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General Donkey Kong Discussion => General Donkey Kong Discussion => Topic started by: furrykef on November 05, 2014, 03:40:28 pm

Title: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: furrykef on November 05, 2014, 03:40:28 pm: This thread's for hashing out what features we want to add to levels in future hacks. Level concepts, new powerups, new obstacles, new enemies, it all goes here. There are some ideas in the old Masters' Edition (https://donkeykongforum.net/index.php?topic=234.0) thread, but let's see what else we can come up with.

I'm thinking Foreman Spike (Mario's nemesis from Wrecking Crew) would be an interesting addition to the game, but I'm not sure yet what he would do. In Wrecking Crew, Spike walked in the background and would smash any object Mario was standing in front of, causing him to fall down to a lower floor. Mario could do the same to Spike. This behavior doesn't make much sense for DK, though, so Spike would have to do something else to sabotage Mario.

I also think there should be a non-human enemy that actively pursues Mario, but I don't know what it should be.

Any thoughts?
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: marky_d on July 10, 2015, 03:19:24 pm: There are some pretty interesting level ideas in this DK version:

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7edAB39XBs#)
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: tudose on July 10, 2015, 04:00:21 pm: wow those are waaaaay better than the d2k boards
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: f_symbols on July 10, 2015, 05:04:37 pm: <Walter> HOLY SMOKES!

This looks like ∞ Kreygasm
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: marinomitch13 on July 10, 2015, 10:00:12 pm: This is so hype. Kreygasm
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: marky_d on July 16, 2015, 12:55:37 pm: http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html (http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html)
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Adam_Mon on July 16, 2015, 12:58:56 pm: Quote from: marky_d on July 16, 2015, 12:55:37 pm
http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html (http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html)

.dsk is there a way to get this running in 106 ?
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on July 16, 2015, 01:25:42 pm: Quote from: Adam_Mon on July 16, 2015, 12:58:56 pm
Quote from: marky_d on July 16, 2015, 12:55:37 pm
http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html (http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html)

.dsk is there a way to get this running in 106 ?

This kind of stuff makes 106 look like it came from the future... you will need a Tandy CoCo 3 emulator, DOS Box, and maybe some divine intervention. I'm working on it though...
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on July 16, 2015, 01:31:54 pm: Quote from: xelnia on July 16, 2015, 01:25:42 pm
Quote from: Adam_Mon on July 16, 2015, 12:58:56 pm
Quote from: marky_d on July 16, 2015, 12:55:37 pm
http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html (http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html)

.dsk is there a way to get this running in 106 ?

This kind of stuff makes 106 look like it came from the future... you will need a Tandy CoCo 3 emulator, DOS Box, and maybe some divine intervention. I'm working on it though...

Actually....this might work with MESS...
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: marky_d on July 16, 2015, 01:53:31 pm: please go sir
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on July 16, 2015, 02:49:08 pm: Got 'em. The sound and colors are messed up (as the guy said might happen in an emulator), but it plays.

(http://i.imgur.com/pK2LiDH.png)
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on July 16, 2015, 03:14:37 pm: Quote from: xelnia on July 16, 2015, 02:49:08 pm
Got 'em. The sound and colors are messed up (as the guy said might happen in an emulator), but it plays.

(http://i.imgur.com/pK2LiDH.png)

Ok, fixed the colors by using different settings...just need to work out the input lag. Not sure if it's an emulator issue or game issue...
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on July 29, 2015, 07:47:53 pm: Here's a slightly clearer video of that Remixed version of Donkey Kong

It's for the Tandy Color Computer 3, but I'm aiming to port it back to the original arcade hardware in a few months.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: WCopeland on July 30, 2015, 04:36:29 am: Would it be possible to add a 7th digit for million point+ scores?
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on July 30, 2015, 09:30:47 am: I'll look into adding a 7th digit for the arcade port. There are plenty of point pressing opportunities in the game (with hammers on the elevator level, the re-cycling of barrels in the spring+barrels level, hammers on the same platforms as the fireball spawning oil cans in the new cement level...) so I imagine it is foreseeable that eventually there may be a million point game.

