Battle of the Ports - Donkey Kong (ドンキーコング) Show  

The sound effects for Donkey Kong on the Atari 2600 have become some of the most iconic sound effects in all of media

You sound always so calm that I couldn't stop laughing when you talked about the Sinclair version, was too unexpected XD.

I'll still never get over how DK in the Atari 2600 version looks like an evil Poop Monster

that sinclair zx port sounded like death on startup

The 2600 version is one of the first video games I EVER PLAYED

Hooray for the Amstrad CPC!!

When Donkey Kong was available for the Coleco. The story for it was amazing... Former President of Nintendo of America, Minoru Arakawa said once that they gave a second chance with Coleco on the deal with Donkey Kong. So one of of its representatives was actually begging , pleading, pouting to the point that Nintendo gave it to them out of sympathy...They figured if any man did this for a video game, it had to be that good. Anthony..

Great video,thanks for taking me bk to my youth.In 1981 I graduated HS,and me and a friend used to go down to this pub,every weekend with rolls of quarters,I’m taking about $50 total,and use them for 2 games,one was Zaxxon and the other was Donkey Kong.We used Togo threw pitchers of beer and play those 2 games all night. Thanks again brings back some good ol memories 🙂🙂

Our parents bought my brother and I a Colecovision in 1982, and we loved the port of DK. We discovered a trick for it too. If you climb the first ladder half way, climb down, move 2 small steps to the left, then jump to the right and you will jump right through the floor and land on the next board! Oh, and to make this port play better, while climbing the ladders, stop after only a couple of steps then dumb the rest of the way. You will climb at twice the speed! It feels much closer to the arcade this way too.

I think part of what makes Donkey Kong such a timeless classic is it's randomness factor. No enemy truely behaves a set way and are quite erratic in their movement which can often catch the player off guard. Same thing with the barrels in how the rate at which Donkey Kong tosses them out and whether they go down a ladder or not is also completely random. This ensures that no two games will play quite the same and it makes for endless replayability. It truely is a brilliantly concieved game. Great episode and one that I have heavilly anticipated.

Donkey Kong in the DOS version looks like Lotso the Bear from Toy Story 3. >__>

It's kinda bizzare that the sound effect of Atari 2600 port of Donkey Kong has become a public domain stock sound effect

Oh, it's on. It's on like...uh...-snaps fingers-...Defender! Yeah, that's the ticket!

My grandmother actually had donkey kong on game & watch and she was amazing at it.

There's a NES/Famicom version with all four stages, it was released as a digital game inside the Mario 25th Anniversary red Wiis, and nowadays can be found around the net to play in any NES emulator.

CPC version rocks!

For the US C64 version, you may have only seen 2 screens because it's emulating the US arcade stage order. A japan game does 1, 2, 3, 4, but the US version does something more akin to 1, 4, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

I grew up with the (awesome) cpc port. Thanks for showing the nice title screen. :D

Whoa, calm down on the Spectrum port. You started sounding like Avgn lol

Had the 8 bit atari computer version as a kid. Absolutely loved it. I'd never heard of Donkey Kong when I got it, but when I loaded it up, I recognised Mario immediately. One of my earliest memories of getting hooked on a game (along with "Mountain King" and "Oh Mummy") What a trip down memory lane!

Nes version has 2 version released The original (and plus with donkey kong junior pack) And the aniversary edition with a aditional level, the pie factory, and new animations

Might be the first, and maybe only time that I can say the Amstrad CPC had the closest to arcade perfect port of an aracde game for its time (the Ocean C64 version also comes pretty close but I think the richer colour pallette the CPC has just edges it for me). Arcana Software are a name I had never heard of and sadly they seem to of not made a huge amount of games, but they certainly showed some talent here.

Mario's face in the Armstrad opening screen is the stuff of nightmares... yiiishh...

My favorite port that I had was the Atari 8-bit version. Had all 4 stages in the US order and very responsive controls. Ironically the programmer hated the arcade version so I guess he added some improvements... :)

"Amstrad CPC ... sounds good" So wet fart soundtrack sounds good?

What about Donkey Kong '94 for GB? Sure it is a different game, but it contains all four arcade stages. Anyway, great video as always!

I played this so much on my 2400 and my C64. I love this game and it’s fun to see all the different versions. It’s still strange to me that Nintendo didn’t include every level on the NES

At least Pauline wasn't given some generic term a la Johnny Hart's "B.C" like Cute Chick!

