Donkey Kong: 2016 Remake Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]: Oxyron prove they're king of he swingers with this 2016 remake of Nintendo's classic arcade game! Read the video description for my review!
This is a tremendous port of one of the greatest arcade games ever made.... Gameplay is so spot-on!! It was worth the 35-year wait to get it on the c64!!😉
The atarisoft version is the best looking version, it’s missing the how high can you get in between screens, but the graphics look true to the arcade for the most part.
The fan made version of Donkey Kong Jr. looks better but this Donkey Kong remake is very impressive overall and has great gameplay. It actually looks and feels like an impressive port that came right out in the early 80's. Back in the day home computers were the systems that had impressive arcade ports and awesome graphics. My neighbors who had Collecovision had the lone console version that did not fall to short of arcade quality unlike other consoles of the day that had really bad versions. I remember having the Atarisoft version on a Texas Instruments home computer. My friends had Atari 800 and Commodore 64. Donkey Kong was the game we compared and played hours on end. The version I had contained all 4 levels which many versions of Donkey Kong didn't but fell short on animation as Donkey Kong did not move. This version looks really good plus has a menu looking like a coin up version which I really appreciate most about it.
It's not "arcade perfect" but to me it took the best from the Atarisoft and the best from the Ocean versions and combined them into an awesome remake. Really nice.
ManTastic Mike Personally I think the phrase arcade perfect is often misused and overused anyway. Half the time when someone says a game is arcade perfect, the vast majority of the time they don't know what the fuck they are talking about. There are exceptions where I would agree with that phrase...like the ColecoVision ports of Zaxxon and Venture for example, but most of the time it's a rather shallow thing to claim.
I just find it amazing how much better this looks and sounds. Makes me think, the original software programmers of titles like this were just pushed and rushed to just put the gmae out. If they were given the time, they probably could have replicated almost an identical copy of that to the arcade. I'm sure also 40+ years of programming knowledge helps too. 🤣
@@vetodrom I don't know if the aspect ration I am seing on UA-cam using my monitor is the same as it was recorded. For me it's important that squares are squares and circles are circles :)
@@elmariachi5133 most videos are showing emulator captures which is close to PAL systems. NTSC C64 has less rasterlines thanks to the higher framerate - so pixels are higher compared to PAL. most prominent example is the first scene in maniac mansion. the moon looks like a melon on PAL machines...
@@Mnnvint The two official C64 ports are much more colorful than this one though. While I really like this port I must agree when it comes to the colors.. I wonder why Mario, Donkey Kong, Pauline, as well as the bridge and rolling barrels appears to have the same 3-4 colors.
The music is wrong on the second Rivets cut scene and why do they use the NES Title Screen Music that is Not in the arcade version, it's annoying how everyone uses that song in all their Donkey Kong home versions. Why no bouncing sounds of the springs on the Elevators board?
Sound is part of game play and is everything. The Intellivision home brew version is better than the NES, Colecovision versions in how accurate it is in playing like the arcade version, yes graphically it's not as good but when you factor in that the Colecovision is supposed to be more powerful and the NES is more powerful and Nintendo programed the NES version but it still is the typical poor quality home version of the arcade version, the Intellivision Home Brew version is better and more arcade quality within the limitations of the hardware.
It’s a great conversion BUT there were already 2 versions for the C64 to begin with ,so i would suggest the group behind this version just to try making a odyssey 2/videopac 2 version of it because that system had no donkeykong game for it and it’s time for that,yes sure the odyssey 2 does have it’s restrictions but maybe they could get around thosr limitations with certain programming tricks,seriously ,am desperate to see donkeykong on the odyssey 2🤣
The colours are relied on the used palette in the emulator. C64 is a machine where people individually set saturation by taste. There is even a website to generate emulator palettes by simulating 1084s monitor settings. www.colodore.com/
@@vetodrom Plus if you don't care for the colors, most emulators have optional colour palette "enchances" VICE even has one that looks similar to the Amstrad CPC
@@scottbreon9448The thing is that people nowadays rely on default colours in emulators and compared to real hardware it does not really match. Even on real hardware there are significant variations. My C64 is connected with a 1084s and same time svideo output to a modern monitor and the colours look very different. Same with TV vs monitor. On NTSC C64 colours usually look more intense than on PAL machines (which is a matter of different pixel size I guess) and the impression varies between different production series. Personally I think that Amstrad CPC is no good comparison, because its palette is based on extreme RGB settings (which is no bad thing and is iconic for the machine) - but C64 colours on the other hand do not even match RGB specifications. eg if you use an unmodified svideo cable strange things happen like yellow is brighter than white. C64 colours need to be scaled down for RGB colour space and this is what happened with the so called Pepto-palette which most C64 related tools use as basis nowadays. ... and also leads to impressions that yellow looks kinda green-ish or dark red more like brown, which happens if saturation is lowered on a Commodore monitor.
I've played this and it's pretty good, but I don't understand the colors they chose to use. I also don't recall the arcade increasing the number of barrel levels you have to clear before reaching a rivet level. They seem to have a pretty good sprite engine and I didn't notice any flickering. It looks like Mario is made up of 2 single color sprites (for each frame) because a pixel is twice as wide on a multi-color sprite and I only see 2 colors, so that's my guess. I don't think I've played the Ocean version, but I know I've played the Atari version and this version is better, IMHO. I don't recall some of the barrels dropping either or why. TBH, I don't even recall how the arcade machine handles barrels below the level you are currently standing on.
