DKC Atlas Forum

[Qyzbud]

Can't believe how upon searching I only got one result of 'Giangurgolo'.

Around 2006 a fellow named Giangurgolo did a fantastic job gathering notes of DKC and how it works. The documents are available in his site.

Get hacking 'yall.

[Qyzbud]

Thanks, I'm surprised I haven't provided that link yet, actually. The thing is, Simion32 (a member here) has been going through the info found on Giangurgolo's site, and has reported to me that not all of the documentation there is accurate. Hopefully in time we will have a complete and accurate section of technical documents hosted on DKC Atlas, and will not need to link off-site for stuff like that. Until then, thanks for the link; it's still good info, even if not perfect.

[Raccoon Sam]

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Oh? They've never failed me.. I must be lucky to not use the addresses that are incorrect, even though I've gone through most.
But yeah, glad to see them get some attention. I hate seeing ROM Hacking documents not being used.
EDIT: I'd be more than glad to help if you ever decide to put up a section dedicated to hacking DKC to the site. I've got some personal notes on my other computer, mostly of DKC 2 and 3, so they might come in handy too.

[Simion32]

I must be lucky to not use the addresses that are incorrect, even though I've gone through most.

As far as I know it was mostly the level tilemap offsets; they were not wrong by too much, but were inaccurate nevertheless. Mainly the value given would be a few tiles ahead of the actual start of the level data, which was thus incorrect. Also, I'll be documenting anything and everything that he didn't document. We will be able to have a complete hacking guide.

[Raccoon Sam]

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Oh boy, can't wait! Now that you mention it, out of curiosity, would you happen to know anything of the map/submap points and paths? I remember finding an array that upon tinkering with changed the level points coordinates, but never got around documenting it further since I was unsuccessful to decode how the thing works around.

[Simion32]

would you happen to know anything of the map/submap points and paths?

Not yet, but that will be among the various things I'll be hacking. In a few weeks I'll be attempting to hack DKC's physics & camera system, so that I can make a faithful replica to be used in the DKCLB (DKC Level Builder, that is. Its topic can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=52).

By the way, try not to quote the entire post above yours... ...and while I'm mentioning that, please read the Forum Rules if you haven't already.

[Raccoon Sam]

That looks really cool..!
And the 'camera system' is already documented by Giangurgolo, in case you didn't know. No idea about the physics, though :/

[Simion32]

And the 'camera system' is already documented by Giangurgolo, in case you didn't know.

I suppose you're talking about the camera coordinates, right? Because I didn't see any ASM documentation for the camera... ah well, I can probably use those camera focal points to hack the rest of the camera stuff.

The physics may be more difficult, though, since every object uses a different behavior. There are a LOT of speed value read/writes in the ASM. I know this because of the Zero-Speed patch I made (it's also posted here).

Also I have to consider that the game sprites are assembled at runtime in a real SNES, and that there is most likely no given "center point" for the sprites beyond their starting location. The Resource Extraction Tool will eventually handle the workload of assembling the sprites so that this doesn't have to be done in the DELTA engine.

EDIT:

I've got some personal notes on my other computer, mostly of DKC 2 and 3, so they might come in handy too.

Hmm, that may be useful. Although I'm not hacking DKC2/3 yet, I say any new info is welcome.

[Qyzbud]

I'd be more than glad to help if you ever decide to put up a section dedicated to hacking DKC to the site. I've got some personal notes on my other computer, mostly of DKC 2 and 3, so they might come in handy too.

As you can see, the Studies & Docs section of DKC Atlas is pretty much devoted to hacking, and understanding the technical intricacies and general ins and outs of the game's code. I called it Studies & Docs because it sounds a bit more 'respectful' to the game than if I used the word 'hacking'. Odd reason, perhaps, but essentially it's a documentation section by and for hackers. Any relevant and accurate documentation that you and Simion (and anyone else) can contribute will be most welcome. I'm a web designer rather than a code explorer, so your help here is appreciated.

DKC2 and DKC3 will hopefully be added to the Atlas in just a few months' time, so your notes will likely help to give them some good content upon launch. Thanks!

[Raccoon Sam]

Hey, that's pretty awesome. Now that you actually mention it, the web design is pretty fabulous. Good job.

By the way, try not to quote the entire post above yours... ...and while I'm mentioning that, please read the Forum Rules if you haven't already.

Sorry, won't happen again. And yeah, I read the rules; in fact, my first post is in that topic

[Qyzbud]

...yeah, I read the rules; in fact, my first post is in that topic

I had noticed that... makes this misdemeanour pretty ironic.

Anyhow, no worries. Back to your offer to help out; what general kinds of info do your personal notes of DKC2 and 3 contain?

[Raccoon Sam]

Nothing that big, mainly ASCII text addresses and tilemap arrays. The latter ones are long strings of hexadecimal values that upon changing take effect on the corresponding tile of the character.
Editing KAOS' tilemap would cause changes in how KAOS looks, and so on. The same format applies to just about everything, from sprites to background stuff (Like the '1996 Nintendo' text in the beginning).

[Simion32]

So there are sprite tilemaps as well? I should look for a similar thing while hacking DKC, then. Knowledge of such data will be needed when I make the Resource Extractor auto-generate sprite animations.

[Simion32]

"Content Blocked" by the hosting service.

I have PM'd Qyzbud about this issue. Don't worry, as I have several backup copies of all the documentation.

Edit: Hey, Isn't it rather ironic that this is my 911th post? Weird.

[Mattrizzle]

Here's giangurgolo's explanation for what happened and a link to the new location of his Web site, copied from board2:

AT&T deleted my old site. Click here to access the site on the new host. I lost several files, so those won't appear on the page.
...
if anyone happens to have any of those files I lost that I mentioned, it'd be nice to share them.

He no longer has any of the DKC documents.

I don't have giangurgolo's email address, but I can send him a private message at board2.

What I'm getting at is this. If you upload the backups somewhere, I can refer him to them and he can restore the DKC portion of his site.

Sorry if my grammar seems weird. I've been awake since 3:30 AM EDT (it's almost 10:00 PM here at the time of typing this post) to study for Final Exams I had today. Just one more...

...Oh, and hi.

[Simion32]

Wow, Mattrizzle, you've all but disappeared up until now...

NOTICE: I have already sent Giangurgolo a PM on board2.

I went ahead and uploaded a ZIP of all the DKC documents from the previous site, with exception of the old Tile Sets Collection.

Giangurgolo's DKC ROM Documents - Atlas Archival Copy

I'll leave this uploaded just in case any other data loss were to occur.

Also, I'm not certain but I may have some of his SMRPG stuff as well. But, it's not very likely. EDIT: Nope, don't have those docs anymore.