Gary Kitchen had about 3 months to write 2600 DK, he needed a year. He had 4,096 bytes of memory in which to store all of the code, graphics and sound effects. In addition,he had 128 bytes of RAM memory to keep track of everything. The 2600 was limited to displaying two (2) sprites (animating, moving characters), plus one (1) ball and two (2) missiles. The ball and missiles were simple square/rectangle projectile objects while the two sprites were 8-bits wide, with the ability to display rudimentary animation frames. The Donkey Kong arcade machine, was capable of displaying “128 foreground sprites at 16x16 pixels each.” In addition to the limitation on the number of objects on the screen, due to memory constraints, the Atari 2600 was limited to displaying unique background graphics for only 1/2 of the screen. So the right side of the screen could only display a copy or a reflection of the left side of the screen. Since the iconic slanted ramps of Donkey Kong are non-symmetrical in nature,he had to come up with a way to “work around” the hardware to achieve the slanted ramps.

C+VG seemed absolutely shocked when Ocean released the C64/ZX SPECTRUM abd Amstrad CPC conversions. Claiming Ocean must of been hard-up for original software, they didn't know Ocean released it, Kong games were older than the C64 and should be left in peace.

Holy crap, is the Spectrum version cursed!? XD

About the DOS version: it was one of many games (like Ms. Pac-Man, Burgertime, Lock'n'Chase, and a few others) ported to DOS that only had full colour via CGA-composite out. Shame the C64 Ocean version is PAL-only on cassette, like the version of Xevious I imported years ago. Also to note: only AtariSoft's ports (which included the Atari 8-bit computers) and the ADAM port follow the US level setup. The ColecoVision port does its own thing, and every other port follows the Japanese one. Even the bonus version of the arcace game in DK64 follos the Japanese level setup. Plus, AtariSoft's ports were never optimized for PAL systems. Just NTSC. In fact, I think a lot if not ALL cartridge games for the C64 were primarily NTSC speed. Lastly, Europe originally got a special version of the NES port with "Original Edition" in the title on the Wii and 3DS Virtual Console, which added back the conveyor belt level. I believe since, it is now on the 3DS VC worldwide.

Great video! I always like to see discussions of arcade ports, and finally someone acknowledges how horrendous the Spectrum and MSX ports were. Every time people complain about the 2600 and Intellivision ports, they treat them like the worst ports created. They're bad, but the Spectrum and MSX versions are damn near unplayable. TI-99/4A and Vic 20 versions are underrated, though, glad to see them acknowledged here as well.

To fix the Mario climbing too slow problem you have to double tap up to make him climb faster.

The obvious off key music in some of these ports is hilarious.

Donkey Kong is the best game of all time, its have many port even until these days in modern console

When you talked about the ZX spectrum version I really laughed.

wow that's doozie of an episode! I'm glad you put the Game & Watch version at the end, I played the hell out of that thing as a kid :)

That censorship of your vocal is f**kin unexpected humor. Good job Mark :D

Do I really have to say anything about this timeless classic Mark? 8^) Well okay..my personal favorite is on the Colecovision. Amazing port of a game that is and its also my families favorite version as well. Well done bro. Keep up the great work. Anthony.

I'd like to see BurgerTime and Dig Dug!

I think the reason why all stages weren't included in the NES/FC port was because of hardware limitations. Nintendo actually made an updated version of the NES port that included the pie factory stage around 2010, but it has considerable flicker in areas and is missing items (possibly to avoid more flicker), plus, Donkey Kong doesn't scroll independently (assuming he's a background layer).

Notice how it was always the Pie Facfory level that was getting the axe. Shame, it's the best level, really. Also, DK looks legit terrifying on MS-DOS.

Это твоя лучшая битва портов!!! уже 100 роликов твоих посмотрел, но этот просто шедевррр!!!

Who would've thought at the time that Donkey Kong would've been as popular as Mario.

The US ports generally had a level arrangement of 1-4-1-3-4-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 etc. The Apple ][ version, at least, does have all 4 stages, but you won't see the "pie factory" until you hit level 3.

Great video! One correction: The non-Colecovision versions of Donkey Kong being "deliberately" bad is an urban legend, not fact. The accepted answer is that inexperienced programmers rushed those versions to market. It cost a LOT of money to produce and market games; there would be no point in intentionally gimping a product for existing consoles since it would just lose money. If Coleco had really wanted to use Donkey Kong to sell consoles, they would have simply never developed it for the other consoles, and made Donkey Kong a Colecovision exclusive.

