Seriously, Poor Donkey Kong Intellivision

[Bill Loguidice]

Gotta ask.. How the heck can you play DK with an analog joystick?

I would think something would be lost.

Same way we play most all of the Vectrex games. The software written doesn't have to take advantage of the analogue control if it doesn't want to. In other words, any value that gets detected will simply be digital - on or off. But yeah, by nature - analogue controllers can be a pain when playing certain games like Pac-man and such. Too spongy for my tastes.

 

Also, to be fair, a lot of Apple II games - particularly as the second player - were/are played from the keyboard. Donkey Kong is serviceable from the keyboard. Also, naturally, the various analog joystick options varied a great deal in tension and adjustability.

[+thegoldenband]

Since I started collecting for the Intellivision, I've only owned an Inty II, but I got a Tandyvision today and finally had the chance to play Donkey Kong (the Coleco version) on real hardware. Yep, it's terrible. Of course, the graphics are dire -- Donkey Kong bears a distinct resemblance to a giant green toad -- but the real issue is the gameplay. The whole thing just feels buggy and half-done, and definitely is several notches below the Atari 2600 version. A pity!

[cparsley]

I tried to run the DK version here, but it crashes any emu I send it thru (Nostalgia, jsINTV), am I missing a file or a bad dump somewhere?

[Rik]

I may be incorrect,but,it seems like INTV was intended to be a console that specialized in Sports games,who had to also make action/adventure games to broaden their appeal of sorts.The INTV has great space,action,adventure games for sure.I dunno,just seems like they were more interested in making great sports games,IN THE BEGINNING,but later released fantastic games other than sports games.The majority of commercials in the 80's seemed geared towards cutting down Atari's sports titles and showing how superior INTV's were.Too bad Dk was so poor.It would be great to see an improved INTV DK.I would also love to see some nice homebrew realeases for the INTV.There are some exceptions,but the INTV has never been known as a console that has exceptional arcade translations,so it seems anyway.

[cparsley]

I may be incorrect,but the INTV has never been known as a console that has exceptional arcade translations,so it seems anyway.

 

C'mon, Lock 'n Chase and Burgertime are two big ones that show given the right attention (and rights to the games), arcade games can be done and done well on the INTV system.

[Bill Loguidice]

I may be incorrect,but the INTV has never been known as a console that has exceptional arcade translations,so it seems anyway.

 

C'mon, Lock 'n Chase and Burgertime are two big ones that show given the right attention (and rights to the games), arcade games can be done and done well on the INTV system.

 

Agreed, it was and is more than capable of great arcade translations, including the ones you mentioned and games like Bump 'n' Jump. Even Commando was well done. The Intellivision wasn't the fastest when it came to processing fast action, but when coded correctly it was a match for most 8-bit systems. As for modern day homebrews, you don't get much better than Space Patrol: http://www.beeslife.com/intvgames/spacepatrol/spacepatrol.php , which is Moon Patrol on steroids (and even support the ECS!).

[Rik]

I may be incorrect,but the INTV has never been known as a console that has exceptional arcade translations,so it seems anyway.

 

C'mon, Lock 'n Chase and Burgertime are two big ones that show given the right attention (and rights to the games), arcade games can be done and done well on the INTV system.

Did you read the part were i said"THERE WERE EXCEPTIONS"?that there were some great arcade translations?and that i may indeed be INCORRECT?.Yes there were some great games,and there were duds also,like every console has.And when i think of INTELLIVISION,i think of sports games,for me anyway.To me ALSO,i might add,the INTV isn't the 1ST console i choose for arcade gaming,that's NOT cutting it down,that's my own choice.But i love my INTV it's a great system.just not the console of my choice for arcade gaming.

Edited February 27, 2010 by Rik

[4Ks]

Am I the only one that actually likes Intellivision Donkey Kong?

[cparsley]

yes, 4K, you are Next question?

[NinjaWarrior]

Coleco did it to the 2600 version also to make the Colecovision one look better

 

I think that what happen with the Genesis back in the 90's

 

Konami, Capcom manly screwed Sega by making there games 50% while making SNES games 100%

[Bill Loguidice]

Coleco did it to the 2600 version also to make the Colecovision one look better

 

This has pretty much been debunked, and multiple times at that. There were myriad reasons why some Atari 2600/Intellivision translations were worse than they could have been, and amongst the lowest probability is "to make the ColecoVision look better".

 

I think that what happen with the Genesis back in the 90's

 

Konami, Capcom manly screwed Sega by making there games 50% while making SNES games 100%

 

Again, no evidence of that, and certainly no financial incentive for Konami or Capcom to do so. Simplistically put, the Genesis had inferior graphics and sound to the SNES, though it did generally have a better relative main processor.

