Author Topic: Donkey Kong Junior Remix  (Read 57495 times)

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Online Sock Master

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Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« on: November 14, 2016, 05:33:57 pm »
I guess it's about time I started a thread specifically about DK Jr. Remix.

I've already been working on it a few months but up until now it has mostly been the long, long, boring stuff... creating working code, sorting all the technical stuff, framework... bug fixes... bug fixes.. bug fixes...  I've stopped counting, and I've stopped even taking note of all the bugs that I fixed now.    Then also fixing up the frustrating issues in the original gameplay and  making the difficulty progress more smoothly and fairly.

After that was a lot of reworking to allow expanding the game.   Everything in the original game was pretty much originally programmed to do exactly one thing, work exactly one way.    Consider it hard-coded / hard-wired.   So I set out to make it more flexible, work more like a game engine.   I'm still not finished with that, but I've done a lot to make new screens possible now.

I was getting discouraged about a month ago, so I figured I had to add *one* new stage early, just to give me some kind of instant-gratification -- actual signs of progress.   So the first new stage was just a new vines/snapjaws stage.   Of course the blue snapjaws had no awareness of their surroundings (their motions are hard coded to follow one set of paths.) so I figured it'd be good to make a new type of snapjaw that's like a blue but with the ability to detect platforms below them and decide which way to go on their own.  There's a limited set of colors I can choose from for sprites, but one choice worked and the new snapjaws are purple.     I sort of think of them as something Q*bert-like...  when they go down, they go either left or right at the next floor, then go down again, then left or right again..  A bit like a cross between a blue and a red snapjaw, so purple actually works.

Then it was back to fixing bugs, fixing issues, fixing limitations.. then expanding functions and features.   I started adding a 2nd new stage but for every one thing I wanted to add I had to rewrite a dozen routines to allow it.   So it was long again..  But I finally fit another point where yes, the stage idea is finally workable.  It's not exactly what I originally had in mind, but hey, it's still pretty cool.   I can move the springboard, have two of them, give the moving platforms new motions, different speeds and have more of them as well.  I can give entirely new paths to the birds.   I can move Mario and DK to different locations, even flip the animations so they can be on the other side of the screen.   Nice.   I think the fun/interesting part of the project is finally starting.

« Last Edit: November 14, 2016, 05:39:18 pm by Sock Master »
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Offline TheSunshineFund

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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2016, 08:06:08 am »
My tiny brain is already trying to process these level layouts  <popcorn>

 Kreygasm

Also, it's quite a blessing that you have both the creative vision for these designs as well as the technical ability to execute them.  Great stuff.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2016, 08:08:58 am by pwnasaurus »
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Offline ChrisP

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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2016, 10:34:21 pm »
Considering that this (presumably) won't be MAMEd for a long time, if ever, I'm now feeling really glad that I didn't sell my Junior PCB.

That baby's gonna get new life...
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Offline homerwannabee

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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2016, 05:13:39 am »
Rather impressed with how quickly you are coming along with this.  By the looks of things, it should be a very fun game when all is said, and done.
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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2016, 10:38:53 pm »
Thanks guys,

I hope I can add some cool & creative things to the game.   I was more worried at first because ideas just weren't coming but as the 'game engine' is being recoded to be more flexible, more inklings of ideas have started popping to mind.  Hopefully some cool ideas will result.

Just today I added in the code that will allow multiple variations of the same stage, so that may add a bit of new variety too - even to the original stages.

To me it really doesn't seem like things have been coming along quickly, but yeah, all things considered it seems to be moving along even if it seems like it's an uphill battle so far.
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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2016, 03:38:37 pm »
One more little update.  I've started experimenting with variations of the Mario's Hideout stage.
So far I had been concentrating on fixing general things in the game/code, and sometimes expanding existing elements in the game.
Rather than changing existing enemy AI too much, I decided it might be good to add most of the AI changes to new variations of the original enemies.  This way the orange and blue sparks keep behaving as expected, but the new dark sparks have new abilities, like being able to go up paths and also vines in some cases.
I tried to keep things consistent with the original game, so the new sparks can only go up or down paths/vines when there is a graphical marker in the stage that says they could.

It turns out pretty interesting to see them able to get to places they couldn't before.  I'm still aiming to add some additional new stuff later on, but here's an in-progress screenshot.

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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2016, 11:24:19 am »
Things finally seem to be sailing more smoothly.   The stuff I worked on earlier to make the game engine more flexible is starting to pay off - this stage was much quicker to implement because of it.

These screenshots are still in-progress experiments so they're bound to keep changing over time, but I like the concept.

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Offline Barra

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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2016, 01:15:08 pm »
Jesus that looks brutal! Kreygasm
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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2016, 01:40:44 pm »
I'll try to keep the number of birds reasonably low and depending on testing I might open up the center of the middle platform or some other changes or adjustments.   Maybe switch to the other type of Nitpicker since they have smaller hitboxes.   I like the idea and I'm going to try to make sure it's fair.
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Offline treborlicec

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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #9 on: December 08, 2016, 05:35:18 pm »
John,
My money is yours as soon as you're ready <gasp> with this.  Love my DK Remix.  Popeye next.  I know, too soon.  :)
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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2016, 09:25:19 am »
Still a long way to go, but little pieces are coming together bit by bit.

Last night I got it to handle multiple fruits in motion at once.   In the original game there's a place where there are two fruits near each other and if you knock one down and move to the other, the 2nd doesn't go until the first exits the screen.   I want to expand the fruits a bit to allow more than one going at a time and also able to hit enemies in other directions than just down.    Also, multiple fruits may probably come into play in some sort of bonus stage when I get around to that.

I got a question, but I think there's no good answer.   In the original game, the falling fruit's hitbox is affected by Jr's pose.   If Jr stretches out, a falling fruit has a wider hit range.   This obviously accidental in the code.   But if I take that bug out, it takes away some strategy and also makes fruits unable to hit some targets...  So, should I just leave that as it was, or make fruit collisions consistent?
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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #11 on: December 09, 2016, 11:52:53 am »
Removing choice and strategy is almost always a bad idea

Offline Jonesy

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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2016, 12:16:34 am »
Wow that looks like absolute chaos! Kreygasm

Even more swearing!  <gasp>
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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2016, 10:49:11 am »
I started working in program code to handle bonus stages and coded in the first of the bonus screens.  It may still evolve as the game progresses.   (Also using the word 'smash' seems inappropriate here, I'll need to use some other word to describe things hit by fruit..?)

I've also bumped up the maximum number of fruits, and in this case the umbrellas count as a different type of 'fruit' that floats upwards instead of falling down.   The other cool thing is that the game can now handle any number of active fruits (falling/floating/etc..) simultaneously.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2016, 10:56:45 am by Sock Master »
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Offline DKJR

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Re: Donkey Kong Junior Remix
« Reply #14 on: December 14, 2016, 04:42:07 pm »
I can't say how much this means to me as my brain child and request a few years back it's crazy to see you doing for the community, I'll be the first in line for your pcb remix. Cheers Tony
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