Got in a few games of Donkey Kong this morning before lunch and didn’t do too well or too poorly. I’m looking at these daily games like a serious runner looks at “junk miles” – simply getting in the steps to keep things moving. To continue sort of slacking off (it is Saturday after all), I am just going to show you the way I experienced Donkey Kong the most as a kid. Home ports of DK were everywhere in the early ‘80s, and none of them were all that great. Even Nintendo didn’t get it quite right for their NES version (but did a pretty good job). One of the worst versions was for the Atari 2600/VCS – the console my family had.
Featuring only the “barrel” and “rivet” levels, this version with a one-colored gorilla at the top of the screen was hardly recognizable as Donkey Kong. I didn’t care or know much better, though, since I’d only played the arcade game a handful of times before we got it. I don’t remember how much I played the game at the time, but I remember it pretty clearly and think it was one we all played quite a bit. So, I guess it was still fun, but I haven’t hooked up my 2600 in many years at this point to try it out. Looking at the screen shots, it looks terrible.
Which home console version of Donkey Kong were you most familiar with? Were you a lucky Coleco kid? I was so jealous of that port, even as a little goofball kid.
I guess it makes sense the Atari version would look like E.T. the Porno.
yeah that 2600 port looks hideous. Kong does not look like Kong.
I remeber my mother had panasonic console with a DK cart when she was young. I don't remeber what the sytem was but I always want to play it. No sure if it exists still.
Huh. I don't see anything too early from Panasonic on this cool wikipedia article, but that doesn't mean it didn't exist. Maybe it was from some other second tier electronics company at the time.
Side note: I didn't know there was a console made just for girls in Japan. Actually sounds like it did cool stuff!
The DK port I was most used to was the NES one.
One of the better ones, for sure!
Now that I'm older, I have a lot more respect for Donkey Kong now (same goes with Pitfall). But as a kid, I didn't really play Donkey Kong that much. It was a bit too hard for me. Now Pac-Man, that was another story. I was totally into Pac-Man as a kid. Guess I haven't grown up much. :)
A neighbor of mine had Donkey Kong on Colecovision when I was a kid and I played it there. It was quite a thrill then seeing a good arcade port at home.
Mine was the original arcade version of the game. Tried it once and never tried it again on any other systems. Was never my cup of tea.
