Donkey Kong 500
A downloadable game
# donkey kong
transcode of Donkey Kong arcade version for Amiga
Credits:
- jotd: Z80 to Amiga 68000 conversion
- no9: Amiga remade tunes
- Jeff Willms, Kef Schecter, anon: Z80 reverse engineering
- Mark (tcdev): graphics extraction
Features:
- 100% identical game
- high score save
- level sequence selection (US/europe)
- kill screen fix (level 22)
what's new in v1.1
- louder sfx
- less frame drops thanks to some more blitter optimizations
new in v1.2: fixed floppy led issue, japan level order directly available in menu
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
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Beautiful work yet again! Thank you. I'm lagging behind, so many great new ports to purchase and enjoy on my A1200 :)
Noticeably nicer sound in the new version, sweet.
Can anyone help me out with how to start it with the Japanese level order? I've managed to figure out that I need ADF Opus and I've found the start-up sequence, which looks like this:
CursOff
NoBorder
CursOff
Cls
SetMap Menu
Prompt "Selection:> "
Type2 S/Menu
Which bit do I change to "Donkey_Kong CRAZYKONGLEVELS"? (And actually, anything I change in ADF Opus just seems to revert as soon as I close the window anyway.)
just remove startup sequence altogether and put only one line: Donkey_Kong CRAZYKONGLEVELS
Cheers. I must just be an idiot but I can't for the life of me figure out how. I deleted the Loading and Menu parts in the S folder successfully in ADF Opus (tried both V1.2 and the 2025 version), but when I edit Startup-Sequence, it immediately reverts to what it was before as soon as I hit Return or click OK. In the 2025 version it won't let me change the contents even temporarily. (The "Writeable" box is ticked and the ADF file isn't marked Read-only.)
I can delete Startup-Sequence entirely but then there's no way I can find to add a new version. I tried creating a plain text file called Startup-Sequence.txt, removing the suffix and dropping it into the S folder but it wouldn't recognise it ("unknown device type").
This took me a while too, back then, to figure out, how this works. Maybe it would really make sense, "jotd666", if you would integrate the "japanese level-order" and the "crazy kong levels" directly as a choosable point, in this AmigaDOS-menue, that appears, when the user load "Donkey Kong 500". I think, this would be the best solution, in the end.
And maybe the japanese level-order, which is simply "level 1, 2, 3, 4 and repeating", should be the default one and the US level-order made choosable (in this menue) then, because this game comes from Japan and the japanese level-order also makes alot more sense gameplay-wise. Not just my 2 cents I am sure, if you ask several "Donkey Kong" fans, because the US level-order is "level 1, 4 then 1, 3, 4 then 1, 2, 3, 4 then 1, 2, 1, 3, 4 then 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 4 and this last sequence then repeats". A bit chaotic, I think :-) Especially strange is, that you have to play through six levels, before you see level-2 for the first time, in the US level-order. No idea, who came up with that, back when "Donkey Kong" was released in America? *lol*
Hey, I hope you don't mind, but I featured Donkey Kong 500 in the Amiga best arcade homebrew games of all time.
This is an amazing port!! We are going to play this game at AmiWest 2024 in October as part of our Games Competition. Thanks for bringing this classic game to the Amiga. And thanks for all the other great titles you have brought over for the community!
Great game, thanks. I've played this a lot. I also included it in my February 2024 New Games On Amiga video.
If it can't be switched, is a standalone separate ADF version with the Japan/Europe level order possible at all?
there are command line options to set it in the ADF. You'll have to edit startup sequence
Nice port, it plays good. What exactly must be changed in the startup-sequence, to have the other level-order? I read the entries there, but it's not clear, what to change exactly.
here are 2 interesting switches
- CRAZYKONGLEVELS/S: "crazy kong" japanese version order
- NICEBARRELS/S: barrels don't fall on the ladder if Mario is high enough (like Japanese version)
Thanks for the infos. I tried it in different ways (write this in an extra-line of the startup-sequence, write it in the line in which "Prompt "Selection:>" is written, etc, but it don't work in all the ways i tried. How exactly must it be written there, in an extra line or behind some other stuff?
Maybe it would make sense, to make the japanese level-order a selectable point in this menue, that comes, when the user load the game (this menue, in which different things can be chosen, like manual, infos, cheat-keys and so on). Wouldn't that make sense? The Japanese level-order is the better one anyway.
Two other things I noticed while playing. (1) The floppy motor doesn't shut off after the game has loaded, i think this should be changed (better for the hardware).
(2) In Level 2 (the one with the conveyor-belts), the game runs a bit jerkily, especially when you are on the second plane, at least on my A500. Sometimes entire animations for the Mario character are missing then and he seems to disappear shortly and then reappears. The other three levels run perfectly fine on the Amiga500. I have a suspicion, as to what the problem in Level 2 might be. If Mario is on the conveyor-belts and runs in the direction, the belt is also running in that moment, he speeds up considerably and then the player can notice things like frameskipping alot more, which could be the problem here, on A500 machines (if the game runs in a 25FPS mode there)? Mario then runs jerkily and seems to disappear for a short moment and then is suddenly two steps ahead, when he reappears. Perhaps this could be fixed, by not running the game with frameskipping, in such moment, when the Mario sprite is on the conveyor-belts in the second level? I don't know, how much slower the gameplay then will be on A500 machines, because if that's too much, then this suggestion obviously doesn't make sense. But if it's not much, maybe it could make an improvement in this "disappearing reappearing" problem? I haven't tried the game on an A1200 yet, but I assume, this problem doesn't exist there, when the Mario sprite is on the conveyor belts.
just do "Donkey_Kong CRAZYKONGLEVELS"
Awesome - last version!
