Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong 64
Developer: Rare Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo 64 Released in JP: December 10, 1999 Released in US: November 22, 1999 Released in EU: December 6, 1999 Released in AU: 2000 This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page This game has a bugs page

Donkey Kong 64 is the first and so far only 3D platformer in the Donkey Kong franchise. It's a collect-a-thon in the same vein as Rare's earlier Banjo-Kazooie, but supersized. It's notably one of only two games (the other being The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask) that cannot run without the Nintendo 64's Expansion Pak. Bundled with every copy, the Expansion Pak assisted with powering the game's advanced lighting system, amongst many other technical innovations the game introduced.

Its sheer size, amount of required backtracking, and some... questionable design choices (e.g., color-coded collectibles that can only be collected by specific characters) have made Donkey Kong 64 by far the most divisive of Rare's Donkey Kong games. Depending on who you ask, it's either the ultimate collect-a-thon or the game that killed the genre wholesale.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Notes

Bugs

Stop N Swop Surviving secrets confirmed to have been involved in Banjo-Kazooie's enigmatic transfer feature!

Oddities and Easter Eggs Hidden collectibles, useless map features, and other strange miscellany.

Unused Exits You're telling me we could have skipped the slide this entire time?!

Unused Objects Level props that didn't make the cut.

Unused Text MAYBE NEXT TIME!

Unused Graphics

123

Very crudely made numbers.

Employee Head

A bizarre photoshop of designer Duncan Botwood.

Camera

The graphic seen in a pre-release image (bottom right). Note how it's red here.

An earlier, non-animated version of the fixed camera icon.

"Making" Screen

A part of the toy machine boot-up sequence in Frantic Factory that is never displayed.

Early Fonts

This white font can be seen in E3 footage being used for bonus games and Battle Arenas.

As can be seen in prerelease footage and the prototype, the Troff 'n' Scoff counter was originally situated on the central tally pad rather than the door. The font for this earlier version is still in the final game, unused.

A very small bitmap font. It comes immediately after the DK Arcade and Jetpac fonts and is laid out similarly, with everything on one long strip (split up here for the sake of keeping things tidy), indicating it might have had a related use. Not shown is a long white bar at the end, which doesn't occur in any other font.

Button Icons

Icons for every controller button are present in the main menu font, and are intended for moments when the player must press one to make a choice. However, the only button prompts seen in normal gameplay are A/B (for yes/no) and C-up (to access Snide's bonus games), rendering the rest unused.

HUD icon for the L button, which the game never uses for anything.

(Source: JetForceGemini64, Lemurboy12, Ferrox, Alley)

Unused Areas

Testing Room

After giving all 40 blueprints to Snide, visit him in any level and bring up the bonus menu. Highlight any of the bonus games and press A + B. Instead of the bonus game, an unused room will be loaded that has no music, four pillars you can climb, a yellow balloon, and a clone of Donkey Kong, which was used to test the main menu screen animation. Alternatively, you can enable one of the below GameShark codes on the title screen and press START to appear in the test map.

Version	Gameshark code
USA	817444E6 0000
Europe	8173EC36 0000
Japan	81743DA6 0000

If you walk off into the dark space beyond the borders, you will appear to exit the room but will reappear back inside of it again. If you damage yourself with an orange, you will hear the sound of a melon slice being taken away but not lose health. Also, the game will no longer autosave during screen transitions, and pressing START will do nothing, so it may look like there is no way to leave the room without resetting the game. However, by activating the Intro Story Glitch before entering the test room, you can play your instrument to escape and save the balloon.

(Source: David Wonn)

Troff 'n' Scoff Rooms and Checkmarks

Version	Gameshark code
USA	817444E6 002A

(Enter any doorway in any level; note that it will change depending on what level you are in)
If you hack your way back to Troff 'n' Scoff's room in a level where you have defeated the boss, the door will show a large "DK" with a green checkmark over it. Perhaps there was once a way to go back to this room after the boss fight has been completed? Most likely, this was an old method for boss rematches. The door won't open, even if the right Kong is out (though if you manage to hack past the door, it just goes to that world's boss), so the only way to exit the room is to select "Exit Level" from the pause menu (be sure to deactivate the code first).

After you have beaten the boss in Angry Aztec, you can reenter the Troff 'n' Scoff room by clipping out of bounds near Cranky and going behind where the Troff 'n' Scoff portal used to be. You can also use the trick to the right to enter the Troff 'n' Scoff room in any level.

