New Music Discovered In Donkey Kong For Arcade

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New Music Discovered In Donkey Kong For Arcade

Posted by timothy on Friday October 17, 2014 @03:16PM from the now-there's-dedication dept.

First time accepted submitter furrykef . writes Over 33 years have passed since Donkey Kong first hit arcades, but it still has new surprises. I was poking through the game in a debugger when I discovered that the game contains unused music and voice clips. One of the tunes would have been played when you rescued Pauline, and two others are suggestive of deleted cutscenes. In addition, Pauline was originally meant to speak. In one clip she says something unintelligible, but it may be "Hey!", "Nice!", or "Thanks!". The other is clearly a cry for help.

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Unused site by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 15:31 · Score: 5, Funny

BREAKING NEWS
-- for immediate release
Over 14 years have passed since Slashdot first hit the Web, but it still has new suprises. I was poking through the website when I discovered that the website contains an unused parallel site called "beta.slashdot.org", every article having a beta and a non-beta version. Is this article supersymmetry? The website's design lets it look like like it is a cry for help in designing the page.
Video Game Nostalgia by Etherwalk · 2014-10-17 15:36 · Score: 5, Funny

The more you bash video game nostalgia, the more Atari consoles will slip through your fingers...
1. Re:Video Game Nostalgia by drinkypoo · 2014-10-17 23:43 · Score: 2
  
  The more you bash video game nostalgia, the more Atari consoles will slip through your fingers...
  The more tightly you cling to Atari nostalgia, the more landfilled copies of ET will slip through your fingers...
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by ZorinLynx · 2014-10-17 15:39 · Score: 2

...is like using a steam engine to power a car. It's clunky, inefficient, and outmoded.
WHY??????? HTML5 can play audio directly.
1. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by furrykef · 2014-10-17 15:48 · Score: 1
  
  HTML5 probably wasn't much of a thing when tcrf added the plugin, and I assume they just haven't gotten around to updating it yet. Plus they probably still want some compatibility with stone age browsers.
2. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by furrykef · 2014-10-17 15:50 · Score: 1
  
  Also, I don't see anything about a Java plugin. In my browser it seems to be using JavaScript, not Java.
3. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by _xeno_ · 2014-10-17 16:09 · Score: 2
  
  If you View Source, you'll see that they do, in fact, use an <audio> tag. They also have a JavaScript library that replaces it with an HTML GUI. I guess if it detects your browser is old enough to not support HTML5, it goes with a Java applet instead.
  So... update your browser?
  
  --
  You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
4. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 16:12 · Score: 0
  
  ZorinLynx thinks that Java and JavaScript are the same thing ... lol
5. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by NotInHere · 2014-10-17 16:22 · Score: 2
  
  Most likely ZorinLynx uses Safari or IExploder, as the files are encoded as ogg, and those two browsers are the only ones not supporting ogg.
  They can install a codec plugin though.
  http://www.xiph.org/dshow/down...
  https://wiki.xiph.org/XiphQT
6. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by Tablizer · 2014-10-17 16:32 · Score: 1
  
  and neither work
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
7. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by godrik · 2014-10-17 16:33 · Score: 2
  
  But does it work with real audio files?
8. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 17:03 · Score: 1
  
  ZorinLynx thinks that Java and JavaScript are the same thing ... lol
  Shhh, don't disturb him. It's one of those sub-six or sub-seven digit ID geezers. He'll fall back asleep after he's through shaking his fist at "those dang kids" on his lawn...
9. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2014-10-17 17:34 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Holy crap - someone is stil flogging that dead horse known as ogg? I thought it was 2014, not 2004!
  
  --
  #DeleteChrome
10. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by NotInHere · 2014-10-17 18:07 · Score: 1
  
  Vorbis might be a dead horse (it isn't), but opus really is king. Its MTI codec for WebRTC not without reason.
11. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by solidraven · 2014-10-17 18:17 · Score: 2
  
  ZorinLynx thinks that Java and JavaScript are the same thing ... lol
  Shhh, don't disturb him. It's one of those sub-six or sub-seven digit ID geezers. He'll fall back asleep after he's through shaking his fist at "those dang kids" on his lawn...
  And rightfully so!!!
12. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by rwa2 · 2014-10-17 18:34 · Score: 1
  
  Eh, the <embed> audio tag has been around since nearly the beginning of HTML, it seems apropos to be using the old arcane tools to do this bit of audio archaeology.
13. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by solidraven · 2014-10-17 18:45 · Score: 1
  
  Well, it sort of makes sense to use actually! A trick I've run into on a few occasions is to have a small javascript run on page load that replaces it with more modern variants if javascript is available.
14. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2014-10-17 22:30 · Score: 2
  
  Can't you damn kids play some NICE music?
  
