DKC Atlas Forum

[Qyzbud]

Yesterday I got the GBA version of DKC2, and got to Squawks' ShaftParrot Chute Panic. My game was then struck with sudden, severe, and apparently random slowdown! The music was very choppy during the slowdown. It did make the level easier to play, though (for obvious reasons). Does anyone know why this happened? If it helps, I got it used at GameStop.

[Rodent]

That's the one in the Beehive, right? Because my game does that too. I think the yellow bubbliness overloads the game a bit.

[Kiddy14]

@Rodent: No, Squawk's Shaft is the last level in Crocodile Cauldron =P You're talking about Parrot Chute Panic...
You probably moved the cartridge and the game was having difficulties reading bites... it does sound weird though...

[NS Guy]

Yes, I did mean Parrot Chute Panic! Some other things: the slowdown seemed to be caused by either Klampons or boxes. Whenever they were killed or broken, the game returned to around normal speed. Also, until the slowdown, I didn't know the sound effects were linked to the animations (during slowdown, the sounds were slower or didn't play at all).

[Kiddy14]

Oh so you do mean Parrot Chute Panic?
I know why the game slowdowns like that.
If you turn down the music, you'll notice the flapping wings sound effect for each parrot never ceases playing. So you'll get like 7 or 8 over-lapped flapping wings sounds in the background (except if you enter any room), plus the zinger's sound effect. That causes certain sound effects not playing at all (because the game's busy playing the flapping wings one).
The slowdown may be related to it.

[Qyzbud]

Well, Kiddy's worked it out - by the sounds of it... (pardon the pun)

That's a strange issue to leave present in the game; I'd have thought this would have been easily caught during testing. Of course, judging by the numerous other programming errors and oversights which plague the GBA ports (and even the SNES originals), it would appear that game testers were in short supply.

Some of us really ought to get jobs in that field, I think.

[Rodent]

That would deprive us of endless fun though D:

[PotoGamer]

I was REALLY scared when I saw that Parrot Chute Panic was being so laggy, since I had thrown my GBA because of the anger I had with another game I was playing. But now that I read this, I know that my GBA is working properly!

[Aaendi]

Well, Kiddy's worked it out - by the sounds of it... (pardon the pun)

That's a strange issue to leave present in the game; I'd have thought this would have been easily caught during testing. Of course, judging by the numerous other programming errors and oversights which plague the GBA ports (and even the SNES originals), it would appear that game testers were in short supply.

Some of us really ought to get jobs in that field, I think.

I don't know why, but developers really don't seem to care about slowdown. Everytime I'm doing SNES homebrewing, I facepalm at how much untapped CPU power the SNES has. A 50% lag could happen when the CPU routine is only 2 cycles too long, and most developers will just leave it like that.

[len8946]

Never happened to me :/ I'm using an Australian PAL cart, so I don't know. I also play on a DS, though I doubt that makes any difference. Weird though
I'd say it could be a region thing? Who knows. Oh well, long as you finish the level, right?

[Super Luigi!]

Maybe it is a region thing, because I didn't experience any lag playing through there.

[The Banana Bird]

Most GBA ports have lag in a couple levels. this is a big one along with stormy seas lag.

[Mr.Diddy]

Mayby too many sprites were on screen?