DKC Atlas Forum

I'm starting to work on the Factfiles section a little, after Tiptup Jr. so generously offered to help write them, and I've realised that there are some elements/features of Donkey Kong Country which I don't have exact names for. I'm hoping that some of you may know an official term for these things, but even just a commonly accepted term, or your own suggestion of what to call them would be handy.


What should these be called?
____________________

Small, Dumb Drum-like canisters which small baddies pop out of:


The only place I've heard them officially mentioned is in the Nintendo Player's Guide, where they are referred to as "baddie-emitting barrels" and an "enemy-spitting canister". I think something like Mini Dumb Drum would be fine, although it's not an officially sanctioned name...
____________________

Necky vultures which perch and throw/drop coconuts:


We can assume that these are a kind of Necky, but I don't think they have a more specific name. They are very different from the regular, airborne Neckys, so I think they deserve a unique name. I've personally referred to them as a Nut-Necky or Nutty-Necky, but Perched Necky has been recommended, and fits well.
____________________

Vine Barrel (Officially named, thanks guys)

____________________

Patches of ground which conceal hidden items until landed on with enough force:


The Player's Guide refers to these as a "patch of fragile ground", an "oddly-colored patch of ground" or a "black square on the floor", depending on the level type. Seems like it would be good to have a single, shorter term which covers this feature. Item Stash is a term I often use, but Fragile/Soft Ground could be okay. Our currently chosen term 'Item Cache' is quite appropriate, but maybe not quite descriptive enough.
____________________

I'm not sure if an official name was ever made known for these things, but it would be good to be able to express anything in the game without having to describe them each time, right? For cases like this, I think it would be good to all brainstorm here, and maybe even ask around the net for other fans' ideas. Having a term that all DKC fans can agree on for each of these would be great. I mean, I certainly don't want to fill DKC Atlas with a collection of expressions made up by me; I want everything on the site to help towards the ultimate goal of making DKC Atlas the most in-depth, accurate and understandable source of DKC information on the net. I'm sure it can be done, but hey... I need your help to do it!

Suggestions for what to call these things are much appreciated!

The mini Dumb Drums already have names: They're called "Black Drums"

The hidden item stashes should be called "Dirt Patches"

The sitting Necky's don't have official names, Rare referred to them as "Perched Neckys" but officially Rare meant for them to be Neckys

"Black Drums"? Where did you hear that name?

"Dirt Patches" is a good suggestion, but many of them aren't made of dirt.

Where did Rare call them "Perched Neckys"? Sounds like a good way to refer to them, but that term's new to me.

I don't remember exactly. It could have been in DKC for GBC (Or maybe GBA)

It was probably in the GBA guide (I don't have it anymore, but it does refer to them as such in an online version of the guide), but I know for a fact that's the official name.

Maybe they got around to producing a guide for those levels on the GBA version, and realised they didn't yet have a name for those things... and so was created the term Black Drums. Who came up with that expression, I wonder... and should it become the SNES version's name of choice... ?

Hmm... Well thanks for that, hopefully I'll soon find out the whole truth behind the Black Drum name.

also, I think the official name for that barrel is the "Vine Barrel"

References, please!

Gosh, I sound like a Wikipedia page alert...

Qyzbud wrote:References, please!

Gosh, I sound like a Wikipedia page alert...

You sound like a Qyz-apedia alert.

It's hard for me to give these things names, because english isn't my mother tongue.
I cannot even find any official german names for the stuff you're looking at.

The official name for that barrel is Vine Barrel. I believe it says so in the GBA version's manual.

I think the ground patch things should be referred to as an Item Cache. That word fits nicely, and sounds a lot more professional than "stash".

I've always referred to those vine barrels as... well, Vine Barrels. Anything else has too many syllables, or is a very long super-descriptive name.

Simion32 wrote:I think the ground patch things should be referred to as an Item Cache. That word fits nicely, and sounds a lot more professional than "stash".

Wow nice vocab. And I agree, this has my vote.

Item Cache is a fine suggestion. Definitely smoother sounding than 'stash', and more contextually appropriate than 'dirt patch'. I'm happy with that.

Vine Barrel is the term we'll go with, for obvious reasons.

The jury's still out on Black Drums, though. Anyone got a copy of the DKC GBC/GBA manuals/guides? I'm not all that sure about accepting the ports' documentation as gospel, but if it's the only source we have, I'll take it.

I don't have the GBC DKC manual with me, but I do remember it had nothing in it on the mini drums...

I found all three SNES DKC manuals, and my DKC GBA manual.

From the DKC GBA manual, on the Winky's Walkway part, on page 35:
"Little Gnawtys spring out of black drums and scurry across the walkways at Donkey and Diddy....."

I think it was just describing them as being black, but not naming them. They didn't capitalize, so I don't think they were naming them.
It mentions it nowhere else in any of the manuals, as far as I can find.


So, if we still need a name, how about Mini Drums?

Well, my research and discussion with other fans, and your input here has lead me to the conclusion that Kong-Fu is the only one who thinks these miniature Dumb Drum look-a-likes have been officially named. The term he accepted as a name is quite clearly just a descriptive term... and it really isn't specific enough to use as a name, even for a fansite, if you ask me. There are other drums in the game - Oil Drums and Fuel Drums... These drums can be easily identified/named by the writing that appears on them.