There is only one Troff 'n' Scoff map in the game's code, and it acts accordingly to which level you are in. However, if you hack your way into it without walking into a loading zone for a global map (character huts, Troff 'n' Scoff, bonus barrels, and crown battles count as such), the room won't be connected to the level, which leads to some strange behavior: Walking through the boss door will crash the game (as it tries to send you to map 124, which doesn't exist), the game will softlock if you try to leave through the portal or the pause menu, and if you use a ledge clip to go too far out of bounds, you will be warped to map 21 (Chunky's underground cave in Jungle Japes).

If you enter Troff 'n' Scoff in DK Isles (only possible in emulators, as the game crashes on N64 hardware if you try to glitch into it), the boss door will send you to K. Rool. A DK logo and a checkmark will be on it if he has already been beaten, otherwise the door will be open with DK's face on it.

It is possible to enter Troff 'n' Scoff in Hideout Helm without hacking. Entering the boss door will send you to map 1A, exit 04 (Frantic Factory, falling out of the pipe next to the power hut).

This is a complete list of Troff 'n' Scoff warps that can be done by glitching or hacking. For any boss door outside of the intended Troff 'n' Scoff rooms (except the one in DK Isles), the amount of bananas needed to open is 000, but it can't be opened.

Unused King Kut-Out Phase

With some light memory hacking, it is possible to view an unused fourth phase for the "King Kut-Out" fight in Creepy Castle. What determines the phase is a 1-byte value at the pointer for the 'Tag Barrel (Kut Out)' object + 0x018A. Setting this value to 3 (Phase 4) after the 2 laser-firing sections will result in Kut Out moving like he would for Phase 4. Values depicting Phase 5 and beyond will default to the pattern that is used for Phase 2.

Unused Bonus Game Layouts

To do: An early object layout for part of Angry Aztec is present in map 0B. Source.

There are eleven bonus game maps that are only accessible by hacking. All of them are easier, harder, or more obscure versions of bonus games that are used.

Warp Modifier

Version	Gameshark code
USA	817444E6 00??

Activate this code and enter a character hut, a Troff 'n' Scoff room, or a bonus barrel. When you finish or exit the game, you will appear right where you came from. If you enter another loading zone with the code on, the game will crash or softlock when you finish it or try to exit, respectively.

Stealthy Snoop
Map	Time	Notes
0B	70	Identical to Gloomy Galleon’s (map 41) but lacks the title text. It may have been intended for Snide’s, as the bonus games there also lack titles.
7F	60
80	90
Mad Maze Maul
Map	Hit	Time	Notes
42	11	120
7C	10	125	Includes Zingers, which must be shot out of the air to progress.
Stash Snatch
Map	Coins	Time	Notes
43	16	60	The only used instance of Stash Snatch has 6 coins and a 60-second timer.
4B	4	120	Uses Stealthy Snoop's mechanics.
7D	33	120	Makes use of Zingers and Klobbers as well as the usual enemies.
Splish-Splash Salvage
Map	Coins	Time	Notes
84	15	60	The closest used one to this is Jungle Japes' (10 coins).
Speedy Swing Sortie
Map	Coins	Time	Notes
87	6	60	Puts Zingers in your path.
Peril Path Panic
Map	Save	Time	Notes
93	12	60	The highest used save count (Snide's) is 10 fairies.

Unused Code

Stop 'n' Swop Leftovers

Donkey Kong 64 was the first of six Nintendo 64 titles from Rare intended to utilize Banjo-Kazooie's Stop 'N' Swop feature - an ambitious plan that involved cartridge swapping to transfer data from one game to another. While the remaining Rare titles in development during 1999 (Banjo-Tooie, Twelve Tales: Conker 64, Dinosaur Planet, Jet Force Gemini and Perfect Dark) would have been considered for Stop 'N' Swop, Donkey Kong 64 is the only title that has remnants of the feature leftover in its data, as the cancellation of the feature occurred very late in its development, just one month prior to release on October 1st, 1999.

