DKC Atlas Forum

[Markster]

Be aware that this only works for SNES9X, BSNES, and all the emulators that support 6MB and 8MB ROM files, ZSNES doesnt support 6MB or 8MB ROMs

1. Download Lunar Expand from the attachments unless you already got lunar expand.
2. Open it.
3. Click on the "48 MBit ExHiROM (6 MB)" button for a 6MB ROM, for a 8MB ROM, click on the "64 MBit ExHiROM (8 MB)" button.
4. Click "Apply to ROM..."
5. Locate your Donkey Kong Country ROM.
6. Open it into Lunar Expand.
7. It should be expanded, congratulation.

This does work for ROM hacks.

For GBA DKC users you can do this...

1. Download a hex editor (Markster Recommends HxD)
2. Go to the byte insertion section of the program
3. Insert bytes (100000 Bytes in HEX = 1MB)
4. Save it

Research About ROM Expanding :

Research About The Free Space :

Spoiler!

6.00MB Expanded Donkey Kong Country ROM Bytes Research :
4194304 Bytes, Offset 0-3FFFFF :
Donkey Kong Country
32768 Bytes, Offset 400000-407FFF :
Free Space
32768 Bytes, Offset 408000-40FFFF :
Used For Turning The ROM Into 48 Mega Bits
2031616 Bytes, Offset 410000-5FFFFF :
Free Space
8.00MB Expanded Donkey Kong Country ROM Bytes Research :
4194304 Bytes, Offset 0-3FFFFF :
Donkey Kong Country
32768 Bytes, Offset 400000-407FFF :
Free Space
32768 Bytes, Offset 408000-40FFFF :
Used For Turning The ROM Into 48 Mega Bits
4128768 Bytes, Offset 410000-7FFFFF :
Free Space

Research About More Stuff :

Spoiler!

Graphic Glitches :
48 MBit ExHiROM (6 MB)
The Nintendo logo is a little glitched
64 MBit ExHiROM (8 MB)
The Nintendo logo is a little glitched

Emulators :
ZSNES = Z
SNES9X = S
BSNES = B

48 MBit ExHiROM (6 MB)
Z = Doesn't Work
S = Works
B = Works
64 MBit ExHiROM (8 MB)
Z = Doesn't Work
S = Works
B = Works

Storage :
48 MBit ExHiROM (6 MB)
2064384 Bytes Free
64 MBit ExHiROM (8 MB)
4161536 Bytes Free

DKC Games That Are Compatible To Expand

Spoiler!

SNES :
Donkey Kong Country (SNES) - Works
Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES) - Works
Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES) - Issues (Tiles Are Messed Up)
GBA (NOT FOR USE ON LUNAR EXPAND, ONLY USE WITH INSERTING BYTES INTO A HEX EDITOR!) :
Donkey Kong Country (GBA) - Works
Donkey Kong Country 2 (GBA) - (Not Ready)
Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA) - (Not Ready)

Im still doing research about this expanding DKC rom stuff, i know that its really hard to make it recognize the storage, soon i am going to find a better way to get 6mb and 8mb ROM expansions into the SNES DKC, the GBA version is easy to expand, but gameplay and graphics ain't as good on that version.

[Simion32]

I've tried with Lunar Expand, and it's (nearly) impossible. DKC blackscreens.

Also by the way, ZSNES cannot play an 8MB ROM so that's out of the question.

Also, it's likely that the specific mode the DKC's use don't have the exact same data access features as the larger ROMs do. I've got a document on this somewhere, and the technical details are difficult to understand at best.

DKC is also FastROM (to throw around another term), so if the resulting conversion isn't FastROM it's still not going to work. EDIT: Actually it has more to do with data access speeds in certain areas of the ROM memory.

EDIT2: Looking at the Lunar Expand doc, this might be possible but you'd need to mess around with the ROM quite a bit before getting anything done.
EDIT3: The ROM will run under SNES9x with the compatibility 48Mbit ExHiROM expand option — but the emulator crashes after the Rareware logo appears.
EDIT4: SNES9x Debugger runs it but with glitches.

