Development:Super Donkey

This page details development materials of Super Donkey.

This page or section details content from the July 2020 Nintendo Leak. Check the July 2020 Nintendo Leak category for more pages also sourced from this material.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Document the date and time of these files in the JST (UTC+9) timezone. Add this file to the correct section. The filepath wasn't provided by the uploader.

Sprites and Animations for Super Donkey are located in the path other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_11\hino\z-sword. Sprites are held in .CGX files and animations are held in .OBJ files.

Player

CHR-stock\cg-mario.CGX 17 July 1991 17:27	CHR-stock\cg-mario-rom.CGX 17 July 1991 17:31	CHR-stock\cg-mario-rom-geta.CGX 17 July 1991 17:33

Sprites of the playable character when he was Mario. An enemy that resembles a Koopa Troopa and a clam enemy can be seen at the bottom of cg-mario-rom.CGX.

cg-mario-run-jump.OBJ

03 December 1990 17:03

Animations of Mario running and jumping.

cg-mario-stop-jump.OBJ

06 December 1990 09:18

An animation of Mario jumping while standing still, as well as an exaggerated "maximum speed" running animation similar to Super Mario Bros. 3.

cg-mario-down-and-stop.OBJ

06 December 1990 17:03'

An animation of Mario flying downwards and stopping.

cg-mario-turn.OBJ

20 December 1990 10:16

An animation of Mario changing direction while flying.

cg-mario.OBJ

08 January 1991 10:21

Some idle animations, and a walking animation.

cg-kame.OBJ

06 February 1991 18:56

Animations of the clam enemy and Koopa Troopa look-alike.

X-mario-A.CGX 14 February 1991 15:56	X-flying-man.CGX 19 February 1991 10:24	X-mario-bom.CGX 09 April 1991 09:47
X-mario-old.CGX 30 April 1991 16:44	X-mario.CGX 01 May 1991 10:26	X-20-27.CGX 21 August 1991 13:33

More sprites of "Mario".

X-run-jump-master.OBJ

11 January 1991 15:24

Another file that contains animations of Mario running and jumping. The "X" prefix indicates it was set up to be inserted into the game.

X-kaiten-hara 05 February 1991 15:01	X-kaiten-in-long.OBJ 08 February 1991 09:26	X-kaiten-long.OBJ 08 February 1991 09:32

More animations of Mario flying, meant to be used when turning.

CHR-stock\20-27-mario.CGX 07 August 1991 13:14	CHR-stock\20-27-mario-1.CGX 07 August 1991 13:16	CHR-stock\20-27-spike.CGX 09 August 1991 14:06
CHR-stock\20-27-hako.CGX 19 September 1991 11:33	CHR-stock\20-27-press-and-chibi.CGX 11 October 1991 10:35

Miscellaneous sprites of the player. The spiked shoes look to be some sort of power-up.

Link

link-0.CGX 17 July 1991 17:01	link-1.CGX 17 July 1991 17:02	link-3.CGX 17 July 1991 17:03	link-4.CGX 17 July 1991 17:04
link-A.CGX 17 July 1991 17:05	link-B.CGX 17 July 1991 17:06	link-B-frash.CGX 17 July 1991 17:07

Located in z-sword/CHR-stock are sprites of Link from The Legend of Zelda series in a side-scrolling style reminiscent of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The dates of the animation files reveal that these sprites predate Mario's. Whether Super Donkey originally starred Link or if these were created for an entirely separate project is unknown.

player-map.OBJ

25 October 1990 16:07

An overhead view of Link apparently meant for a world map.

player-0.OBJ

26 October 1990 13:32

Several animations of basic gameplay actions, including walking, running, inching forward, and skidding.

player-3.OBJ

26 October 1990 14:19

The same animations from player-0.OBJ but with the sword in a different position.

player-4.OBJ

31 October 1990 10:52

This file includes a sword swinging animation, stabbing from behind, and thrusting upwards while crouching.

player-jump.OBJ

31 October 1990 17:54

Some animations of Link jumping.

player-ken-furi.OBJ

01 November 1990 11:25

Link swinging his sword. Of note are the multiple swords present in these frames; these are actually "animation smears".

player-shagami-ushiro.OBJ

02 November 1990 14:20

Swinging behind while crouching.

player-shagami-mae.OBJ

05 November 1990 15:46

Stabbing while crouching.

player-16.OBJ

06 November 1990 10:11

Miscellaneous animations, including a running jump.

player-back.OBJ

06 November 1990 10:12

Sprites

z-sword

To do: Add more content here.

