overhead map, but of course it's hard to tell for sure.

Oh, and in Funky's Flights you can see the discarded Barrel Jet from the first game. Don't know if we covered that one.

...and more vexing; what is that awful pink stuff next to the chest at the bottom-left?

This is only speculation, but they may be the same type of plant frequently seen in the background of the Lost World jungles. They're not quite as pink though.

[Qyzbud]

Yeah, well noticed indeed. Those other flags are pretty iffy- but they look to me like the Kremling variant, at least in the K. Rool's Keep view. The top has that slightly more lumpy look, rather than a rounded top like a human skull shape would be. Of course, the clarity isn't the best...

[cfh]

Why does Klubba have a picture of Diddy?

[Stone]

Stalker

[cfh]

So that's why he's in every world!

[Stone]

He is always where Diddy is. Some say that he hides himself in BG#4

[Qyzbud]

You realise it's on his punching bag, right? He trains by punching Diddy!

Huh? BG#4?

[BlueTronic]

BG layers are the layers of ground, background, and frontground that make up the level. BG#4 is an extra not usually used.

Qyz says: Even that is more info than I needed...

[Stone]

I feel so sorry for those unessecary off-topic posts, so I try doing something more usefull this time.

How about Wrinkly's Kong College?


Is this a steel barrel from DKC next to the S? Or just some new-fashioned kind of chair?
And what happend above the bookshelf?

[Qyzbud]

No worries, mate.

I think that might be a DKC steel keg, maybe it has been adapted for use as a waste paper barrel? I can't quite make out what's going on above the bookshelf, but I love that little sketch one of the Kremlings left on the desk there!

Hmm, looks like the time reads 4:05. Wrinkly must have just let the naughty crocs out of detention.

[Tompa]

I like that there's a red pen in front of the paper with the black painting and the Kongs are really good at maths.

[cfh]

Man, I wish there were high-quality renders of these...

[Tiptup Jr.]

According to Wrinkly, the Kremlings wrote those math problems on the board, not the Kongs. And why does it show grass outside of Wrinkly's Kollege? In the GBA version, the background changes according to what world you are in.

[Jomingo]

Wow, I love that drawing. And yes, the Kremlings go to school there, not the Kongs.

[BlueTronic]

Look at those exams. Those are pretty easy for a college. And the're all wrong! What is that? a monkey colledge?...

...oh.

[Jomingo]

No, actually it's a KREMLING COLLEDGE. I know it's named Kong Kolledge, but the Kong's don't actually learn there. Only the Kremling's do.

[cfh]

Fixed

And it's not a college... it's a kollege

[Tiptup Jr.]

Darn... I was just about to point that out, Qyz. Busy Qyzzy strikes again!

[BlueTronic]

That's CFH.

[Cyclone]

Wrinkly's Kong Kollege

Here are some crops of a scan I took from a Jap players guide. The quality/colour isn't the best but you can see more details.

- Looks like a waste basket and not a DKC barrel
- Its a crayon not a pen
- clock reads 4:05
- Also look at the Chalkboard and the bell and compare it with the in-game render...they are different!!

Unfortunately the image was too big to attach so here is a direct link.

http://www.inspiredvisuals.com/Cgtalk/DK/classroom.jpg

[cfh]

So much detail for something so small... are there more of these?

[Qyzbud]

Great stuff, Cyclone...

Kong Kollege interior shots (scan)

scan-kong-kollege.jpg (72.45 KiB) Viewed 171560 times

So that's a doodle of a car under the stick figure on the desk. Now I get it. And on top of the bookshelf, it's just a stack of haphazardly arranged books beside the world globe. You know, I could use that globe as the basis for a DKC-Atlas logo redesign, if it were a little more clear. Interestingly, the 'continents' present on the world globe(s) don't look much at all like a likeness to our Earth's terrain. This suggests to me that the Kongs aren't supposed to be living on Earth - at least not our Earth. That or the cartographers of DK Isle/Crocodile Isle aren't doing their job all too well. Oh, on the bookshelf, those flasks/beakers and test tubes are a nice sciency touch.

You're right about the writing on the chalkboard, and the bell (very slight difference there). It also seems like the waste basket changed shape between game/magazine renders. It looks a lot more like a steel keg in-game. By the way, I think it's a red pencil- not a crayon or a pen. So there!

Edit: Oh, and it's called 'Kong Kollege' because Wrinkly's a Kong, and it's her kollege!

[Cyclone]

Qyz says: Before I read this, could you edit in some capitals?


how about we just call it a red "pencil crayon"...

good idea about the globe. i do have a larger unedited/uncompressed version which would look cleaner but it still won't be very sharp and you would see the laser dots even more clearly. If only i could find a better scan somewhere.

hmm yea I think the DKC universe is just a different reality then our own kinda like Midle Earth or like starwars(A universe far far away..something like that)? Its interesting though that they designed the map on the globe in that way. Maybe they didn't have an Earth map texture and decided to make their own. In either case no one would be able to tell the difference in game.

oh and those flasks looks like theres stuff in them. maybe their related to the cranky potions in DK64? it was cranky wasn't it? its been so long since i played the game.

chf I got a bunch more but they are for a very very slow project that i'm working on.