The most obvious remnant that remains in the games data is an entry for the "Ice Key", an enigmatic secret item glimpsed behind a glazed wall in Banjo-Kazooie's Freezeezy Peak. Donkey Kong 64 would have had the ability to receive this item from Banjo-Kazooie, storing it in the Totals menu following a successful transfer. It's possible to restore the Ice Key in the Totals menu using one of the GameShark codes below. While the Ice Key no longer has an icon, its name is preserved, along with its collected status of 1/1. (Note: Enable this code before bringing up the Totals menu. If you do so after having already seen it, then the code may either not work or freeze the game instead.)

Version	GameShark Code
US	816AB2D6 C83A 816AB3F6 0009
Europe	816A4BDE C762 816A4CFE 0009
Japan	816A9AEE CCB2 816A9C0E 0009

The Ice Key's quantity is set to 01 every time data for the Totals menu is accessed (such as in the file select screen or pause menu), meaning the Ice Key is registered as collected as soon as you start a new game, and - much like its Banjo counterpart - is impossible to remove without hacking.

The Ice Key was meant to be utilized in Crystal Caves, where players would come across a Big Icy Door in Chunky's "Gorilla Gone" Room.

The Stop 'N' Swop Patent provides a hypothetical surrounding this area, in which a lever outside the "Huge Blocked Icy Cave" in one video game is activated, and causes a 'cut-cam' to reveal access to the "Big Icy Key" in another video game. This scenario would have been realized in Donkey Kong 64, if a player were to set events in motion in Crystal Caves to start a cutscene of a now-collectible Ice Key in Freezeezy Peak. Swapping the games (via Stop 'N' Swop) would allow the obtainable Ice Key to be collected in Banjo-Kazooie, and then whisked to Donkey Kong 64 where it could be used to unlock the Ice Key Door.

Tied to this event, an unused cutscene that can be found in the final build of the game that features the camera pushing in on the corner of DK's treehouse before returning to the Ice Door area of Crystal Caves. This corner of the treehouse had previously featured a a fridge/locker decorated with the faces of Banjo-Kazooie prior to removal. It's likely that this object would have been seen as innocuous, sealed shut during the adventure, until such time as the events of Stop 'N' Swop revealed its true purpose, with the fridge/locker opening to allow entry inside. Perhaps this is somehow tied to the Golden Donkey Kong Statue planned for Creepy Castle, another Stop 'N' Swop addition that was removed at the last minute.

Another short unused cutscene in the small cave points to where a gate would have opened in earlier versions of the game, likely as a way out.

(Source: Runehero123 (menu entry discovery), Paul Machacek on Twitter (Stop 'n' Swop info: 1, 2, 3))

Text Effects

There are two control codes for text effects that exist in all versions of the game (including the prototype) but are only used in the Japanese localization. Control code 02 is a "pop-out" effect; one English line does make use of this, but it is never seen in normal gameplay. Control code 03, used exactly once in the Japanese script (by the icy tomato in Crystal Caves), makes the text spin clockwise into place.

All other effects (such as red and green text) were added specifically for the Japanese version, and do not exist in the international releases.

• 

  02

• 

  03

B. Locker Development Cheat

If you are in a lobby and get close to B. Locker, by pressing Up, then Down, then Left, then Right on the D-Pad, the homing ammo sound effect will play. This enables a developer function which is reset every time the player loads a level lobby. The purpose of this function is to cause B. Locker to allow the player to enter a level with a lower than normal amount of Golden Bananas, also displaying otherwise completely unused text. Note that the number on the sign will not change after entering the code. This code also does nothing in the Jungle Japes lobby, still leaving the player to collect the mandatory 1 Golden Banana to enter the level without using glitches.

The requirements after entering the code for each lobby are:

• Angry Aztec - 3 Golden Bananas (Diddy)
• Frantic Factory - 10 Golden Bananas (Tiny)
• Gloomy Galleon - 20 Golden Bananas (Lanky)
• Fungi Forest - 35 Golden Bananas (Chunky)
• Crystal Caves - 50 Golden Bananas (DK)
• Creepy Castle - 65 Golden Bananas (Lanky)

Strangely, if you perform this sequence of inputs near the Hideout Helm B. Locker and then Primate Punch him, the B. Locker requirement for Hideout Helm will be reduced from 100 to 80. The change is hard coded, and not dependent on the Castle B. Locker count (which is also 80), the amount of Golden Bananas the player has, or the initial Golden Banana requirement for the Hideout Helm B. Locker. This also plays B. Locker's taunting animation that usually plays if the player doesn't have enough Golden Bananas under normal circumstances. No other level lobby has this behavior.

