DKC Atlas Forum

[Mattrizzle]

It looks like most of the changes between the unused and normal versions were to make it use fewer tiles, though it kind of defeats the purpose when the original version is still hiding in the ROM. Nice find!

Here are the differences I could spot with the naked eye:

• The poles in the unused version look different, while the right pole is a mirror image of the left one in the final version.
• The stripes on the victory podium mostly use unique tiles, but largely use a single repeating tile in the final version.
• The number 1 above the victory podium is about one pixel to to the left of its final location, and has odd red shading. Perhaps it is reflecting the text above it, but regardless, it doesn't look right.
• The trash bin's reflection is much lighter in the unused version. It reuses solid black tiles in the final version.

Here's an image displaying all of the changes. Altered pixels are white, while unaltered pixels are black.

crankys_vgh_diff.png (533 Bytes) Viewed 74132 times

...I would still be interested in knowing to know where/how you found it. It could be deleted to free up more space in a ROM hack.

[Kingizor]

Code: Select all

EC:D032 ~ EC:F8CE (0x4260) - (Video Game Heroes) 8x8 Image Data (UNUSED?)
EC:F8CE ~ EC:FDEE (0x0700) - (Video Game Heroes) 8x8 Layout (UNUSED?)

The data is compressed, of course.

[Qyzbud]

Apparently there is an ever-so-slightly different version of the "Video Game Heroes" background hiding within DKC2:

Spoiler!

Unused Version	Normal Version

[link to post]

A truly curious discovery...

I've put together a comparative GIF to help make the adjustments more apparent:

CVGH Screen (unused, normal) comparison.gif (16.63 KiB) Viewed 74118 times

The same image again, at 2x magnification:

Spoiler!

Of course, you can always zoom within your browser to make it even bigger.

As usual, I agree with Mattrizzle's analysis; just about every adjustment looks like an effort at efficient tile usage... but for Rare to then keep both versions actually results in taking up more space in the ROM. It definitely seems like someone was going through the optimisation process, and just never finished the job.

Whatever reason they had to move the number 1, it caused the ray of light shining NNW from it to look ever so slightly off — which is something I've always wondered about...

Great find, Kingizor.

[Qyzbud]

In 2012 or 2013 I found a beta level palette in DKC2, the beta palette of all the ship mast levels, it's seen in beta shots of DKC2 and I found it in the ROM of DKC2, use SDK2 editor and you can use it.

Edit: It was 2011, it seems a little newer.

[Qyzbud]

I believe you made note of that discovery earlier in this very topic, Markster.

Note: I've split the off-topic discussion of GIF animations into a new topic: http://dkca.net/f/t1996

[Mattrizzle]

Nothing huge, but there's one mildly interesting palette I found a while back that never got mentioned here.

DKC2-palette_3D7546.png (196 Bytes) Viewed 73892 times

This is located right after Funky's palette in the ROM. If these colors look familiar...

FunkyDKC2.jpg (112.06 KiB) Viewed 73892 times

...it's because they appear on Funky's surfboard in his official render. At first nothing seems unusual about this...

DKC2-funky_in_game.png (31.9 KiB) Viewed 73892 times

...until you realize it uses Dixie's palette in the game (compare the shades of yellow to Dixie's hair). As a result, it even changes color depending on which team is playing in Two Player Contest mode (its base color will be pink when team 2 is active), and whether Dixie is the Kong in the front (it will be darker when Diddy is leading).

The change was made because there is no space to store the unique surfboard palette in CGRAM on Funky's screen. All 8 sprite palettes are already used:

1. Diddy Kong
2. Dixie Kong
3. Funky Kong (doesn't include surfboard)
4. Funky Barrel's propeller, wings, and tail
5. Barrel portion of the Funky Barrel
6. Banana Coin
7. Diddy/Dixie head cursor (replaced by palette for starburst effect when Kongs jump into barrel)
8. Banana Coin counter numerals

The palette no longer fits Funky's surfboard, because its sprites were remapped to fit Dixie's palette.

[Geno]

It kinda sucks that the palette can no longer be applied to the surfboard.

But it's still cool.
(Actually, is it just the fact that the colours were re-arranged? Would recolouring it in an image editing program, or modifying the Funky surfboard palette to match Dixie's fix it?)
I can't believe that I never noticed Funky surfboard changing colour with Dixie though.

