Best home version of Donkey Kong?

[BydoEmpire]

I voted c64 since it looked great, played great, and had the pie level. I almost voted for the NES version - to me it looks most like the arcade game, with the exception of the missing level, and plays really well. Okay, some things are in different places. I honestly never noticed. I like the NES version a lot, and that's the version I go to when I get the DK itch.

[CorTat-G]

I voted for the NES. Although the 2600 is good in it's own way.

 

(I only own those two versions.)

[BillyHW]

I voted c64 since it looked great, played great, and had the pie level. I almost voted for the NES version - to me it looks most like the arcade game, with the exception of the missing level, and plays really well. Okay, some things are in different places. I honestly never noticed. I like the NES version a lot, and that's the version I go to when I get the DK itch.

 

I'm not sure what you're seeing in the C64 version(s). I played some of both last week, and found them both quite disappointing. The C64 is capable of so much more. I think it would be awesome to see a homebrew of Donkey Kong Arcade and Donkey Kong II: Jumpman returns for the C64, if there's anyone interested in doing it.

 

Oddly enough, I noticed that the Atarisoft 1983 version for the C64 seemed to preserve some of the muffled sound that I'm hearing in the current MAME build.

 

So what does everyone think is the *worst* port of Donkey Kong? I haven't played it yet, but I saw the PC version on YouTube and it looks pretty hideous. And I agree with the above poster that said Donkey Kong looks a bit psycho in that one.

Edited March 14, 2012 by BillyHW

[Austin]

The best version that I have played has to be the NES version. It's easily the closest (that I've played so far) in terms or graphics and sounds. I haven't played any of the other non-NES versions though that supposedly have the missing board.

[NinjaWarrior]

How about the Game Boy version

[+FujiSkunk]

AtariSoft's C-64 port is the best. It is about the only version that gets the first level right. The number of rafters is correct, Donkey Kong is on the correct side, the hammers are all in the right place, and the fireballs actually do what they're supposed to. Not even the NES version gets all that right.

 

Add in the pie factory and difficulty ramping that is very faithful to the arcade, and you have the best port short of anything emulating the arcade game.

Edited March 14, 2012 by FujiSkunk

[+nanochess]

When I was simply a kid, I enjoyed very much playing Donkey Kong in an IBM PC of a friend (in fact I didn't know that there was an arcade version), and I though that it was one of the best games (CGA 320x200, 4 colors), but now I've saw that the Colecovision version is a lot better

By the way, I couldn't vote in this poll, it says that I've already voted

Edited March 14, 2012 by nanochess

[Austin]

How about the Game Boy version

 

Great game, but after the first four levels it doesn't have much to do with the original arcade game.

[rmo70]

since the aracde ROMs on MAME wouldnt be fair..... lol....

 

I think it's a close tie between Colecovision and Atari 8-Bit, but in the event of tie it goes to the Atari (since my memory of the Colecovision version is 30 years old and I just played the Atari version yesterday.)

Edited March 14, 2012 by rmo70

[NinjaWarrior]

I picked the NES version, 2nd is the 7800..with the sound turned off

[high voltage]

Donkey Kong on Game Boy is my favourite version. Dunno if a level is missing, but it has bloody 95 new ones. That rocks.

 

Edited March 14, 2012 by high voltage

[Lord Helmet]

I vote Atari 8-bit. It's the most fun IMHO.

[CastleofIllusion]

TI-99/4a

[rmo70]

any of you guys ever play the Coleco handheld version? I always thought it was way too cool - but i still vote Atari 8-bit!!!

 

[Jess Ragan]

The NES version looks and feels the most like the arcade game, but it's not very difficult and the absence of the fourth stage and intermissions is damn near unforgivable. (They added the fourth stage in a later version of the game, released as a Virtual Console title. It was lacking, much like the ADAM version that came decades before.)