Some of the sprites for Super Donkey can be found in other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_11\hino\z-sword, and are stored in .CGX files. Respectively, the palettes for these sprites are strewn about in the same path and stored in .COL files.

X-0-7.CGX

...But what does it mean? This game has text or audio that needs to be translated. If you are fluent with this language, please read our translation guidelines and then submit a translation!

This file is dated 1991-10-30 15:53:52.

A font that was most likely associated with the HUD. It appears to be directly ported from Super Mario World.

Text saying "Point", also most likely intended for the HUD.

A compressed number set. The "missing" numbers would have been constructed by flipping and reusing parts of other numbers.

The number set used for the timer in both of the available builds, though only the 0 is seen normally since the timer doesn't function in either one.

Some arrows. The third arrow is incomplete.

Developer BG text. Translated from top to bottom, they read "Meter", "Background 1", and "Background 2".

CHR-stock

More sprites for Super Donkey can be found in other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_11\hino\z-sword\CHR-stock, and their palettes can be found in other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_11\hino\z-sword\COL-stock.

20-27-hako.CGX

This file is dated 1991-09-19 12:33:14.

A series of spheres that scale in size. They are almost identical to the balloon sprites from Super Mario Kart with the only difference of the removed outline and a slightly different color.

A stick of dynamite.

A random blue sphere.

Designs for the pilot's head. In the first one, he's wearing a bandana, giving him a sort of thief look. In the second one, he's lost his hat and has hair that looks quite like Mario's. In the third one, he has a cap on, and in the fourth one he wears a knight's helmet for some reason.

Designs for the pilot's suit. One appears to match up with the knight helmet seen above, while the other looks to be some type of "buff" suit.

A box telling the player to jump.

Two blocks resembling the wooden block from Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Brick Block from Super Mario Bros., respectively.

Yet another sphere, although this one is larger than the others we've seen.

Sprites for an apple, two pineapples, and four watermelons, likely intended for animation.

A box of apples, possibly connected to the apple sprite above.

A barrel.

Sprites of a hammer.

Various sprites for what appears to be a spring of sorts.

Sprites of a bucket.

An object that closely resembles a propane tank. It has "LP" on it, which almost certainly stands for "Liquid Propane".

A box of dynamite.

The trunk of a tree.

ANOTHER SPHERE? Oh wait, this one has a face on it.

A transparent box with nothing in it. Oh well.

Some type of particle.

20-27-mario.CGX

This file is dated 1991-08-07 14:14:23.

Mario's head! It's grouped in with several early versions of graphics for the used main character's head, who appears to have a sore nose here. The unknown guy also appears to have no hair on the back of his head, which can be seen in 20-27-hako.CGX. In some of his bottom flying sprites, he has no mustache, whereas he does in both 20-27-hako.CGX and the two playable prototypes.

Note that said flying sprites appear to be cut off. This is because those graphics were overwritten with...

Sprites depicting some sort of crystal object.

20-27-mario.CGX	20-27-hako.CGX

An easy to miss detail is that this hand sprite has been touched up a little in 20-27-hako.CGX.

Some early sketches of Mario. Looks like the artist was considering giving him beady eyes at one point.

Some more sprites of the crystal object.

A miscellaneous person. Possibly a caricature of someone who worked at Nintendo at the time?

20-27-mario-1.CGX

This file is dated 1991-08-07 14:16:02.

An almost complete set of sprites for Mario's head in the pilot's gear. Only a single frame is missing.

20-27-press-and-chibi.CGX

This file is dated 1991-10-11 11:35:53.

The pilot being squished or pressed against something.

A small or chibi version of the pilot.

A small version of the pilot without any outlines on his sprites.

Extremely small sprites of the pilot and an unknown person, the latter of whom may or may not be Stanley from Donkey Kong 3.

A shoe with what looks to be smoke coming out of it.

A random particle effect.

20-27-spike.CGX

This file is dated 1991-08-09 15:06:19.

What looks like roller skates, though the file name suggests these are spiked shoes.

An early version of the buff suit design seen in 20-27-hako.CGX. It's lacking the belt.

boyoyon-ball-pattern.CGX

This file is dated 1991-07-15 14:27:48.

