The Making of Donkey Kong Country & Killer Instinct / Pre-rendered graphics
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ค. 2021
- As a follow-up to my Aladdin / Cel animation video I decided to give the Donkey Kong video a huge overhaul. Both videos will be part of a mini series about the influence of technological advancements in tools and development processes in 16-bit video games. Part one: Cel animation, Part two: 3D packages, I'm planning to do a 3rd video eventually. I've also added Killer Instinct (one of my favorite arcades games ever) and the awesome Donkey Kong Country 2 to this video.
If you want to learn more about DKC check out this great interview with the Donkey Kong Country team by Shesez: • The Donkey Kong Countr...
///Support the channel:
All your views, likes comments and shares are really appreciated! My making of videos are part of bigger project. I set up a patreon for those who would like to financially support it: / strafefox
Narration by Steven Kelly
/ stevenmkelly
//Music and Sources
For the complete track-listing with time-codes skip to the end of the video
Sources used for this video are also listed there. - เกม
"Rare made Donkey Kong Country in a BARN! And had to use PORTABLE GENERATORS!!"
Cranky Kong moment
... and act as a monkey to motion capture its moves)!
“Well. I’m sorry. We’re not RARE”
I bet that was the inspiration for that one factory level😂😂😂
Sounds so British lol
The production values on this series are INSANE, it's better than television! Seeing your work makes me so proud to be a Patron 🤘🙂
what's "television"? Asking for a friend
i agree completally
@@Puretea4711 A miserable pile of secrets. But enough talk! Have at you!
He should get a Netflix series,
I'm not familiar enough with this channel to know the 'voice', I thought someone found and uploaded a 'behind the scenes' featurette from some bluray. The production values on this video is indeed 'INSANE'
I knew these games were beautiful but you showed me a whole new side to them.
And diddy kong has a dream where donkey kong gets married to king k. Rool
Holy shit, it's the Riddler's biggest fan!
Rare was able, at that time, to instill emotions to a child that he/she didn't even know it could experience at that age. All the visuals, sounds, and gameplay come together with such perfection that it seems for me like DK Country was an actual place I went to when I was a kid.
Maybe that's why it was called Donkey Kong COUNTRY. Definitely not a stretch.
@@carnage0685 what does that matter?? lol
@@Rezector ?
They said all the visuals, sounds, and gameplay made it seem like an actual place they were visiting, and when people are on exotic trips, it's usually because they're visiting a different country. That's all- Nothing more, nothing less, lol.
Not unlike Hyrule Field. That place, and The Tivoli place with the carts and honeycombs were amazing.
I concur! The 1st 15 minutes in Banjo Tooie broke my heart. After seeing Spiral Mountain decimated and two key characters die, I was about to swear off the Bear & Bird. After playing it again the next day, it's still my number one game of all time!❤
DKC is honestly one of the best games ever made. Putting aside the technical genius behind it, the sheer amount of fresh ideas, compelling gameplay mechanics, and artistic vision all come together to create a whole insanely coherent and endlessly replayable!
True. And THAT soundtrack!👌🏻🙂
Dkc2 is much better
came here to say this - all things considered, it might be the best game ever?
I recently finished Donkey Kong Country and I'm fully with you. Outside of a few genuinely frustrating levels, I had a blast.
@@somethingsomething9008 best one in the series
Thank you for helping me to re-live some high points of my childhood.
♫ Chocolate Kong
no way
Wow didn't expect you here!! This TH-camr we're watching is very underrated
@@johnsmith-ir1ne No one cares.
@@ator2659 and you still replied.
Me 1
you 0
One of the greatest games ever envisioned and perfectly executed.
I still own a complete copy of DKC, and a sealed copy of Killer Instinct. SNES era was the greatest. Amazing video, as always.
Word, SNES had so many games
I SNES agree, sorry Sega
Words cannot express the many feelings I had playing this game as a Kid.
I remember seeing a tv ad and my jaw dropped.
I kinda teared up just remembering the awesome 16bit war... I was 10 when this game came out and I was knee deep in the war!!!!
Me too! Its the platform game of my LIFE (DOnkey kong - snes trilogy).
