"New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

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Spinnetti
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Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2020 11:29 pm

"New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by Spinnetti »

ZONKEY KONG!

Nearly 40 years ago, two community college arcade addicts in a basement in East Lansing Michigan (USA) decided they wanted to program their first game on the only computer they could afford - The Timex Sinclair 1000. The reasons for picking this game to replicate is lost to the haze of time as neither were that fond of it, but both agreed that this was going to be a great learning exercise to prepare them for future glory! Due to the limited hardware, learning Assembly was of course the only option. Frameworks were developed, base functions coded, and testing began. Needless to say, hand coding directly to the 1000, even with the later luxury of a Memopak Assembler, was challenging at best and introduced the duo to a fine array of curses and future drinking habits.

Then, life happened. Better computers, jobs - both in IT (thanks Clive!), moves, wives and children came along, and coding was just a fond memory of youth. Periodically, the code was dusted off and was the glue that kept the geographically separated pair in contact. Fast forward to 2020. The world takes a break. Now older, fatter and little wiser, the kids grown and life's big events behind, it was time to finish the job! Beyond all odds, a bit of code and documentation survived, coupled with fresh enthusiasm helped drive it to completion.

And here it is! Zonkey Kong. Yes, it’s been done before, better, and more efficiently, but we can assure you nobody has taken as much time between initial code and release! We don't think it's a beta, but you might! We coded it how we wanted to play it, so its not exactly like the original- download and play away. Feedback is appreciated, but no guarantees! :)

Now, with this "early" success, it's on to our newly imported Speccys, and this fall on the Spectrum Next! While our wives were not at all impressed, they did say they hope to live long enough to see the next one!

Couple new features in the latest update below:
- Timing never the same twice - game speeds up every round; Lets see your high score; it gets hard quickly.
- The princess will "robo-nag" you if you are too slow
- "Zonkey" has slightly different moves on each level
- Supports custom control key selection (all the basic ones should work now) and Zxpand Joystick

DnD

"Computergui" (Don) & "Spinnetti" (Dave)
ZonkeyIntro.jpg
ZonkeyL1.jpg
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Last edited by Spinnetti on Wed May 05, 2021 11:49 pm, edited 12 times in total.
Zeddy: ZX80, ZX81/ZXpand, TS1000/ZXpand, TS1500/Zxpand+
Speccy: 48k, +, +2, +3, TS2068, "Bare Metal" Pi, Next KS2, IF1/Microdrives/Vdrive/Light Gun/VGA-Joy
QL: Minerva/QL-VGA/Custom PSU
C5: 24v, LiFE battery, Disc brakes
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TMD2003
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Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2020 5:39 pm

Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by TMD2003 »

And I thought Duke Nukem Forever was the ultimate case of "stuck in development hell". I also hope Jari Mäenpää doesn't read this forum and get any ideas.

In the absence of any entries to my wondrous competition recently, I'll give this a go.
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
computergui
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2021 10:56 pm

Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by computergui »

TMD2003 wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 8:55 pm And I thought Duke Nukem Forever was the ultimate case of "stuck in development hell". I also hope Jari Mäenpää doesn't read this forum and get any ideas.

In the absence of any entries to my wondrous competition recently, I'll give this a go.
Feel free to include it on your competition page!

D
Timex Sinclair 1000 with ZXPand
Timex Sinclair 1500 - 4
Timex Sinclair 2068 -2
ZX Spectrum 48K - 12ish...
ZX Spectrum Plus
ZX Spectrum 128K
ZX Spectrum Plus 2
ZX Spectrum Plus 3
Sinclair QL
ZX Spectrum Next KS 2 (when it lands!)
ZX 48K Spider
ZX Max 128
JohnsBargs
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Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:22 am

Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by JohnsBargs »

That is a weird and different take on Donkey Kong with a little bit of Chuckie Egg. Like it :)

(But why can you go up ladders with a hammer but not down?)
Spinnetti
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Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2020 11:29 pm

Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by Spinnetti »

Are you running an emulator? We did some testing on the real thing, and hammer works right on that and in "Eightyone" emulator.
Zeddy: ZX80, ZX81/ZXpand, TS1000/ZXpand, TS1500/Zxpand+
Speccy: 48k, +, +2, +3, TS2068, "Bare Metal" Pi, Next KS2, IF1/Microdrives/Vdrive/Light Gun/VGA-Joy
QL: Minerva/QL-VGA/Custom PSU
C5: 24v, LiFE battery, Disc brakes
JohnsBargs
Posts: 169
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:22 am

Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by JohnsBargs »

Yes, running it on the latest EightyOne, downloaded this morning. Had a few control issues, actually - couldn’t choose A for down, and in my first game the left control just spontaneously stopped working and I had to reload the game.
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TMD2003
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Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by TMD2003 »

computergui wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 10:31 pm Feel free to include it on your competition page!
Update: ...and I have.

https://www.rickdangerous.co.uk/csscgc2 ... ew019.html
Spectribution: Dr. Jim's Sinclair computing pages.
Features my own programs, modified type-ins, RZXs, character sets & UDGs, and QL type-ins... so far!
JohnsBargs
Posts: 169
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:22 am

Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by JohnsBargs »

JohnsBargs wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:40 pm Yes, running it on the latest EightyOne, downloaded this morning. Had a few control issues, actually - couldn’t choose A for down, and in my first game the left control just spontaneously stopped working and I had to reload the game.
Heavens, I’ve never had so many technical control problems in a game as in this one. I just put it on my Retropie, running the newest Pi port of EightyOne, and there are LOADS of keys it just refuses point blank to allow as controls at all (including ones you CAN use with Windows emulators), and even when you successfully manage to find four it’ll let you have, you can’t go up OR down ladders with the hammer. Could it be something to do with the fact that it has no default keys? You guys must have done something REALLY freaky with the controls coding :D
Moggy
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Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by Moggy »

If it works on real kit and the windows version of Eighty One I would have thought the problem lies at your end.

Is your emulator a straight Linux one or running through retro-arch? I only ask as I have had endless hassle keyboard wise when running a zx81/spectrum emulator through retro-arch.
JohnsBargs
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Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2018 2:22 am

Re: "New" Game - ZONKEY KONG! by DnD

Post by JohnsBargs »

Moggy wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 1:02 pm If it works on real kit and the windows version of Eighty One I would have thought the problem lies at your end.

Is your emulator a straight Linux one or running through retro-arch? I only ask as I have had endless hassle keyboard wise when running a zx81/spectrum emulator through retro-arch.
As I said in my previous comment, it has control issues in the Windows version of EightyOne too. I've never had the slightest control/keyboard issues with any other game in the Retropie version.
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