Proto:Donkey Kong 64

This page contains notes for the game Proto:Donkey Kong 64.

GameShark CodesEverything you need to get around the demo's limitations and then some.

Troff 'n' Scoff Submap Data#

• *Isles’ boss door count is listed first (807446BE), while its other values come after Castle’s.
• All boss doors (in both versions) lead to exit 04 of their respective maps. This doesn't make any difference in normal gameplay, since invalid exit values just default to 00 anyway; it only affects maps without a proper boss room, where the destination can potentially have 4 or more valid exits (such as Hideout Helm).

Text Addresses#

If an entry has an address in the rightmost column, then it may be possible to load the text in-game.

Object Differences#

To do: Primate Punch gates (obj 0072) and double-door gates (obj 0078)

Notes on Map Differences#

Most (but not all) of the valid maps play the ambient jungle music heard on the logo screen-- which is just placeholder data, as there exist a ton of duplicates of this track. The rest of the music is either not implemented or has been stripped out and replaced.

The maps that don't use the ambient track are:

• 00, 4C (silence)
• 07, 23, 50, A4 onward (1st Jungle Japes theme)
• 08 (Army Dillo 1)
• 27, 52, any of the bonus games (Bonus intro)
• 28 (logo screen music & sfx)
• 2A (Troff 'n' Scoff)
• 37 (Bonus intro, plus the sound of a heavy door opening and shutting)
• 53 (Dogadon 2)
• 6F (Boss intro)
  • 9A uses the boss intro followed by the jungle sounds

SFX Differences#

These values refer to soundbank 1; bank 0 is used for instrument data.