Jumpman is an multicolour-hires-overlay sprite, so there are overall 4 colours: Black, dark red, light red and brown. The used colours turned out this way because of different reasons. - Brown and light red are quite versatile as fixed sprite colours for all other objects including Kong. - The black sprite colour for Jumpman is useful to cover background objects like ladders. - There are situations in the game where it was necessary to combine hardware sprites with the character set background, which also a point why I used those individual colour schemes for each level.
I just blew the screen up and there is 4 colors, so presumably it's one sprite. How many colors have to be shared? I thought it was only the off background bit. Does that extend to tiles as well? I assume the girders are made of CC tiles. Maybe the barrels are tiles too? I know there are rules for colors for the VIC-II chip, I just forget what they are because it's been about 27 years since I did any programming. In fact, the last program I wrote, I wrote with a buddy high on pot. It was a draw poker machine we wrote, graphics and all in about 4 hours. It wasn't my best work, but it was probably my best work stoned:) That was in basic though. I wrote a bunch of games in my teens, some in assembly, some in basic with assembly routines and some just in basic.
I almost forgot, could you tell me what a multicolour hires overlay sprite is on the 64? From what I recall, the horizontal resolution is cut in 1/2 if want to use a 2 bit scheme with VIC-II sprites. This is why games that use color sprites usually have a wider 'body' because basically 2 pixels get turned on in multicolor mode. IOW, you don't attribute 2 bits to one pixel, the VIC-II sees the 2 pixels as a single wide one with 1 of 3 colors or off.
Those are two sprites actually. One is set to multicolour (pixel ratio 2x1, 3 colours) and the overlay as hires (pixel ratio 1x1, 1 colour). It was mostly popular in later Ocean games like Platoon or Robocop where the artists used the hires sprites for outlines. In this game "black" has a lower priority because of the black level background so I used dark red for the hires sprite. The main opportunity by doing this is to have a more flexible way to cover half of the double pixels of the multicolour sprite to simulate even a higher resolution on that one.
bin durch den aktuellen c64-artikel in der gamestar auf diese version gestoßen. vom gameplay her absolut fantastisch. was mir aber gar nicht zusagt, ist die grafik von mario, dem affen und auch von pauline. im vergleich zur grafisch genialen (aber leider sehr langsamen) 1983er atarisoft-version deutlich anders und alles andere als original. (so ging es mir schon anno 1987 mit der ocean-version.) wenn man schon den anspruch hat, eine verbesserte 1:1-version zu machen, dann bitte auch möglichst authentisch die originalgrafik umsetzen. so gut es auch gemeint war, sich hier an der gameboy-version zu orientieren (warum eigentlich???), muss ich sagen: falsche entscheidung. ansonsten aber eine top-konvertierung.
Für die Grafik bin ich verantwortlich (bin btw der Oliver Lindau aus dem Gamestar-Artikel). Ich habe die Angewohnheit, bei Projekten, an denen ich beteiligt bin, meinen Stempel zu hinterlassen. Der Anspruch war hier auch nicht, unbedingt eine 1:1-Umsetzung der Grafik vorzunehmen, zumal die Grafik des Automaten auf dem C64 nur hätte verlieren können. Die Farbdarstellung des Automaten und Restriktionen, welche der Port vorgeben, passten nicht zusammen. Eine Sache, welche diese Umsetzung stark prägt, hat mit der Kombination aus Zeichensatzgrafik und Sprites zu tun. Achtung, jetzt wird es technisch: Beim C64 ist Zeichensatzgrafik normal auf 4 Farben beschränkt, wobei in einem 4x8-Pixelblock jeweils eine Farbe zwischen den ersten 8 verändert werden kann (man hat leider nicht die volle Palette des C64 zur Verfügung). Nun ist es bei dieser Donkey-Kong-Version allerdings so, dass im Gegensatz zu den Ports von Atarisoft und Ocean das Hochkant-Format des Automaten nachgebildet wurde, bzw das Spielfeld in den oberen Rahmen ragt, was nur über Sprites möglich ist. Die Beschränkungen sind bei Sprites ähnlich, eigentlich sogar etwas flexibler - aber damit das alles schön nahtlos ausschaut, muss das Farbschema annähernd gleich bleiben. Monster und Hintergrund teilen sich sozusagen die gleichen Basisfarben. Es gibt btw auch die umgekehrte Situation, dass zb Kong nicht unbedingt überall aus Sprites besteht, sondern Hintergrundgrafik. So - jetzt komme ich zum eigentlichen Punkt: Der Automat hat eine vergleichbare Darstellung, wie ein PC mit EGA-Grafik. Also doppelte Auflösung mit 16 Farben. Wenn ich die Grafik 1:1 übernommen hätte, käme das Ergebnis auf dem C64 aufgrund der o.a. Beschränkung einer eingefärbten Gameboy-Fassung gleich. Bzw ich hätte aufgrund einiger Dinge ohnehin vom Original abweichen müssen. Da kam die Entscheidung, stattdessen auf ein C64-spezifisches Design zu setzen. Weil eigenes Design wirkt immer noch besser als ein Mischmasch aus heruntergebrochenen Elementen des Originals mit zurechtgestauchten Objekten. Entsprechend habe ich alle vorhandenen Größenverhältnisse belassen, damit die Spielbarkeit identisch bleibt. Den Leveln aber eigene Farbschemen verpasst, wobei ich mich bei der Umsetzung zwar etwas an späteren Donkey-Kong-Spiele orientiert habe. Nur wenn man meinen sonstigen Kram kennt, erkennt man den Grafikstil schon wieder. Ich stehe zu der Entscheidung, auch wenn das Feedback umstritten ausfiel.