The origins and purpose of this aren't known, but it may be remnants of a scrapped mechanic where you could trade in some coins to lower the banana requirement, as indicated by other parts of the game code, with this code being used to test it.

(Source: theballaam96)

Squawks Hint System

There's a curious "hint" system that, while not removed, has had its requirements made so incredibly obscure that it might as well be removed. It can only be activated within the "main" area of each level. Upon being triggered, the game will eject you from the current level and pop up a "helpful" message from Squawks telling you to try something else.

English	French	German	Spanish	Japanese
SQUAWK! MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY SOMEWHERE ELSE, OR FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN HELP YOU.	KWAAK! TU DEVRAIS PEUT-ETRE ALLER AUTRE PART OU DEMANDER DE L'AIDE A QUELQU'UN.	KREISCH! PROBIER'S MAL AN ANDEREN STELLEN ODER SUCH DIR JEMANDEN DER DIR WEITERHILFT!	¡SQUAWK! QUIZÁ DEBAS INTENTARLO EN OTRO LUGAR, O ENCONTRAR A QUIEN TE AYUDE.	ガァー・・・ どこかほかのところをためしたほうがいいぞ。 もしくはだれかたすけてくれるひとをさがすかナ？　ガァー！

The requirements to trigger this script are performing any one of the following incredibly obscure things:

• Pause and unpause the game 1501 times in a single area.
• Use a monkeyport pad 1501 times without loading a new area (so, this realistically means the pair of pads in DK Isles or any of the two pairs in the Caves)
• Stay non-idle in a single area for 432,000 frames (four straight hours without any of DK64's famous lag entering the equation)
  • On the European release, this value is changed to 360,000 frames to account for the 50Hz frequency.

The variables counting these requirements are reset upon every map load.

Version	Pause Counter Address	Monkeyport Counter Address	Timer Address
USA	0x8076A098	0x8076A094	0x8076A090
Europe	0x80764BB8	0x80764BB4	0x80764BB0
Japan	0x8076A228	0x8076A224	0x8076A220

(Source: theballaam96)

Unused Follow-Friendly Critter

There is an unused mouse critter in the game. Both its texture and its behavior type are present in the ROM but are unable to be seen on an unaltered cartridge. By replacing an existing critter's texture with the mouse texture in ROM, and setting its control byte to 0x04 (0x01 through 0x03 are for bats, butterflies, and fish), we can activate its behavior and see how it would have looked in-game (see video above). This is used in the DK64 Spaceworld 99 Lobby's data present in the Kiosk Demo.

The function in RAM responsible for activating the behavior code (present on any map with the critter overlay loaded), as well as the ROM address for the texture are:

Version	RAM address for function	ROM address of texture
USA	0x80026B78	0x115D83C

(Source: GloriousLiar)

Unused Animation for TnT Barrels

Normally you would never have the opportunity to see TnT barrels in water because they don't appear on the same map. But in reality they are fully functional when interacting with water. They tip over, float, explode normally, and can be picked up. With this fleshed-out of an animation set, it would imply the developers might have intended for them to be used in maps that had water.

(Source: GloriousLiar)

Unused Main Menu Settings

Mystery Bosses: The Main Event

Version	Gameshark code
USA	8074453E 0007
Europe	8073EC8E 0007
Japan	80743DFE 0007

In the boss select in the Mystery menu, there is an unused option to select the boss fight against King K. Rool. It was probably removed because the player can always go back and fight K. Rool again through The Flying Krock on DK Isle, making this option redundant.

Mystery Cheats: Debug Pos

Version	Gameshark code
USA	80744540 0007
Europe	8073EC90 0007
Japan	80743E00 0007

Present in the Cheats selection is another unused item called "Debug Pos". Unfortunately, turning it on doesn't seem to do anything. Additionally, by pressing C-Up or C-Down in the options menu, the game toggles the option behind the scenes but does not make the option accessible

Options: Language (US)

Version	Gameshark code
USA	D04B210A 0009 804B210F 0004

While it is used in the European version, a language select menu can also be found in the North American release with a code. It's very broken, however: The only option available is English, and attempting to change it crashes the game.

Unused Coin Shower Event

To do: Get a cleaner video of this happening in-game

An unused trigger-based event (trigger type 0x12 specifically) that plays a cutscene upon loading into a level that showers whichever Kong you're playing as with their respective colored coin, the amount being equal to (trigger_object->0x12)&0xFF. This can be artificially triggered by changing the value of the byte at RAM address 0x80744820.