It has the same L22 killscreen, the levels up till then are completable in the allotted time, the number of stages per level has the same "2,3,4,5,6,6..." pattern (the stages themselves vary - 3 types of barrel stages, 2 cement stages, 2 elevator stages, 3 types of rivet stages)
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: tudose on July 30, 2015, 03:53:21 pm: excellent work, good sir Kreygasm
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on July 30, 2015, 04:14:17 pm: Quote from: Sock Master on July 30, 2015, 09:30:47 am
I'll look into adding a 7th digit for the arcade port. There are plenty of point pressing opportunities in the game (with hammers on the elevator level, the re-cycling of barrels in the spring+barrels level, hammers on the same platforms as the fireball spawning oil cans in the new cement level...) so I imagine it is foreseeable that eventually there may be a million point game.

It has the same L22 killscreen, the levels up till then are completable in the allotted time, the number of stages per level has the same "2,3,4,5,6,6..." pattern (the stages themselves vary - 3 types of barrel stages, 2 cement stages, 2 elevator stages, 3 types of rivet stages)

This is a pretty cool remix. It's much more dynamic and faster-paced than D2K: Jumpman Returns and if it gets ported back to arcade/MAME I think more people will play it. I did manage to get it working in the MESS emulator. My previous comments in this thread about colors and input lag are all irrelevant now since those things are adjustable in the emulator. Overall the game is very difficult, but that's fine. If you don't mind I'd like to point out a couple of things:

1) The spring-barrel stage is hard as f*ck...maybe too hard to be "fair." If you get delayed in any way it becomes an avalanche of barrels. Exciting, but brutal.
2) I'm not sure what your intent was on the new rivet stages, but they seem to be very puzzle-like. As a result of the falling platforms, it seems like there is really only one "correct" way/path to finish them. That's not really a problem, I think, but it could create a scenario where once everyone figures out the pattern it's just a matter of hoping the fireballs spawn in the right place.
3) There might be a bug in one of the rivet levels. If you look at the highlighted portion below you'll see two platforms. If Jumpman walks off the top platform to the bottom, he dies. But if he jumps from the top to the bottom, he lives. Again, I'm playing in an emulator, so take that for what it's worth.

(http://i.imgur.com/BrVd8uu.png)

Great stuff, all around, and I really enjoy playing it.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on July 30, 2015, 07:42:57 pm: Thanks! The feedback is much appreciated. I guess there is a good thing about making it on the CoCo first - it gives me the chance to iron out the glitches in advance, before it becomes locked down as ROM in actual DK cabinets.

(1-Spring-barrel) I can make adjustments to the rate at which DK releases barrels. It's already adjusted down from DK standard - it starts slower than normal at LV1 and by LV5 it's at DK's normal release rate, but I can adjust it so it never quite reaches 'normal' on the spring+barrels stage.

(2-Rivets) You can take out the rivets in any order (*except generally that last unreachable one). You can even make one of the upper floors fall onto a lower floor. The Firefoxes have the ability to jump up or down a step too. I'm sure someone will figure out the ideal order to complete the new rivets stages, but it isn't something set in stone. The level design complication is that if the floors fall, it makes it much more complex to design a level where the player won't feel trapped at the edges if the middle floors are gone...

(3) ...Which was why I put that extra little platform at the right - to have a place to escape to if Firefoxes are climbing the ladder.. And oops, that is indeed a bug. I'm going to need to think about that one.. You just discovered a way to cheat on that level that I didn't expect. It's an interesting cheat too, and... It already happens to be programmed in such a way that the level completes and the ending scene works properly.
Here's the setup: Climb up and pull the top/left rivet beside DK. Then perform the bug to get to the ladders to reach the top/right rivet beside DK.. Pull that rivet. Bingo, You've completed the level. DK falls a short fall, bashes his head and Jumpman is reunited with Pauline.

I didn't expect that to be possible on that level, but I had added some extra code....just in case. If somehow, someone pulled the rivets out of DK's floor...and the floor fell, but the stage did not finish, you'd be left with DK floating there in mid-air for the rest of the level's play time... which would be a bug of unacceptable levels. So, in that event, it counts the board as completed. It calculates how far DK should fall, and just does the ending cinematic as normal except for adjustment to how far DK falls.