Great game. I do love the 1994 gameboy remake tho it’s fantastic.

Nintendo themselves did release 'Donkey Kong Original Edition' as an updated NES/famicom ROM containing all four stages. Also, I think the Atarisoft port for the C64 isn't correctly optimized for PAL. It runs correctly on NTSC machines, or at the very least it isn't like walking in molasses.

Wow, now that is an unexpected episode from "Battle of the Ports"! I'm not really a big fan of this game (I don't find much appeal to it) and the muffled audio pisses me off so much. Other than that, very well made video, Yakumo! :) Also that jump sound effect on the Atari 2600 version seems to be iconic when it comes to TV shows using it.

2:30 - Wait, what happened there? Amstrad version was really good, it showed this computer is capable of much more, than crappy Spectrum ports. My personal favorite version is Gameboy one :)

That Apple II port...holy crap, you just knew it was'nt gonna workout once you saw the artwork on the main menu Lol. Great super timing with this one as I just got into a recent Donkey Kong "revisit" kick for ports of the arcade original. I know there were two DK carts released for the U.S Nes that offered the arcade original if memory serves, of course I'm sure they both had the same roms. Then the same port again released to the GbA SP "Nes Classics" linup which also came as a free optional pack-in with the purchase of a GameCube at GameStop/EB Software a while back...still kept mine. Great great vid as usual.

Will watch this one tomorrow, too many versions of Donkey Kong and had too many beers tonight, Goodnight, LOL ;)

When playing on the Colecovision, press up twice on the ladders and you will climb faster!

Awesome video I had no idea that it was ported to so many platforms.

This is one of the greatest BoP shows, will be a classic indeed. I didn't expect a TI99 port, now makes me wonder how other games for that computer will be, never put much attention to that system. Also I'm interested now in those game watch games, hehe. Great video man, as always.

Retro Core, I don't think the C64 Ocean/Arcana version is a UK exclusive but most probably a European or PAL territories exclusive. It was reviewed by the Italian version of Zzap! magazine so it was most probably officially released in continental Europe too. The MSX version is really a shame, they could have used the Coleco version as a reference (same hardware) but they went for the ZX Spectrum route once again!

I had the played 2600 port as a kid. My neighbor had the ColecoVision port and I thought how unjust the world was!

So simple... and so... amazing.

My main version of Donkey Kong was the Atari 400/800 version (there was also an Atari XEGS re-release, but I don't know if it changed anything). Looks fine, plays well, and has all four stages. I logged many hours into that little game.

That MS DOS Donkey Kong is the fuel stuff for nightmares................. And the VIC-20 looks like... yeah, let's not talk about that one... And the MSX one looks like a Wampa! And the fuck with the music on the 7800! The guy was high or what?? WHAT ART THOU THINKING!

The Atarisoft port for the C64 does have all 4 boards. They follow the US progression though. You won't see all four until DK is felled two times and you're on your third go around.

Hahaha AWESOME video!!! I am pretty sure that game and watch is worth some money these days!!

“Danky Kang” rembervthat famous gameshow answer?

And of course there was the version in Donkey Kong 64...which is the same as the Arcade version.

This is an awesome game I grow up with the famicom version

I remember at one point seeing copies of the Atari 7800 version of Donkey Kong being sold at a dollar store around 1990! That was how bad that console bombed!

The original Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. arcade games are the only Nintendo games I ever really liked. Never owned a Nintendo console or handheld.

Amazing video! There's the first Donkey Kong level also in Super Mario Odyssey! Coleco was so cynical... :-D

Hmm, I don't remember the VIC-20 port running so fast.

I had the game & watch version of Donkey Kong when I was a little boy. That was so fun!

Yo, Mark, Gaming History Source has done it again. Donkey Kong gets another "Let's Compare remake" treatment.

I'd have to say that the best console versions were Amstrad and Famicom (No surprise there). The Apple II is inexcusably bad, considering it is a "proper" computer and everything. But, it just goes to show that the capabilities of the system being programmed for are only part of the equation: It also largely comes down to the ingenuity of the programmer (Look at the difference between Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man on the Atari 2600, for example).

It really is Mark. It's in the book, The Ultimate History of Video Games. Great book by Steven L. Kent that they talk about it. I think you like it. 8^) Anthony..

From the start of the US C64 version the theme sounds just like the arcade. It made me think everything will sound like the arcade. But I was wrong..I wish the NES version. Would sound just like the arcade as much as it looks.