001A: A voice (DK's?) saying "Yeah!"; sound of DK twiddling his foot in the end credits in final.
002E: Scoff burping, which sounds different in the proto; cowbell rattle in final.
0032: a sniffing noise in the proto; ice melting in final.
0033: slightly higher-pitched 0032 in the proto; lower-pitched 0032 in final
0034: bang/crumpling noise; Candy giggling in final
003F-0048, 004A-004F, 0051-0053: DK Arcade SFX, which are much better quality in kiosk (11025 Hz as opposed to the final's 3897)
00A6: Rambi's roar, which is more energetic in final
00A7: sound of Banjo's cuckoo clock in the proto; gong in final
00A8: train whistle; sound of Cranky's chimney cap in final
00A9: two boops; "wrong" quack in final
00AA: high-pitched yodeling; high-pitched slide whistle in final
00AC: horn/noisemaker; raspberry in final
00AD: clownish honk; belch in final
(these (A7-AD) are quite clearly the SFX for Lanky's tile-matching game in Angry Aztec)
00CB & 00CC: Lanky's orangstand; made less obnoxious in final
00D8: Lanky's running attack; same as above
00DA: Tiny crying; is faster and less echo-y in final
00FC: someone (DK?) panting; sound of water bubbling in final (are either even used?)
00FF: sound of Cranky's shop appearing/disappearing; a simple "pop" noise in proto
0100: "arrow hitting a wall" noise; engine idling in final
0101: splat; engine revving in final
0102: camera shutter; chimpy charge winding up in final
0125: elctronic bass drum (?); some kind of white noise in final
0131: rattling/crackling noise; water lightly bubbling in final
0139-13D: K. Rool's voice clips from the Army Dillo fight; his game-over laughter in final
013E: "Welcome to bonus stage!"; screeching in final
013F: "Get as many targets as you can!"; jet noise in final
0140: "Reload!"; plane flying in final
0141: "Hurry!"; remains unused in final
0143: "Oh, bad luck!"; Dogadon shooting fireball in final
0154: pressurized steam escaping (?); normal footstep in final
0157: K. Rool screaming; normal footstep in final
0158: K. Rool screaming again; normal footstep in final
0159: K. Rool screaming "No!"; normal footstep in final
015D: Diddy going "Ouch!"; high-pitched "tweak" noise in final
0169: inhaling snore; much deeper in final
016A: exhaling snore; less of a "whistle" in final
0197: cartoon scrambling noise; shortened in final
01A2: Kritter going "aye!"; Wrinkly leaving in final
01A4: Tiny emerging from mini-monkey barrel; pitched up in final
01A7: Drumbeat from the logo screen; normal footstep in final
01B5: seems to be a duplicate of above (only SLIGHTLY different); "boop" in final
01B7: Rambi's old "crate-emerging" sound from prerelease footage; "tick" in final
01B8: odd "wrong" noise; camera noise in final
01DB: higher-pitched 002E; more of a belch in final
01E3: glass breaking; "arrow hitting wall" in final
01E4: lower-pitched version of above; splat in final
01E6-01E9: early crowd noises; final's are not only different (and longer) but higher quality too (16518 Hz instead of 11025 Hz)
01EE: Dillo gasping?; belch in final
01F0-01F7: duplicates of 0139-013D and 0157-0159
    in final:
    01F0: dirt crumbling
    01F1: glass breaking
    01F2/3: bubbling
    01F4: water splashing
    01F5/6: minecart
    01F7: footstep
01F9-01FF: Army Dillo's old laughter; sounds strangely like Ripper Roo
0200: Chunky falling, pitched down & shortened?; Tiny gasping in final
0204: part of the walkie-talkie static from Stealthy Snoop. For some reason only this one was modified for the final;
it was bumped up to 17501 Hz from 16518.
0213: DK grunting; changed to a pratfall noise
021E: snapping/popping; Diddy going "come on" in final
021F: Banjo's clock again; Chunky's running attack in final
most of DK's grunts were pitched down in the final:
0222-0225, 0227-022B, 022D-022E, 0231-0234, 0236, 0239-023A, 023C-023E, 0243-0244, 0246-0247
    (0243 & 0244, while present in both versions, seem like they could be early variants of his shockwave voice clips- unused?)
    (022E, 023D & 023E don't sound like they're used either- confirm?)
0265-027A: chimp SFX from the logo screen; in the final they're K. Rool's grunts from the final battle
    (except for 027A which is the sound of stone objects shifting)
0288: duplicate of 00A8
02A2-02A3: bangs; machinery moving in final
02C1-02C2: wheeze; footsteps in final
02C6: futuristic noise; bubbling in final
02C9: the vulture; K. Rool's (sped-up) laugh in final
02DA & 02DB: bubbling; Mad Jack in the final

The rest--from 02DC onward--don't exist in the prototype.

Character Differences#

General#

• Standing attacks are all 3-hit combos; only one to keep this in the final is Lanky
  • DK: swipe left -> swipe right -> hand slam
  • Diddy: 180 tail whip -> 360 tail whip -> tail jab
  • Tiny: left hair swipe -> right hair swipe -> flashkick
  • Chunky: one dodgy-looking punch -> another dodgy-looking punch -> his usual left hook; final is a one-two with no squash-and-stretch
• Backflipping works like in Super Mario 64: it pushes your character backward instead of straight up, and cannot be steered, which makes it incredibly hard to use.
• Climbing animations are faster (confirm-- might be my imagination)
• Diddy's cartwheel stops his momentum, as does Tiny's slide.
• Diddy, Lanky, and Chunky (except in the Dogadon fight) don't have their Z+B moves implemented yet; they all do Tiny's slide instead.
  • Might actually be a problem with the Kong modifier code, or there may be certain progress flags set by the game in those areas.
• Bopping and jumping attacks are floatier.
• DK and Tiny have extra helper shop animations that were cut.

Specific Kongs#

• DK's jumping attack and backflip are stretched/squashed a bit differently
• Diddy's jumping attack doesn't have his tail stretched out
• Lanky does a flip at the end of his long jump, which makes it easier to steer
  • Makes Diddy's throwing noise when putting down a barrel; in the final he has his own soundbyte
  • His running attack has a soundbyte not in the final version
• Tiny's bopping animation doesn't quite look finished (pigtails don't animate)
  • Doesn't go "wheeee!" when twirling, also doesn't audibly gasp before Mad Jack; both sounds exist in the game data though
• Chunky's running attack ends with a slight hop

Misc. Junk#

To do: Add to the relevant parts of the main page.

