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Bugs:Donkey Kong 64
This page details bugs of Donkey Kong 64.
Contents
Swim Through Shores
This glitch can be done in any place where a slope leads into water. Go into the water and face towards land, then press Z and continuously press B and you'll clip through the ground.
Moonkick
As Donkey Kong, find a slope that's steep enough. Jump towards the slope, press B to punch, then continuously press B to kick. If done correctly, you'll gain lots of extra height from the kick attack.
Frozen Parrots
The parrots flying away at the start of Jungle Japes can be stopped in place by playing an instrument or shooting them with homing ammo immediately after entering the level. If done quickly enough, they can actually be knocked out like enemies - the only way to do this in time is to die inside the level (or go out of bounds) and then mash Z and C-Up to play your instrument as soon as you respawn. You can also throw oranges at them, which will freeze them very low to the ground.
The reason for this has to do with Squawks' actor. It appears to be coded more like an enemy than an NPC, and thus it reacts to being hit by the player. For a brief moment after being loaded into the level, it is also capable of dealing and taking damage - it hurts you on contact and can be killed, but only with the instrument. Dying/going out of bounds loads exit 00 (instead of the normal 0F), which has no DK Portal cutscene and puts you closer to the parrots, giving you a chance to attack them before their "invincibility" sets in.
Coin Counter Glitch
Using the infinite coins Mystery cheat may change certain Kongs' coin counts to 231 after it is turned off. This is due to an oversight: Unlike the other cheats, which simply freeze that item's counter, infinite coins actually modifies the coin count directly. Turning it on will change your current Kong's total to 999 (03E7 in hex) whenever you exit a Tag Barrel, which then becomes permanent if the game is saved. However, only the last 8 bits are actually retained, so after turning the cheat off, the count gets truncated to 00E7, or 231.
This bug only affects the files you load (and the Kongs you play within them) while the cheat is active.
Krusha Orange Crash
If you stand directly up against a wall as Krusha and fire oranges into the wall, they'll get stuck out of bounds for a few seconds before they all explode at the same time, causing the framerate to drop temporarily or the game to crash.
This doesn't happen with any other character.
Save File Bit Double Usage
The most significant bit from Jetpac's high score is also used as the least significant bit for the first letter of the Donkey Kong Rank 1 name. This means that if you get the top score in Donkey Kong and enter B, D, F, etc. as the first letter of your name, your high score in Jetpac will be 655,360 or greater.
This also means that if you delete such a high score in Jetpac, it will alter the entered letter in Donkey Kong.
Transparent Kong Glitch
 | To do: Screenshot. |
Find a Battle Arena pad and press and hold B to charge up the shockwave move. While holding B, step on the pad and press Z to enter the Battle Arena. Before the game takes you there, however, let go of B. Your Kong will perform the move, interrupting the entrance animation and rendering them partially transparent. How transparent they become depends on how long you wait before letting go of B. This glitch is purely cosmetic and only lasts until you leave the map or enter a Tag Barrel.
