DKC Atlas Forum

[CM August]

So I think K. Rool is supercool. Over the last several months I've been trying to get ahold of a few pieces of King Krem lore in particular: his voice files, and the character model itself, from DK64. I've had moderate success with the latter and none at all with the former. In addition, I've been searching for any rendered images of him that cannot be found here.

Can any of you fine folks here at the Atlas help me? And if you know of someone who can, feel free to mention them too. I am in fact willing to pay for the digital goods (via Paypal) if necesarry, but with hopefully it won't come to that. If you need more information, let me know.

My apologies for this being a big fat request topic, but the ultimate point is to get more resources like this out there for anyone to appreciate. Cheers!

Edit - To give an idea of what I have image-wise already, here they all are.

King K. Rool:
http://www.gamehiker.com/gallery/displa ... =27&pos=18
http://www.gamehiker.com/gallery/displa ... =27&pos=19
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y125/C ... lkrool.jpg
http://www.dkvine.com/news/gallery.php? ... =kingkrool
http://www.spriters-resource.com/ninten ... apbook.png (halfway down)

Kaptain K. Rool:
http://www.gamehiker.com/gallery/displa ... =28&pos=42
http://www.dkvine.com/features/kaptain.gif
http://www.dkvine.com/news/gallery.php? ... terofkrems
http://www.dkvine.com/news/gallery.php? ... ofthequest

Baron [All]:
http://www.dkvine.com/news/gallery.php? ... cesofkrool

These happen to be the highest quality and resolution I could find for each picture, as well. I'd have posted these links as thumbnails if I remembered the code to do it.

[Qyzbud]

So what kind of voice files are you hoping for? Do you mean sample rips straight from DK64? That shouldn't be too hard... I think there would be some emulation savvy members here that could grab those vocals for you. If not, I could try my hand at it when time permits.

I may have some additional K. Rool renders. You're focussing on his regal guise, correct? Would images featuring his piratical/baronly getups be of use?

[CM August]

Yes, basically sample rips of the highest possible quality. This would include his numerous grunts and bellows along with the speech in the opening sequence. I tried asking at the Rare Witch Project, but no luck. Maybe none of the knowledgeable people actually read the topic; who knows.

The only two (decent) renders of the Kaptain I know of are a stationary pose of him holding the gun, and one of him running toward the viewer. And there's only one render I know of the Baron, period. All renders of K. Rool would be helpful, but the King most of all.

[Cyclone]

So you want any renders of k. Rool from any of the games? I might have a few that may be useful to you.

[Qyzbud]

If you get a chance, Cyclone, it would be great to see them posted here as thumbnails, linking to the full quality versions. That would help keep track of what has been resourced so far, so that others can see at a glance whether they have something unique to contribute. Of course, it would also be great because then we'd have a bit of a gallery of the green meanie to look at whenever we're in a K. Rool sort of mood...

CM, maybe you could edit the ones you currently have into your first post. That'd be great.

[CM August]

Done and done. Incidentally, I also have his sprite sheets from the DKC series. The King and Kaptain sheets are not actually complete, but that's really not so important as rendered images since sprites are so freaking tiny.

[Qyzbud]

That's a fair start to your collection- you're obviously being incredibly thorough, if this one made the list...

I'd have filed that under 'King' rather than 'Kaptain', though... even though it's a DKC2 render.

[Cyclone]

Ok... I don't have anything new to contribute but I do have a few slightly larger scans then the ones posted so I will upload those maybe tommorow. Its unfortunate that Rare didn't make many renders of K.Rool which is one of the main characters. They sure have a lot of diddy kong renders.

[Tiptup Jr.]

Voice files ahoy! They're all from Jungle Climber though. There are also numerous other characters in there besides K. Rool.

[CM August]

I'm afraid Jungle Climber and other recent games do not count, what with the abombinable character revisions and all. It's barely the same character.

[Qyzbud]

Agreed. Keep it classic. By the way, I'm sure CM meant to say "Thanks anyway, Tiptup!"

[CM August]

And Qyzbud makes the save. Whoosh!

[CM August]

Once again, I took an expedition deep into the forgotten realm of Rarewhere. Although there was no sign of anything I was looking for, I did at least find some other nifty, hard-to-find DKC renders.



