Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Also known as: Super Donkey Kong 2: Dixie & Diddy (JP), Diddy's Kong-Quest (title screen, ROM header) Developer: Rare Publisher: Nintendo Platform: SNES Released in JP: November 21, 1995 Released in US: December 1995 Released in EU: December 1995 This game has unused areas. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a prerelease article This game has a bugs page

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is the second game in the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. This time, it's up to Diddy Kong and his girlfriend Dixie Kong to save Donkey Kong from Kaptain K. Rool.

To do: Any other revisional differences?

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Bugs

Unused Level

Pro Action Replay code 7E00D300 will load an incomplete version of Web Woods upon entering any level. This version contains several differences from the final one:

• Diddy and/or Dixie will drop from the top of the map, landing near a DK Barrel.
• Aside from two nearby Zingers, the level is devoid of any further objects.
• You cannot enter the cave at the end of the section, as exit data isn't programmed.

However, using PAR code 7E0E1000 for Moonjump (jump at any point and as many times as you want) will enable you to get to the other side of the barrier. There are no other objects in the level, but you can also jump over the cave at what is normally the end of the level...to a bunch of random tiles between there and the rightmost border of the level. (A video can be seen right here.)

• 

  The entrance. And a DK Barrel!

• 

  Zingers!

• 

  The cave can't be entered, but you can see beyond it.

• 

  The garbled mess beyond the final wall.

(Source: Rick)

Unused Language Option

PAR code 7E061702 enables an option to change the English game text to German...except this doesn't actually work, mainly because the only other language used for the text is French. There's no German text in the European or Japanese versions, either.

Still, there was a German release which, as you may have guessed, uses German text. It also has English as the alternate language option.

Unused Graphics

Alternate Cranky's Video Game Heroes Background

Unused	Used

A slightly different version of the background used on the screen where Cranky ranks you based on the number of Hero Coins collected is stored in the ROM. Compared to the final version:

• The poles in the unused version look different, while the right pole is a mirror image of the left one in the final version.
  
• The stripes on the victory podium mostly use unique tiles, but largely use a single repeating tile in the final version.
• The number 1 above the victory podium is about one pixel to to the left of its final location, and has odd red shading.
• The trash bin's reflection is much lighter in the unused version. It reuses solid black tiles in the final version.
• Not readily noticeable from the images above, the left side (back) of the podium in the unused background has priority bits set, making it overlap Cranky's sprite (see the image to the right of this text). It may have been intended for Cranky to stand behind the podium instead of next to it.

(Source: Kingizor)

Sad Walking Kongs

Diddy and Dixie looking rather sad. Judging from their close proximity in the ROM to the victory sprites, these were likely intended to be used for failing a Bonus Area or an alternate animation for the ending of Stronghold Showdown after a tied up Donkey Kong gets taken away. Similar animations were used in Donkey Kong Country when failing the various spelling, shell game, mix-and-match bonus games and missing a chargeable platform in Tanked Up Trouble while being stranded.

Unused Enemy Palettes

Zinger

Palette address: 3D6C22 - 3D6C3F

Directly after the red and yellow Zinger palettes is this one. Green Zingers were used in the first Donkey Kong Country, but not here.

Flotsam

• 

  Red Flotsam

• 

  Yellow Flotsam

Red palette address: 3D6C9A - 3D6CB7
Yellow palette address: 3D6CB8 - 3D6CD5

Aside from the blue and green varieties, Flotsam also has red and yellow palettes.

Flitter

• 

  Turquoise

• 

  Purple (blue wings)

• 

  Purple (green wings)

• 

  Red

Turquoise palette address: 3D6D30 - 3D6D4D
Purple (blue wings) palette address: 3D6D4E - 3D6D6B
Purple (green wings) palette address: 3D6D6C - 3D6D89
Red palette address: 3D6D8A - 3D6DA7

Flitter has four unused palettes, but only uses the blue-with-purple-wings variant in-game.

(Source: Mattrizzle)

Unused Music

These tracks are loaded as part of the Crocodile Cacophony music set used in K. Rool Duel and Krocodile Kore. However, a few checks for this set in the code result in them never being played normally.

Death against K. Rool

Diddy wins against K. Rool

Dixie wins against K. Rool

PAR code B883B52C will allow the death music to be played normally in both K. Rool battles, and B8B3090A will allow the victory themes to play in K. Rool Duel. B8B31300 will do the same as the latter for Krocodile Kore, but it will give you a Kremkoin instead of a Hero Coin for beating the battle the first time.

(Note that all codes above are for US v1.0.)

Unused Sounds

Unknown, but it may have been intended for when a Kong is released from a DK Barrel like in the previous entry.

An alternate sound for collecting a banana. This exact sound is used in Donkey Kong Country 3 when collecting a banana bunch.

This sound should be used when the Kongs are transforming inside an Animal Buddy Barrel. It is even called in the game's code, albeit too late, and on the same channel as the sound of the barrel breaking. Thus, it usually cannot be heard during normal gameplay. However, it can sometimes be heard when performing the Castle Crush glitch.