 

For my money, the Atari XE/XL version, ably ported to the Atari 5200, is the best version of the game. It's an eyesore compared to the NES game, but the control is tight and it's HARD, something that was lacking from most other conversions. I can't stress enough how important challenge is to a proper Donkey Kong port. Without it you're just going through the motions.

 

The Donkey Kong Country game released for the Nintendo 64 is supposed to have an accurate port of Donkey Kong in it, but true to form with other RARE games, you have to collect fifty billion stray doodads to unlock it, so that's right out. Some time in the 1990s, RARE convinced itself that there was nothing players liked more than searching every stray inch of a stage for safety pins and balls of lint. They couldn't have been more wrong.

[Phredreeke]

Donkey Kong on Game Boy is my favourite version. Dunno if a level is missing, but it has bloody 95 new ones. That rocks.

 

I don't think it's fair to count Donkey Kong GB, as it was released a decade after the other versions.

 

I would say Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC both got good versions of Donkey Kong.

 

Most disappointing would be Donkey Kong for Intellivision. The system can do better as shown by Carl Mueller's version.

[Dr Manhattan]

The version I played as a child is the best version.

[NE146]

Donkey Kong on Game Boy is my favourite version. Dunno if a level is missing, but it has bloody 95 new ones. That rocks.

 

 

That isn't Donkey Kong. Sure it has a recreation of the 4 levels in it's initial part but it of course is a puzzle game at the end of the day.

 

And yes I love it and have finished it multiple times. But "Donkey Kong" proper, it is not.

[Nukey Shay]

These topics are always flawed. A "home" version could be anything you have at home. Therefore, the best (i.e. most accurate) version would be the arcade cab itself if you happened to own one. Not counting that (or anything which partially emulates the original game ROMs)..."best" would always be in flux. Machines of different eras had access to more resources, better coding techniques, etc. Each one also has it's share of faults or flaws that should be viewed as a drawback...but on the other hand, can make the port endering in it's own way (such as the ability to safely fall off girders and climb at double speed in CV).

 

And so, the best home port would be whatever happened to be THE home game to own at the time. The first of which would be the 2600's version (it was there first, so there ya go). Next would be the CV version (akin to 2600's Space Invaders, the game literally sold the system). Anything after that is third place...despite the fact that nearly all of them are more-accurate ports than either of the first two.

 

2600 HAD the best port. It was first.

[ColecoDan]

The colecovision adam was better than the colecovision version because it has the pie level and it has all the intermission stuff that the original colecovision did not have room for.

 

Hopefully this years release of Opcodes Donkey Kong for colecovison will be the closest version to the arcade yet as he is very detail oriented.

[ColecoDan]

 

2600 HAD the best port. It was first.

 

I thought coleco developed the Donkey Kong version for Atari and I thought it was developed after colecovision came out so wouldn't that mean the colecovsion one was first.

[The Usotsuki]

Coleco did make DK for 2600.

[BillyHW]

Does anyone know why in the C64 version (Atarisoft, 1983) Pauline says "1103" (with the 3 backwards) instead of "help"?

[NIAD]

The Coleco Adam version with all 4 screens is up there but it's too easy like the ColecoVision 3 screen version.

I know this is an old post, but....

 

The Coleco ADAM SuperGame version also has all the intro screens, intermissions and Hall of Fame hi-score saving. Now as far as the difficulty of the ADAM SuperGame and the ColecoVision cartridge, as I'm sure you know, there are 4 difficulty levels to choose from with the 3rd supposedly equal to the Arcade and the 4th being even harder. Back in the day, I always started on skill level #1 pretty much with all Coleco made games, but now I usually start on skill level #3 and have been pleasantly surprised with all the added game elements that I was missing.

[NIAD]

I'm partial to the Coleco ADAM SuperGame version seeing as that is the version that I played the most back in the day. Most of the other versions I have only played through emulation and that is not a good barometer to use in my opinion... you need to play on the real hardware.