So much love.
The forest, the music, the ambience , the colors and the charisma. Cant be even compared to the wii/wii u counterparts
@Craig Adams same!
@Craig Adams 10 and getting DKC 2 was my fondest memory.
DKC and Killer Instinct have aged quite well in my opinion. I just can’t believe that the SiliconGraphics workstations cost so much.
I agree! I still love both games and although not everyone agrees their visuals too. The funny thing is.. SGI systems weren't even that expensive in a number of markets as the systems they replaced were more expensive (for example in pre-press and visual effects). The bulk of the production work at the company where I started my career was done on SGI. Especially in the 90s they easily made back their investment thanks to their speed and the exclusive graphics software.
The framerate of Donkey Kong's animations are the envy of modern games.
@@strafefox Just wondering what did you use to do for work regarding production. Etc.
@@mastadope397 I was a multi-media designer/developer doing 3D animation, video and animation for CD-roms and DVD, coding for websites, Flash games, etc. It was a pretty cool and varied job and I was able to learn so much from colleagues coming from a completely different field.
Just what I was thinking. Add in Mario RPG and I'd say that the pre-rendered graphics of the era hold up better than any of the full 3D that would come out for years and years.
I remember the Christmas morning of 1994 and being blown away constantly but I vividly remember me telling my dad how this game looked incredible and was 3D because I couldn’t comprehend how incredible the first factory level looked. The chains hanging from the ceiling and blocking the view melted my 9 year old mind.
Awesome. Truly awesome episode. The production values are off the charts!
I played this game in 1996 when I was 7 years old. I dont have words to describe my feelings about playing this masterpiece.
@@matadordeleoes wow you guys are old cuz i was born in the year 2002
@@yaboijuanito1460 haha its normal. in 2002 I was 12 , really happy playing nintendo and psone , watching BDZ. Enjoy bro , you gonna miss these days.
@@matadordeleoes cuz i remember in 2009 i remember the dsi and the dsi xl was coming out and brand new mario games and stuff man those are the good ol days cuz i also used to have a nintendo 64 since i was little and if you have instagram here is my instagram its @yaboijuanitominecraft99
Man, how can the DK Country music fill me with such a nostalgic feeling when I have no nostalgia associated with the games? It's so good.
Thanks for sharing. I did not know this was possible.
Because it's awesome music :)
The music fills the game with nostalgia in a sense, go figure out that one!
Because the soundtrack is *brilliant*. I don't use that word lightly. It's a masterpiece, David Wise is one of the greatest video game composers of all time, everyone loves and is inspired by the music in the DKC games.
@@runningdecadeix4780 you gotta give credit to Eveline Novakovic she made some awesome tracks for the 1st game
This is the first time I've seen a video on this channel, and the quality is incredible. Rare did an amazing job with DKC, and you did an equally amazing job telling their story.
Thanks so much!
go watch the other videos too!
'Ey, welcome to the channel! And don't forget to watch all the other videos, they're so well put-together and are super informative :3
Oh man you're in for a treat
Agreed! This video made me a subscriber. I love to see this kind of informative content.
I'm so thankful to Rare for the role they played in making my childhood so beautiful. Love these guys to death, everything they did and do now as Playtonic, I support.
YUP! Banjo-Kazoi and Getforce gemini hold a special place in my heart
@@justinhunt1714 I still love these guys for RC Pro-Am to this day. lol
@@Krystalmyth LOVED RC Pro Am. I don't see it get talked about as much though. Seems under appreciated.
I've recently finished Donkey Kong Country, and it has quickly become one of my new favourite games. It's such a well made game with great design and superb production values. The graphics are incredible, but what really stood out to me was the soundtrack. I generally don't like Super Nintendo music, as it tends to sound like CD music coming out of speakers covered by a pillow, but Donkey Kong Country really contradicts that. The underwater level especially is an easy 10/10, hard to top. I'm looking forward to playing the other two games, especially 2 which I hear is one of the greatest 2D platformers ever made.
Have you played DKC2 yet?