I guess what’s “wrong” is that you didn’t capture the spirit of Miyamotos original graphics. It was very much inspired by old Popeye cartoons, 30s cartoons in general and Japanese manga, al a the stuff in Shōnen Jump of the 70s and 80s. For example the original design of Donkey Kong is very much in the last style. Also look at the cover art of the old Game & Watch boxes for another example of the style. It’s clearly what’s in the game and very much part of the charm and identity of the game. This just looks constrained by the “limitations” of the platform. Instead of rolling with them and embracing them. You are tripping yourself up far too much by insisting on the standard 4:3 format and having score and level visible. You could have done it in high res, with a homage to the original graphics, instead of either going in a completely different direction, or trying to do as close a copy as possible. The recent effort on NES (also code perfect, and with damn near perfect graphics) is in tate mode, which would have been a possibility. ua-cam.com/video/dhRoe44Dg54/v-deo.html Scrolling worked pretty well for the 2600 version. Never too late to change the graphics now that the code is in place I guess...
Nathaniel Winston The 64 can handle something that is much closer to the original for certain. Look at the recent Super Mario Bros conversion, for example. The original (good) version of DK for the 64 was much closer to the original graphics, although stretched. Even the 2600 has valiant home brew effort. This game insists on pissing away one quarter of the already scarce resolution, on having score and other stuff on the side. That’s it’s main technical problem. It’s not really about doing as close a facsimile as possible of the original. It’s about getting close to the spirit and style of the original. Doing your own “version” of the game is really going to feel pointless to a lot of people, if you don’t change more than this. It’s like a cover of an old well loved song. Played slightly amateurishly, on the wrong instruments just for the sake of being able to say you changed something. If you want to add something to a remake, you should *really* give it a go. The recent Galaga remake Galencia, while not perfect and not a game I’ll be playing till the end of time was such a thing. It would be interesting to see a good stab at a proper DK for the 64, since it’s obvious it can do it, with the right mindset. As mentioned there are quite a few things to do. Tate mode is obvious. Most C64 monitors are small enough to turn on the side without bad stuff happening. Going high resolution, maybe plus tate, would also help. Hell, ECM might even work, with character set changes mid screen. Miyamoto was/is a graphic and industrial designer and a connoisseur of pop culture. I guarantee you that he gave the DK graphics all his love and a lot of thought and expertise. A remake should honor that. It’s extremely impressive that they have the original code running. But the graphics just lets it down I’m sorry to say. The GBC version while certainly not perfect and perhaps on an aspect ratio screen that’s easier to accommodate the game to, is an example of what I’m talking about. It has some of the spirit of the original, though I’m sure even that could be better.
Hello Helge. I am the artist of this version and actually you hit the mark in parts. I actually did the graphics with focus on the hardware limitations and the main reason ist that this version is using the border for the level layout. This required mixing the restriction of charmode and sprite based graphics at some places which results in kinda tricky "combined" restrictions. This means that 3 of 4 colours are shared for everything visible plus different limitations for the variable colour. There are some places for example where background gfx needed to be split somewhere in the middle. I commented before that this would have developed to a more or less 4-colour version (or even monochromatic speaking of HiRes) if the original wouldn't have been modified someway. So my attempt was to be as close to gameplay related dimensions because this is essential for the port imo. As said the main reason are the colour restrictions and this is the reason for the different colour sets compared to the arcade. And it is also the reason why I decided to follow a different approach for the general design likewise Nintendo did for the game boy version, but in more C64-specific way. I know that this was a controversial decision and I understand the criticism of DK-fans for changing the original design. Personally I am still happy with the result. It keeps the simplicity of the arcade and does not alter the orignal gameplay.
v3to did you consider tate mode and/or high res? It *is* a nearly impossible task to squeeze a game like that into what looks like 110x200. Monochrome play field could have worked if you had “just” owned the style. The real star here will after all, always be nigh on arcade perfect gameplay.
@@Frisenette Well, the playfield is higher than 200 pixels, because the border has been used also. Actually it resembles 1:1 the original layout of the vertical arcade monitor set. That is the whole point here and that I am not willing to stay close to the original while graphics are forced to a bad compromise in terms of colours and/or resolution. Edit: Tate mode would have provided more flexible gfx restrictions but I am pretty sure that it is not the case for the code. This version is a line-by-line-translation of the Z80 code to 6502 with C64-specific adjustments. Rotating the screen layout 90 degrees are controversial needs a different approach from scratch.
i dont like the new look of donkey kong, somethings off, along with the screen presentation, it doesnt feel authentic, but its still a good game, tho i would rather play the ocean version anyday.