  --
  Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
15. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by sound+vision · 2014-10-17 23:44 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Ogg Vorbis certainly isn't dead - development has slowed in the past 5-7 years, due to the codec reaching maturity, but it remains the best choice for an open audio codec in the transparent bit rate range (100 kb/s+).
  Recently, Opus has taken a clear advantage at lower bit rates and in applications that need ultra-low-latency encoding, like video conferencing. But there is really no excuse for these browsers not to include Vorbis support. From the point of view of someone needing to encode content, Vorbis has the additional advantage of being much more widely-supported vs. Opus, oversights in these minor browsers notwithstanding.
16. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by _xeno_ · 2014-10-18 03:18 · Score: 1
  
  And, bringing it right back around to video games, Ogg Vorbis is apparently used in a ton of video game engines. Something about it not requiring a license and being better at looping than MP3s. I'm unclear on the technical merits, but apparently there are still technical merits that make it a good choice for video games above and beyond the "no license fee" thing.
  I know that the Unreal Engine started using Vorbis a long time ago, and from their API docs, it looks like they still do, along with Opus.
  
  --
  You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
17. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by machine321 · 2014-10-18 03:26 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  WHY??????? HTML5 can play audio directly.
  Duh, they didn't have HTML5 when Donkey Kong came out.
18. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by thetoadwarrior · 2014-10-18 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  It doesn't use Java for me (no Java but I can play the sounds). Maybe you've done something to cause that.
19. Re:Using a Java plugin to play audio files... by sound+vision · 2014-10-18 15:31 · Score: 1
  
  It's not just video games either, Vorbis support has had time to penetrate deeply in many places, where its not immediately obvious, or listed on the spec sheet. DVD players, car stereos, lots of 'MP3' players (once again excepting Apple, they typically push their proprietary stuff). Basically anywhere that someone needed audio compression and didn't want to shell out to Fraunhofer for a license.
Moving In Circles by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 16:25 · Score: 0

So 0-Day DLC isn't as new to the gaming industry as we thought.
CAPTCHA: pardoned
Wow - Pauline's cry for help? by stonedead · 2014-10-17 17:56 · Score: 0

Is it that I am tone deaf or that sounds like dog's barking to me?
1. Re:Wow - Pauline's cry for help? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 20:26 · Score: 0
  
  Remember, this was back when women were not treated equally in games, so portatying them as mere animals was of course par for the course.
Another Gamergate Article by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 18:02 · Score: 0, Funny

Another woman hating game where the "Man" has to save the "Woman in Distress".
Donkey Kong is clearly committing a sex crime as Pauline never gives consent to being ape handled.
1. Re:Another Gamergate Article by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 18:20 · Score: 0
  
  Donkey Kong is clearly committing a sex crime as Pauline never gives consent to being ape handled.
  It's OK as long as Donkey Kong is a gay transsexual minority veteran of recent wars.
2. Re: Another Gamergate Article by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-18 05:13 · Score: 0
  
  Oh fuck off.
Treasures by Tablizer · 2014-10-17 18:04 · Score: 2

There's a secret Yoko Ono tune on the buried ET cartridges.

--
Table-ized A.I.
1. Re:Treasures by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 19:07 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I thought you said "treasure", not "weapon"
2. Re:Treasures by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2014-10-17 22:46 · Score: 0
  
  This business of replying to your own posts to take swipes at Yoko Ono is getting a bit old.
  The Beatles were going to split up no matter who the guys were married to.
  John's been dead for 30+ years.
  I think it's been enough time that you can move on, or at least back to your "OOP is madness" madness.
  
  --
  Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
3. Re: Treasures by jd2112 · 2014-10-18 02:39 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Have you ever *heard* Yoko Ono's "music"? I have, and yes. It can be classified as a weapon. Or at least an implement of torture.
  
  --
  Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
4. Re: Treasures by Tablizer · 2014-10-18 10:34 · Score: 1
  
  Rumor has it The Feds played Yoko at the Waco TX Standoff in an attempt to irritate them out of hiding, and it may have been what triggered the suicidal outburst. But I've yet to verify that rumor.
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
"clearly" by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 18:30 · Score: 0

> "The other is clearly a cry for help."
No... it's clearly a kitten meowing.
This happens every so often. by Myria · 2014-10-17 18:41 · Score: 5, Interesting

As another example, in January 2013, I discovered a cheat code in the SNES RPG Breath of Fire 1 that allows you to create a save file at a few key locations in the story. This cheat code sat hidden for about 20 years, and it wasn't until I came along and reverse engineered the game that it showed up.
Link to it: click me. Sorry for the quality; it is a really difficult thing to record when your only recording device is an iPad and there was nobody home at the time. Not to mention how hard it is to do that controller sequence and record with only two hands.

