All About DK ROM sets and PCBs

[ChrisP]

Wow, lots of interesting facts in there.

Several very subtle things I never would have noticed. And a very obvious thing that I never noticed! (The blue "TM" is there in the US version, but not DK Japan! I was never conscious of that...)

[Imp]

Hi can any one tell me what version this pcb board is and if it is at all donkey kong .....
Well found out it is a Donkey kong 3 board thought it looked wierd please correct me if i am wrong.

[ChrisP]

DK3 for sure.

If you want to see for yourself, open the dkong3.zip for MAME, you'll see the ROMs match the label stickers on that board.

Also, take those batteries out of there ASAP (if you got it not knowing how long they've been in there). 

[_Zaphod_]

some 60 in one boards lag. that would cause greater difficulty.

the arcadesd board doesn't lag.

[Chuckie egg]

I have found a Jap version of donkey kong JR on a 4 layer Radar scope Pcb TRS2-03

Is this a rare Pcb ?

[BillyGaines]

I know the difference between the TKG2s, TKG3s and TKG4s. I just didn't know if the # after TKG-4-## made the boards different from one another or is just another series with the same parts and code.  Example:  TKG-4-11-CPU (or video), TKG4-12-CPU, TKG4-13-CPU and so on.  I've seen some different boards on eBay and wondered if you could match up a TKG-4-11-CPU with and TKG-4-XX-Video board successfully. 

[ChrisP]

I responded to you in the shoutbox this morning, but just to keep it in the thread, CPU boards are cross-compatible with VIDEO boards, so long as both are from the 2-board stack. The number after TKG-4 doesn't seem to make any difference.

I don't know how the suffixes change things, but the -14s seem to be the most common. It's likely to be something subtle having to do with the board layout or the ICs. At any rate, the CPU/VIDEOs can be mix/matched and I have actually seen it mentioned on KLOV at some point.

The same "new" Set 1/Nintendo of America ROMset was on all of the 2-boards, regardless of the suffix.

[BillyGaines]

Thanks Chris.  I just didn't want to set off a smoke alarm.

[jumpman]

Does anyone know if it's possible to play the dk wild barrel hack on an arcade pcb? I'm not sure if it is simple as burning the roms and swapping them out on the board? I have no idea why I want to play that version I have enough trouble as it is. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[marinomitch13]

Does anyone know if it's possible to play the dk wild barrel hack on an arcade pcb? I'm not sure if it is simple as burning the roms and swapping them out on the board? I have no idea why I want to play that version I have enough trouble as it is. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

This makes me so happy.

I'd imagine programming new roms with the changed code would work.

[ChrisP]

Any DK hack will be plug-and-play on a DK PCB if it fits onto the ROM chips. If it works in MAME, it'll work on a board.

D2K is a little different in that the program uses more space, and also needs an NVRAM chip to save high scores, so that's done with a daughter card with a 64KB EEPROM.

But the wild barrel hack, Japanese version, or whatever custom thing you want, will play just fine on a DK PCB. The board doesn't checksum the code and refuse to run if it doesn't match or anything like that. Later arcade games did that sort of thing, but a DK will just run whatever is on the chips.

[jumpman]

I looked into the wild barrel conversion for a pcb. It's a 3 EPROMs swap 5a 5b 5e. I will give it a try to see why everyone hates it.

[MickyWinz]

Does anyone have a DK board for sale. Mine is on the fritz and I need a new one to train for the kong off. I figured I would come here before I go elsewhere. Thanks in advance for the help.

[jammyyy]

i got an interesting response to a email i sent  Jeff Kulczycki the maker of the save kits and D2K ,
 I ask him "Hi Sir How are you
 
  I have a question, I currently have a DK save kit bought off Mikesarcade works good.

I'm interested in setting record`s ( serious stuff lol ) on my dk cab.
I was told (a little bird told me) your DK2 kit when use to play the original Donkey Kong bypass the rom`s on the DK pcb and are stored on the eeprom on the kit? is this true?
if so well ok that good to know i guess,

my main qustion is the DK save kit (no d2k instal) i bought off Mikesarcade is it the same?
I mean it only a save kit and I know can be converted to D2K but im not interested in that.
I like to know are there DK rom`s stored on the kit and use to run on the board and bypass the rom`s on the DK pcb?"

His answer was

 Robert,
True.  Both the DK kit and D2K kit will bypass the PCB ROMs and run the off of the EEPROM on the kits.
Jeff

So is this a good thing or bad ? i dont like the idea that all rom`s are on the kit

[YesAffinity]

Methinks as long as the PCB clock is not being bypassed, there should be no difference in the gameplay.