Could you tell me, what is wrong with the graphics? Actally I did not follow the original design because it would have been a turn-down-version of the arcade speaking of colours and resolution, so I chose a more personal and c64-specific approach.
v3to I guess what’s “wrong” is that you didn’t capture the spirit of Miyamotos original graphics. It was very much inspired by old Popeye cartoons, 30s cartoons in general and Japanese manga, al a the stuff in Shōnen Jump if the 70s and 80s. For example the original design of Donkey Kong is very much in the last style. Also look at the cover art of the old Game & Watch boxes for another example of the style. It’s clearly what’s in the game and very much part of the charm and identity of the game. This just looks constrained by the “limitations” of the platform. Instead of rolling with them and embracing them. You are tripping yourself up far too much by insisting on the standard 4:3 format and having score and level visible. You could have done it in high res, with a homage to the original graphics, instead of either going in a completely different direction, or trying to do as close a copy as possible. The recent effort on NES (also code perfect, and with damn near perfect graphics) is in tate mode, which would have been a possibility. ua-cam.com/video/dhRoe44Dg54/v-deo.html Scrolling worked pretty well for the 2600 version. Never too late to change the graphics now that the code is in place I guess...
What is wrong with the graphics? I am the graphic artist of this version and am seriously interested what exactly is shitty compared to the Atarisoft and Ocean version.
I guess "Shitty" was not succh a propper word to use but It looks like EGA graphics and the colors are wrong and Mario does not look like Mario. I did watch a video of the Ocean Soft version and it looks different then what I remember it looking like, I guess back then compared the the VCS and Intellivision versions it looked way better but the Ocean version still looks better, Mario looks like Mario, the colors are more correct and Donkey Kong is not too tall on the rivets board, he does not extend past the top of the top metal beam.
Seriously the Ocean version also does not follow the original colour scheme in all levels. And personally I have to say that the Atarisoft version is anything but good by C64 standards. You'll get the point that I didn't use the original graphics as reference but choose a similar way to the gameboy version instead for the jumpman/mario sprite. From my point of view a 1:1 comparison to the arcade would mean a downgrade, because the arcade is designed for more flexible colour usage and resolution than the C64 is capable of. Which is the reason why I shifted to a personal design. I still do not get the point what is wrong with that.
Strange that you would bash the Atarisoft version - I think it was by far, the closest to the arcade, and the most bright and colorful. I prefer the graphics -even if they don't have the shading bells and whistles - of that version even the gameplay was horrifically slow. I think Atari did a marvelous job in terms of graphics. I think you're restylized version is also neat and I applaud the work you must have put into it.
@@scottbreon9448 The gameplay looks absolutely solid, what I mean is that the graphics could look a lot better for a C64. Some colors are off and the sprites look nothing like the arcade version. The Atarisoft one nailed it, why not this one? Although I can't call out artistic licence but they should have tried their best to recreate the arcade sprites, it would be an awesome port then. Just look at donkey kong... Mario seems to look like a offbrand Miner 2048ner. Not to hate on anyone, again the gameplay is solid.
![Stormlord Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xzKZqTO4aFw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Stormlord Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]](/img/tr.png)
This is actually quite brilliant, amazing effort.
Donkey Kong: 2016 Remake Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]: Oxyron prove they're king of he swingers with this 2016 remake of Nintendo's classic arcade game!
Read the video description for my review!
Al82: Retrogaming & Computing who game this game is a amazing version
the donkey kong country theme with the C64 synth goes way too hard for its own good, i absolutely love it
This is a tremendous port of one of the greatest arcade games ever made.... Gameplay is so spot-on!! It was worth the 35-year wait to get it on the c64!!😉
Whow, this is so much better, than the version we had in the 80th. Unbelievable what you got out of the good old C64.
The atarisoft version is the best looking version, it’s missing the how high can you get in between screens, but the graphics look true to the arcade for the most part.
ua-cam.com/video/JHVLIyNQ-t8/v-deo.html
@@rockerteen8300 ua-cam.com/video/JHVLIyNQ-t8/v-deo.html
Awesome review, yet again!
Glad you enjoyed it :D
The fan made version of Donkey Kong Jr. looks better but this Donkey Kong remake is very impressive overall and has great gameplay. It actually looks and feels like an impressive port that came right out in the early 80's. Back in the day home computers were the systems that had impressive arcade ports and awesome graphics. My neighbors who had Collecovision had the lone console version that did not fall to short of arcade quality unlike other consoles of the day that had really bad versions.
I remember having the Atarisoft version on a Texas Instruments home computer. My friends had Atari 800 and Commodore 64. Donkey Kong was the game we compared and played hours on end. The version I had contained all 4 levels which many versions of Donkey Kong didn't but fell short on animation as Donkey Kong did not move.
This version looks really good plus has a menu looking like a coin up version which I really appreciate most about it.
this game was DEFINITELY worth the wait
Donkey Kong Country Intro?