To say SNES music sound like CD quality music is a insult to music itself even the nes and very old system by the way has so many better tracks than the SNES
Also I give this game maybe an 7/10 or 8/10 cause this g me is really flawed
The music in DKC2 was and still is magical to me, I love it so much
The nostalgia vibes are hitting hard too
Donkey Kong Country is one of my favorite SNES games for it’s sound. The music of underwater level in particular is very mesmerising and made a lasting impression to me. As it happens, the Korg Wavestation is also one of my favorite synths.
Yes and the "mine shaft" song from the 2nd.
Its, not it's.
So please listen to this: th-cam.com/video/5znrVdAtEDI/w-d-xo.html
I'm playing through DKC via Nintendo Switch Online right now, and it's so easy to forget this is a game made in 1994 for a 16-bit console. It has stood the test of time in just about every area, from game design to music and visuals. Seeing the details behind its creation helps to contextualize how much a display of pioneering technology it also was for its time. Thanks for the documentary, keep up the great work! 🙏
Imagine a HD version of Donkey Kong Country
there are 2 levels from DK2 remake by a developer and published in some random ytube channel. If nintendo had the interesting of make the remaster it would be like printing money
Yeah! Seeing it in the original form before they had to downscale it for the SNES. I'd buy it day 1
Have you played tropical freeze? Granted it wasn't a Rare title, I would say it's the closest thing we're going to get to a dkc experience with current gen consoles.
It does. It's called Donkey Kong Returns and Tropical Freeze.
90s Rare is unmatched. Firing from all cylinders, the group of people that brought us so many gems need more appraisal.
Getting new strafefox videos are always the best days of the year
Killer Instinct is so underrated, no idea why! Another excellent job!
Absolutely one of my all time favorite games.
@@alderChristianHarten you mean street fighter?
KIMMM WOOOOO!
How you don’t have millions of subscribers with all this work you put into your videos is insane to me! Thanks for always keeping everything such high quality it’s a real pleasure to see you everyone you pop up on my feeds ❤️
It's only a matter of time!
He deservers millions of subs, the production value is insane.
not everyone is invested in the limited hang out called 'video games'.
inb4 Donkey Kong's color pallet were chosen from samples of real life barn wood.
Strafefox is right up there with Ahoy in the absolute top echelon of YT videogame documentaries.
For sure. It's a shame this isn't more promoted by YT
@Marc Carran such as?
@Marc Carran Of course there are. It's not harsh at all - I wasn't _excluding_ anyone in particular.
Some other great videogame documentarians on TH-cam include Gaming Historian, Indigo Gaming, Jacob Geller, Summoning Salt, and many others.
@@Jesse__H Also noclip, gvmers, digital foundry retro, slopes games room
@@Jesse__H Exactly, there are several fantastic ones out there, but I certainly didn't think you were excluding anyone either. Rather, you were pointing out that this channel is really on another level for what a video game documentary can be.
Rare really innovated a lot, their SNES games still look and sound great. It's a shame the company isn't anywhere close to what it used to be, but I bought pretty much everything they released growing up.
Donkey kong countrys graphics look ugly today espically without crt
Rare is back. They have their one new company now. Playtonic games. They have made Yooka Laylee. It's like Banjo and DK64.
@@somethingsomething9008 No, they don't. Actually, imo the models being pixelated hide the fact that they look outdated.
@@somethingsomething9008 Obviously.
@@tjp_real lol Rare is a shell now.
16:55 "you'll be exposed to jungle fever"
Classy 90s
I pretended to be sick in 2nd grade one day at school just so I could go home and play DKC. One of my favorite games ever to this day... decades later and I still have many of the levels memorized... and the music... mmm... so good!
Pausing the video right now so that I can stream it to the TV- way more worthy than just a phone or tablet view!
Man, your content is a tremendous inspiration. Thank you for investing your time in this hard work.
Thanks and really cool to hear you find it inspirational!
@@strafefox it really is, I was going to comment the same thing! As an artist and videographer myself, I can only imagine just how much work you put into your videos. The production quality is insane, and it really sets you apart from every other game related channel on the platform. And aside from the fact that your videos are a technical inspiration, you always have such an incredible way of discussing the games at hand in such a refreshing way. I don't know how I ever found your channel to begin with, but I am so thankful I did, and I am always so excited when I see you've uploaded a new video!