Anti-Piracy

US/Europe	Japan

The game contains a much more thorough set of anti-piracy tests than those seen in earlier SNES titles. Similar programming is also present in the next game and Killer Instinct.

Failing any of the below tests (except the Checksum Verification and Reset Vector Verification) will display the above unauthorized device message on bootup. The international versions fittingly use the background from the Game Over screen with Diddy and Dixie in jail, with the message displayed in the game's regular 8x8 font. The Japanese version instead features a much more plain looking screen, similar to ones seen in other first-party SNES titles, though it does feature a unique font.

Note: The console's RAM is mostly random on boot and can result in a false positive for the Stack Test and RAM Tests. To account for this, an error message will be displayed first:

US/Europe	Japan

Behind the scenes, the string A thief! is copied to both $0907 and the beginning of SRAM (battery-backed memory used to hold the save game data).

Ten seconds powered off is necessary for the contents of RAM to decay. If these tests fail again on the second boot (using the string saved in SRAM to determine if it's the second try), then the anti-piracy message is shown. However, if the tests pass, the string Rareware is copied to $0907 instead; if this string is detected at startup, the anti-piracy checks are skipped and the game boots normally.

Boot State Test

Almost immediately after booting, the Emulation Flag and Direct Page register are examined. The console already being in Native Mode and/or the Direct Page register containing a non-zero value fails the test, as these are evidence that another program (e.g., a backup unit menu) was running before the game had a chance to boot.

Stack Test

If the Reset Vector was at the top of the stack, the test fails. Explained in more detail in the next section.

RAM Tests

The beginning of RAM (range $7E0000-7E1FFF) is searched for three types of fingerprints left behind by the unauthorized devices. The two jump tests, along with the stack test mentioned in the previous section, are looking for the various methods that attached hardware can use to switch from its programming to that of the game cartridge.

Jump $4C

Checks for operation $4C????, where ???? is the Reset Vector.

Indirect Jump $6C

Checks for operation $6CFCFF, an indirect jump.

Incrementing RAM Pattern

Checks for the incrementing 32 byte string $60-7F (i.e., 60,61,62 ... 7D,7E,7F). This includes lowercase ASCII characters a-z.

SRAM Size Test

If the game detects 0KB of SRAM, this test is failed. Normally, the cartridge has 2KB of SRAM, but this anti-piracy routine will not be executed if this amount is increased (the typical anti-piracy routine in SNES games).

Checksum Verification

At the beginning of a level, a checksum is run on 544 bytes worth of code and data which includes all of the above tests, the PAL/NTSC region check, and various initialization routines. If the checksum generated doesn't match the hardcoded value it compares against (i.e., the anti-piracy routines were tampered with), RAM address $7E0AFD, which holds the total number of screens in the level, is decremented by one. This punishes the player by causing the screen to stop scrolling just before reaching the goal in a level.

Reset Vector Verification

There are two separate checks which punish the player if it detects that the Reset Vector (boot address) was modified (usually meaning the presence of a cracktro).

• The first check occurs when switching rooms or finishing a level. If the check fails during the former, the player is booted back to the map. For the latter, the next stage will not be unlocked.
• Animal Crates will not break open when jumped on if the second check fails.

(Source: BMF54123, gabrielwoj, JLukas)

Build Dates

Present at 3F0000 in all versions of the ROM.

US v1.0	DIDDY ASSEMBLY DATE & TIME 22/10/95 @ 1:46
Japan v1.0	DIDDY ASSEMBLY DATE & TIME 26/10/95 @ 12:44
Germany v1.0	DIDDY ASSEMBLY DATE & TIME 31/10/95 @ 23:03
Japan v1.1	DIDDY ASSEMBLY DATE & TIME 08/11/95 @ 16:48
Europe v1.1	DIDDY ASSEMBLY DATE & TIME 08/11/95 @ 16:54
Germany v1.1	DIDDY ASSEMBLY DATE & TIME 08/11/95 @ 17:00
US v1.1	DIDDY ASSEMBLY DATE & TIME 08/11/95 @ 17:06

Regional Differences

Title Screen

US/Europe	Japan

Graphical Changes

US	Japan/Europe

The colors of the buttons on the controllers in the game mode selection screen are region-appropriate. North American SNES controllers have purple and lavender buttons, while the European and Japanese controllers use red, blue, green, and yellow buttons. However, the controller in the "Cheat Mode" option retains the latter set of colors in the American version, which was probably an oversight.

US	Japan/Europe

The aforementioned controller change appears in the Monkey Museum. An additional shadow can be seen on the controller in the Japanese and European versions as well.

US	Japan/Europe

In the Japanese and European versions, some background details of K. Rool Duel are different - most notably, the door appears to have a large hole blown through it. For unclear reasons, this was changed in the American version so that it simply has a (rather ill-fitting) window instead. The controller's buttons were also recolored, although whoever did the touch-ups for the North American version accidentally drew the A and B buttons too low.

Audio

The game audio is, by default, in mono in the US and European versions and in stereo in the Japanese version.