Yeah - they did a SID rendition of the DKC music for the title screen 😀
Al82: Retrogaming & Computing he got idea make intro a dkc because of the he cant see the ideas in this game this is excellent texture.
@@AL82RetrogamingLongplays
@Al82 Retrogaming Longplays Can you upload this version of the DKC theme as a separate video?
How do you know if a barrel drops down the ladder or at the end of the platform?
Why does the How high can you get screen look like donkey Kong has to piss lol
It's not "arcade perfect" but to me it took the best from the Atarisoft and the best from the Ocean versions and combined them into an awesome remake. Really nice.
Skeletor The Supreme Good summary
ManTastic Mike
Personally I think the phrase arcade perfect is often misused and overused anyway. Half the time when someone says a game is arcade perfect, the vast majority of the time they don't know what the fuck they are talking about. There are exceptions where I would agree with that phrase...like the ColecoVision ports of Zaxxon and Venture for example, but most of the time it's a rather shallow thing to claim.
Really good. Looks way better than the nes version.
Skip to 02:11 if you are bothered by the Intro.
soooooo COOOOOOL!!!!!!!!
Amazing
I just find it amazing how much better this looks and sounds. Makes me think, the original software programmers of titles like this were just pushed and rushed to just put the gmae out. If they were given the time, they probably could have replicated almost an identical copy of that to the arcade. I'm sure also 40+ years of programming knowledge helps too. 🤣
Intro them sounds better than on Adrian's channel. Guess it was made for PAL rather than NTSC.
Well, yes and no. The game was indeed coded on PAL systems, but the port is also optimized for NTSC systems to provide the original speed.
@@vetodrom So the game adapts in speed, but the soundtrack cannoot hide it's origins :)
jep :) same with the pixel ratio btw. NTSC systems. Personally I prefer the slightly stretched screen layout on NTSC C64 though.
@@vetodrom I don't know if the aspect ration I am seing on UA-cam using my monitor is the same as it was recorded. For me it's important that squares are squares and circles are circles :)
@@elmariachi5133 most videos are showing emulator captures which is close to PAL systems. NTSC C64 has less rasterlines thanks to the higher framerate - so pixels are higher compared to PAL. most prominent example is the first scene in maniac mansion. the moon looks like a melon on PAL machines...
Graphics and gameplay are very good, but odd choice of colours, and the tunes aren't quite right.
You know the Commodore 64 palette is a bit weird? it is full of browns and pastels, but not a lot of bright colors. It's part of the charm.
@@Mnnvint The two official C64 ports are much more colorful than this one though. While I really like this port I must agree when it comes to the colors.. I wonder why Mario, Donkey Kong, Pauline, as well as the bridge and rolling barrels appears to have the same 3-4 colors.
Damn, I see now where my 401k could have been better invested in, instead of those machines in the 80's lol
Jeff Valkenburg ahh.. sucks
The intro sounds like the Zanzibar Anthem from Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake.
It's the theme from 'Donkey Kong Country' for the SNES.
Very cool remake! This video is unfortunately extremely pixelated. The game looks much better in reality
The music is wrong on the second Rivets cut scene and why do they use the NES Title Screen Music that is Not in the arcade version, it's annoying how everyone uses that song in all their Donkey Kong home versions. Why no bouncing sounds of the springs on the Elevators board?
Gameplay is always 9999999999999999999999999999% more important than graphics and sounds, kid
Sound is part of game play and is everything. The Intellivision home brew version is better than the NES, Colecovision versions in how accurate it is in playing like the arcade version, yes graphically it's not as good but when you factor in that the Colecovision is supposed to be more powerful and the NES is more powerful and Nintendo programed the NES version but it still is the typical poor quality home version of the arcade version, the Intellivision Home Brew version is better and more arcade quality within the limitations of the hardware.
Won't run on FRODO for the Wii anyway so no need to ever desire to play it.
It’s a great conversion BUT there were already 2 versions for the C64 to begin with ,so i would suggest the group behind this version just to try making a odyssey 2/videopac 2 version of it because that system had no donkeykong game for it and it’s time for that,yes sure the odyssey 2 does have it’s restrictions but maybe they could get around thosr limitations with certain programming tricks,seriously ,am desperate to see donkeykong on the odyssey 2🤣
Can I just download it?
csdb.dk/release/?id=151272
@@vetodrom so much fun!
Why are the colors so dull? What's the sense of an remake that seems to be exacyly the same in gameplay but looking worse than the original?
The colours are relied on the used palette in the emulator. C64 is a machine where people individually set saturation by taste. There is even a website to generate emulator palettes by simulating 1084s monitor settings.
www.colodore.com/
@@vetodrom Plus if you don't care for the colors, most emulators have optional colour palette "enchances" VICE even has one that looks similar to the Amstrad CPC
@@scottbreon9448The thing is that people nowadays rely on default colours in emulators and compared to real hardware it does not really match. Even on real hardware there are significant variations. My C64 is connected with a 1084s and same time svideo output to a modern monitor and the colours look very different. Same with TV vs monitor. On NTSC C64 colours usually look more intense than on PAL machines (which is a matter of different pixel size I guess) and the impression varies between different production series.
