donkey kong....rom differences

[severdhed]

hey guys, a few friends and i recently really got into donkey kong...right now i have the high score on my cabinet, at 57,000 even, and my friend has the high score on his cabinet at 56,400.  we have been really playing it alot...on both cabinets, we play the US set 1.  upon looking around at DK stuff online, i discovered that the us version plays the levels out of order, compared to the japanese version.  i also noticed that in the jap set 1, the elevators and springs are slower in that stage, and that the barrels do not come down a ladder that you are on.  this, in theory makes the japanese version a little easier. (also it lets you enter your full name instead of just 3 initials) 

 i was watching the king of kong a few months ago and i know that the world record high score is ridiculous... I am assuming that the US sets are what would be found on real cabinets in the US..so is it safe to assume that the US version of the mame rom is the same as the  version that they were playing?  (i am not fortunate enough to have ever run across a real DK cabinet in the wild)

so..which version do you guys play, and what is your high score?  are there any other differences that i missed?

 

[javeryh]

I play the US Set 1 version.  It is tough for me even though it is one of my favorite games.  My high score is only around 75,000.

[Bender]

I play the us set 2

The twin galaixies standard is the us 2 board set (there is a us 4 board set as well)

you now have me curious as to which rom dump that is

anybody know?

[javeryh]

I play the us set 2

The twin galaixies standard is the us 2 board set (there is a us 4 board set as well)

you now have me curious as to which rom dump that is

anybody know?

Looks like I have to switch to this and check out the differences! 

[Bender]

I just checked Twin Galaxies, you can use either "US set 1" or "Japan set 1" for mame high scores (two differnt high score lists)

I'd assumed that "US set 2" was the the Two board rom dump and That "US set 1" was the 4 board dump

Know I just want to know

Someone out there must know

[TOK]

If you look at the level progression of the non-US version of DK it makes sense... The rivets is the last level, and its where DK is actually knocked down and conquered.

My all time high is 106,000, done on actual hardware. The high saved on my MAME cab is around 70k.
I love the game, but its one of those deals where I never really get better at it.

[CrazyKongFan]

US Set 1 in MAME is the regular set you'd typically see on a machine in the US. Some of the early machines (which had 4 board sets) had set 2, which allows the ladder cheat (where you can sit at the top of a ladder, and the barrels won't come down. Also present on all the Japanese sets). Not all 4 board sets had set 2 though, as Nintendo continued to make the 4 board sets for the cocktails (I have one). The way to tell the difference, if you see a real machine, the early sets with the ladder cheat only say "1981 Nintendo" on the title screen, whereas the later sets (and the one required by TG) says "1981 Nintendo of America". I'm not sure what the difference between set 1 and set 2 Japanese are though, set 3 must be an early one, as it has some of the same goofs that Crazy Kong has. It has the jump cheat, where you can jump off the right side of the screen near the ladder on the 2nd row, and go thru the bottom, clearing the barrel board, and it also says "How High Can You Try?" rather than "How High Can You Get?". All the Japanese sets also have a different level order. Every level goes Barrel, Conveyor, Elevator, Rivets. On the US Sets, it goes like this:
1: Barrel, Rivets
2: Barrel, Elevator, Rivets
3: Barrel, Conveyor, Elevator, Rivets
4: Barrel, Conveyor, Barrel, Elevator, Rivets
5 (thru 21): Barrel, Conveyor, Barrel, Elevator, Barrel, Rivets
All versions have the kill screen at level 22, but obviously you can score alot higher on the US sets, since on level 4 you have an extra board and 5 and on, 2 extra boards.

The reason the first elevators are slow on the Japanese sets and not the US is because they don't appear on the US version until level 2. They look the same on level 2 on either US or Japanese sets. Note Crazy Kong also has the slow elevators on level 1 (and also the same level order as the Japanese sets) It also has the kill screen at level 22, since it's pretty much the same basic code.

To answer Bender's question, the ROM on the 4 board set depends on whether it's an early or late. The ROM's themselves on later 4 board sets are identical to the 2 board sets, just in different locations on the board. (for example, what's 5A on the CPU board on the 2 board set is located at 5K on the 4 board set). I believe the only real difference on the 2 board sets though, is the 2 board set just combines a pair of them on the 4 board set (I think CPU/CLK and SND/VID are the two combined)

There, I think that covers everything...I hope I didn't make any errors.  

[massive88]

I love the game, but its one of those deals where I never really get better at it.

This thread helped me a bunch in my DK scores - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=79757.0

[Bender]

Thanks CrazyKongFan!

Now I think I got it!

Set 1 is definitely the way yo go



Massive88, I meant to post that thread too, there is a lot of good info there

[massive88]

Yeah it really helped a lot, more than doubled my score.

Now I need to verify that Ive been playing set 1, pretty sure that I have been from reading CrazyKongFan's description.

[severdhed]

wow, thats alot of info. we still mainly play us set 1, but recently started playing japan set 1 also....i was under the impression that the barrels would not come down a ladder if you were on it in the japanese version, but apparently they still do occasionally, just not nearly as often.     

the japan set does seem to be easier though....the first time i played it on my friend's cabinet i set the high score at 64,200...which clearly isnt as good as some of you, but i'm pretty happy with that score..for now anyway. 

[TheShanMan]

Aw, that "tips" thread is outdated and way too much work to wade through. I did the hard work of wading through all those posts and creating a guide based on them. It's in the DK group at CoinOpSpace.com. Check that guide out instead of the thread.

[massive88]

Aw, that "tips" thread is outdated and way too much work to wade through. I did the hard work of wading through all those posts and creating a guide based on them. It's in the DK group at CoinOpSpace.com. Check that guide out instead of the thread.

The thread is outdated?  We are talking about a game that was released in 1981 right?   

Nice work compiling it together, I think the thread still has merit to see the discussion, even if its a bit long winded.