DKC Atlas Forum

Throughout the DKC trilogy, I noticed that Rare re-did certain sprites, yet, there are some sprites that were reused, could someone point out a reason for this? The only theory I can think of was Rare lost some of there sprites .

Here's an example a whipped up, the first column is DKC1, and the second column is DKC2. The first two sprites shown were redone, but the last sprite, (Diddy Kong), was reused.

I've always been interested in this...

I think Diddy was kept the same because it would have been a fair bit of work to redo all of his frames, whereas DK barrels and Zingers only have a handful of frames in their animations. I think Zingers were probably updated because of King Zing - I'm sure Rare wanted to differentiate between Queen B. and King Zing, and while they were working with the model, they realised that it made sense to give DKC2's Zinger's a matching look. That's what I think.

As for the DK barrels... well, they certainly do look a bit nicer in DKC2 - a bit bigger, and better colour/detail. DKC2 introduced lots of new barrels, and they were all a little larger than in DKC, weren't they? I guess that's an artistic decision Rare made, and I think it was worth doing. Having some barrels stay the same, but introducing new and superior looking barrels would have been strange, and it would have been a shame for Rare to just use old graphics if they had improved rendering techniques to take advantage of.

Banana bunches and KONG letters got bigger, too, didn't they?

The letters! I forgot those! They have been added, but I didn't bother with the banana bunches yet.

The list has been updated, I think the biggest change was Squawks .

gamer_boy997 wrote:...could someone point out a reason for this? The only theory I can think of was Rare lost some of there sprites

It's because DKC had a different "Additional Graphics Manipulator" from DKC2 and 3. I went to DKC on MobyGames to look at the credits and see if a different person making the sprites could have been the reason. The Graphics Manipulator for all 3 games had been by "Chris Peil". But the Additional Graphics Manipulator in DKC was "Neil Crook", and in DKC2 and 3, it was "Steven Hurst".

Notice how all of DKC3's sprites that appeared in DKC2 didn't get changed? That's obviously because Steven Hurst kept them like they were.

You don't know that. I can see why you would draw such a conclusion, but just because you think Hurst's involvement is the reason for the changes doesn't make it a fact. If you're speculating, it would be best to word your suggestions accordingly. Silly boy.

I don't remember where I heard this, but I heard after the great hit DKC was, Rareware decided to do the sequel (they kind of were expecting this anyway) with better quality computers and stuff. It said it was the reason the sound effects were re-done (that's another thing, David Wise also re-did every sound effect in DKC) and the characters were improved (in DKC the kongs' fur was kind of just colored surfaces, while from DKC2, it was actual fur).
They probably decided to redo every thing in the game (with some exceptions).

Enguarde is the same too, with the exception of his injured sprite. And Rambi kind of is the same one, but Rare changed his palette and added more sprites in him.

Also, have you noticed there's a light source in DKC2 and DKC3 (the light comes from left to right)? In DKC the terrain just had plain colors.

Kiddy14 wrote:in DKC the kongs' fur was kind of just colored surfaces, while from DKC2, it was actual fur

Yeah, you can really see the difference when it comes to the promo renders, but it's funny that we were noting that Diddy's appearance was one of the few things that didn't change for DKC2. A bit ironic, really. It's a wonder Rare didn't re-render him with the improved ACM system... perhaps they started to do this, but it was hardly noticeable, or even made Diddy look worse somehow.

have you noticed there's a light source in DKC2 and DKC3 (the light comes from left to right)? In DKC the terrain just had plain colors

Well... that's kind of true. There are definitely shadows cast in DKC's terrains, and many archetypes do have an evident light source, but occasionally these shadows are 'flipped' with the terrain tiles, which tends to spoil the effect a little. The shadows/lighting in DKC2 and 3 are indeed more noticeable, though - I'll give you that!

Qyzbud wrote:It's a wonder Rare didn't re-render him with the improved ACM system... perhaps they started to do this, but it was hardly noticeable, or even made Diddy look worse somehow.

I really don't know either. But aparently Rareware had two renders (or even more) of the kongs. This pitcure:

About the Player's Guide shows (if you look closely ) that Dixie and Diddy have the "bad quality" fur render. And if you have the DKC3's manual, the picture of the kongs in the top of the Story page also uses these renders...

Perhaps, the utilities used for the promo renders weren't exactly used for the sprites, but for the backgrounds? I don't get it actually. Rare seemed to not detail sprites as much as renders or backgrounds. As you can notice the DK sprite has no DK logo in his tie; Diddy has no Nintendo Logo in his hat, and later on didn't have the stars in his shirt; Dixie does not have her Rareware pin in her beret; and Kiddy doesn't have his green pacifier; probably because of palette limitations though.
Yet in the renders above, you can see Diddy's stars and Dixie's pin, but not Diddy's Nintendo Logo. And in the DKC2 manual, in the barrels section, the Diddy Barrel has the Nintendo Logo in his hat. And later on, in the world's section, you sometimes see stars in Diddy's shirt and sometimes you don't. Sometimes Dixie has her pin, sometimes she doesn't. If you've seen a swamp render on the net, there are 2 versions of the same picture; one is more colorful and has Dixie's pin, the other one is wider, and doesn't have Dixie's pin.

So... this doesn't explain why they didn't change Diddy's sprite...

Just as a side-note..

What is going on in the strategy guide's picture?

Diddy is being a jerk. That's what!

Has anyone else noticed that the forest backgrounds in DKC 1 were reused in DKC 3?

There have been a couple of mentions about that, but it's a good observation.

In the GBA port, the DK barrel is the same in DKC1 and 2, not sure about 3. The KONG letters remain the same too. The zingers and the crates change.

The Guy wrote:Has anyone else noticed that the forest backgrounds in DKC 1 were reused in DKC 3?

Wow. Nice.