Tried running this on MiSTer FPGA. Works great over all. I've only tried the ADF file. Couple things...
This only works on PAL mode. Could not get it to work on NTSC. when trying play it NTSC the game locks at the with 1UP and L=00 at the top of the screen.
The game plays fine a1200 mode 68020/AGA/PAL/2M+384M. but the sprite layering off. On the cement factory screen (aka pie factory), the top ladders will layer on top of Mario.
When playing in A500 mode 68000/OCS-A500/PAL/2M+8M, the cement factory screen glitches and slows down.
Other then that, a great translation!
Thanks for your comment. The game can't work with NTSC, too many lines to display... I fixed the ladder issue, as a bonus pie factory level should be slightly faster.
v1.1 fixes cement factory on A500. Please have a try and report results.
Once again a very nice arcade conversion! Our German-language review can be found in our recorded livestream starting at 04:21:26. Subscription to our YouTube or Twitch channel is welcome. 🙂
Hey @jotd, the game works great on my PiStorm600 equipped Amiga 600 when booting from floppy. However two things:
It gets stuck on the "newshell" window, but if I press <return> the game appears.
The other thing is that the floppy drive LED stays lit all the time.
Other than that, perfect!
thanks for the LED issue, it's been fixed now.
I have no notifications about new releases.
At least, I check this page frequently.
you can follow me, you'll get notifications (I think)
I am following you for months, maybe year :-)
ADF not working with real hardware running KS3.2.2 but does run fine when run from hard disk (once icon info typo has been corrected) from KS3.2.2, WB3.2.2.1 and PiStorm32-lite (Amiga 1200). No slowdown on Pie Factory either.
Suggestion: can you add a folder icon info to the lha archive please?
Have you tried pressing enter/return when it appears to be stuck while loading?
Cheers
Later releases work fine.
great to hear! (also I had no clue of what the problem was :))
Very nice! Please consider uploading the LhA-archive to Aminet, so all Amiga users can enjoy it. Thanks!
Excellent work as usual JOTD!
Nice work. Is there any chance of including the Japanese level order, which was also the one normally found in Europe?
Not sure if this is possible easily. Why not though.
You only need to change the order in the level order table!
:C11899 01 04 01 03 04 01 02 03 04 01 02 01 03 04 01 02
:C118A9 01 03 01 04 7F FF 00 FF FF FE FE FE FE FE FE FE
change to:
:C11899 01 02 03 04 01 02 03 04 01 02 03 04 01 02 03 04
:C118A9 01 02 03 04 7F FF 00 FF FF FE FE FE FE FE FE FE
For the ladder cheat stage 1 (also Japan Version):
00C17A9E MOVE.B D1,D0
00C17AA0 SUBQ.B #5,D0
00C17AA2 MOVE.B D0,$0017(A2)
00C17AAG MOVE.B $0001282A(PC),D0
00C17AAA BEQ.S $00C17fiF8
00C17AAC MOVE.B $00C12GE7(PC),D0
00C17AB0 SUBQ.B #4,D0 ;change to SUB.B #$10
00C17AB2 CMP.B D3,D0
00C17AB4 BCC.S $00C17AB8
00017ABB RTS
00C17AB8 MOVE.B $00012862(PC),D0
...
Thanks for this Version! Great work.
Japanese level order is available since yesterday. I don't know about any japanese level cheat. The source of the game is available, can you post a PR on github instead than raw absolute address disassembly? Can you explain what it is?
I 've downloaded the ADF again, but it is still the US Version. Is there a key to change mode?
On the Japanese version, a Barrel cannot drop down a ladder while Jumpman is on it (upper third).
The change form SUBQ.B #4,D0 to SUB.B #$10,D0 make this possible. You can compare the MAME ROMS to check it.
// original Z80 assembly code of the subroutine US Ver.
2178 3A4863 LD A,(#6348) ; get status of the oil can fire
217B A7 AND A ; is the fire lit ?
217C CAB221 JP Z,#21B2 ; no, always take ladders before oil is lit
217F 3A0562 LD A,(#6205) ; else load A with Mario's Y position + 5
2182 D604 SUB #04 ; subtract 4
2184 BA CP D ; is the barrel already below or same level as Mario ?
2185 D8 RET C ; yes, return without taking ladder
Source
The japanese level order is only available from whdload ATM. I have to add a CLI option. Which requires ADF to be altered...
The ladder "cheat" is indeed an interesting add to the 4-level version as it's not a cheat, it's an original modification for "Crazy Kong" to make game easier. Now, I very well remember that when you were just under the barrel, you were 100% safe.
YES! JOTD is the man. I will be streaming this today while wearing my Donkey Kong shirt. Thanks to JOTD we will have an 80's arcade on our Amigas!
This is amazing. Thank you for creating this. This is the third transcode of Donkey Kong I've seen. The first was for the Coco 3, second was for the NES, and now for the Amiga, amazing. I hope we see more transcodes for other systems too.
A lot of pleasure ! Thanks
Awesome!
This is cool. Gonna give it a shot on MIST.
Nice !!! the ADF version doesn´t work on Kick3.2 on 68030 system
WHDLOAD works after renaming the Slave to DonkeyKong ..
( there is an error in Icon tooltypes)
Amazing work! Thank you!
Fantastic! Thank you!
WOW direct transcode from the arcade? Nice job! Can't wait to test it :)