So, it's cool.. but still a bug. My options are to fix it so Jumpman dies like he's supposed to when he jumps down 2 rows. Or move that platform up one row (not a good solution because it doesn't fix the underlying bug). Or leave it like that, but then you have the possibility of trapping yourself unable to complete the level (also not a good solution). I guess the answer is to fix the safe jump-down distance so Jumpan dies, maybe also move the platform up one row so it doesn't tempt players to jump.

Thanks again! That is exactly the sort of constructive criticism/feedback I'm looking for to find issues with and to improve the game.

Oh. I tried playing it in MAME/MESS and yes my controller did seem a bit laggy. There's a convoluted way to configure the keyboard to work as the joystick and that seemed more responsive. I also found if you make a 2nd copy of the coco3.zip rom file in the roms directory, and rename the 2nd copy to coco3h.zip, it'll allow MAME/MESS to emulate a CoCo 3 with a 6309 processor instead of a 6809 processor - and the game will run at a slightly more fluid frame rate.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on July 30, 2015, 07:57:14 pm: Quote from: Sock Master on July 30, 2015, 07:42:57 pm
Oh. I tried playing it in MAME/MESS and yes my controller did seem a bit laggy. There's a convoluted way to configure the keyboard to work as the joystick and that seemed more responsive. I also found if you make a 2nd copy of the coco3.zip rom file in the roms directory, and rename the 2nd copy to coco3h.zip, it'll allow MAME/MESS to emulate a CoCo 3 with a 6309 processor instead of a 6809 processor - and the game will run at a slightly more fluid frame rate.

Cool! I'll give this a try. I'll keep playing and see if anything else interesting pops up. Great work, sir.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: f_symbols on July 30, 2015, 08:19:41 pm: Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on July 31, 2015, 09:17:17 am: I've updated the file on my web page:
http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html (http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dkremix/index.html)

I fixed the alternate rivets stage bug (Jumpman now dies like he's supposed to if he jumps down from the topright platform.)

The barrel release rate in the spring+barrel stage starts a bit slower, and increases more gently as the internal difficulty increases. It won't actually hit maximum release rate until L-09 in the game. (Level and internal difficulty level both act upon the barrel release rate in this level.) That should reduce the avalanche of barrels.

Plus a few other tweaks to the internal rules.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on August 04, 2015, 10:31:38 am: Quote from: Sock Master on July 31, 2015, 09:17:17 am
I've updated the file on my web page:

I played through the update on my stream:

http://www.twitch.tv/xelnia_games/v/9677936 (http://www.twitch.tv/xelnia_games/v/9677936)

Two things that jump out at me:

1) Two times in this game I dropped a rivet platform without grabbing a prize and the prize just floated in mid-air until the end of the stage.

2) The remixed pie factory might present a far higher percentage of impossible scenarios than is reasonable. If the separate fireballs each camp out along the various paths to the top, there is nothing to be done. I would also consider rethinking the fireball behavior at the top of the pie factory. Requiring Jumpman to climb all the way to Pauline to finish the level is cool, but allowing the fireballs to climb to the top conveyor as well as back down just compounds the "impossible scenario" problem. Contrast with D2K where you still have to climb to Pauline, but the fireballs are restricted from climbing the retractable ladders.

Also, Wes asked for a 7th digit in the score. I have a hard time seeing anyone getting a million in the remixed version, but if the original version is still playable then that would work.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Barra on August 04, 2015, 01:53:42 pm: 13:30
ROFL
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: marinomitch13 on August 04, 2015, 02:22:56 pm: What's up with not getting any points for jumping that barrel on the very first hammer grab?
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on August 04, 2015, 04:43:28 pm: xelnia,

Nice. I'm going to watch the video a few more times and make notes. I can spot a few areas I can make some adjustments to balance out the difficulty. The video really helps.

-I think if you set "AD Stick X Digital Speed","AD Stick X Autocenter Speed" (and for Y as well) to 100 in MAME/MESS, it should improve the controller's response time - Might help with the jump back over a pulled rivet before the floor falls. I'm probably going to increase the delay before a floor falls just to make that jump easier to pull off.

-The floating hat... I should move it elsewhere so it won't be subject to anti-gravity. It seems a bit silly to code a gravity routine just for the prizes even if it would look cool to see the hat gently flutter down.