In the Kiosk version of the game, the seal race would be done twice. The first race is solely about beating him and would trigger a coin shower upon victory, which is where this functionality came from.

(Source: GloriousLiar, theballaam96, chaosfighter)

Unused Loading Transition

The type of transition used when going between maps varies depending on certain factors (Story Skip, what loading zone is being used etc). The type of transition can be viewed at:

Version	Memory Address (Byte)
USA	0x76AEE0
Europe	0x765A00
Japan	0x76B0D0
Kiosk	0x72D110

By editing this value to 3 on the first frame of a transition occurring, you view an unused transition of the game shrinking upon hitting a loading zone, and then growing upon exiting from it.

Unused Temporary Flags

The game stores some temporary data (like the long boss intro cutscenes being watched) as a temporary flag so that the player won't see that cutscene again until they go back to the title screen or reset their console. There are some temporary flags left in the game that are either never set or do not have any effect on gameplay:

Flag Byte (US)	Flag Bit (US)	Effect
0xA	6	Set on entering Diddy Phase in K Rool. Assumed to be a flag for a long intro being watched even though one doesn't exist
0xA	7	Set on entering Lanky Phase in K Rool. Assumed to be a flag for a long intro being watched even though one doesn't exist
0xB	1	Set on entering Chunky Phase in K Rool. Assumed to be a flag for a long intro being watched even though one doesn't exist
0xD	6	Trigger for Squawks to appear when coming out of any map requesting the player to "try somewhere else, or find someone who can help you"

K. Rool Banana Balloon

There is an object with the internal name "K. Rool Banana Balloon" (object 147). Popping it will not increase any of the Kongs' colored banana counts, but will set the control state of the enemy tied to spawner id 1 to 0x27. Due to it's internal name, and the fact that it's hardcoded to use Lanky's balloon sprite, it's safe to assume this is intended for the Lanky portion of the K Rool Boss fight (which K. Rool is the enemy tied to spawner ID 1 in that phase).

Between Kiosk and US Final, the higher control states got shifted upwards by 4. For example, the generic death control state was 0x33 in Kiosk, but 0x37 in US Final. Unfortunately this balloon, nor it's internal functionality is in Kiosk, but it's possible that this balloon is intended to set control state 0x2B (0x27 + 4), which would initiate the instrument play sequence in US Final (the balloon popping sound being the earlier version of using sound to grab K. Rool's attention). This is purely speculative though, and is impossible to prove with the data we have available to us. This kind of bug would rely on the developers using a hardcoded value for this as opposed to an enum value.

Unused Zinger Variant

There is an unused variant of the Zinger enemy present in the game's code. Unlike the pushable crate, the code for this has no references and therefore has no tied actor for it. However, it is used in Kiosk, and is attached to a zinger model.

The flame projectile it spits out damages the player, and the zinger will still lunge at the player.

Version	Gameshark code
USA	8174C37C 806B 8174C37E 4958

Unused Cutscenes

Test Map Cutscenes

The test map contains a whopping 41 cutscenes, testing various dialogue.

(Source: Isotarge)

Main Menu: Unused Cutscenes

There are two unused background cutscenes on the main menu. You can use this trick to reveal them:

1. Go to the mystery menu and highlight Intro Story. Start a timer or stopwatch upon pressing A, then press A again as soon as the screen turns blue. If done correctly, you will be back on the menu with no music.
2. When the timer reaches 3:01, go to Jungle Boss. You will be kicked out of the fight immediately. Mash B to go back to DK's barrel screen and you will see a Kremling walking through mid-air in the background.
3. Go to Adventure mode and start any file. The cutscene with DK picking up the barrel will play, and you will be back on the menu again.
4. Wait until the timer reaches 3:25 and enter Jungle Boss again. Now colorful sparkles will be flying around on the mystery menu for a while. Pressing B will keep this cutscene playing, but if you throw DK's barrel, it will stop.

Caution: Do not start a multiplayer battle during or after the trick, or one of your files may lose all bananas and coins.

Early Hideout Helm Cutscenes

Map 1C, the version of Hideout Helm used for most of the game's cinematics, has all of the Intro Story cutscenes present despite that map not being used for it. Likewise, map 98—the Intro Story map—contains duplicates of several level intros. In both cases, there are slight differences between these and the used versions:

For the Intro Story cutscenes in map 1C:

• There are no voices, and most sound effects are missing.

