Donkey Kong Remixed

[Sock Master]

I'm still running around like a chicken with it's head cut off getting every aspect of this project sorted out so there's no official way to get them yet, but the very very first boards have been built and some brave souls are on the short list to be the first adopters.  The next set of boards will be built in a couple of weeks when I get parts and I ought to be more organized for getting those into people's hands.

I can add you to a list of people for the 2nd set and I'll send you a message when I'm getting organized.

There are two flavours of the board.    DK Remix+DK Original or DK Remix+DK Deranged+DK Original.
Both add menu selectable options for things like high scores save and free play to all games.

It's going to be 80$ for DK Remix, 90$ for DK Remix/Deranged, plus whatever it's going to cost me to ship.

Deranged is like normal DK but internal difficulty does not plateau at L=05, the game keeps right on increasing in difficulty, things go faster, more than 5 fireballs will appear, etc.

[ChrisP]

If you have an interest list, put ChrisP down for a Remix (sans Deranged). I'm fine with being in the second round.

Also, if this is useful to you, I have a D2K installed and will definitely be attempting the D2K sandwich. Very excited that this is possible.

I'm also not beyond putting this into my Junior PCB just to see what happens.

Your hardware/MCU sounds very interesting, love it. And I agree that it could be a game-changer.

[f_symbols]

I'm also not beyond putting this into my Junior PCB just to see what happens.

I'll go ahead and finally test the DK3 pcb and sling it in there as well

[Capone27]

I would like to be added to the list!  I have a Dk with Dk2k, Dkjr, Dk3 and a CK all in the same cab with a vector lab switcher.

So I am glad to test anything that you need

I would like to have the deluxe kit!

Thanks
Capone

[xelnia]

Is there any way to add the Pauline version into this mix?

[Capone27]

Is there any way to add the Pauline version into this mix?

That would be cool!

[Sock Master]

Thanks everybody.

Yeah, I do think the design is pretty cool.  There's one more thing that it could do - the code in the chip can be updated again in the future.   There's the inconvenience of having to mail the boards back and forth to do that, but it's an option if there is a need to change/fix/update.
Because the chip is a microcontroller, that also means new features could be added without modifying the hardware.   I'm already having thoughts of a future update that might automatically keep track of game statistics in regular Donkey Kong and display them during the "How High" screens (without having to modify DK game ROMs) but that's just an idea percolating for now.

Unfortunately, the Pauline version of DK would not be possible to add because that version requires the graphics ROMs to change rather than just changed program ROMs.

Thanks to all those willing to test it on alternate boards.   I'm curious to find out what happens.
I'm pretty sure the game would technically still run if you plugged it into DKjr or DK3, but the graphics and sounds will turn out all incorrect it'd probably look realllly mixed up... all incorrect colors and graphics tiles.

[jumpman]

I can't wait to get my hands on the remix pcb. I apologize if this has already been explained but I'm curious how to switch between the remix game and the original dk game.

[Sock Master]

The board has a service menu in which you can select which game to boot into on power up.  And also an option to enable or disable game switching.

It can simply boot up into to whichever game you select as default.
If game switching is enabled, you can also simply hold down the jump button for 4 seconds while attract mode is running (eg: not in the middle of playing a game) and it'll switch to the next game.

On the Remix+DK board it simply alternates between Remix and DK.
On the Remix+Deranged+DK board it alternates between Remix, Deranged and DK.

It even lets you boot like a normal DK first and only go into Remix after doing a game-switch.

I should post some screen shots of the service menu.  Both versions of the board have a slightly different service menu.

[mrvaya]

John sir - are this fine gem coming to mame with your approval or do you wish it to be a cab-only thing? Im urging to play the full version but atm am limited to your 2-level demo.

It would be nice with some sort of official statement on this.

[Sock Master]

For the time being, it's going to be for authentic DK arcade hardware only.

[mrvaya]

Ok John. Not the answer I was hoping for but an understandable one tho... Should you decide otherwise at some point you should make it easy to sent you donations. Ill be happy to donate same amount that you earn on the pcb's for this fine (and perhaps similar future) project(s). Im sure a lot of other people are willing to donate as well.
A big congratulation on the outcome of your work!

[tilt]

I would like to add that one of the reasons it is not on mame is because MAMEDEV has to approve the rom for use on the software itself.  It is not necessarily a reason beyond that, just not possible to play it at this point on mame.

[mrvaya]

I would like to add that one of the reasons it is not on mame is because MAMEDEV has to approve the rom for use on the software itself.  It is not necessarily a reason beyond that, just not possible to play it at this point on mame.

Ok Tanner. Hope it will be available soon. The fuzz seems to be all about the Remix. Actually I also thinks the Deranged-version sounds very cool. Still havent seen much footage from it tho - except from Ethan streaming it for a short while after playing like nine hours of Remix 

[danman123456]

OMYGERD I got mine. Installing now and hope to stream some soon!