Kong Kollege Game Save Price

International	Japan

In the Japanese version, saving at the same Kong Kollege again costs one Banana Coin instead of two. This change did not carry over to Donkey Kong Land 2.

Enemy Names

A few enemies have different names in the Japanese version. It is worth noting that the Japanese enemy names in this game are rendered in katakana, whereas the enemies in the Japanese version of Donkey Kong Land 2 are romanized in English.

• All bosses are prefixed with ボス (Boss), likely to distinguish between Mini-Necky and Krow. This change does not carry over to Donkey Kong Land 2.
• Krow was renamed to ボス　ゾッキー (Boss Zocky).
• Kudgel was renamed to ボス　グラッバ (likely Boss Glubba to rhyme with Klubba).
• King Zing was renamed to ボス　キングB (Boss King B).
• Mini-Necky was renamed to ゾッキー (Zocky), which shares its name with Krow, minus the Boss prefix. This name change did not carry over to Donkey Kong Land 2, where it is still called Necky, as it is in the English version of that game.
• Click-Clack was renamed to ビートル (Beetle).

Version Differences

Music Test

In the SNES version, select an empty file, then press Down, Down, Down, Down, Down when Two-Player Contest is highlighted. The menu will scroll down to the new option, where you can press Left or Right to select the music.

In the GBA version, enter ONETIME in the Cheat menu inside the Option screen to access the Music Test.

Note that some music tracks cannot be heard in the music test for the SNES version, but they are available in the music test for the GBA version. Also, the GBA version has several new tracks that are not found in the SNES version at all. Second note, the SNES music track "Rescue Kong" is not used in the GBA version, instead a modified version of the same track is used, called "K. Rool 2". Most of the titles of the GBA tracks are from the SNES version's official soundtrack, although the track "Stickerbush Symphony" is renamed "Stickerbrush Symphony". The track "Run, Rambi! Run!" is unused in the GBA remake.

Music Title (SNES)	Music Title (GBA)		Music Title (SNES)	Music Title (GBA)		Music Title (SNES)	Music Title (GBA)
Island Map	Welcome to Crocodile Isle		Main Theme	K. Rool Returns		Swamp	Bayou Boogie
Swanky	Swanky's Swing		Enchanted Wood	Forest Interlude		Ship Deck	Klomp's Romp
Mine	Kannon's Klaim		Funky	Funky the Main Monkey		Brambles	Stickerbrush Symphony
Klubba	Klubba's Reveille		Wasp Hive	Flight of the Zinger		Wrinkly	School House Harmony
Lava	Hot-Head Bop		Roller Coaster	Disco Train		Bonus	Token Tango
Ship Hold	Lockjaw's Saga		Fanfare	Opening Fanfare		Ship Deck 2	Snakey Chantey
Rescue Kong	K. Rool 2		Game Over	Game Over		Big Boss	Boss Bossa Nova
Castle	Krook's March		Haunted	Haunted Chase		Select	Steel Drum Rhumba
Cranky	Cranky's Conga		Ice	In a Snowbound Land		Jungle	Primal Rave
Lost World	Lost World Anthem		Rigging	Jib Jig		Credits	Donkey Kong Rescued
Krool	Crocodile Cacophony		N/A	Dixie Guitar		N/A	Diddy Boom Box
N/A	Expresso Racing		N/A	Bonus Lose		N/A	Bonus Win
N/A	Dixie Defeated		N/A	Diddy Defeated		N/A	Intro Story
N/A	Krockship		N/A	Run, Rambi! Run!		N/A	Bad Bird Rag
N/A	Level Complete		N/A	Expresso Victory		N/A	Expresso Fail
N/A	Funky Mission Complete		N/A	Funky Mission Fail		N/A	Funky's Flights

Changes between Rev 0 and Rev 1

To do: Any other known changes? There might be a sound effect buffer desync issue possibly fixed in Rev 1 as well.

• Krow, Kreepy Krow and King Zing all move faster in Rev 1.
• Fixed a glitch which could crash the game in Kreepy Krow by hitting Krow while he's moving up to the next level.
• Fixed a glitch where the timer on the moving barrel can be disabled by getting hit by an enemy exactly as the timer hits zero. You could then move to the left and scroll out of bounds which caused you to warp over to the other side of the level.
• Fixed a glitch that involved jumping infinitely with the tag team.
• Fixed a glitch that made it possible to go beneath Fiery Furnace's bonus stage.
• An Enguarde barrel in Arctic Abyss is raised in Rev 1, making it possible to bypass it and play the level without Enguarde.
• A "wrong warp" glitch works differently in Rev 1, which can be abused in speedruns in certain levels, such as Slime Climb and Castle Crush.

(Source: DKC Speedrunning, DKC Atlas)

Virtual Console Changes

The Virtual Console version makes a change to Glimmer's Galleon: In the SNES version, when the Kongs would change direction, Glimmer would turn around to face the screen; during this time, there would be a blinding flash where the entire screen would turn white for one frame. The Virtual Console version removes the flash, reducing the risk of epilepsy.