General differences (not specific to the intended demo sections):

• No sparkles on timer (also seen in prerelease)
• "Oh, banana!" is way higher-pitched. (also seen in prerelease)
• The Primate Punch gates look different and not at all banged up, which can also be seen in prerelease screenshots.

Level differences subpage:

• A3: The Lanky pad platforms have a different, blue-green texture. In the final, they use the same texture as the walls.
• 61: The locks aren't numbered. This is also in most prerelease shots of this room.
• 69: Has a bunch of Kritters instead of bedsheet ghosts.
• 56: The revolving maze instakills you no matter how much health you have (but only when playing as DK; it doesn't hurt other Kongs).
• 5B: Has more variety in enemies-- 2 Kritters, 2 Gnawties, a Zinger, and a Klaptrap.
• 71: The shields don't have their purple tint.
• 5D: Has 2 Kritters, a Klump, a Gnawty, and a purple Klaptrap (final is all purple Klaptraps) and no balloon.
• 5E: Has only a Gnawty programmed to run away from the player and drop nothing when killed (final is 2 Koshas).

Needs more looking into:

• Boss keys originally made fireworks noise when they appeared
• Planks of wood in the mechanical fish (33) look different; chunkier, and use a lighter/plainer wood texture - compare with the mechanical fish prerelease screenshot
• The small mushrooms aren't completely functional; sometimes they bounce, sometimes they don't
• Necky's behavior-- When loading it in place of Dogadon, its upper half always turns to face the player, like several regular enemies do. Could mean it has some rudimentary enemy programming, or it might have been created as an "edit" of another enemy.
• Enemies seem smaller, and Kritters don't drop health (modifier codes might have something to do with the size). Kritters also do not drop health in pre-E3 footage and the E3 demo.
• Draw distance is poorer, as can be seen by the tag barrel star (it shows up closer to camera than final). Contrast with some helper shops in prerelease rendering from further away.
• The racing rabbit and K. Lumsy have no voice clips
• Global objects:
  • 05 is a PUSHABLE crate! Meant to be used by Diddy, given he's the only one the animation doesn't look awkward on (plus it uses his soundbytes)
  • 42 may or may not be used-- could be shrapnel, can't be interacted with
• Setting both bytes at 806FFE68 & 806FFE6C to 08 loads what might've been the main menu (map 50 in mode 5), which is just a black screen
  • There's a routine at 806B6114 that writes 08 to both, but I couldn't trace it back to anything used...

Notes on actor behaviors:

• CC book (image 57/actor 8C) reacts to being hit with TNT-- bounces & spins upward, then loses all collision
• Amusingly, Squawks (image 18/actor 9C) can be hit, and he simply vanishes
• Puftoss (image 3B/actor B3) has some wonky physics going on-- he immediately slides off the platform, but doesn't fall all the way down; throwing TNTs pushes him around the arena
• The mushroom Kremling (image 5C/actor BC) doesn't despawn after being hit; instead, he "co-opts" the player's rig (i.e. moves according to Chunky's movements), which looks hilariously horrifying
• Domino (image 28/actor ED) dies upright (instead of flat on the ground as in final). Also seen in prerelease footage (does it also float away at an angle?)
• Dice's (image 29/actor EE) death animation is slower

Reference#

• Text dumps: kiosk, final
• Decompressed text offsets: 8EBDD4-8EE118 (rap: 95C39E)
• ROM text offsets: 16AF90-1A79A0
• This has a wealth of info on the game's internals, including equivalent addresses for the kiosk version.
• Kiosk/Final asset map (Ignore the random highlighting, that's for my own reference)

Further Investigation#

• Kill the demo timer.
• Uncover any remaining animation differences:
  • Swimming
  • Minigame/multiplayer loss
• Cutscene data.