Donkey Kong Jr. (NES, Famicom Disk System)

Donkey Kong Jr. is the NES port of Donkey Kong's sequel which would later be adapted into an educational title.

Unused Sprites#

Various Mario sprites. While the sprite of him with the whip is simply a duplicate of one of his used sprites, the others were used in the arcade version's intermission cutscenes, which are missing from this port. Perhaps they were planning to implement them?

A large number of tiles for Donkey Kong's caged sprite go unused.

These can be assembled into several unused sprites. The latter two are from the arcade version, where DK would frequently stomp around inside his cage during a level (he's completely static in this port), but the one showing him gripping the bars is unique to this port. Interestingly, said sprite would later be used in Donkey Kong Jr. + Jr. Sansuu Lesson.

An alternate face for Donkey Kong's freed sprite, again from the arcade version.

A handful of font characters; a roman numeral I, a different-colored version of the copyright mark (matching the color of the copyright string from the arcade version), and an exclamation point.

Unused Enemy Behavior#

Memory addresses 0x510-0x515 are meant to store parameters for enemy behavior based on the current difficulty level, but 0x513 is unused. Based on a section of unused code in Revision 0 at 0xDFAE, it appears that this would have been a way for the game to increase the chance that new enemy spawns move towards Junior when he is close to the top of the stage. The normal rate at which this occurs is stored at 0x515, though it is set at a constant value of 0xB0 (68.75%) for all loops. This section of code is removed from Revision 1, though 0x513 still remains unused.

Revisional Differences#

Revision 1#

Title Screen#

In Revision 0, holding Select on the title screen starts a 64-frame countdown, after which the game will begin automatically scrolling through the menu options. Memory address 0x6A keeps track of how many times it has advanced; once it loops back to 0x00, the countdown begins again. Revision 1 completely removes this function.

Controller Input#

Similar to Revision 0 of Donkey Kong, Junior cannot move at all when the D-Pad is held diagonally. In Revision 1, the controller reading code was improved so that the first direction pressed has priority: if the D-Pad is rolled from Up / Down to diagonal Junior will not start walking, but if the D-Pad is rolled from Left / Right to diagonal he will not stop walking.

Stage 2 Glitch#

In Revision 0, if the final vine of Stage 2 is grabbed from the left side, a glitched ending animation will occur: Junior will climb down the vine instead of up, then appear on the final platform. This is in part due to the platform's hitbox jutting out too far to the right, preventing Junior from climbing up normally.

Revision 1 shortened the platform's hitbox by two pixels to prevent this from happening.

Sounds#

In Revision 0, the sounds that the Nitpickers make in Stage 2 are noticeably louder compared to the rest of the game. This was fixed in Revision 1.

Palettes#

In Revision 0, some of the fruit becomes lighter-colored while falling. Revision 1 edited the corresponding palette so they always retain their darker colors.

However, this change was only made for Stage 1; Stage 2 has the lighter fruit in all versions.

Revision 0	Revision 1

The chains in Stage 4 were brightened to help them stand out from the background.

Donkey Kong Jr. + Jr. Sansuu Lesson#

A compilation of Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong Jr. Math, released in October 1983 as a pack-in game for the Sharp C1 Famicom TV.

• This version is based on Revision 1 of the standalone version.
• A significant amount of content is missing, possibly due to limited cartridge space.
• Pressing Start to pause the game doesn't work.
• Only the first and fourth levels are present, and there is no cutscene after completing the latter.
• There is only one difficulty setting, equivalent to Game B from the standalone version.

Donkey Kong Classics#

In the combo cart "Donkey Kong Classics", which contains both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr, the two distinct NES title screens were removed and replaced with a singular title screen for selecting modes (with up and down directions) and the specific game (with left and right directions). This menu times out into demos for the two games in an alternating pattern, and each time it returns to the title screen, it alternates between the title songs of the two original NES releases.

Animal Crossing#

The controls were slightly modified so the player can press Up and Down to switch between options at the title screen.