An excellent review as always of one of the most iconic game of it's time.Nintendo got it right when in 1981 released the arcade.Played the excellent Amstrad CPC port in the day and had the second part in Game & Watch.Hope u can made videos of more iconic gems like this one soon!!.

DK '81 Rating Scores: Arcade: 9.8/10 (It's the arcade original in its awesome glory... and it looks and plays great! However, it's truly a shame that the sound sounds like KOF '98 on the PlayStation, but unlike that game, I can give this a pass because it was made in '81, right before the VG Crash.) Intellivision: 1.7/10 (Um... what am I looking at? It looks nothing like the arcade. Instead, what I feel like I'm looking at is dog s***. This is a really bad port, but what really blows is that Coleco MADE this port and the Atari 2600 ports to make them look like this so that they themselves could make their OWN port look awesome. You must defeat the Famicom to stand a chance.) Atari 2600 (1st): 1.9/10 (This is slightly, and I MEAN, slightly better than the Intellivision port. It's still an awful version of the game made by a really selfish company (Coleco). It's such a shame.) Colecovision: 6.0/10 (After my rant on the Intellivision and Atari 2600 ports, you're probably wondering how and if Colecovision and Coleco Adam could be any better. They are, but it's a bittersweet thing because again, Coleco was the one behind the crappy ports, just to make their version look good. The Mario sprites are good, but what happened to everything else? It's a decent port but not that good or bad either.) Coleco Adam: 6.2/10 (Once again, the Coleco Adam is only slightly better than Colecovision. However, DK got even worse in both versions - I can't even tell if that's supposed to be the '81 DK or the '93 one! Still, it's a good game but they could have TRIED making DK look like his arcade self back in the '80s. Atari 2600 (2nd): 1.0/10 (What is this?!?! I'm really starting to hate Coleco now! This looks like a newborn 3-week-old child discovering how to make a game with bad tools! Oh my god, this version sucks so much DK! It sounds like ***, it looks like the Intellivision, but even WORSE, and I can't tell if "Pauline" is really Pauline or Cinderella!!) Family Computer: 9.6/10 (FINALLY!!!!!!!!! B*****ds of all ****! .....I'm sorry, I got a bit too angry. My bad, I'm just angry that Coleco made really s***ty ports is all. Finally! A good version of DK '81 that plays well, sounds well, and has almost all the stages from the arcade! I'm really happy about this, but if I see another bad port, I will Shoryuken Coleco.) TI-99: 7.6/10 (Good lord, I feel like I will explode. This port is not that bad, but DK looks exactly the same as in the Colecovision and Adam ports. Like those two, I can never tell if it's supposed to be the '81 DK or the '93 one, but at least here the difference is slightly obvious. Good port.) Apple ][: 0.7/10 (I... I... GOD....D************N IT! Another bad port!?!?! And somehow, it turns out to be even worse than any of the other ports!!! This is garbage at its finest. Those that have made ports like this, *you can go eat a bowl of FECK*.) VIC-20: 2.5/10 (Are you kidding me?! This is horrible! But at least the sound doesn't make my ears explode like the Atari ST Street Fighter ports or the farting Space Harrier port.) DOS: 0.0/10 (Excuse me for a second, I have to Shoryuken the crap out of Coleco.) Commodore 64 (UK): 8.5/10 (Once again, this is a good port! The graphics, however, feel compressed. Also, the sound sounds like crap. Other than that, good port! Commodore 64 (Worldwide...?): 7.8/10 (This is better than the TI-99 version, but worser than the UK release. At least it doesn't sound like 8-bit cats scratching on titanium. Overall, good port but it could've been better.) MSX: -12.5/10 (This is worser than any and ALL of the ports!! I have to Shoryuken Coleco again, hold on.) ZX Spectrum: -99.9?!/10 (This is horrible. I can't even judge this. This is the second time I have given a port a negative rating, the first being the MSX port. Terrible port and belongs with the worst of the worst, and the worst of the worst is in the trash.) Amstrad: -50.0/10 (This is still going on a streak of negative reviews. This is one of the WORST ports of Donkey Kong, the ONE game that forged paths to GOOD games, such as Street Fighter and Sonic the Hedgehog!) Atari 7800: 7.4/10 (I am SO GLAD that we're ending this on a DECENT note. This looks exactly like the arcade, but trust me, it doesn't play nor sound like it. Still, because this reminds me so much of the Famicom ports, I'll give this 7.4 stars. To put it simply, the Arcade still dominates, and the ZX Spectrum is trash that needs to be Hadouken'd.

