Rename VCS Donkey Kong

[Raiu]

A better title?

 

"Cannot Lurk Forever, Bear"

[Brian O]

Personally, I think they did pretty good with what resources they had available within 4k...no complaints here...

 

...except it could have used some Shatner!!!!

 

atari.donkey_kong.png

 

 

 

Donkey Khaaaaaaaaaaan!

Edited September 23, 2013 by Brian O

[R.O.T.S]

Donkey Kong ALPHA 3DG+ REDUX SPECIAL-X

[BassGuitari]

Konkey Dong.

[BassGuitari]

Well Atarisoft were no better then...

Except that they were. Atarisoft didn't release very many duds. Even their Intellivision and Colecovision ports -which you'd think they'd maybe "sabotage" to some degree- were excellent. Their TI-99/4a ports are some of the best titles available for the system (except maybe Picnic Paranoia, that was kinda dumb). Their Apple games were basically really good despite the Apple's hardware limitations. I tend to not like their VIC-20 games as much, but most of their C64 titles were excellent. I would love to see what Atarisoft would have done with something like the TRS-80 Color Computer, Odyssey 2, or Astrocade.

[oky2000]

Except that they were. Atarisoft didn't release very many duds. Even their Intellivision and Colecovision ports -which you'd think they'd maybe "sabotage" to some degree- were excellent. Their TI-99/4a ports are some of the best titles available for the system (except maybe Picnic Paranoia, that was kinda dumb). Their Apple games were basically really good despite the Apple's hardware limitations. I tend to not like their VIC-20 games as much, but most of their C64 titles were excellent. I would love to see what Atarisoft would have done with something like the TRS-80 Color Computer, Odyssey 2, or Astrocade.

....because VIC20 Galaxians is superior to C64 conversion. You missed the whole point of the post.

 

So not for C64 owners, almost every Atarisoft C64 arcade conversion is well below the capabilities of the machine and underwhelming as my example of Galaxian on the C64 vs the less powerful VIC-20. I can forgive Atarisoft Galaxian being significantly worse conversion than Commodore Japan's Star Battle carbon copy of Galaxian but Star Battle on VIC-20 from Japanese Commodore engineers was so far in advance of C64 Atarisoft it's not even funny.

 

Not saying they did it on purpose but they sure were shit at programming the C64 IMO. Luckily though there are many many unnofficial arcade copycat conversions from small software houses on tape for 1/4 the price of an Atarisoft cart

Edited October 12, 2013 by oky2000

[Hydro Thunder]

I've heard Garry Kitchen speak about doing DK for the 2600, I don't think he purposely was making it poorly. It is....kind of fun, if not nearly as good as the CV version.

I love a good conspiracy theory but I don't think it holds in this case.

[Steverd]

I would say Half-Kong, Rip off Kong, Baby Kong, Two Level Kong, or Return me to the store Kong.

 

 

[+darryl1970]

Famous programmer Garry Kitchen did an excellent job doing Donkey Kong for the VCS (there was nothing purposefully trashed, that's not even a myth), you can read the interview in 2600 Collection The lost interview with Garry Kitchen, here on AA.

 

If I remember correctly, it is fair to say that Gary Kitchen did a great job with the resources. He states how much of a challenge the slanted girders were, and the current homebrew port confirms that. It is also fair to say (and I believe he mentioned this) that Coleco did not want to use more than 4k, thus limiting the content and quality. I think it is a work of art given the limitations. We all may have a different preference to what we would have liked included, such as giving up the slanted girders for a third screen, extra enemy, music, etc. In the end, he did a great job for the day and limitations of that period. That is a fourth of what their version used.

 

Even the Colecovision version had MAJOR flaws. As much as we love it for the time, I think it was worse if you compare it resource to resource. For 16k, the graphics were flawed (strange pattern in some girders, dot on the right of DK), the fireball was missing, crazy barrels were missing, the hammer collision was Mario's body, and Mario could walk off the end of a ramp without harm.. Atari was able to fit all of this, including a 4th screen into the 8-bit conversion... Even the Vic-20 had 4 screens, crazy barrels, and a fireball. lol. One could argue it was rushed for release, but DK Jr. was really sad in many ways also.

[108 Stars]

I agree that all the hate for VCS Pac-Man and Donkey Kong is too much, and that stories such as Coleco intentionaly making bad ports for the 2600 are bs. That makes no sense businesswise.

 

And as far as DK is concerned, Garry Kitchen has explained on several occasions that the game is as good as he could make it given the restriction to 4k and 3 - 4 months to program it. Never did Coleco ask him to do a bad job with it; and he didn't. For its limitations, DK is a solid game on the 2600. Coleco not investing in an 8k cartridge wass strictly a logical business decision. DK would sell on the 2600 no matter what, but the production price would have been higher with 8k. For the Colecovision version it just made sense to use a bigger cartridge. The game was specifically meant to sell the system. It was the pack-in game and had to be as good as possible.