Personally I think that Amstrad CPC is no good comparison, because its palette is based on extreme RGB settings (which is no bad thing and is iconic for the machine) - but C64 colours on the other hand do not even match RGB specifications. eg if you use an unmodified svideo cable strange things happen like yellow is brighter than white. C64 colours need to be scaled down for RGB colour space and this is what happened with the so called Pepto-palette which most C64 related tools use as basis nowadays.
... and also leads to impressions that yellow looks kinda green-ish or dark red more like brown, which happens if saturation is lowered on a Commodore monitor.
I've played this and it's pretty good, but I don't understand the colors they chose to use. I also don't recall the arcade increasing the number of barrel levels you have to clear before reaching a rivet level. They seem to have a pretty good sprite engine and I didn't notice any flickering. It looks like Mario is made up of 2 single color sprites (for each frame) because a pixel is twice as wide on a multi-color sprite and I only see 2 colors, so that's my guess. I don't think I've played the Ocean version, but I know I've played the Atari version and this version is better, IMHO. I don't recall some of the barrels dropping either or why. TBH, I don't even recall how the arcade machine handles barrels below the level you are currently standing on.
Jumpman is an multicolour-hires-overlay sprite, so there are overall 4 colours: Black, dark red, light red and brown.
The used colours turned out this way because of different reasons.
- Brown and light red are quite versatile as fixed sprite colours for all other objects including Kong.
- The black sprite colour for Jumpman is useful to cover background objects like ladders.
- There are situations in the game where it was necessary to combine hardware sprites with the character set background, which also a point why I used those individual colour schemes for each level.
I just blew the screen up and there is 4 colors, so presumably it's one sprite. How many colors have to be shared? I thought it was only the off background bit. Does that extend to tiles as well? I assume the girders are made of CC tiles. Maybe the barrels are tiles too? I know there are rules for colors for the VIC-II chip, I just forget what they are because it's been about 27 years since I did any programming. In fact, the last program I wrote, I wrote with a buddy high on pot. It was a draw poker machine we wrote, graphics and all in about 4 hours. It wasn't my best work, but it was probably my best work stoned:) That was in basic though. I wrote a bunch of games in my teens, some in assembly, some in basic with assembly routines and some just in basic.
I almost forgot, could you tell me what a multicolour hires overlay sprite is on the 64? From what I recall, the horizontal resolution is cut in 1/2 if want to use a 2 bit scheme with VIC-II sprites. This is why games that use color sprites usually have a wider 'body' because basically 2 pixels get turned on in multicolor mode. IOW, you don't attribute 2 bits to one pixel, the VIC-II sees the 2 pixels as a single wide one with 1 of 3 colors or off.
Those are two sprites actually. One is set to multicolour (pixel ratio 2x1, 3 colours) and the overlay as hires (pixel ratio 1x1, 1 colour). It was mostly popular in later Ocean games like Platoon or Robocop where the artists used the hires sprites for outlines.
In this game "black" has a lower priority because of the black level background so I used dark red for the hires sprite. The main opportunity by doing this is to have a more flexible way to cover half of the double pixels of the multicolour sprite to simulate even a higher resolution on that one.
HOW HIGH CAN YOU GET?
*looks fucking terrified*
A little creepy but cool
bin durch den aktuellen c64-artikel in der gamestar auf diese version gestoßen. vom gameplay her absolut fantastisch. was mir aber gar nicht zusagt, ist die grafik von mario, dem affen und auch von pauline. im vergleich zur grafisch genialen (aber leider sehr langsamen) 1983er atarisoft-version deutlich anders und alles andere als original. (so ging es mir schon anno 1987 mit der ocean-version.) wenn man schon den anspruch hat, eine verbesserte 1:1-version zu machen, dann bitte auch möglichst authentisch die originalgrafik umsetzen. so gut es auch gemeint war, sich hier an der gameboy-version zu orientieren (warum eigentlich???), muss ich sagen: falsche entscheidung. ansonsten aber eine top-konvertierung.
Für die Grafik bin ich verantwortlich (bin btw der Oliver Lindau aus dem Gamestar-Artikel). Ich habe die Angewohnheit, bei Projekten, an denen ich beteiligt bin, meinen Stempel zu hinterlassen. Der Anspruch war hier auch nicht, unbedingt eine 1:1-Umsetzung der Grafik vorzunehmen, zumal die Grafik des Automaten auf dem C64 nur hätte verlieren können. Die Farbdarstellung des Automaten und Restriktionen, welche der Port vorgeben, passten nicht zusammen. Eine Sache, welche diese Umsetzung stark prägt, hat mit der Kombination aus Zeichensatzgrafik und Sprites zu tun.
Achtung, jetzt wird es technisch:
Beim C64 ist Zeichensatzgrafik normal auf 4 Farben beschränkt, wobei in einem 4x8-Pixelblock jeweils eine Farbe zwischen den ersten 8 verändert werden kann (man hat leider nicht die volle Palette des C64 zur Verfügung). Nun ist es bei dieser Donkey-Kong-Version allerdings so, dass im Gegensatz zu den Ports von Atarisoft und Ocean das Hochkant-Format des Automaten nachgebildet wurde, bzw das Spielfeld in den oberen Rahmen ragt, was nur über Sprites möglich ist.
