October 2026

The site and game now support small version updates without resetting scores.
It is now live on the downloads page.

This is a small fix to change a fallback HUD issue that can happen on heavy stages.
Also includes layer drawing fixes for the hard mode chili icons

v0.80 will still be able to upload as normal.
This patch is mainly for users playing on real hardware.

A new version is ready!
Special thanks to Sonic1994DC for providing me with a Broadband Adapter to help with development.
This would not have been possible without him!

Scores on the site have been reset. Scores saved on your VMU will be reset at boot.

This build includes:

Performance
- 60FPS on nearly every stage with the minimap on
- Still some slowdown under certain situations

Gameplay
- Advanced Floor 18 red goal fixed
- Restored Hurry Up music, Time Over, life counter and banana collection
- Ball physics and camera much closer to the arcade
- Restored goal, fall out, continue and floor messages, fades and sounds
- Restored Extra and Master unlock screens
- Monkey's head no longer clips through the ball
- Extra 40 Bonus fix

Arcade Mode
- Original character endings restored
- Original attract loop partly restored

New Options
- Hard difficulty
- Practice stages reorganized
- Rumble: Off / Light / Strong
- Continues: None option
- Original ball colors added
- TEST MODE and debug menu (disables score saving)

Extras
- New Extras menu
- Monkey Ball Micro VMU minigame
- DLC support (Download from site)

VMU
- Support for VMUs with extra blocks unlocked (DreamExplorer)

Visuals
- Restored effects: timer fuse, sparks, bubbles, continue dim
- Screen Area now covers more of the UI
- Menu fades and a new GDEMU cover
- Restored banana animation
- Restored message bubbles

Network
- Fixed BBA freezing on fast connections
- Fixed BBA settings page
- DreamPi fixes: "Login ID has not been set" fixed, dial-tone retry
- New dial-up info page
- Scores only upload from the current version

Fixes
- Memory and disc-read fixes for long sessions

Getting close to releasing version 0.80!
I have been updating the thread on Dreamcast-Talk and posting on Twitter about lots of cool unused assets found in the game.
Feel free to check them out. My Twitter is @MicronTV

Performance is very close to 60FPS on even the most complex stages, but I am also trying to provide enough overhead to allow the remaining effects to be restored without needing to do a month of performance related work again.
What this work has shown is that many stages in the game were originally modeled using different tools which is why broad changes do not apply over every stage.
Currently some simpler stages are more optimized than the original Naomi game!
I am working very hard to try and get v0.80 out by tomorrow, but I can't promise anything for sure.
After v0.80 the plan is to work up until v1.0 with no releases in-between.
So basically this will be the second to last version before full Naomi parity in the Arcade Mode.
I do have some plans for continuing the project beyond v1.0, but I will save that for when the time comes.

Thanks for reading!

So no one is going to care about this update except for me, but a real issue has been solved!

For me, connecting to the website through the game with BBA would eventually freeze and lock up my console. Even on the 0.75 public build (which was released before I even had a BBA) would freeze.
I have seen videos and images of people connecting through BBA with no problem, and it was driving me crazy!
But I am happy to report that after 8 hours of troubleshooting I have figured it out!

Here's what happened:
PlanetWeb tells each website it can take up to 32 KB at a time. The BBA adapter's receive buffer only holds 16 KB. With my gigabit connection, the site sends all 32 KB in one burst. The buffer overflowed, the network driver lost track of where each packet started, and it began reading garbage.

If anyone reading this had that issue and didn't report it, that is why. You're internet is too good.
It also does not happen in an emulator.
So this and the BBA settings page issue are both fixed for the next release along with many other networking changes!

I have been looking at some of the networking issues people are having on real hardware.

DreamPi No Dial Tone error when uploading high scores:
I believe I have a fix for this ready for the next release, but I am unable to reproduce the error on my setup so I am unable to confirm if it actually works.
If someone has this problem could you please try enabling "Blind Dial" in your modem settings and letting me know if that fixes the issue?
Please post on the chat page or PM me on Dreamcast-Talk if that works or not.

BBA Website connection issue:
Users connecting though the BBA can fail to load the site or freeze the console after using the Broadband Settings in the options menu.
The cause of this is found and fixed for the next release.
For now, if you change broadband settings in the options, please reboot the console before trying to connect again.

Very sorry to the people that ran into these problems.

Hello everyone!
Sorry for the lack of progress updates lately. I hope this post will explain why!
Things have actually gotten pretty far ahead of my original plan for the next release, here are a few things to look forward to.

Performance:
On real hardware the version I am currently working on is running faster than the current public build with the minimap turned on!
Because of this, I am aiming for a stable 60FPS across all Floors before release.

Events/DLC:
Some of you may have noticed the DLC icons on the Extras page. Yes, I am working on a way to easily implement DLC!
Custom models or effects/sounds would need to be on the disc, but things like recoloring stages and and rearranging/recoloring existing assets can be done on the fly!
For example the Halloween event recolors different groups of stages to Halloween colors, recolors the ball, and uses the night background on every stage with bananas replaced with pumpkins.
The DLC file on the VMU is only 2 Blocks!
Both events have been tested on real hardware and work great.
These will be available Day 1 with the next release, but expect more in the future!
DLC will not be compatible with version 0.75 or earlier.

Previous mentioned fixes and additions are complete and hardware tested.
Please give me a bit longer to finish this up. Thanks!