@@ninja_tony Really awesome to read Ninja Tony! Thanks so much
Imagine if Rare still have the original SGI rendered Donkey Kong, the version before they downscaled it to SNES.
What happened to the original SGI renders? I always ask this but I never get a reply 🤔
@@DatBoiRatchet They lost most of the models and the ones that did survive were on obsolete programs that the newer devs at Rare didn't know how to access them, Rare had to remake the sprites for the GBA port frame by frame using the SNES version as reference.
It would look like garbage in comparison to today's standards. If you look at most of RARE's work on the SNES and early N64 games, their anatomy is pretty crappy, and purposely hidden by their poses and things like that. Take Killer instinct 1 and 2 for example. Watch a segment of their FMV's to get an idea of how well those clanky meshes were rigged (probably non-inverse kinematics setup for animation).
@@gozinta82 I played this game in 1996 when I was 7 years old, it was a top game back then. we did not have so criticism about it , it was just revolutionary ...
Robert Spiller agreed it was, i played it too. But now u can see some of the faults. Completely normal for any decent game.
I never realized that Dixies hair was basically a banana. Mind blown
Summoning Salt AND Strafefox on the same day. Love it.
Can't wait to watch this later today! I know this going to be epic.
same here!
Hello again ! Found you on another channel and commented about your profile picture.
What are the chances lol
"I cant believe you're still watching" 😀😀😀
its just depressing when u see just how much they could do back then with the hardware available. but today they cant even finish the game.
Exactly, now it's just push it out half finished, roll out some extremely heavy bloated patches sometimes 10's to 100's of gbs in size, and immediately start charging them for dlc/add-ons/cosmetics and the game will be mostly forgotten about in a couple months.
While I can see where you are comig from: Games have become more complex and the tech/workflows behind them as well. Additionaly you have to make sure everything has a nice performance, even on older machines.
Back then it was more passion driven I guess. Nowadays it's the publishers that's calling the shots
@@Skitz0frenix passion is something thats missing from most media now.
@@Skitz0frenix Believe it or not, there was a time when the 'A' in EA actually meant something within their catalog of games.
One of the few channels that's worth the wait.
I sound like a broken record, but the production value is just on another level.
I'm going to up my patreon when I get home.
-Victor B
5:00 "Objects and body parts" *stops right there on a rotating banana*
DKC is my favorite series on the SNES. Amazing video to go into details I wasn't aware of
I’ve seen other videos about SiliconGraphics and Rare, but your productions always make the videos miles better.
Man these videos are always insanely high quality. It's an actual crime that TH-cam isn't promoting them more.
Rare will always have a special place in my heart. At a very young age they subconsciously set my expectations on what a amazing game should be. Everything about their work just oozes quality and attention to detail, you couldn't help but be drawn to it.
Such a great video that really did their work justice. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
As an avid DKC fan, I’ve devoured every video on this subject and heard the retrospective many times yet you’ve managed to make something that feels incredibly fresh and uplifting. Thank you.
THANK YOU!!
strafefox + dkc, the ultimate combination. i will ALWAYS be in for that.
dkc 2 is my favorite game of all time and my favorite soundtrack of all time hands down, period, full stop.
and strafefox makes the best gaming documentaries on youtube and maybe my favorite videos on this platform.
btw. i still miss the old narrator. (even though the new one is great too)
The music composer of donkey Kong though. That is on a different level all together
I've played DKC 2 & 3 countless hours, but I never got that Dixies hair is actually a banana. It's right there!!
LET'S GOOOOO HE MADE A VIDEO
You dropped this, your majesty 👑
the Diddy's kong quest part was so nostalgic to me, i almost cried
I have fond memories of getting up in the morning pre-dawn before getting ready for school - Just so I could get some peace and quiet to enjoy playing Diddy's Kong Quest before my siblings woke up. :-)
I think the graphics and flow of the game like not having to wait if you were good all helped these games stand up so well. The controls and movement feel very natural
DK2 is a masterpiece. I'd love to see a high res rendered version without all the aliasing.
