Donkey Kong Trainer

[Sock Master]

Here's the latest version of the DK Trainer:
http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dk/dkong-trainer.zip

That's going to be it.  It's just a bit refined over the last version, the Player1 & Player2 buttons are a bit less fussy about the timing to trigger slow-down/speed-up/board-restart/board-skip/etc..   It can also now slow down to zero percent (pause the game) and I've added a millions digit to the score.

I'm not going to update it any more unless there's a bug.  I've run out of rom space.


Here's the lastest version of DK Pace:
http://users.axess.com/twilight/sock/dk/dkong-pace.zip

Just some clean-up in the code, and I've added indicators to show which board type the deaths were on in the score statistics chart.

With the clean up, and because Pace is a derivative of the Trainer, but with the trainer stuff removed.  There is actually now plenty of room to expand on the functions in DK Pace in the future.   Maybe that's something I'll do in the future.

As it is, I think these are versions of these ROMs that I will add as an extra feature to future DK Remix PCBs.

[mrvaya]

Hi John - I'm happy that the pace program now tracks the board types of the deaths as I have been wishing for! Thx a lot!!! What other features do you have in mind for it?

[mrvaya]

John theres a bug in the screen names of the registered deaths in your pace rom. I just played a single game in it that turned out to be a new (unsubmitable ) pb for me. No problem - if youre good enough you can do the same scores over and over But the bug should be corrected. I sent you a pb with my highlight and deaths-times for examples.

Gameplay seems as authentic as it should be tho 

[Sock Master]

Thanks for finding that.  It's fixed now and the roms (that are linked in my previous post) have been updated with the latest version.

The pace table should always list the correct screens that deaths had occurred on now.

[Sock Master]

I've been busy testing a zillion things.   I have the R&D details worked out and I've pretty much figured out how I'm going to pull this off...so...

If you bring your DK Remix + Deranged board to Kong Off, I will be able to update the firmware on your board to add DK Trainer and DK Pace.

The Remix board will run the same as before but will have the ability to switch to two additional versions of DK.  I'm even trying to figure out how to keep your existing high scores intact (this part is not completely worked out yet, so this is not a guarantee.)

Game switching will run the same as before too, so you don't have to cycle through Trainer and Pace if you don't want to.

The service menu will have new options for Trainer and Pace.  They can be enabled or entirely disabled at your choice.   This will bring the kit to play original DK, DK Remix, DK Deranged, DK Trainer and DK Pace.  (If you have a D2K kit + Remix stack, D2K is also still playable.)

For those who have a DK Remix-only kit.  I won't be able to add DK Trainer or Pace to it.  Those kits have a smaller capacity chip and don't have room for the additional ROM data.   I can still update the firmware with the new version - but there'll be no change in games/features  (just improved timing between different models of Z80 chips and DK PCB sets.)

[f_symbols]

sounds like a scam 

[Sock Master]

Yeh.  Just come back to my grey van to have the procedure done.  It's free.
Also, I'll have candy.

[Sock Master]

I've just updated the download - there's a new revision to fix a scoring glitch...

If a game was started with a direct warp to L=05, the pace table was pre-populated with data for the skipped screens (as it should be)... but the player score started at zero... which caused a mismatch between the pace and the displayed score.   [-arg... tears hair out-]    The score now starts at 95200 if jumping straight to L=05, to jive with the synthetic data in the tables.

[Sock Master]

Bah.  I'm having second thoughts about the last revision... score should probably start at zero if you warp directly to L=05.   Maybe I should have left it like it was (zero)

Opinions?

[ChrisP]

I could go either way, since a L5-22 run is not the way I personally use this program, but it would  make more sense to start with the 95,200 as part of the score.

I can imagine that some might want to practice playing through full runs (minus start) at "x" pace, and I think it would be more helpful for them to have a "real" score to look at throughout the game, rather than one that's off by 95K. (Ie, "at the halfway point in Level 12, my score should be this.")

It's a little strange and potentially confusing for the program to report your pace as "x", but for the actual score on L22 to end up at "x-95K". If you're figuring un-earned points into the pace, you should probably figure them into the actual score too.

[zaxx]

I hate to be that guy, but where exactly does one copy the extracted files from the trainer zip file in order to get it to work properly.  The instructions in the first post seem simple enough.  However, when I put the extracted files into a folder with my DK roms, all I get is the normal version when I launch it.  I've even tried replacing the original files in the rom with the new ones to no avail.

[mrvaya]

Hey there

Extract the trainer files somewhere, then drag and drop them to the unextracted dkong.zip-file and say yes to replace/overwrite the original files within the zip-archieve. Then you can use this new modded version of dkong.zip - hope it makes sense mate.

[zaxx]

I had already tried that but went ahead and attempted it again and it still wouldn't work.  But something you said did help me figure out what I was doing wrong.  I guess it only works if it is named 'dkong.zip'?  As soon as I renamed my rom file, it worked perfectly.  Thanks!

[mrvaya]

No problem sir - yes the unique rom-names shouldnt be altered 

[Sock Master]

I could go either way, since a L5-22 run is not the way I personally use this program, but it would  make more sense to start with the 95,200 as part of the score.

I can imagine that some might want to practice playing through full runs (minus start) at "x" pace, and I think it would be more helpful for them to have a "real" score to look at throughout the game, rather than one that's off by 95K. (Ie, "at the halfway point in Level 12, my score should be this.")

It's a little strange and potentially confusing for the program to report your pace as "x", but for the actual score on L22 to end up at "x-95K". If you're figuring un-earned points into the pace, you should probably figure them into the actual score too.

I've settled on a best of both worlds compromise.

Warping direct to L=05 will preload the score and pace tables with a 100K start.   It's a tiny bit higher than just running boards and lower than pressing for points but it's a super easy number to factor in mentally - You can just mentally remove that "1" if you wanted to and add whatever number your start would normally be without having to do multiple math steps and you'll know what your score could have been if you had played out L01-04.