--
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
1. Re:This happens every so often. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 22:06 · Score: 0
  
  I love this game so much, it has incredible sentimental value to me. It warms my heart to see people still playing it and discovering new things for it. Thank you for the video, cool stuff. I'll keep it bookmarked and try it later.
2. Re:This happens every so often. by DNS-and-BIND · 2014-10-18 00:24 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, but everyone has heard of Donkey Kong. Nobody has ever heard of that obscure title you just mentioned.
  
  --
  Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
3. Re:This happens every so often. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-18 01:15 · Score: 0
  
  You never heard of the RPG Classic Breath of Fire? WTF is wrong with you?
4. Re:This happens every so often. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-18 02:38 · Score: 0
  
  Breath of Fire really isn't that obscure...
5. Re:This happens every so often. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-18 03:40 · Score: 0
  
  Wow, good find.
6. Re:This happens every so often. by ildon · 2014-10-18 22:02 · Score: 1
  
  You could also just describe the controller sequence here in text rather than link to it in a Youtube video.
Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by Spy+Handler · 2014-10-17 19:16 · Score: 2

Congratulation !
If you analyse
Difficult this program,
We would
Teach you
1. Re:Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by furrykef · 2014-10-17 20:33 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry to nitpick, but MIDI has nothing to do with this. Game music (other than on computers like PCs and Macs) was rarely ever stored as MIDI until the 32-bit era.
2. Re:Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 21:27 · Score: 0
  
  This is not quite a Haiku.
  What I find sad is that in one of the US versions of this game, this offer to teach the meaning of the code to any curious persion was overwritten by a threat aimed at anyone who copied the code (copyright).
3. Re:Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by cfalcon · 2014-10-17 21:56 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  By putting the caps like that, you make it look like they thought each of those was a sentence.
  Here's direct from the binary (c_5k_b.bin). It uses byte aligned 8 bit ASCII, which is not super common back then, but it was the actual standard. (and still is!)
  This is UNIQUE, however- the REST of the file uses binary 0x00 (null) to map to numeral zero, up to 0x09 for numeral 9, then 0x0A for A, 0x10 for G, etc. That means that unlike all the other text in the game, this was rendered in ASCII, in another language, and burned to the ROM just so that maybe some hacker, somewhere, would answer their call- or at least feel cool.
  It is most properly rendered:
  CONGRATULATION !IF YOU ANALYSE DIFFICULT THIS PROGRAM,WE WOULD TEACH YOU.*****TEL.TOKYO-JAPAN 044(244)2151 EXTENTION 304 SYSTEM DESIGN IKEGAMI CO. LIM.
  The string begins with a null character. It has two spaces after "ANALYSE" and "THIS", and four spaces after the telephone 2141, and three spaces after the 304 and the "SYSTEM DESIGN". The entirety of it is exactly 160 bytes. There are no line feeds or other characters.
  So, no, they did NOT type:
  "If you analyse
  Difficult this program,"
  This represents around 1% of their total space on their final shipped product. 1% of their product to put this call in a foreign language to hackers across the world. Granted, Donkey Kong has a bit of spare space in the ROM, but... still.
4. Re:Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by freeze128 · 2014-10-18 04:00 · Score: 1
  
  The real question is: Why would there be a message from "Ikegami Co." when Donkey Kong was clearly made by Nintendo?
5. Re:Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by furrykef · 2014-10-18 04:10 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Because it wasn't made by Nintendo -- at least, it wasn't programmed by them. Ikegami did most if not all of the programming for the game. But Nintendo designed and distributed the game. This became a sticky issue when Nintendo used this code as the basis for Donkey Kong Jr. without consulting Ikegami. Ikegami claimed copyright infringement and sued. They settled out of court, but it's possible that Ikegami still owns the rights to the code. This doesn't apply to the NES version or other ports, because they didn't use any of Ikegami's code.
6. Re:Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by maestroX · 2014-10-18 06:33 · Score: 1
  
  Well, did you phone the number?
7. Re:Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by narcc · 2014-10-18 12:31 · Score: 1
  
  Because they wrote the program, of course.
  
  --
  Required reading for internet skeptics
8. Re:Haiku is more interesting than the MIDI by ildon · 2014-10-18 22:06 · Score: 1
  
  The entirety of it is exactly 160 bytes.
  