I would pay $60 for this without question
Just like 'Empire Strikes Back' or 'Ride the Lightning' (Metallica) - It's the second one where the magic really happens!
I'm happy to see this channel is finally getting the recognition it deserves! Some of the best gaming content I've ever seen.
You only realize what masterpieces these old games are when you see documentaries like these.
DKC2 is how you nail a sequel.
This video was good enough that I decided to make a game documentaries playlist.
YES ! MOAR SPLASH WAVE !
Today this is still impressive. Proves that high level art makes a strong difference. These franchises aged very well. Today we have the Unreal Engine and the needing for purchase totally expensive video cards. LOL In 2D games, pre-rendering would save us some money.
These days it's all about 4K / 8K and engine / hardware specs. The art direction in the big game studios is becoming increasingly homogenised.
@@razeezar luckily, there are still lots of indie games that makes a lot of focus on the artistic part of graphics.
Ah, it's amazing how I never realized Battletoad-brows were on Donkey's face.
The intimacy people had with their tools to master them, and get creative to make compromise never seizes to amaze me.
Beautiful work. DKC1 is a masterwork of game design. DKC2 and Killer Instinct are two of my favorite games of all time. I learned a lot from this video even though I already knew a lot about Rare and these games previously. Superb work, mate, thanks for making this wonderfully informative video.
Thank you this was incredible to watch!
Few will understand the magic of managing to rent a copy of this game on the evening before a snowstorm canceled school for three days.
Rare's history was really a perfect storm of talents and hard work, creativity and fearlesness. I wish the guys got their chance to make more Time Splitters, they seem really eager to deliver the fans.
Amazing video as always. Now this makes me want a uncompressed 4K release of these games, with highest quality assets! Would look so cool.
Always love seeing videos from this channel 😩
Segas answer to Donkey Kong Country was Vectorman. Also an excellent game.
These were the days! I really like the era of 8-bit & 16-bit but the RARE story from super NES into N64 does give me goosebumps to relive the moment when I bought my N64 and played those memorable games such as Killer instinct gold. The SNES peaked with the Donkey Kong country series and KI and thankfully it was not all over for Nintendo. Again amazing video by Strafefox!
The amount of research you do and the old footage you find is always impressive. Always a pleasure to watch your videos.
Great job as always! I can't believe my eyes when I see the production values in your videos! You're an inspiration, for sure 😀
oh yeah my favourite DKC track, "ambient aquatics"
I'm not sure if people today will truly understand just how ahead of it's time this game really was. The fact that a game like Star Fox came out a year earlier and how everyone thought that was next level amazing for what it could do-and then to see something like DKC for the SNES was just mind blowing.
Well this is a surprise! Always glad to see new videos from you.
Simply unbelievable production value. Thank you for the video!
Notice how the previous video mentioned how hand-drawn animation was starting to die out in favor for 3D-rendered graphics, and now we're talking about Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct. I see what you did there.
Thanks to the game industry, I'm in the film industry. I used all the systems and all the software mentioned in this video. It was such an amazing journey, to see the tech evolve, and to have access to things that cost as much as a house. To be lucky and hang around the right people in the 90's. To learn 3D as it evolved, from the power animator days. From SGI machines. I remember it all. Such a cool memory, full of flashbacks. Even the music composing parts. I'm using these Korgs and Rolands right now. Retro never went out of style for me. I love old school tools. Limits on everything. The need to think creatively. To have hardware constraints.
This documentary was amazing for many reasons. Thank you for this work and the massive nostalgia hit.
I was just thinking about this channel, good to see you back since i love these videos!
Still a highly criminally underrated channel.
14:50 that's basically what a shepard tone is
Amazing stuff as always! I love the additions to the original video on Donkey Kong Country, and the added segments with Killer Instinct are just icing on the cake. That game is still one of my favorites.
Thanks Austin! Yeah Killer Instinct is also one of my favorites. It's actually the game that I put the most money in of all arcade games :) It was such an amazing game to witness when it first came out and got me really hyped for the Ultra64 at that time.