The Coleco people claim to this day that they made the Intellivision and Atari versions the best they could.

I was gonna request this one, now I don't need to XD

Fantastic battle! I enjoyed a lot. I grew up with the Amstrad CPC port and I'm really proud of it! That's a pity the Famicom one that lost one stage and the timeless question...how high can you get?? XD

Great video, thanks for taking the time to make it. Makes me wonder: is DK and Tetris the two most ported and converted games?

Haha! A great BotP episode just for the 'feedback' on the ZX Spectrum version. Standards were generally pretty low for home ports in those days, not that it excuses an effort as poor as the Spectrum version.

You can make an additional video with the modern ports of donkey Kong for older systems. Of course they are Homebrew. :-) Thanks!

I'm surprised there aren't any more ports. I was expecting about 25 ports at least. This was such a joy to see all these versions, thanks. I'm most disappointed about the MSX and Spectrum version. The Spectrum could've had a really great port of this game. I wish I could out of anger program a good port on the Spectrum right now and rectify that mess. Shame there is no way of playing this game for me. Surprisingly I don't have any of these systems. I do have Dendy 50hz running Famiclone. I just bought Donkey Kong for it. I'm not sure I even ever any other version besides the game and watch one. I wish for three video's: video 1 (Emulated) ports of the games featured in this video. Like game collections featuring games from these systems. Video 2 Donkey Kong clones like Craxy kong Video 3 Homebrews/unreleased versions You might cal the series "Going Crazy with Donkey Kong". I guess a port with Tate mode does not exist. Do I really need to get an arcade board to play this properly?

Cranky Kong was surely busy back then

It’s truly sad how a Game Boy remake of Donkey Kong is better than any of these ports.

the Atari 7800 version intro sounds like a field of farting COWS but that's ok😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

"HOW HIGH CAN YOU GET?" it depends on how much weed you have

I like the walking sound effect best on nes

NES/Famicom is my favorite, here. Another good one might be the one used for the Radio Shack computer.

why is it that no one seems to comment on how pauline seems to just stand there with her hands hands in her pockets waiting impatiently to be rescued in the colecovision version. also don't even get me started on the stick figure in the msx and zx spectrum version

The UK C64 and the Amstrad ports are quite decent, since these two ports are based on the Japanese arcade version...

Probably others mentioned already but in Donkey Kong 64 there is a port of the arcade version and apparently is not emulation since until recently (for the Switch) Nintendo didn't have the rights to do a direct emulation of the arcade version, and thankfully the DK64 version is almost arcade perfect. Unfortunately you have to play trough a huge part of the game to unlock it and is not really a "bonus" since you have to beat it twice with one life to beat the game

Yeah. Why did the NES version cut out one of the stages is beyond me. It wasn't like Nintendo ran out of memory in the ROM chip.

love this series...btw why no BBC Micro version / Acorn Electron (Killer Gorilla)?

Would be nice to see a followup with some of the modern remakes. 2600, Intellivision, Tandy CoCo 3, etc...

You should do Zeliard next! Amazing game, and it had a pretty reasonable number of ports, and they're all fairly different, technically. PC88, X1, Tandy, IBM EGA w/ Adlib and EGA w/ MT32 at the very least as far as I know. At the very worst, you get to play Zeliard a few times, and that's not a bad thing!

@Retro Core . . . Though it's not a true port, but rather a copy/clone, "CHAMP Kong" for DOS is unquestionably (IMO) the very best version of Donkey Kong next to the original arcade version. You should check it out. There isn't a doubt in my mind that you'll agree that its superior to all of the ports in your video here. You can DL it (or play online) at the Internet Archive (it plays flawlessly on DOSBox). Not only is the sound, color and gameplay better than any of the ports, it has a regular "Classic" mode and also has a "CHAMP Mode" that has alternate levels and a bonus level like DK Jr.

The Coleco Adam had more or less the same hardware as the Colecovision , I suspect the improvements were mainly from the extra RAM and storage space Also , pink Donkey Kong on the PC just looks wrong , CGA had an option for warmer colours which would have fit the game much better, maybe it was one of those composite games

Next time you play the ColecoVision port of Donkey Kong, try this. When you climb up the ladder, move the joystick up twice. That'll speed Mario up! I learned this without knowing it as a 6 year old!