A couple of days ago (maybe yesterday), I was at the forums of DKCAtlas (Donkey King), enjoying looking at the forum "DKC Projects/Fanworks" then I saw the thread called "Japanese DKC Hackers". I went into it, saw the link on the first post, clicked on it, and guess what...it lead me to a Youtube video that is a hack of Donkey Kong Country 2 (Kannon's Klaim)! I was so surprised! It was a YT user named prgmdest (look at his channel, it has LOADS of DKC & DKC2 hacks!) who created these levels (I think). I subbed to him, became friends with him, and looked at the rest of his videos. He seemed to hack Donkey Kong Country 2 the whole way (maybe not, as he stopped at Forest Frenzy in DKC)!
Then I asked myself, " Is there a Donkey Kong Country 2 Editor somewhere?" I tried searching for the editor. No luck. Then I PM prgmdest where he get the DKC2 Editor from. I thought he was Japanese. His videos were Japanese. He even lives in Japan. But he was actually English, and he can't even understand Japane
Whoops. Cutoff text, but you'll know what I'm talking about.
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If the videos are Japanese and he isn't, chances are he just posted them and they aren't his. Also the Japanese hackers probably just used a hex editor, if the format is anything like DKC1 it would be incredibly simple to do that, and it wouldn't be the first time they've done this (plenty of hex-edited Kirby Superstar hacks by Japanese hackers)
I finally found the editor! Go to the thread in Board2.
@Gunstar Green: I also posted that replay at the same thread at Board2, if that's what your talking about.
The updated link. The old one contains a Japanese DKC2 ROM (which is the only version to use for the editor to work).
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Upon further inspection I found a program included in the file folders called Platinum, which appears to be a tile layer program that reads off of bitmap files with tiles laid out on them. Using these, you can open some DKC2 map files that have been included and edit them that way. However, I've not yet found a way to save them back into the rom so I can't be sure if it works as I think it does.
Originally posted by Erika... and it wouldn't be the first time they've done this (plenty of hex-edited Kirby Superstar hacks by Japanese hackers)
You say those hacks exist? Have you only seen them in passing, or is there a link you could direct us with? (Google isn't producing any results except for this thread, hahaha)
From what I can gather, once you edit a map in that Platinum program and save it, you run sdk2_map.exe and use command line to insert the map file into the rom. Unfortunately, without translating the Japanese I'm not sure exactly how it would want me to do this. If anyone can get on a translation, it would be greatly appreciated.
Also, this does not help regarding the program sdk2_editor.exe, which appears to be an actual editor of some sort. I can't understand anything that's going on with it though, as all the buttons are in Japanese, no English at all.
How to use:
1. Download the generic map editor "Platinum" at http://www.hyperdevice.net/
2. Overwrite the map by opening sdk2_mapxx.ppj in Platinum and selecting the "tip" option. (There are many differing palettes.) [Note: I am really unsure about this sentence]
(Note: I think the file sizes need to remain the same.)
3. Drag and drop the ppj file you created in step two to sdk2_map.exe. This will create a compressed map file that will work with Super Donkey Kong 2. (This may take several seconds.)
4. If you attach the .sdk2map file created in step three, you can edit the MAP.
[I can't translate that last note. It's giving me a headache. I think I understand the gist of it, but I don't want to say either way because I just can't put it all together in a coherent sentence].
I hope this is somewhat accurate. If not, at least you can probably have a decent guideline for fiddling around.
Up to Step 3 all worked. After creating the compressed .sdk2map file, I couldn't figure out what else to do with it since the editor doesn't seem to open it, and dragging it onto the rom file like you translated does nothing.
At least your translation got us partially there. Now to get all the way there.
Place the english.ini file into the Languages folder.. ''sdk2editor\sdk2_mapedit\pl_171\Languages'', then load the editor and when it's done it should be in english by default; if it doesn't go in ''Help'', then ''About'' and change it from there.
Have fun, and now can't wait to see how we actually reinsert them into the game
Thanks for the .ini, though when I loaded up Platinum, everything was already in English for me. Still, it may be of some use to some people. I passed your post over to SMWCentral as well, where we're also trying to figure things out.
Yeah you're right! Thing is, the editor I got was bundled with other files and didn't have english... unlike the link earlier provided in this thread! Anyway thanks for pointing that out!
Does anybody know off-hand if DKC2 uses the same format as the first game? Since the level format for the first game is pretty extensively mapped out (and I'm quite familiar with it), it may be possible to adapt things to edit both games.
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