I've never seen a Minky Kong render before... perhaps it was tucked in the official strategy guide somewhere. Still interesting though.

So... how about those DK64 audio files, eh? Anyone?

[Jomingo]

Nifty indeed! I have never seen Minky up close like that before, and he is majorly awesome!

[Cyclone]

Yes that Minky image is pretty cool. I have never seen him in a pose that wasn’t cropped before. And that bear render looks like a beta image? I can't seem to find him in that outfit anywhere.

Here is a quick merge of all the renders I have of K. Rool that are slightly larger then the ones you posted. Click the thumbnail below for the full sized image(5megs).

[CM August]

Cyclone: THANK YOU.

Man, I've been dying to see a better shot of that DKC2 boxart render. Lo and behold, there it is.

And that Baron K. Roolenstein render? Brilliant, just brilliant. Finally, a high-quality picture of him.

[Qyzbud]

Yeah, nice job on those HQ render scans. I've never seen the big bad dude look so good.

But hey; am I crazy, or has the Baron's bloodshot eye switched sides? Must be a flipped image.

[Jomingo]

Wow, your're right! They are awesome images nonetheless.

[CM August]

Flipped images are exceedingly common in pretty much any media.

So far my success rate in aquiring K. Rool's voice files is a big fat 0%.
DK hackers, I implore thee! Let us take up arms and march onward, to confront the beast that is Kong 64!

[Qyzbud]

Okay CM, count me in... I thought you'd have had some takers on the vocal rips by now, but it seems time for me to step up and tackle the mission. You never know; some of those voices (and other sounds) may come in handy as snippets to sample for use in my DKC2 Cranky remix. I'm always on the lookout for fresh (and freshly recycled) material.

[CM August]

Since it's been two weeks since the last post, a status update wouldn't hurt. Any luck, Quyzbud?

[Qyzbud]

Sorry CM, thanks for the reminder.

I've turned up a promising RWP forum thread which has some info that may help me disable the music in DK64, so that sounds are played back on their own. Hopefully I will be able to then record K. Rool's voice without the sinister soundtrack in the background.

Music modifier
80710000 00XX -music value
8159fab4 93A9
8159fab6 EE78 - address to read from (80710000)
807326c0 00XX -music value

I'll see what I can do with this, and will keep you updated.

EDIT: Actually this thread appears to be an updated version of the other one, with more complete/accurate info.

[CM August]

Thanks for the update!

You can disable the music anyway by going to the options menu and turning BGM to zero. The real problem you'll find is with ambient sound effects, such as the constant static in K. Rool's throne room, and the roaring crowd in the final boss battle.

[Qyzbud]

You can disable music via the options menu? Good grief, I just spent a good couple of hours trying to hack something that's already a legitimate option... Now I really must laugh at myself. A bit of a silly waste of time; I was going to use those hours to make an Atlas update.

I actually had no luck at all with what I was doing via PJ64. I worked out that the 'Kiosk' version is the one available to be played in stores before the game was released, so that's not even the one I have... so those codes are possibly useless for our audio obtaining exploits, unless someone has this Kiosk ROM, and can check if K. Rool's dialogue is even in it...

Even when I realised that I had the wrong version, I tested some general DK64 GS codes, and couldn't get any of them to function. The ones that came pre-installed with PJ64 work, but nothing that I added had any effect... and I have no idea why.


EDIT: CM, do you have an N64 emulator? What efforts/discoveries have you made so far? Your previous post had me thinking I should have asked this before trying to do my own GS hacking...

[CM August]

I have PJ64, but it's useless on this end. I couldn't even run the game for the longest time; even now, it runs like absolute hell. It would take a lot of time just to get it to a playable state, if such a thing is even possible with this PC's hardware. I also have no knowledge of code whatsoever, hence the plea to more tech-savvy members.

I was hoping it would be (relatively) straightforward to track down the stored SFX in the game, and locate/extract the relevant files. Apparently not though...

[Simion32]

I have really been wanting to hack a SFX modifier, but I honestly have no clue how N64 code works. The closest I got to hacking the game was with some tool called Renegade 64... but I never could figure out much besides RAM viewing.

I have recorded SFX which are played via the music modifier; would you like me to upload those CM? (PJ64 runs really fast on my computer. )

Now if only I still actually had the music modifier code...