For the level intros in map 98:

• Almost all non-environmental sound effects are missing. This is similar to the way most scenes are handled in the kiosk version (which has this as its only Hideout map).
• All scenes cut to DK at the level's entrance before fading out.
• In the Aztec intro, the camera doesn't shake after K. Rool slams his fist down; instead, there is a brief pause.
• In the Factory intro, Diddy stops in midair at the end of his flight during the "Wheeee! Catch me if you can!" line. The used scene cuts away to the Klaptrap before that.
  • There is also no exhaust from his jetpack just before the Kritters run into him.
• In the Galleon intro, one of the Kritters at the Blast-O-Matic's controls appears to be having some rigging problems, though he is fine after the jump cut.
• The Forest intro is just a moment-long shot of the barrel viewscreen. It was likely not finished before the move to 1C.
  • Based on this, it seems map 98 was going to handle all of Hideout Helm's cutscenes before the decision was made to split some of them into a different map.

Miscellaneous

In addition to the above, there are several unused cutscenes that are either leftovers from the kiosk demo or just simply unused:

• Aztec Lobby - Cutscene 6 : Zooms into B. Locker and warps you to an unused Exit in Troff 'n' Scoff. This is potentially a leftover of when the Aztec Lobby map geometry was used as the E3 Demo room
• Bloopers - Cutscene 1 : Some random scenes as typical with the bloopers reel. The majority of this is unused
• Castle Lobby - Cutscene 2 : This seems to be a result of the developers copying map data from the lobbies. In Japes Lobby, Cutscene 2 is spawning the Lanky Instrument pad Golden Banana. Castle Lobby spawns the same Golden Banana.
• Fungi Lobby - Cutscene 2 : Same as above
• Caves Lobby - Cutscene 3 : A zoom-in on the Strong Kong barrel, hinting that there might have been a requirement to spawn it first before you could use it.
• Caves Lobby - Cutscenes 4 > 8 : All of these are a glance at a wrinkly door. Why this is a cutscene is unknown as there is a separate global cutscene for talking to Wrinkly.
• K. Rool - Chunky Phase - Cutscene 12 : The kremlings escaping, likely after K Rool's defeat after the 4th hit from Chunky
• K. Rool - Tiny Phase - Cutscene 0 : This permanently spawns the Mini Monkey barrel. In normal gameplay, there is no cutscene tied to the spawning of the barrel, and the barrel only remains spawned for a limited time.
• K. Rool - DK Phase - Cutscene 3 : Vanity shot for K Rool. Unsure of its intended use
• K. Rool - Lanky Phase - Cutscene 3 : Same as above
• K. Rool - Lanky Phase - Cutscene 2 : Uppercut in Lanky Phase, there are many theories why this is in Lanky Phase, doesn't appear to be the result of a data copy as the uppercut in Chunky Phase is cutscene 24
• Aztec: Diddy's 5 Door Temple - Cutscene 1 : Likely an old idea the devs had to introduce the temple. This kind of cutscene is not present in any of the other kong's 5-Door Temples
• Castle: Dungeon - Cutscene 4 : Likely a Golden Banana spawn cutscene. In normal gameplay, the Banana just appears.
• Factory - Cutscene 6 : A Golden Banana spawn cutscene for a kiosk demo banana
• Factory - Cutscene 9 : Some rapid static shots of the starting area
• Factory - Cutscene 29 : A cinematic pan around the Baboon Blast pad
• Factory - Cutscene 30 : A cinematic pan around where the level's Battle Arena Pad used to be
• Factory - Cutscene 47 : More cinematic pans!
• Fairy Island - Cutscene 2 : Unsure of what this was intended for
• Fairy Island - Cutscene 3 : Perhaps a tease of the Rareware Banana to add incentive to collect all 20 fairies. If so, probably unused to keep the extra 1% a secret
• Fairy Island - Cutscene 4 : Unsure of what this was intended for
• Fungi - Cutscene 13 : Perhaps an old remnant of where there were 2 separate triggers to open the Lanky doors at the top of the mushroom. The cutscene seen in normal gameplay is Cutscene 12.
• Galleon - Cutscene 16 : This only can be shown when coming out of the chest, perhaps to indicate where to take the pearls acquired from the chest. As of recently, the latter half of the cutscene was found to be a Golden Bannana, as shown in the Kiosk Demo. Footage can be found here. This means the cutscene likely was planned to be reused, but finally and ultimatly, scrapped.
• Japes - Cutscene 1 : View of the gate in the starting cave. Perhaps originally a cutscene to open the gate
• Japes - Cutscene 12 : Unused cutscene after completing a task
• Japes - Cutscene 21 : Unused version of the intro cutscene to Japes. The one used in normal gameplay is cutscene 18
• Japes - Cutscene 23 : Cinematic Pan around the purple warp, this used to be where a Banana Blast pad was located.
• Japes - Cutscene 24 : Unsure of the intended use for this
• Japes - Cutscenes 30>33 : Unused versions of the log travel cutscenes. The used versions are cutscenes 36, 37, 38 and 39
• Castle: King Kut Out - Cutscene 47 : Fast zoom into the key
• Intro Story (Rock) - Cutscene 2 : An unused part of the Intro Story
• Fungi: Spider Boss - Cutscene 5 : Probably an intro to the Spider fight map
• Caves - Cutscene 17 : Early Caves Intro (More noticeable in differences compared to Japes). The used version is cutscene 25
• Caves - Cutscene 26 / DK Treehouse - Cutscene 1 : Ice Key Remnant as mentioned earlier on this page