[Nukey Shay]

Coleco did it to the 2600 version also to make the Colecovision one look better

Source?

 

According to the programmer himself, it was his own choice and ability of what went into the 2600's port.

 

http://www.atarihq.com/othersec/library/kitchens.html

 

Would he have any reason or anything to gain by lying about it now?

[Kripto]

I read a comment somewhere from the programmers who worked at Mattel (the Blue Sky Rangers) saying that experienced Intellivision programmers went to work at Imagic but NOT at Coleco, where they had to figure out everything themselves via reverse engineering. Donkey Kong is a perfect example of what kind of output can be expected from such a situation.

[ClassicGMR]

I tried to run the DK version here, but it crashes any emu I send it thru (Nostalgia, jsINTV), am I missing a file or a bad dump somewhere?

I have the same issue. Did anyone get back to you on this?

[rhindlethereddragon]

The Intellivision version of Donkey Kong is the worst conversion EVER!!! Here are some reasons:

 

Mario doesn't look like Mario.

DK looks like a brown blob.

DK is on the opposite side.

Only 2 screens.

 

The Intellivision programmers were sure purposefully made by Coleco to make their machine look bad!

The 2600 version also has only 2 screens, but it's more fun.

How many of you agree?

 

Donkey Kong looks like a gingerbread man rather than a blob.

 

Granted, DK for Intellivision could have been a lot better, but I find the notion that they made it poorer on purpose because they were afraid that the Intellivision would "upstage" the colecovision absolutely ludicrous. It had to do more with the difficulty in programming the intellivision, the "deadline" to get it released on time, and to a lesser extent, cartridge size limitation.

 

I agree the Atari version was very good.

[rhindlethereddragon]

I may be incorrect,but the INTV has never been known as a console that has exceptional arcade translations,so it seems anyway.

 

C'mon, Lock 'n Chase and Burgertime are two big ones that show given the right attention (and rights to the games), arcade games can be done and done well on the INTV system.

 

And let's not forget, in some cases the coleco versions of INTV games were equal to that of the Colecovision (Ladybug), or (in some ways) even SURPASSED THE COLECOVISION (Venture is a good example of this, with the dead enemies "decaying" instead of just disappearing, and an arrow would restore the decaying corpse to it's full mass again - much superior to Colecovision's just disappearing..).

[jaybird3rd]

In the other "Intellivision Donkey Kong Sucks" thread, I posted a quote from Intellivision Productions that, to my mind, pretty much lays to rest the whole idea that the game was intentionally done poorly:

 

Intellivision Productions posted something about the "Donkey Kong was intentionally bad" rumor recently:

 

That was our speculation back then, since we didn't see how it could have been so bad. But since then we've come to realize that with no one with Intellivision experience on staff at Coleco, working only from 3rd-party reverse-engineered programming manuals under time pressure, yeah, it could be that bad. Activision, Imagic & Atari had experienced Intellivision programmers on their staffs to help with their Intellivision cartridges. We like to think of the Mattel Electronics, INTV Corp., Dextell Ltd., Activision, Imagic & Atarisoft games as having Blue Sky Rangers DNA. Coleco, Sega, Parker Bros. & Interphase: no Blue Sky Rangers DNA.

 

 

Then there's this interesting anecdote from Blue Sky Ranger Dave Akers:

 

I vaguely remember sneaking into Coleco's closed booth at the summer 1982 CES, and seeing a version of Donkey Kong for Intellivision that looked better than the final version. Maybe they programmed a version for an 8k cartridge, and finally decided to shoehorn it into a 4k cartridge? Or perhaps the "Intellivision" version at the show was just a simulation that was actually running on different hardware? It was 28 years ago, so my memory is fuzzy...

[Kripto]

I would say the 4k, 8k difference could certainly be the case as that Atari also did that to increase profit on some major releases. It also goes in line with less experienced programmers as that it take far more skill to fit a good conversion into half the space.

[Jess Ragan]

They were confident they could put together a version more faithful in feel and gameplay to the original arcade game than even the ColecoVision version.

 

Pfft, that wouldn't be hard. Donkey Kong himself could make a better conversion of his game on the ColecoVision, if you could keep him from pounding on his chest and throwing barrels every couple of seconds. Most overrated arcade conversion ever.

[Tempest]

It would be interesting to find out who programmed the Inty version and ask them about that.

 

Tempest

[homerwannabee]

Now Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 may have just of been poor programming. Sorry Mr. Kitchen. Now the Donkey Kong for the Intellivision clearly looks like a sabotage. I mean is it that hard to actually get the correct colors right for Mario? I mean this is something that even the most novice programmer knows how to do.

[Nukey Shay]

2600's DK does not use the arcade's colors. Things like that were insignificant in the early days. Games were sometimes programmed by those who'd never even seen the original game. The basic elements are still there.