-The remixed pie level is too brutal. I have to think of something to ease it up. I gave the fireballs the ability to climb down from the top so they wouldn't camp out above and prevent the player from reaching Pauline. They even have a reduced probability of going up in the first place. On a positive note, DK does not go all the way to the left or right sides on the conveyor - DK won't crush Jumpman when he climbs those ladders and he won't get crushed at the sides if he misses a chance up Pauline's ladder.

-You can influence the direction of the barrels falling down the center in the barrels+spring stage. I may ease the barrel release rate some more, or maybe adjust their probability of heading toward the spring.

I know the behavior rules/logic/probabilities because I wrote them and this makes it difficult for me to gauge how difficult the game will be for others. I'm not the best DK player, but I can complete the new barrel+spring stage without much difficulty at any level. The new pie level, though... that one kills me often at higher levels - that one is plain too murderous. I do 'alright' at the new rivets stages, but I spotted a couple of things I can adjust to give the player more options to avoid fireballs. The new elevators stage seems fine. Both elevators stages do change subtly when you see them again at higher levels - that makes them a little tougher later on. I seem to do ok at making it to the top - I mostly have trouble making it up Pauline's ladder beyond L4, but that is unchanged over the original game so I figure this is alright.

I'm wondering, is it really hard because it's new... and nobody's learned tricks yet? Was the original DK too hard in the beginning, but seems easier now because players have developed strategies and experience?
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: DaLar on August 04, 2015, 07:47:19 pm: I also played some CoCo3,, very fun sir :)

www.twitch.tv/dalar75/c/7011006 (http://www.twitch.tv/dalar75/c/7011006)
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: ChrisP on August 04, 2015, 10:53:07 pm: Quote from: Sock Master on July 30, 2015, 07:42:57 pm
it gives me the chance to iron out the glitches in advance, before it becomes locked down as ROM in actual DK cabinets.

I wasn't expecting more than a MAME hack!

You're going to be up against a technical roadblock if you actually want to get this going in a cab, namely that this monster won't fit into the ROM space available on a DK PCB. A daughter card would do it (like with D2K), but then somebody would have to design/manufacture the hardware for that.

Do you have a plan on that level?
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on August 04, 2015, 11:51:20 pm: Another question: is there a way to go back into the DK Remix settings menu without restarting the whole game? I can't figure out how to do it...
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on August 05, 2015, 07:21:39 am: DaLar, Oh, very nice. I'm enjoying watching the video. It gives a good insight on how players react to the new levels. I also like how you're trying ways to break and find tricks in the game - I didn't even know about that broken ladder glitch. I assume that's possible in Donkey Kong/Crazy Kong? Would that work on broken ladders only under specific conditions?

ChrisP, The original DK hardware has an empty, unused ROM socket meant for the diagnostic ROM, correct? That would give an additional 4K of ROM space for the game code. That should be just enough space. As yet, I have only an apples to oranges comparison to estimate how much larger the game will get because the CoCo has a 6809 CPU instead of a Z80 CPU, but the CoCo version grew by about 4K between original and remixed.

xelnia, No. It would have been nice if it could go back to the menu, but the menu code gets wiped once the game starts because the game needs that RAM to run. There wasn't enough free space in the memory map to retain the menu after the game starts.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: up2ng on August 05, 2015, 03:02:35 pm: Quote from: Sock Master on August 04, 2015, 04:43:28 pm
I'm wondering, is it really hard because it's new... and nobody's learned tricks yet? Was the original DK too hard in the beginning, but seems easier now because players have developed strategies and experience?

Sock Master -- This looks quite excellent so far. I can't wait to play it. I had the same thought that you are having above, and I feel like you should hesitate to make anything easier just for the sake of making it easier at this point until you've had a longer period of testing from various players and have accumulated more feedback. If something is truly broken or has some poor game play design that can be improved then that's great, but generally hard yet fair is good for arcade games. They are supposed to eat your quarter after all.

What specifically happens when you change the "remix" and the "difficulty" settings in the menu? If you do decide to make a change to some of the boards to make them easier, perhaps you should consider maintaining the original code as a harder difficulty setting that an arcade owner can adjust as players begin to get too good at the game like many games have.