EDIT5: Since this is the compatibility option, it likely means that the duplicated data in the "empty" spots of the expanded space is actually being used to run the game. Meaning, we won't really gain a whole lot from doing this. It still doesn't work in ZSNES, meaning that one of the two emulators ignores something that in SNES9x lets the game run (with glitches).

If we can get this to work with ZSNES and stop the glitches, it means we'll only be getting 1MB of extra space (as the other half is filler with duplicated game data).

[Markster]

I expanded DKC and SDK2 to 6.00MB with Lunar Expand and it worked on my emulator, SNES9X,
But i have tried it on ZSNES, it doesn't work on ZSNES.
But SDK2 Editor does not recognize it, is there any way of hacking SDK2 Editor to make it open 6.00MB expanded SDK2 roms?

[Simion32]

If there is any source code provided for the program yes; else no. if I recall correctly that SDK2 editor didn't have any source code the last time I checked.

[Raccoon Sam]

Why would it not working in ZSNES be a problem?
ZSNES is an outdated emulator and has zero advantages over SNES9X.

[Simion32]

Last version I tried, the music engine tends to crash if you don't have the window focused for long enough (at least I think that's what it was). Besides, I use a WIP version of ZSNES which contains features not present in the current "full" release.

This may just be a matter of opinion, but I like ZSNES's fullscreen mode much more than SNES9x. More of a technical gripe -the gamma correction that SNES9x does throws the colors off and this is not suitable for ripping graphics (manual method).

The only thing that ZSNES really lacks in my eyes is the OpenBus support (critical for DKC2 rotatable barrels — Barrel Bayou, Klobber Karnage, etc).

[Raccoon Sam]

That's strange. I've never had any problems with SNES9X (1.52) sound emulation.
And regardless of how the colors display, ZSNES and SNES9X will always drop on their knees before BSNES. This isn't much of an issue though, since one should never use the 'manual' method to ripping unless if on the intention to recolor them afterwards.

[p4plus2]

I may be a bit late to the party but some information I can chip in: I have tested an 8MB ExHiROM which worked for me in snes9x and bSNES. While on the subject of emulators I highly recommend you use bSNES for testing hacks, it is the most accurate SNES emulator currently out there. Currently there is only an unofficial xkas build that supports ExHiROMs, but I am writing a new assembler which will also support them once that is ready.

For anybody wondering the largest official SNES cartridges were 6MB.
Bonus trivia: It is possible to make a 12.875MB ROM, however only one emulator supports that. The memory map would look like this:
$00-3f:6000-ffff
$40-7d:0000-ffff
$80-bf:6000-ffff
$c0-ff:0000-ffff

[Markster]

UPDATED

[VideoViking]

I'm curious: what is the purpose of expanding DKC?

[Markster]

I'm curious: what is the purpose of expanding DKC?

The purpose of expanding DKC is to add extra storage in the ROM for your hacks, i know most people use unused data to add custom stuff.

[Markster]

One again updated

[Markster]

Updated

[Markster]

Updated!

[Kingizor]

I fail to see the point of updating the first post constantly, as it is quickly becoming impossible to tell when stuff has been said, etc. The point of a bulletin board is to post new information, preferably in its own post.

Also, I challenge you to do something with an expanded DKC rom, to prove that this is a worthwhile project.

*Apologies if this all sounds very negative. &_&

[Markster]

Okay, i will try to make something with it, something that uses at-least a little of that 6MB storage, your on, first there is a free 32768 bytes free and after those bytes there is a chunk of bytes that are not free, then comes the rest of the free storage, i wont need hardly any bytes for what im doing, but i will need to use those extra 32KBs, probably only a few bytes out of them, and about the 6MB rom its self, well its a ExHiROM, i might have to use the unofficial xkas that is compatable with ExHiROM code, but ah well...