[CM August]

Interesting point Simion... if a music modifier can be made I'm sure a SFX version can be made too. Anyway, sure, I guess it couldn't hurt to upload the ones you've found. Are any of them related to K. Rool, by any chance?

[Simion32]

Here they are, also with a few Normal SFX which aren't played using the music modifier: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JF79MU15

Are any of them related to K. Rool, by any chance?

Unfortunately no, I haven't recored any of K Rool yet. I think it was because of the background noise that I gave up on recording his "vocals". I think the noise is an actual sound effect rather than a music track.

[Qyzbud]

If you haven't already tried, I recommend posting a topic on the Rare Witch Project Forums, specifically asking for help with SFX ripping/recording. For better or worse, we at DKC Atlas really specialise in 16-bit game tinkering... whereas those RWP fellows made their name from exploring the 64-bit realm. There are also far more members there, so your odds are greater of finding someone willing/able to help.

Besides; although it runs fine on my laptop, DK64 irritates me SOOOO much (for reasons not belonging in this thread)... so I'm happy to pass this on to someone else. Sorry.

[Raccoon Sam]

<DKC renders>

Wow, those are pretty rare..!
Where are you pulling these from? I'd do anything to get a Klasp render.

[CM August]

Well Quyzbud, as I mentioned in the first post of this thread...

I tried asking at the Rare Witch Project, but no luck.

I suppose I could try again, though.

(sighs)

Anyway, here you go, Raccoon Sam. All of these renders can be found either at The DKU Gallery or at the Gamehiker Image Gallery.

[Raccoon Sam]

Definitely bookmarked..! Thank you so much.

[Qyzbud]

Ah... yeah, your second post here did mention the RWP, I'd forgotten that. When did you start your thread? Is it still on their forum? I never saw any such thread whilst looking around over there. Might be worth asking again, if the thread has disappeared.

[CM August]

Wha... I swear I intended to write 'second post' there when composing that. Oh well. Yes the thread is long gone, and I've now made a new topic in what's hopefully a more relevant forum. This one, to be specific. Fingers crossed, I guess...

[Jomingo]

Where are you pulling these from? I'd kill my own mother to get a Klasp render.

I'm somewhat disturbed by this statement.

[Raccoon Sam]

Oh.. Sorry, definitely didn't mean to do that.
I edited my original post now.. You should edit the quote.

[Qyzbud]

Erm, Mr August... do you, per chance, have any (as yet unshared) special K. Rool resources you could ...share with us?

Just askin'.

[CM August]

About this time last year, I recieved a ripped model of K. Rool from Donkey Kong 64. From what I understand, it's essentially a 3D screen capture during gameplay. This model was ripped, I believe, during the cutscene where K. Rool struts around his throne room.

Spoiler!

The model isn't a perfect rip, however. It isn't rigged, the texture (not shown) was improvised, several faces aren't welded to each other where they should be while others are missing entirely, and there is some noticeable distortion to the face - the left side is slightly stretched. While I'd love to get ahold of a "perfect" rip, I haven't actually asked around. The papery look is simply due to a basic render technique I used.

Oh yeah, the person who sent this to me was deviantART member Aphius, who has done extraordinary (and often hilarious) work with ripped game models, particularly Zelda.

[CM August]

Well folks, the RWP shoutout thread is once again a flop. And for that extra kick in the testes, all queries toward Rare turned out to be a waste of time. For a while it seemed like there was a chance - after all, the DKC ports utilized DK64 sound effects, and there were even a few frames of sprite animation unseen in the SNES version but restored for GBA. That could mean not everything is gone, right?

Well scratch that. Apparently they lost all the old resources sometime during or after the GBA ports, and they couldn't/wouldn't provide anything even if they did. Back to square zero, then. Naturally this thread still invites anyone to provide help or info, but I've more or less given up by this point.

[Stone]

... and they couldn't/wouldn't provide anything even if they did.