Die Beschränkungen sind bei Sprites ähnlich, eigentlich sogar etwas flexibler - aber damit das alles schön nahtlos ausschaut, muss das Farbschema annähernd gleich bleiben. Monster und Hintergrund teilen sich sozusagen die gleichen Basisfarben. Es gibt btw auch die umgekehrte Situation, dass zb Kong nicht unbedingt überall aus Sprites besteht, sondern Hintergrundgrafik.
So - jetzt komme ich zum eigentlichen Punkt:
Der Automat hat eine vergleichbare Darstellung, wie ein PC mit EGA-Grafik. Also doppelte Auflösung mit 16 Farben. Wenn ich die Grafik 1:1 übernommen hätte, käme das Ergebnis auf dem C64 aufgrund der o.a. Beschränkung einer eingefärbten Gameboy-Fassung gleich. Bzw ich hätte aufgrund einiger Dinge ohnehin vom Original abweichen müssen. Da kam die Entscheidung, stattdessen auf ein C64-spezifisches Design zu setzen. Weil eigenes Design wirkt immer noch besser als ein Mischmasch aus heruntergebrochenen Elementen des Originals mit zurechtgestauchten Objekten.
Entsprechend habe ich alle vorhandenen Größenverhältnisse belassen, damit die Spielbarkeit identisch bleibt. Den Leveln aber eigene Farbschemen verpasst, wobei ich mich bei der Umsetzung zwar etwas an späteren Donkey-Kong-Spiele orientiert habe. Nur wenn man meinen sonstigen Kram kennt, erkennt man den Grafikstil schon wieder. Ich stehe zu der Entscheidung, auch wenn das Feedback umstritten ausfiel.
I guess what’s “wrong” is
that you didn’t capture the spirit of Miyamotos original graphics.
It was very much inspired by old Popeye cartoons, 30s cartoons in general and Japanese manga, al a the stuff in Shōnen Jump of the 70s and 80s.
For example the original design of Donkey Kong is very much in the last style.
Also look at the cover art of the old Game & Watch boxes for another example of the style.
It’s clearly what’s in the game and very much part of the charm and identity of the game.
This just looks constrained by the “limitations” of the platform.
Instead of rolling with them and embracing them.
You are tripping yourself up far too much by insisting on the standard 4:3 format and having score and level visible.
You could have done it in high res, with a homage to the original graphics, instead of either going in a completely different direction, or trying to do as close a copy as possible.
The recent effort on NES (also code perfect, and with damn near perfect graphics) is in tate mode, which would have been a possibility.
ua-cam.com/video/dhRoe44Dg54/v-deo.html
Scrolling worked pretty well for the 2600 version.
Never too late to change the graphics now that the code is in place I guess...
Nathaniel Winston The 64 can handle something that is much closer to the original for certain.
Look at the recent Super Mario Bros conversion, for example.
The original (good) version of DK for the 64 was much closer to the original graphics, although stretched.
Even the 2600 has valiant home brew effort.
This game insists on pissing away one quarter of the already scarce resolution, on having score and other stuff on the side.
That’s it’s main technical problem.
It’s not really about doing as close a facsimile as possible of the original.
It’s about getting close to the spirit and style of the original.
Doing your own “version” of the game is really going to feel pointless to a lot of people, if you don’t change more than this.
It’s like a cover of an old well loved song. Played slightly amateurishly, on the wrong instruments just for the sake of being able to say you changed something.
If you want to add something to a remake, you should *really* give it a go.
The recent Galaga remake Galencia, while not perfect and not a game I’ll be playing till the end of time was such a thing.
It would be interesting to see a good stab at a proper DK for the 64, since it’s obvious it can do it, with the right mindset.
As mentioned there are quite a few things to do.
Tate mode is obvious.
Most C64 monitors are small enough to turn on the side without bad stuff happening.
Going high resolution, maybe plus tate, would also help.
Hell, ECM might even work, with character set changes mid screen.
Miyamoto was/is a graphic and industrial designer and a connoisseur of pop culture.
I guarantee you that he gave the DK graphics all his love and a lot of thought and expertise.
A remake should honor that.
It’s extremely impressive that they have the original code running.
But the graphics just lets it down I’m sorry to say.
The GBC version while certainly not perfect and perhaps on an aspect ratio screen that’s easier to accommodate the game to, is an example of what I’m talking about.
It has some of the spirit of the original, though I’m sure even that could be better.
Hello Helge. I am the artist of this version and actually you hit the mark in parts. I actually did the graphics with focus on the hardware limitations and the main reason ist that this version is using the border for the level layout. This required mixing the restriction of charmode and sprite based graphics at some places which results in kinda tricky "combined" restrictions. This means that 3 of 4 colours are shared for everything visible plus different limitations for the variable colour.
There are some places for example where background gfx needed to be split somewhere in the middle. I commented before that this would have developed to a more or less 4-colour version (or even monochromatic speaking of HiRes) if the original wouldn't have been modified someway.
So my attempt was to be as close to gameplay related dimensions because this is essential for the port imo. As said the main reason are the colour restrictions and this is the reason for the different colour sets compared to the arcade. And it is also the reason why I decided to follow a different approach for the general design likewise Nintendo did for the game boy version, but in more C64-specific way.