(Source: theballaam96)

Unused Animations

Many characters have animations that cannot be seen without hacking or glitches:

• Tiny Kong picking up barrels - Tiny never goes into any areas with barrels, so her animations for picking them up and throwing them go unused. Because she has the least physical strength of the Kongs, her throw is very weak. Interestingly enough, Tiny has a voice clip used exclusively for this unused animation.
• Rambi dogpaddling - Rambi never goes near water, but if he does, he has a dogpaddling animation at the ready.
• Unused Move Learning - Created in kiosk, calmed down in the final release leftover and then left unused as opposed to something far tamer. Purpose has been deduced from the game putting the kong into their "move learning talking idle" animation after this masterpiece has finished on the kiosk demo.

Unused Audio

A short, seemingly unfinished fanfare that uses the first few notes of Jungle Japes' theme.

The original pickup sound for single bananas, left over from the E3 build. Its banana bunch counterpart was reused as the Rainbow Coin pickup sound.

The end of Chunky's primate punch audio goes unused.

Unused Crash Debugger

If you go into the sound menu in the main menu, and press D-Up, D-Left, D-Up, D-Down, D-Right, D-Down, and then Z, you enable a stack trace whenever the game crashes. After the "DK 64" line, the first two lines indicate the PC and the return address.

In addition to the stack trace, the debugger may also provide a short message giving extra context for the crash:

Message	Context (if known)
CLIP ARRAY OVERFLOW
MAIN STACK OVERFLOW	Donkey Kong 64 has a way of preventing buffer overflow. If the values of the memory addresses 0x80761680 or 0x80761684 are tampered with, the game thinks something is overflowing into that address and crashes the game to prevent more serious harm from being caused.
DFS OVERFLOW
OUT OF MEMORY
DATABASE ERROR
DMA ERROR
LOOKUP ERROR
TOO MANY OBJECTS	For level objects that are always loaded regardless of camera position, the game has a cap for every level that is indicated by the value of the address 0x807F614A. If the amount of these types of objects exceeds that cap when spawning a new one, then the game will crash and produce this error.
KILL SOUND ERROR
STORED STATE ERROR	When you enter a submap (eg. Snide's HQ, the Crypt in Creepy Castle, etc.), the game keeps track of the chain of maps you have entered, with a maximum of 17 entries. The game cannot normally exceed this cap under any circumstances. However, if you could, then trying to enter a new submap when the game has already filled all 17 slots will crash the game and produce this error.
MATRIX COPY ERROR
DELAYED KILLS OVERFLOW
LOCK STACK OVERFLOW
POSTFUNCTIONS OVERFLOW
SIGNALS OVERFLOW
SORT LIST EARLY ERROR
SORT LIST LATE ERROR
DISPLAY LIST ERROR
OBJECT EXIST OVERFLOW	The game can only handle up to 256 actors at a time. Whilst it is highly unlikely for the player to run into this cap (as the game has a lower limit of 65 loaded actors), if the player does, then trying to spawn a 257th actor will crash the game and cause this error.