That's really bad. I expected a little more fan service from Rare, at least we helped them getting big

And I hope they don't do something similar like this:
"RCA Victor decided to demolish their Camden warehouse in the early 1960s. This warehouse held four floors' worth of catalog and vault masters (most of them pre-tape wax and metal discs), test pressings, lacquer discs, matrix ledgers, and rehearsal recordings. A few days before the demolition took place, some collectors from the USA and Europe were allowed to go through the warehouse and salvage whatever they could take with them for their personal collections. Soon after, collectors and RCA Records officials watched from a nearby bridge as the warehouse was demolished, with many studio masters still intact in the building. The remnants were bulldozed into the Delaware River and a pier was built on top of them. In 1973, when the company decided to release all of Rachmaninoff's recordings on LPs (to celebrate the centennial of the composer's birth), RCA was forced to go to record collectors for materials, as documented by Time." (from wikipedia)

[CM August]

Actually, I may have evidence that Nintendo has indeed retained all the old DK resources.
Some may have seen this before, but it's a Japanese commercial of DKC3 for the GBA.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IZ_myU3lGI0&feature=related

Gaze at those pristine character models from your childhood, friends! You'll never see them again.

This suggests Nintendo has all the assets archived and pulled them out again to make this commercial. On the other hand, there's a chance it was Rare who provided these models for use and subsequently lost them. On top of that, why would Nintendo create entirely new (crappy) models for the DKC2 GBA commercials? Makes no sense either way. George K. from Rare noted that their DK assets were lost 'eons' ago - presumably that means more than three years, when the DKC3 port was released. It's all a confusing muddle, but I have renewed faith that the DK assets of old are safetly stored away... even if Nintendo refuses to use them.

[Simion32]

Perhaps he meant that Rare lost those resources to Nintendo back when they finished with all of the DKC Trilogy handheld ports. I think it's quite plausible that Nintendo still has the DKC assets. It would make sense, as Nintendo owns the right to Donkey Kong, which means that beyond developing the hand held games, Rare shouldn't logically have access to them in the first place. He could also mean that they lost the assets when Rare was sold to Microsoft, because after that point Rare didn't really own any of the DK franchise. Also, never completely trust the scribes, as they are intended to be humorous.

I sure hope that Nintendo still has the DKC character models and everything stashed away, and uses them in the rumored upcoming DKC game.

How awesomely cool it would be;
to play the game in real 3D!

[CM August]

That's correct Simion, and you can read a bit more info on that matter here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=95

To follow that up, I had in fact got a reply from Nintendo about the matter. Their response boiled down to "Probably, we don't actually know because we're not allowed to check, and we wouldn't be showing you a thing anyway, but probably."

Not very helpful. It does, however, look like the truth can be found in more roundabout fashion. Incidentally, none of these queries ever came near Scribes; I asked community manager Georke K. directly, who is a very nice fellow and answers questions honestly. And while it's easy to assume they lost the assets after switching to Microsoft, Robin Beanland (via George K.) stated that they actually had the assets when creating DKC's GBA port. A bit confusing, isn't it? Perhaps they didn't lose it that long ago after all.

[Kiddy14]

...Robin Beanland (via George K.) stated that they actually had the assets when creating DKC's GBA port.

Diddy and Donkey have new "Bonus Lose" and "Bonus Win" animations in the ports. And Dixie has a new animation when she is near a pit (you know, that one where she looks to the pit and start balancing). It indeed looks like it was done with her old render and exclusively to the port, since her hair doesn't move a bit ¬¬

[CM August]

Yes, I actually mentioned a few of those cases in my emails to him. Another instance would be King K. Rool, who had extra frames in his animation cycles that weren't there in the original, making them a lot smoother.

[CM August]

I've been sort of reluctant to update this topic, but anyway:

Seems I've been given the runaround. I got a reply from Rare about those questions earlier - it turns out they DID still have the assets at that time, but now 'do not have access to them'. That is the extent that George K. has been told. So maybe they didn't lose them, maybe they did. Even George isn't getting a real answer about that one. But it was reiterated, once again, that Nintendo most likely have the assets (or copies thereof) since they own everything with Donkey Kong's name attached to it. So that's it. No real answer, it can only be assumed. Not much else can be said about it really.

With regards to the original point of the thread, there has of course been no luck in aquiring K. Rool's DK64 voice files. I'll try one more shout-out on other boards in the future, once a certain project is nearing completion. But I must thank you again, Stone, for those hi-res scan contributions. They were really helpful!