I love the comment that it appears you have created NINE different internal difficulties while progressing through the game! This is fantastic, and I would encourage you to create even more board variations if possible, or perhaps just more internal difficulty settings so that it becomes outrageously difficult (but still possible) later in the game. Staying with the idea of a Level 22 killscreen is great also IMO, and so perhaps one plausible idea is to have 21 distinct internal difficulties so that the boards play slightly differently throughout the whole game! Have you considered the possibility of changing Level 22 so that the game has an ending instead of the classic kill screen ending from the original DK?

I am so psyched about this game. Great work on this and looking forward to seeing and playing the finished product.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on August 05, 2015, 10:40:49 pm: I updated the DKREMIX file on my web page.

I found a couple of bugs and had to fix them. One was pretty stupid of me - I meant to adjust the rate at which barrels get released on the spring+barrels level to make it easier, except I messed up and inverted the logic so what it did was reduce the rate on the *other* barrels stages and NOT the spring+barrels one.....ughh

I added a couple of ladders to a couple of the levels, hopefully to give the player more paths/options to avoid dying.

It seems pretty fair to me now except the 2nd pie stage, which I think might still be too brutal.

up2ng - Yeah, I'm thinking I'm not going to do any drastic changes to difficulty now, except maybe the 2nd pie stage.

Remix A was the way I first envisioned it should be. The game keeps the classic 1,4, 1,3,4, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,1,3,4, 1,2,1,3,1,4 stage sequence, except the first time you see a stage it'll be the original one... the next time that stage pops up, it'll be one of the remixed ones, and on... When it cycles back to an original stage again, it will reappear with a slight change in the layout to still mix things up a bit, but these variations currently end somewhere around L7 if I recall.

Remix B was intended as the easier option. It starts with remixed levels right away and since you see them at lower difficulties it's easier to see all the levels. The stage progression is more like the Japanese version, but not exactly. 1,3,4, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4... (I couldn't bear to put a pie stage at level 1..it'd just be too boring to play.)

"Easy" and "Hard" don't really change things too much. Easy is a reconstruction of the logic in the early release where the barrels won't kill Jumpman climbing a ladder, and maybe something else, I don't remember because I coded that 8 years ago. Hard is the equivalent of the later DK release that is supposed to be harder.

What I did not want to do was mess with the original game logic too much when it concerned the original levels. So there are still the same 5 internal difficulty levels, but there are additional internal values that are used in *new* features. So anything that already existed *mostly stayed intact. Anything brand new, was fair game to invent.
...but I do think you have a nice idea there.. I could make an additional internal difficulty level variable that stays at zero, until you play beyond level 5.. and from there it might be used to keep increasing difficulty of certain aspects of the original game mechanics between L6-L21.

(*mostly)... A few things did have to change a bit...
-Since the fireballs now have gravity, you can't trap them in mid-air in the original rivets stage by pulling a rivet out from under them.
-The new elevator+rivets stage depends on Jumpman being able to reliably *walk* onto and off of an elevator. The distance Jumpman can fall without dying is too unforgiving, so I had to ease it up a *little bit*. This means he can now perform a bit more recklessly without dying in all stages (wall jumps, elevator jumps..)
-Some of the new stages pack girders/floors closer together than they ever could be in the original game. There are 'player/background interaction' bugs in the original game that would get Jumpman stuck in floors when walking or jumping if floors/platforms are too close together. I had to change the interaction logic a bit to allow flexibility in level design. On a positive note, this makes it function more like Super Mario - no more slamming your head into platforms and dropping down to death. I'm not sure if anyone has even noticed this yet... but they will if they play this for a while and then go back to regular DK... and notice it's a lot less **forgiving.
(**Little known trivia - in regular DK, background collision physics are different on the girders stage than on the other stages. Jumpman's head *does* pass through girders there... but not in the elevators stage. So I made it more like the girders stage across all stages.)
-There is more vertical 'action' in the remixed stages. I tweaked the hammer collision detection to better hit things that are slightly above or below. It seemed silly that it failed to hit all sorts of things otherwise. It's more satisfying when you actually hit things with the hammer.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: tilt on August 06, 2015, 01:17:21 am: I am very hyped for this game, I am especially excited for HOW MANY new stages there are! Wow! This really opens up new ideas to me, and I think this game is just great. I think while you are at it, even more new stages could be added in, possible a new stage every level. I suspect technical limitations would make this impossible, but a man can dream. Maybe possibly replacing one of the stages with a new one each level. Cant wait to see how this turns out
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: DaLar on August 06, 2015, 07:29:52 pm: I attempted some floor skips (the 'normal' one from regular Dk barrel board is not in video) :)