The crash debugger can also display a display list dump as opposed to a stack trace if the game feels like this information is more appropriate to the crash that has occurred.

(Source: Rainchus, theballaam96, GloriousLiar)

Security Byte

Version	Gameshark code
US	807552E0 00xx
Europe	8074FB60 00xx
Japan	807553A0 00xx
	xx=01 to 64 (1 to 127) xx=80 to FF (-128 to -1)

(Source: Isotarge)

Anti-Piracy

If the game doesn't detect the 6105 or 7105 lockout chip, it will randomly erase all save data. Most backup devices usually piggyback off of another cartridge containing a 6102 or 7101 lockout chip which activates the anti-piracy function.

Revisional Differences

Regional Differences

To do: This is a good starting point.

• The North American version has a few glitches that were removed from the later European and Japanese versions, reducing some sequence-break techniques and game-freezing bugs.
  • In the EU/JP versions, a short, invisible wall was added around the Banana Fairy island which prevents you from using the Swim Through Shores glitch to swim under the island and access the room as any character.
  • The Swim Through (Vertical) Walls glitch was fixed in the EU/JP versions. This glitch allows you to swim through some walls by facing a wall, pressing C-Up, and then pressing A.
  • Next to Funky's armory in Jungle Japes is a very steep slope that can be clipped through. In the EU/JP versions, an invisible wall was put in front of this slope to prevent this.
  • Near the shell in Jungle Japes, it's possible to clip out of bounds as Hunky Chunky by jumping on top of the shell. This was fixed in the EU/JP versions by putting an invisible wall on top of the shell.
  • In the US version, if you hold B to charge up Chunky's burp attack, then walk towards an object he can pick up, he'll toss the object up in the air. If you release B before he catches the object, he'll perform his burp attack and the object will hit the ground and explode. If the timing was right, Chunky will be holding his hands up as if he were still holding the object. The game will usually crash shortly after this. This glitch was fixed in the EU/JP versions.
• The European and Japanese releases also recolored some minor graphics and inexplicably removed "L. Godfrey" from the credits.
• The European version re-timed the playable characters' movement speeds to make up for the common differences between NTSC and PAL at the time.
• In the Japanese version, text can't be skipped with B. Holding A still speeds it up, however.

International	Japan

• The font used for the DK Rap lyrics is different in the Japanese version. This also affects the timer in Hideout Helm which uses the same font.

USA	Europe/Japan/US 1.1 (Lodgenet)

• The propellers on K.Rool's ship were changed from red to dark blue in the European, Japanese versions and US Lodgenet releases.
• The Japanese version also fixed a few Snide-related text issues:
  • Snide will give his "mission complete" line immediately after trading away the last Golden Banana. In the North American and European versions, he doesn't say anything more until the next time you visit him.
  • After finishing one of his bonus games, he will ask the player if they want to play again. In the other versions, he just restates the "mission complete" line.
  • In the North American and European versions, the minigames themselves do not display any titles, win/loss messages, or (in the case of Batty Barrel Bandit) interstitial messages. These are all retained in the Japanese version.

LodgeNet

Donkey Kong 64 was one of the games released for Nintendo's LodgeNet service, which allowed hotel occupants to play Nintendo 64 games at an hourly rate. The version of the game compiled for this system has a "Training" toggle when starting a new file. If training is turned off, the Cranky barrels will not appear at the start of the game and Donkey Kong will have instant access to his basic moves. This does make Squawks' instructions to visit Cranky Kong a bit misleading, though.

This may have been added so users that were familiar with the game wouldn't waste money completing the game's lengthy tutorial.

Virtual Console

In 2015, the game was re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console. Although the ROMs are identical to the original releases, there exist a few differences due to emulation inaccuracies.

• The framerate has been cleaned up to reduce slowdown and frame-dropping in most areas.
• Due to the framerate fixes, enemies, Kongs, and NPCs move at different speeds. This causes a change of difficulty in events such as the rabbit race (and has the side effect of making the faster difficulties of Krazy Kong Klamor nearly impossible to beat).
• The audio is prone to skipping and losing output in some channels, most noticeably during the King Kut-Out fight.
• The Sir Domino enemies, possibly due to an emulation error, appear with a green tint instead of purple.
• A well-known glitch involving clipping through various objects by using orange grenades to lag the game is nearly impossible to perform due to the stabilized framerate.