Dumb Drum and his miniature counterparts have skull and crossbones symbols upon them, so it might be logical to name them accordingly. Something like Skull Drum, Danger Drum or Poison Drum might work. Then there's always Totenkopf Drum... (ask Stone if you need a translation ). Alternatively, Mini-Drum or unhyphenated Mini Drum both sound okay. After all, it is equal smallest of the drums, and the Fuel Drum is clearly labeled so as to prevent confusion, and it's only in one level.

At this point I'm thinking they should be called either 'Mini-Drums', or 'Skull Drums'. Skull Drum sounds more defining to me.

I'd go with mini drums, personally.

That sounds the best to me. But Skull Drums are okay too.

But when played through a level, me personally, I'm worried about jumping precisely, and avoiding or taking out baddies. I pay attention more to the size of something I'd be jumping on (mini) than the design on it.

Hmm, so Nick, you're comparing them to the larger OIL drums? I guess that's the most sensible comparison, as the other types of drums are only in one area each. Mini Drums would make a good name, for that reason. Skull Drum is good on its own, but mini drum is good in comparison to the other drums. I thought about Death Drum, but that's a bit overkill. Oh, great pun just there.

Well going by general recognition and majority opinion, I'm leaning towards 'mini drum' at this point. That will be fine. Thanks for your thoughts, everyone.

DK King of Swing lables the tiny Necky drones as "Mini-Necky". The same ones appear in DK Jungle Climber and can either swoop or spit nuts, so I assume that they're also called "Mini-Necky" in DKC2.

What you're saying is correct, but seems irrelevant...

You realise that the name 'Mini-Necky' isn't what we're debating here, right? Mini Drum is one name we're going for and Nut-Necky is another. The Nut-Neckys being the ones that just perch up high and toss nuts down with a flap of their wing. Like the one pictured on the tire in my first post.

Oops, I apologize. I thought that you were talking about the small Necky drones.

You're forgiven.

What do you think we should call the mini Dumb Drum look-a-likes? Currently we're thinking 'mini drum' is suitable.

I think that Mini Drums and Perched Necky are the best names for the two.

I agree, Perched Necky is better because he isn't the only one to throw nuts.

I believe I would go with perched necky aswell

They aren't really the only type of nut necky around, though... I think it might cause a bit of confusion for some people.

After considering this, I agree. I didn't like the name 'black drum' mainly because there are other drums that are black in the game. Same concept here; there are other Neckys which project nuts... I don't want the naming to be confusing. Perched Necky really can refer only to that one type, but Nut-Necky is a bit ambiguous. Besides, it's apparently straight from the horse's arse- er, I mean mouth. I'd still like to know when/where Rare called them 'perched neckys', but I think I'll make this our semi-official term for now, anyway.

Kowbrainz wrote:They aren't really the only type of nut necky around, though... I think it might cause a bit of confusion for some people.

Oh, sorry, I miss-understood your post.

As I said before, I agree with Perched Necky.

What should we call that red yellow and white 9-pointed star that shrinks/grows (Depending on which game of the trilogy) when a sprite gets hurt, destroyed, or enters a barrel cannon?

Anybody know where I can get the sprites to it, by the way?

Yeah, effects graphics deserve names, too... Maybe starburst, which is the common name for such a multi-pointed shape. Or even something like hit effect which is more context descriptive.

Kong-Fu wrote:Anybody know where I can get the sprites to it, by the way?

Here's a quick sprite rip (I hope you don't mind Qyz...):

I would prefer to call this a Starburst, because it it's easier to say.

I like Starburst the best. It just seems right.

Reminds me of fruity candies

Oh yes, very fruity indeed.

Simion32 wrote:Here's a quick sprite rip (I hope you don't mind Qyz...):

Hit_Effect_51x46.PNG

I would prefer to call this a Starburst, because it it's easier to say.

I don't mind, I just think it's funny that you named the file Hit Effect, but suggested Starburst as your preference.

I like starburst better, too. I don't think I'll capitalise it, though... It's too obscure an element to be a 'proper' noun. Besides, we don't want to infringe on the oh-so-fruity copyrights of the line of chewy sweeties, do we?

Oh yes, very chewy indeed.


Qyz says: Thanks Joe Mango, for being so helpful and fruity. ...and chewy.

So we must also have names like life counter, banana counter, K-O-N-G counter, and so on... I can't think of anything else at the moment. All of the other names such as Perched Necky and Mini Drum sound OK to me.

Yep Qyz, I'm glad I could help.

Simion32 wrote:So we must also have names like life counter, banana counter, K-O-N-G counter, and so on...

Well I think these counters are officially named in the manuals (although maybe not the KONG Letter counter), but yeah, that's right; virtually EVERYTHING will need to be named. This thread can go on as a 'naming queries and ideas discussion' for anything and everything in the DKC gameplay spectrum.

I've always wondered what to call the balloons, for instance. They are officially named Extra Life Balloons if I recall correctly, but obviously that's an unnecessarily long phrase. I'd prefer to call them Red Balloon, Green Balloon, etc. We can always have a number in brackets afterwards if it feels necessary to indicate how many lives they are worth for the benefit of DKC noobs- er, 'Adventurers-in-training'.

In case there is no official term... KONG Counter? KONG Letter Tally? A counter usually refers to numeric recording, so maybe tally is better?

starburst, definitely. Hit effect sounds more descriptive, but you can't eat a HIT EFFECT.

starburst has my vote aswell!

Kong-Fu wrote:you can't eat a HIT EFFECT.

Kong-Fu wrote:You can't cartwheel into baddies with a MILK JUG

Wow, I've learnt so many useful things in the short time I've known you!