Answers to a few questions

Recently, several people have asked why there are two similar versions of Donkey Kong for ZX Spectrum on itch.io. No problem. The publisher Bubu was interested in this game, so in November 2024 I made an agreement with him, so he could include the game with a modified loading screen in his Arcade ZX Collection and sell it, and I could continue to distribute the game without his publisher/collection name. Since then, I have been slightly improving the game, and since February 2025, I am putting new versions here. Arcade ZX Collection contains the first version (without AY sound), so it may be interesting from a historical perspective and also for people who want a game cassette or the complete collection (Bubu is the author of all those games except Donkey Kong). Some players wanted to pay me, which is very nice, but sorry, I don't sell this game and I don't need any payments for it.

There was also a question of whether the game was somehow related to AI, as some of its YouTube videos had "AI" written in the title. No, there is no connection to AI, and no AI was used during the game development. It was probably a mistake by the creators of those videos.

Someone asked if the game contains polyphonic music for the AY sound chip. No. The AY sound in the game is generated by a very short program to fit into the small memory, so it works even on Spectrum 48K + AY. The game is basically still for Spectrum 48K and the AY sound is a simple addition that uses the same data as the beeper sound, so each music is only monophonic.

Another person thought the order of the game stages was wrong. It is not. The order is based on the original Japanese arcade version of Donkey Kong from 1981 and was also used in the official 1980s versions for several home computers, including ZX Spectrum. There is also a later American arcade version from 1981 with a different order, but I didn't use that.

Sometimes there was a situation where in some YouTube videos the game had wrong colours in the introduction, or moving objects were flickering. The game has been adapted for many computers, but if the computer it is running on has a slightly different speed than the computers on which the game was tested, or has some differences that prevent it from being detected correctly, these problems may occur.

And finally, some people wondered why most of the game screenshots and YouTube videos don't show the orange and violet parts of fires and ghosts. These fiery effects are created by rapidly alternating two colours. If some video doesn't use the same frame rate as the game, the colours may not appear or may flicker. This is also why they are not in most screenshots.