www.twitch.tv/dalar75/c/7014220 (http://www.twitch.tv/dalar75/c/7014220)
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on August 06, 2015, 08:27:35 pm: DaLar > That. is awesome. I'll update the file tomorrow and hopefully it's going to fix the floor skip bug. The physics in Donkey Kong are super tempermental. Fix one thing and three other things can break.. I'm really enjoying your videos, it's interesting and informative to watch you try to uncover glitches,etc... in the game.

tilt > I'm pretty much at the limit of how much I can put in this version, but when I do get it ported to the arcade hardware it is possible that there might be a bit of space left for a few more additions.. (hopefully.) But it'd probably be more variations of the existing stages rather than altogether new stages because I don't expect there will be enough room to store more.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on August 12, 2015, 07:22:11 am: I'm starting to get DK Remixed ported over to Z80 to run on DK arcade hardware. It's a long process, but I'm making some progress. The idea is to keep the game mechanics exactly the same as the CoCo 3 game, except it'll run at full resolution/full frame rate/etc on the DK arcade hardware.

Does anyone know offhand if all versions of the DK board sets had the empty ROM socket on the CPU board (the empty socket meant for the diagnostic ROM)
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on August 24, 2015, 10:03:29 pm: I'm almost done porting DK Remixed back to DK arcade hardware. There was a bit of free ROM so I added a few extras - some 'bonus stages' and ..blue hammers, which are the same as regular hammers except Jumpman can actually jump while using blue hammers.

I like the blue hammers.. I can put them in stages where they can be used to get out of tricky situations, or just for fun like in the new elevators stage.

The 'bonus stages' still feel like there's a little something missing... but I'm not sure what I could do as I have only about 200 bytes of ROM space left.

A video:
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: marinomitch13 on August 24, 2015, 10:39:31 pm: <gasp> It's... so... beautiful!!! Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm Kreygasm BibleThump BibleThump BibleThump BibleThump
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on August 24, 2015, 11:11:14 pm: Quote from: Sock Master on August 24, 2015, 10:03:29 pm
Jumpman can actually jump while using blue hammers.

yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: xelnia on August 25, 2015, 01:23:11 am: Quote from: Sock Master on August 24, 2015, 10:03:29 pm
The 'bonus stages' still feel like there's a little something missing... but I'm not sure what I could do as I have only about 200 bytes of ROM space left.

What about something akin to the arcade Mario Bros. bonus stages? In that game you get a brief look at the platforms, then they disappear and you have to navigate them blind to get the coins in the allotted time for the max bonus. What if you create a short section of girders like in your barrel bonus stage, show the ladders, then make them disappear. Then players will have to navigate to the top in some amount of time to get a big bonus. Early bonus stages could have 0 obstacles, then later stages could add barrels or something.

If there's room left on the ROM, maybe the ladders could be randomly positioned between the girders before they disappear, making it a real challenge that can't be memorized. In this scenario players could be partially rewarded for how many girders they can ascend, with a max bonus being awarded if they get to the very top.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: Sock Master on August 25, 2015, 06:51:14 am: There actually is some provision to support invisible ladders - board set-up and ladder initialization are separate routines so they can be initialized with different data. But random ladders is problematic. There are severe limitations on where functional ladders can be placed; the tops and bottoms have to align to 4 pixel lengths... I guess all the possible ladder combinations would have to be stored in a table, but ROM space is just about full.

Maybe I could just have bonus stages award 1000 additional points for every 10 barrels/firefoxes/'pies' jumped or smashed.
Title: Re: Ideas for DK levels and game mechanics
Post by: mrchrister on January 03, 2021, 04:55:57 pm: Just wanted to say this is by far the best Donkey Kong Hack I've played, it's a great take on the classic Donkey Kong and mixes up the challenge nicely. Just wanted to thank Sock Master for this gem. I've been playing the Christmas Edition all over Christmas and slowly are getting better at it. Right now I hover around 50k points. I'm really impressed by your programming and level design skills and hope you'll be doing more of this in the future!