[Syntaxerror999]

Many homebrews use synonym heavy titles to avoid copyright issues... Or just to be funny (like the Astroids clone space rocks) so how about...

 

Ass King

 

No... Maybe not... Sounds more like a lost Mystique title.

[Jess Ragan]

Fyvush Finkle in Puttin' on the Ritz (Crackers).

 

I don't think the game is any worse than Jr. and only marginally worse than other 2600 platformers. People are letting their opinions of the game (mediocre as it was) be poisoned by the new, whiz-bang 21st century conversions, but DK is bound to come up short in a comparison to those.

[+Gemintronic]

Crate Ape

[108 Stars]

Crate Ape

This would actually be an amazing name if I ever get the chance to help with a DK clone on Lynx, but then again crates don't roll well, do they? Still sounds cool.^^

[atarian1]

How about using a vaporware Jaguar title that was announced but never saw light:

 

Apesh*t

 

[CorTat-G]

Big Billy's bouncing barrel bashing bonanza.

Edited October 15, 2013 by Cortat G

[shawnphase]

Girder Ape

[atarilovesyou]

How bout:

 

Konkey Dong?

[+Psionic]

We know Coleco purposefully trashed this cartridge and tried to pass it off as Donkey Kong just to boost ColecoVision sales.

No, they didn't. Coleco didn't even develop the game themselves...it was done by Garry Kitchen's company via contract.

 

Well Atarisoft were no better then, Galaxian on VIC-20 is much better than the C64 port for example (and there are others too which are obviously nowhere near the potential of the machine) so if that is true it's nothing new.

The Atarisoft versions of Galaxian for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20 were coded by the same person coterminously. The C64 version came out bad because the programmer likely spent most of his time doing the conversion for the lesser machine and then simply ported the code over without redoing any of it to take advantage of the C64's advanced sprite capabilities (which the VIC-20 lacked). This is why the C64 version's enemies are made using character graphics instead of sprites and the game looks like it was coded in BASIC.

 

And for what it's worth, Atari's version for their own 8-bit computers was better than the Commodore versions but was no great shakes either. It pales in comparison to the vastly superior ColecoVision version (by Atarisoft). So much for sabotage...

 

Not saying they did it on purpose but they sure were shit at programming the C64 IMO.

Well, the Galaxian ports were Alan Pavlish's first commercial games that he programmed, so cut the guy some slack. To put things in perspective, he would later go on to program Wasteland, which is considered one of the best C64 games of all time.

 

These ports turned out bad for the same reason that most games turn out bad...lack of experience, resources, and time. The people who yell "sabotage" are always ignorant people who have been spoiled by modern homebrews and simply have no clue what the game development process was like back then.

[oky2000]

I don't think it was on purpose at all but sadly the great Atarisoft VIC games I like to collect (and play on real hardware) were never done justice in cart form on the C64. Defender vs Alligata Software's Guardian being another example, Eagle Empire vs Phoenix etc. As a kid with a VCS I went out of my way to find my VCS games done justice on the home computers I was bought as a kid

 

But hey like I said in those days everyone was ripping off arcade games without acquiring licenses so it was no big deal, someone somewhere usually had a nice copy of the game.

 

However DK turned out on Coleco those terrible controllers would never make the experience enjoyable IMO, luckily you can just plug in a Zipstick and mate it to the regular controller using a joystick port splitter cable

[+Gemintronic]

[Magic Knight]

Barrel Smasher!

[Zoyx]

Like Pac-Man 4K, I'd like to see a revised Donkey Kong.

 

This game played OK. It was easy, compared to how incredibly hard the arcade game could be. That just wanted to get you to move along, or suck more quarters out of you. But missing screens aside, it looked horrible, "Donkey Kong" was barely recognizable, and the Colevision version blowed this out of the water so hard it hasn't fallen back down yet.

Yeah, this game is primed to be remade using the new tools that are available. Using the harmony and melody tech, some skilled person can make it better than the Colecovision. Maybe even add a couple of scenes.

[HammR25]

Not sure what non-infringing name I'd give Donkey Kong but I'd probably use the name "Chick Feed" to replace "Adventure".

[Robot2600]

I always liked the Atari versions of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. Who cares if they are different? It just gives you an entirely different version to play into of an arcade "port" which is kind of pointless in the era of MAME anyway. If you want to play arcade DK, use MAME.

 

Off topic, but why did they have to leave out a stage in the NES version.... what were they thinking, really? It's obvious the NES could have handled the extra level.