Wow what an amazing video as always can't imagine how fantastic to take a look behind the making of Kirby franchise
Awesome Video! Really hope you create a video about Treasure and their 16 bit masterpieces since they deserve the phonemical research and effort you put into your vids!
You don't realise just how popular DKC became on the snes back then, it was a must have game. It was an amazing summer of 1994. Still have my copy to this day.
the most surprising thing about the DKC franchise is the fact that Tropical Freeze's soundtrack STILL hasn't received an official release, come on Nintendo I'm waiting. Btw incredible video as always!
Your follow up videos are always so much more informative and entertaining than your first attempts, its an incredible show of improvement. Please, please take another swing at the Mana series sometime in the future now that squenix has pulled the series out of the back of the freezer.
Thanks that's great to hear! And yeah Mana is on my list in combination with ChronoTrigger. I will start working on it soon.
@@strafefox Now that's some incredible news to start June with! For Chrono Trigger will you be covering Yuji Horii's involvement in the project? I ask because most other historians tend to gloss over him for Sakaguchi, when it was a team effort every step of the way in the game's development cycle.
@@trenthoward6800 Yeah sure! Plus I've hardly mentioned Dragon Quest so far, so I have to set that right :)
@@strafefox Great news, definitely looking forward to it!
This video is pure GOLD
In every single tiny aspect, Donkey Kong by Rare is an absolute MASTERPIECE!
Ahh 1994-1996, me as a 5 to 7 year old. Who else is now in their early 30’s and misses this time and era.
Much love from Brazil
Imagining how this game would have looked if they never had to downscale the assets... It would look like nothing you'd ever seen before. It would look so strange.
With the NTSC and PAL television standards only being of 480 and 576 rows of pixels respectively, the graphics were down-scaled primarily to match the old CRT TVs that the games would be displayed upon.
Although now that you mention it ... All three titles in the DKC series do actually display higher-res (albeit static) renders of the same 3D models of playable characters during the credit / game over splash screens. So in a way, we do still get an in-game glimpse of how it the characters looked in higher-res. As for the overall low screen res, it is part of that era's charm but I would still be very curious to be able to see an upscaled version of the games using the exact same models :-)
@@razeezar I think what he may have been getting at is the resolution, which makes sense why they scaled it down, image-wise. They probably couldn't fit much more onto the cartridge given that everything was taking up sprites being pre-rendered.
I really wish games were still like this, the love and passion put into them for quality, they were fun to play, most had replayability too, and so many 2 player games, with co -op or head to head, I so so miss these times, all of us who were around in the 80's and 90's were so lucky we got to experience the pinnacle of gaming. No online hacks, no toxicity, no micro transactions etc. Bring back these times please, they were so good.
The knowledge of what methods they used to downsample resolution makes me want to establish a true HD project
DKC was that influential during my childhood that I feel that it deserves the touch now that such hardware is readily available
Did you know? Diddy Kong's shirt is meant to be a different shade of red from his hat?
"Myst and Rise Of The Robots"
It's great that both of these games went on to be huge hits.
My mind was blown when I played this as a child. Everything from graphics to music to gameplay was perfection. Very nostalgic for me. I started playing this again on my switch after this video. 😊
Those Rare employees truly made video game history there. DKC is one of the high points of the 16 bit era; one of the most beloved platforming series and has maintained a legacy (with the excellent DKCReturns games by Retro Studios) to this day. Killer Instinct was also one of the great fighting games of the day.
Amazingly talented developers, they made history
wow what a surprise! welcome back! SKÅL 💪😎👍
It’s such a treat / event when I see Splash Wave has posted! 🤩👌💕
David Wise' DKC2 soundtrack stands as the greatest 16 bit OST ever created (IMO). The entire game was incredible but the music really set it apart from the competition, every setting had a unique and yet still fitting song to go along with it, Stickerbrush Symphony is pure genius.
The DKC series was literally the best looking on the SNES over any game. I am still blown away by their graphics, attention to detail, and body movements for that time. I remember looking at games like Super Mario World as a kid and wondering why their graphics weren't half as good.