Undoubtedly, one of our most-anticipated retro projects at the moment is marc_max, Kensu, and Jorge's upcoming colourisation ROM hack of Donkey Kong '94 (the underrated remake/sequel of the 1981 arcade game, which was completely overshadowed back in the '90s by the arrival of the groundbreaking SNES title, Donkey Kong Country)

One of the more notable Game Boy colourisation hacks in recent memory, it has been in development for almost four years now, with the project's lead hacker, marc_max, previously describing it as his "most ambitious project ever".

Right at this moment, it still has some ways to go before it is finally out. Nevertheless, there was an encouraging update earlier this week over on marc_max's Patreon, with the team announcing it had assembled "the very first beta build of Donkey Kong DX that can be played from start to finish without seeing a single uncoloured pixel."

With that announcement, I thought it might be a good time to reach out to marc_max myself to learn a little about his ROM hacking journey and some of the unique challenges that Donkey Kong '94 has presented over other projects he's taken up in the past — something he seemed more than eager to share with us. So, I sent some questions his way over direct message on Twitter/X, asking him about a variety of things that sprang to mind, from the tools he's been using to bring this project to life, why he is referring to it as his "farewell remaster," and when exactly players can expect to get their hands on the colourisation hack.

With marc_max's permission, we've collected his replies below to hopefully give you more of an idea of what goes into making hacks like this, and what's next for the developer, after it is finally released later this year.

Time Extension: How did you get into ROM hacking?

Marc Max: I believe I can tell the truth since the crime should be time-barred already. I was 14 when I decided to steal borrow an English fan translation of Pokémon Gold and translate it into Spanish, without even giving credit to the original English hackers (Don't blame me, I was an innocent kid!) But leaving my dark past aside, I was lucky to have an internet connection at home in the 90s and learn about emulation early.

That allowed me to discover Japanese and US games that were never released in Europe; thus, they had never been covered in the video game magazines I read. Of course, that led me to find out there were people translating them into English and Spanish.

Since then, the ROM hacking scene has fascinated me. It is amazing how ROM hackers can help to preserve games by translating them so anyone can play them without having to understand a foreign language and/or improving them by fixing bugs, improving performance, restoring locked content, etc.

That's why, two decades later, I decided to contribute to the scene since, by that time, my knowledge was enough to reverse engineer Game Boy games and give them colours. Inspired by the famous Super Mario Land DX hacks by toruzz, I loved the idea of making the games more attractive just by adding colour, especially for new generations that might not find B&W games appealing.

Time Extension: What was your first DX colourisation hack you released? Did you always plan on tackling Donkey Kong '94 from the very beginning?

Marc Max: I released Dr. Mario DX in 2019. It started as a proof-of-concept project to put myself to the test.

After releasing it, it was time to move on to a much bigger game: Mega Man V. That project took me two years of coding (and frustration). I will never forget the day Mega Man World 5 DX was released. It was Christmas Eve, and I had to rush the release before going to my parents for dinner. I released it with a tweet and turned off the computer. A few hours later, I opened Twitter and the tweet was on fire!

The reception was fantastic; people were very grateful to me for delivering an improved version of their childhood game. Those thousands of hours spent were well worth it.

I am not going to lie: even before Dr Mario DX got released, I already wrote a colourisation wishlist that included probably like 30 games or so. Luckily for my mental health, that list has been shrinking over time.

Donkey Kong 94 had been on my list since day one, of course. It is one of the best games on the original Game Boy (if not the best). Even today, it's just as playable and enjoyable. An exquisite platforming-puzzle game with over 100 truly excellently designed levels. I knew, though, I wouldn't be capable of doing it without tackling other smaller games first. If I wanted to make the best version of one of my beloved games, I first needed to learn and master the process of reverse engineering and colourising.

Time Extension: When did you officially start working on Donkey Kong '94? What have been some of the major challenges with this game, compared to the other projects you've tackled?

Marc Max: Mega Man World 5 DX allowed me to learn a lot; it improved my skills, and I learned the importance of coding your own tools for the specific game you want to hack, among other things. So, a month after Mega Man World 5 DX's release, I decided I was finally ready to start the Donkey Kong colourisation.

As for the challenges with the Donkey Kong DX hack: I could write a book about them. None of the projects I had worked on previously were as hard as this one. I remember describing Mega Man World 5 DX as hard as hell and my most ambitious project. But Donkey Kong DX quickly surpassed it. I won't get into details (unless you want me to write that book here!), but I'll just say the project went through three resets due to how unsustainable my first approaches were.