Although, what I find odd, is that the Diddy/Dixie map head uses a different palette than Diddy and Dixie themselves.
I mean, both the heads and the Kongs themselves seem to use the same colours, right?
(Although this is probably something similar to the Knocka palettes in DKC3)

[Blaziken257]

Is the SNES capable of changing palettes while the screen is drawing, between scanlines? If that makes sense at all... Since Funky's surfboard is positioned above Dixie, maybe it is possible to do an ASM hack where the one of the sprite palettes is initially the one intended for the surfboard. Then, after the surfboard is completely finished being rendered on the screen, but before Dixie starts being rendered, the palette would switch to the one intended for Dixie Kong. Of course, I don't know how the SNES works, but it would be cool to see nonetheless.

[Mattrizzle]

Actually, is it just the fact that the colours were re-arranged? Would recolouring it in an image editing program, or modifying the Funky surfboard palette to match Dixie's fix it?

No; the colors weren't just rearranged, but color reduction had to happen in order to make the surfboard fit Dixie's palette. In its current state, the surfboard only uses 10 colors instead of the full 15, not counting the transparent index.

Although, what I find odd, is that the Diddy/Dixie map head uses a different palette than Diddy and Dixie themselves.

The main reason for this is that all of the sprites of Diddy and Dixie used on the map screens share a single palette in order to save space in CGRAM:

DKC2-Diddy_Dixie_Map_palettes.png (3.23 KiB) Viewed 73846 times

Diddy and Dixie's normal palettes are never loaded on the map.

Is the SNES capable of changing palettes while the screen is drawing, between scanlines?

The SNES can do this using HDMA, but see my response to Geno's question above.

If someone did make use of this method, it would be best not to touch Dixie's palette as portions of her would become surfboard-colored when she would jump into the Funky Barrel. Instead, they could change the surfboard object's settings so that it uses the same palette line as the coin counter numerals. On one of the scanlines after the numbers are drawn, but before Funky's surfboard is, the number palette would be replaced with the surfboard palette.

[Mattrizzle]

Made an animation using Diddy's unused Rattly sprites, and included the normal animation for comparison:

dkc2-diddy_on_rattly-unused.gif (28.7 KiB) Viewed 73744 times

dkc2-diddy_on_rattly-normal.gif (28.27 KiB) Viewed 73744 times

[Tailikku]

I actually tried fixing the pallette of Funky's board, but it ended up making it look more like "Trixie"/glitch Dixie was in the room

[MatiZ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYtEY8pC4bU This is a corruption. In 1:06:50 I found the unused fanfare sound. The sound was supposed to appear when a player touches balloon or gain life. Is this it? https://tcrf.net/File:DKC-Unused_Sounds_71_%26_72.ogg

[Lanky Kong]

So... is the mecha Kritter supposed to be called Krocbot?

[spaceman2028]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYtEY8pC4bU This is a corruption. In 1:06:50 I found the unused fanfare sound. The sound was supposed to appear when a player touches balloon or gain life. Is this it? https://tcrf.net/File:DKC-Unused_Sounds_71_%26_72.ogg

Ah, very interesting find! At first the original sound in the video seems to be a corrupted sound, but then you play the unused sound and it makes sense!

So... is the mecha Kritter supposed to be called Krocbot?

What, are you referring to my creation? That's Kontrol, the fanmade DKC equivalent to N. Trance from the crash series.

[Mattrizzle]

No. Lanky Kong was referring to the Mechanical Kremling sprites I ripped years ago. They can be found in the Miscellaneous sprite sheet in this topic's first post.

And it would be too big of a coincidence for it to not be named Krocbot, given the recent revelation from Gregg Mayles.

[WesternTanager794]

This is a cool topic and I will be looking for stuff to add to it!

[WesternTanager794]

Has the unused K.rool duel death music been mentioned?

[WesternTanager794]

I found this list of unused content today. Primarily from DKC1.
I forgot to post the link! I’ll find it!

[Mattrizzle]

Bumping this topic reminded me that I need to fix all of the broken image links in the first post yet again.

I will edit this post once I have.

EDIT (1/18/2023): I fixed the links in the initial post yesterday, and added a few links to other posts within this topic that have discoveries from users other than me.

[rainbowsprinklez]

Has the unused K.rool duel death music been mentioned?

Fun fact. I edited that for DKC2:Unveiled

[WesternTanager794]

https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_Donke ... ed_content

I think I found the link again.

[Mattrizzle]

Much of the content in that Super Mario Wiki page wouldn't exist if not for our findings in this forum, so it seems redundant to link it here.

[WesternTanager794]

Oh! I didn’t know that! Sorry!