I know that this was a controversial decision and I understand the criticism of DK-fans for changing the original design. Personally I am still happy with the result. It keeps the simplicity of the arcade and does not alter the orignal gameplay.
v3to did you consider tate mode and/or high res?
It *is* a nearly impossible task to squeeze a game like that into what looks like 110x200.
Monochrome play field could have worked if you had “just” owned the style.
The real star here will after all, always be nigh on arcade perfect gameplay.
@@Frisenette Well, the playfield is higher than 200 pixels, because the border has been used also. Actually it resembles 1:1 the original layout of the vertical arcade monitor set.
That is the whole point here and that I am not willing to stay close to the original while graphics are forced to a bad compromise in terms of colours and/or resolution.
Edit: Tate mode would have provided more flexible gfx restrictions but I am pretty sure that it is not the case for the code. This version is a line-by-line-translation of the Z80 code to 6502 with C64-specific adjustments. Rotating the screen layout 90 degrees are controversial needs a different approach from scratch.
@@vetodrom These commenters will never understand the difficult design choices you made & why you had to make them….
👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
This game looks old-school
Knuds Channel It is a C64 game, after all.
And it's also Donkey Kong.
Still has the annoying eardrum piercing sound effects as other ports.
i dont like the new look of donkey kong, somethings off, along with the screen presentation, it doesnt feel authentic, but its still a good game, tho i would rather play the ocean version anyday.
I prefer the ntsc
The graphics look terrible, especially DK and Mario, but other than that it looks great
It's still a fun version, especially as it's not a commercial release :)
Could you tell me, what is wrong with the graphics? Actally I did not follow the original design because it would have been a turn-down-version of the arcade speaking of colours and resolution, so I chose a more personal and c64-specific approach.
v3to I guess what’s “wrong” is
that you didn’t capture the spirit of Miyamotos original graphics.
It was very much inspired by old Popeye cartoons, 30s cartoons in general and Japanese manga, al a the stuff in Shōnen Jump if the 70s and 80s.
For example the original design of Donkey Kong is very much in the last style.
Also look at the cover art of the old Game & Watch boxes for another example of the style.
It’s clearly what’s in the game and very much part of the charm and identity of the game.
This just looks constrained by the “limitations” of the platform.
Instead of rolling with them and embracing them.
You are tripping yourself up far too much by insisting on the standard 4:3 format and having score and level visible.
You could have done it in high res, with a homage to the original graphics, instead of either going in a completely different direction, or trying to do as close a copy as possible.
The recent effort on NES (also code perfect, and with damn near perfect graphics) is in tate mode, which would have been a possibility.
ua-cam.com/video/dhRoe44Dg54/v-deo.html
Scrolling worked pretty well for the 2600 version.
Never too late to change the graphics now that the code is in place I guess...
@@Frisenette go to sleep my friend
@@patsfan4life in the middle of the day?
Why are the graphics so shity? I played Donkey Kong on a C64 and it looked way better then this.
What is wrong with the graphics? I am the graphic artist of this version and am seriously interested what exactly is shitty compared to the Atarisoft and Ocean version.
I guess "Shitty" was not succh a propper word to use but It looks like EGA graphics and the colors are wrong and Mario does not look like Mario. I did watch a video of the Ocean Soft version and it looks different then what I remember it looking like, I guess back then compared the the VCS and Intellivision versions it looked way better but the Ocean version still looks better, Mario looks like Mario, the colors are more correct and Donkey Kong is not too tall on the rivets board, he does not extend past the top of the top metal beam.
Seriously the Ocean version also does not follow the original colour scheme in all levels. And personally I have to say that the Atarisoft version is anything but good by C64 standards. You'll get the point that I didn't use the original graphics as reference but choose a similar way to the gameboy version instead for the jumpman/mario sprite.
From my point of view a 1:1 comparison to the arcade would mean a downgrade, because the arcade is designed for more flexible colour usage and resolution than the C64 is capable of. Which is the reason why I shifted to a personal design. I still do not get the point what is wrong with that.
+v3to It looks awesome..... Amazing job......
Strange that you would bash the Atarisoft version - I think it was by far, the closest to the arcade, and the most bright and colorful. I prefer the graphics -even if they don't have the shading bells and whistles - of that version even the gameplay was horrifically slow. I think Atari did a marvelous job in terms of graphics. I think you're restylized version is also neat and I applaud the work you must have put into it.
Oh god this looks UGLY!
Gameplay is always 9999999999999999999999999% more important than graphics, kid
@@scottbreon9448 The gameplay looks absolutely solid, what I mean is that the graphics could look a lot better for a C64. Some colors are off and the sprites look nothing like the arcade version. The Atarisoft one nailed it, why not this one?
Although I can't call out artistic licence but they should have tried their best to recreate the arcade sprites, it would be an awesome port then. Just look at donkey kong...
Mario seems to look like a offbrand Miner 2048ner. Not to hate on anyone, again the gameplay is solid.
@@stephenpeterson7366 Check out my discussion with Helge before. I describe why I decided to do this visual style.
@@vetodrom Thanks
Sorry for being rude.