  Just slightly too long to be a tweet.
This was discovered a few years ago by Mr+Z · 2014-10-17 19:17 · Score: 5, Informative

Carl Mueller, Jr. discovered these when he reverse engineered Donkey Kong a few years ago. He implemented them in his clone for the Intellivision, also. I believe he had had blog posts about these, but I can't find them.

--
Program Intellivision!
1. Re:This was discovered a few years ago by Mr+Z · 2014-10-17 19:21 · Score: 2
  
  Ah, apparently he auctioned off his fully commented disassembly
  
  --
  Program Intellivision!
2. Re:This was discovered a few years ago by furrykef · 2014-10-17 20:28 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Yeah, it's true. I found that out shortly after I submitted the story; my discovery of the existence of these assets was entirely independent. Somebody told me that he heard about unused music before and dug up the links, and indeed there are YouTube clips of a homebrew Intellivision port that uses the assets. I was a little depressed because I'd thought I found something special that nobody outside Nintendo or Ikegami had ever heard of before. But hey, at least l've brought the knowledge to the public.
3. Re:This was discovered a few years ago by russotto · 2014-10-18 02:29 · Score: 1
  
  I knew this was old news just from the URL.
4. Re:This was discovered a few years ago by hawk · 2014-10-19 11:36 · Score: 1
  
  yeah, the "slashdot.org" is a dead giveaway . . . :)
  hawk
This made my week by cfalcon · 2014-10-17 20:01 · Score: 0

Seriously, this is fucking metal. Aces link.
The Pauline scream is great, and the lost melodies are amazing. A lost section of Nintendo history? What a prize. A view into the hearts of those inspired to make an amazing game, a secret buried all these years. Impressive.
Though much older (and not part of this story), the long lost line hidden from Ikegami:
"CONGRATULATION !
IF YOU ANALYSE
DIFFICULT THIS
PROGRAM,WE WOULD
TEACH YOU."
Made chills go through my spine. Hacker ethos full charge, mothafuggas!
I had never seen it before, in any event.
I'd upvote the wiki and the story, but thankfully this website has none of that drek. In fact, I'm sure if this was a website with upvotes it would just be people saying the same thing over and over again and maybe occasionally linking a cat pick.
Re:FROST PISS by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 21:23 · Score: 0, Redundant

You put her in the fridge, you deal with it. Nothing to do with us, sorry.
Re:submitter must be European by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-17 21:27 · Score: 0

As an European I must confess that the whole world is defined in the confines of European knowledge and Paris (or was it Brussels) is the center of the known world. I betcha you all were waiting for the discovery of Hot Coffee in the game, so that some a Donkey on a Pauline -action could be heard. Gorillas have small penises, though, so the noise would be subdued.
I dont see how this can be such a big secret... by jonwil · 2014-10-17 22:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

Donkey Kong uses discrete analog components for its sound and its hardware is documented both through the schematics and the MAME driver implementation of said discrete sound.
1. Re:I dont see how this can be such a big secret... by furrykef · 2014-10-17 23:27 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Actually, very little of the game's sound output uses the discrete logic. It's used for Mario walking, Mario jumping, and the boom sound used at various points (when Mario gets hit, DK pounds his chest, etc.). That's it. Everything else uses an i8035. The i8035 is a standard Intel microcontroller with no native sound capabilities; it only runs a program (in this case a 4K ROM). They hooked up one of its output pins to a DAC, and the music and other sound effects are generated through that DAC. It was in the middle of playing around with the i8035 code in the debugger, trying to reverse engineer the code, that I wound up making it play one of the unused tunes and discovered the game's hidden content. Some of MAME's documentation was immensely useful in giving me a starting point for my disassembly, but that's all it did.
Amy? by mapkinase · 2014-10-17 23:02 · Score: 1

I feel like Sheldon invited for a spaghetti and hot dogs...

--
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
1. Re:Amy? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-18 05:04 · Score: 1
  
  The Big Bang Theory is blackface for nerds. If you make a joke about that shitty show here, you should be banned for life.
Re:submitter must be European by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-18 04:44 · Score: 0

Well, yes; are you confused as to the definition of discovered? Do you hear people saying that da Vinci discovered the Mona Lisa, or that Mies discovered the Seagram building?
Katy Perry by tepples · 2014-10-18 13:59 · Score: 1

The more tightly you cling to Atari nostalgia, the more landfilled copies of ET will slip through your fingers...
Let the copies of ET slip through my fingers. I liked it better when it was called "All The Things She Said" and sung by tATu.
The game you're probably thinking of has been fixed.
Re:submitter must be European by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-20 01:14 · Score: 0

That's the standard definition of discovery. The other word you're referring to is "created".