What appears to be a draft of how an object can stretch or deform using a ball. boyoyon is an onomatopoeia for bouncing objects. As many of the bosses in the later Yoshi's Island use stretching and contraction, Salvo the Slime seems to be the most likely candidate, since he appears on stage while stretching and contorting in the manner depicted in this draft.

cg-mario.CGX

This file is dated 1991-07-17 18:27:14.

Mario in his traditional outfit. In addition to the softly-shaded style seen in some later renditions of him, there exist sprites with less detailed shading and more pronounced outlines.

A set of numbers from 1-12.

cg-mario-rom.CGX

This file is dated 1991-07-17 18:31:34.

Sprites of Mario's hand, used for flying.

An entity that resembles a Koopa Troopa.

A clam entity.

cg-mario-rom-geta.CGX

This file is dated 1991-07-17 18:33:06.

Another design for Mario's shoes.

china.CGX

This file is dated 1991-07-17 18:00:00.

Placeholder graphics and text for video memory that's always occupied (常駐) and recently updated memory (キンケイ; 近経).

VRAM layout for a possible title screen with the writing "Enkei 1" (エンケイー１), along with a katakana font on the bottom-left.

kong.CGX

This file is dated 1991-10-23 20:55:18.

A whole lot of apes. The file name gives further credence to the theory that this was a Donkey Kong-related project.

kong-big.CGX

This file is dated 1991-07-17 17:48:53.

A touched-up version of the big Kong seen in the previous file, with more detailed shading.

mode7-bird.CGX

This file is dated 1991-07-17 22:51:32.

An early version of the boss' head seen in the super_donkey_2.bin build, looking more alien-like.

Multiple variations of an early design for the boss' body, featuring scrawny arms and a feathered body. Note that the first sprite has had some of its graphics overwritten, which is why it's cut off.

Another early design for the body that's fairly large, and colored differently.

A larger version of the design seen above, with more detail and a thicker outline. Again, it has had some of its graphics overwritten.

A more spherical design for the boss' body, with yet more graphics overwritten.

noko.CGX

This file is dated 1991-10-30 15:49:14.

Sprites of some saw blades. Could be an evolution of the ones seen in the super_donkey_1.bin build.

The upper corner of the saw blade seen above, this time with tiny holes present.

An object resembling a ninja star, probably an alternate design for the saw blades.

A spiked ball with each separate sprite adding more spikes. How deadly.

More sprites of the above spiked ball, this time with a nice little pastel palette...

A palette which actually seems to have been intended for the previous sprites as well, given how nicely it fit with them.

rensa-bg.CGX

Rensa means "chain" or "series". There is little context as to what these were meant for. This file is dated 1991-07-31 23:11:24.

Placeholder text for the player. The katakana says "tensou", which could be an odd character name or pun on tensou 転送 "transfer".

Developer text. The kanji here is 常駐　じょうちゅう, "resident". This seems to imply that this is a block of reserved space.

A smaller version of 常駐 fit into a 1-tile-high space. It seems like they didn't know what to do with this area yet.

A cherry or tomato (or cherry tomato) entity.

A bizarre-looking entity. It is somewhat similar to the Squawks in Donkey Kong Country (Super Donkey Kong)

An entity that resembles a pear. It looks like the head of a bug-like entity.

A bug-like entity. It meshes mysteriously with the blue head above and the yellow head below. It meshes more deeply with a pear-like entity.

Some weird creature with antennae sticking out of the tops of its eyes. It looks like a miniaturized version of the boss head in mode7-bird.CGX.

An early version of the tomatoes that are hidden in the trees of Level 1 of the super_donkey_2.bin prototype. The odd blue shading may be a remnant of an early palette organization.

Some kind of spike object.

Several frames of animation for a flatly-shaded platform rotating.

The same platform as above, colored and shaded to look metallic. It's also shorter and has less frames.

An unknown object.

A wooden block that resembles the one seen in Super Mario Bros. 3.

A block with a star on it. Somewhat resembles the one seen in Super Mario World.

What looks to be a wooden block getting squished.

A version of the pilot's head with a smaller (and red) nose. More of this can be seen in 20-27-mario.CGX.

mori-OBJ.CGX

Sprites for a hummingbird entity.

Sprites for a baby hummingbird, which would've followed the adult hummingbird in pairs of three.

Sprites for what seems to be an evil monkey.

Backgrounds

To do: Backgrounds and tilesets go here.

Backgrounds for Super Donkey are stored in .SCR files, and their respective tilesets and palettes are stored in .CGX and .COL files.