Donkey Kong '94's Game Boy Color Fan "Remaster" Has Just Hit A Major Milestone, But Don't Go Bananas Just Yet
Image: Nintendo

Update []: Here's some exciting news for Donkey Kong fans...

marc_max has just shared an update on his long-awaited DX colourisation ROM hack for the underrated Game Boy title Donkey Kong '94.

The update was published on marc_max's Patreon over the weekend, and reveals that the ROM hacker has finally "assembled the very first beta build of Donkey Kong DX that can be played from start to finish without seeing a single uncolored pixel." This, of course, represents a huge milestone for the project, which marc_max previously referred to as his "most ambitious project ever" back in 2024, when we first covered its development.

As marc_max states in the post, there is still some work to do before the game is made available to the public; he plans to do a full run of the game first to identify things that need to be improved, and wants to make some palette adjustments to make the whole game artistically consistent. In other words, fans shouldn't go bananas just yet. But it's exciting progress nonetheless:

You can read the original post here.


Original Story []: The Game Boy title Donkey Kong – also known as Donkey Kong '94 – was released in the same year as Donkey Kong Country and has been somewhat overshadowed by that fact – which is a shame, because it's one of the best entries in the entire series.

Loosely based on the original 1981 arcade game and its sequel, Donkey Kong Jr., it was co-developed by Nintendo EAD and Pax Softnica and benefitted from improved visuals when played on a Super Game Boy accessory.

Now, this '90s classic is getting a new lease of life thanks to a hack which gives it a Game Boy Color lick of paint.

"Donkey Kong DX is a fanmade remastered version of the classic Game Boy Donkey Kong game, turning it into a Game Boy Color game that works in real hardware," says marc_max, the person behind the hack. Visuals have been created with the help of kensuyjin33 and Jorge2D.

"This has grown into my most ambitious project ever," adds marc_max. "The road to get the result you see in the video wasn't easy. All I can say is thank you for your support and for your patience. We are putting our best care on this one."

[source x.com]