Artistically, it's also quite a challenge because, unlike Mario, Kirby or Mega Man, each stage is a single 'biome' and contains a specific selection of tiles (some stages include levers, others clouds, and some can even contain both). So the only 8 background palettes that seem to work in a forest stage might not work in the next forest stage because you run out of palettes. So there is a very important work of arranging palettes, sacrificing colours and/or pixels in specific tiles, or even redoing an entire tileset just for a single stage.

But fortunately, I never work alone in my ROM hacking projects and always try to contact the perfect candidates for each project. That's why I got the best team of graphic artists who have done their best to make each stage look as gorgeous as possible. Just wait until you see what Kensu and Jorge have done. It's the most beautiful way to play Donkey Kong 94!

Can you give any examples? Is it that Donkey Kong 94 handles its graphics differently to the other games you've tackled?

Marc Max: Companies tried their best to reduce game size so they could fit them in the smallest ROM possible, thus reducing cartridge prices. Donkey Kong 94 was no different and used compression.

When dealing with games that use compression, you usually need to reverse engineer the decompression algorithm. Then build your own tool that decompresses and recompresses data. Colourising a game isn't just about picking colours; it requires graphics to be redrawn to make the most of GBC capabilities if you want to get the best possible result. So once you've changed your graphics, you need to recompress them and reinject them into the ROM, recalculate all data pointers and cross your fingers you don't run out of space in ROM banks (GB ROMs are divided into 16kb banks).

However, compression was not the biggest obstacle here. I had already wrestled with compression algorithms in other hacks like Mobile Golf translation. The main issue in Donkey Kong 94 is how a huge database of 2000+ different tilesets (mixing both compressed and uncompressed) is stored across the ROM. After spending weeks learning how it worked, I carefully disassembled the whole database until I got an exact copy of the original game's source code, so I was able to rearrange graphics without having to worry about pointer calculation.

Time Extension: What specific tools do you use? You mentioned coding your own tools. Is there anything specifically you've built for Donkey Kong '94?

Marc Max: As for known public tools, I use a BGB emulator for debugging and RGBDS for code assembling. The assembling pipeline was also improved with custom scripts that compress graphics during build time and other tweaks, with the goal of automatizing the process as much as possible. Of course, I had to write my own tools as well, very specific for DK94: a data decompressor/recompressor, a metasprite previewer, an OBJ palette collision calculator...

These tools ended up being compatible with Mole Mania, since both games were developed by the same company (Pax Softnica). That's why Mole Mania DX was released during a DK94 hiatus.

Time Extension: You refer to the Donkey Kong project as a "farewell hack." What made you want to move on from these remasters? Do you still intend to do other kinds of hacking?

Marc Max: ROM hack fans must understand that hackers do this in our free time. We don't earn money; we do this for the love of art. A hack can take months or even years to complete. Donkey Kong DX is about to become 4 years old and, trust me, it hasn't been a beautiful journey.

For that reason, I plan to take a long break from fanmade hacks after DKDX. I've got some good news though: I have been hired for a commercial colourisation of a well-known classic. I cannot give details yet, but it sounds like more commissions will be coming if sales are good enough. So, if they keep coming, I will still be working on commercial translations or colourisations.

My colourisation wishlist still has four games, and I don't rule out resuming in the future. But I won't make the same mistake again: I won't announce anything until it's close to completion, so I don't put pressure on myself.

Also, as a personal note: there were layoffs at the company I worked at some time ago (there is a real tech crisis; AI is making a huge impact in both small and large companies). [Because of that], I have finally decided it is time for me to take the risk and create my own video game. I've barely started the foundations, but I can assure you it will be a game for a classic console. It will be a very ambitious game, and I may even run a Kickstarter campaign to go along with it. But my current focus right now is on Donkey Kong DX exclusively.

Time Extension: Do you have a rough estimate on when Donkey Kong '94 DX will be available to play?

Marc Max: It was planned for a 2025 release and, unfortunately, due to real-life issues, I was unable to meet the deadline. However, I'm bringing good news at last. We are very close to completion, and while we cannot offer a definitive release date, there are very high hopes that you all will be able to enjoy Donkey Kong DX this holiday.

It is our gift to Game Boy and Donkey Kong fans; we are just as excited for this to come out as you!