One Game, Five Systems – Donkey Kong

Most popular video games eventually end up on platforms other than the one for which they were initially created. Obviously, there are exceptions. You wouldn’t have seen a Super Mario Bros title on a Sega console, just like you weren’t going to see the blue hedgehog on a Nintendo machine. But third-party developers often took games available on one system and either developed them alongside other platforms or ported them afterward, with varying levels of success. And when computer and console games crossed, the results were often a wildly erratic mixed bag.

In this series, we’ll take a game that was ported to different platforms, pick five, and look at what went right, what maybe went wrong, and how they’re all related. Next up is Nintendo’s classic arcade hit Donkey Kong. We’ll look at the arcade original, the Atari 2600 version, the ColecoVision version, a 2-for-1 for the Commodore 64, and the 1994 Game Boy release.

Arcade

Shigeru Miyamoto created the original arcade version of Donkey Kong, with veteran engineer Gunpei Yokoi supervising the project for Nintendo, and the reason is somewhat unusual. At the time, Nintendo’s most recent release in North America, Radar Scope, was a technically impressive arcade game that failed to find an audience with American arcade goers. They needed a hit that would utilize the same hardware, and Donkey Kong was the answer.

Originally, the game was conceptualized as a Popeye game, with the sailor saving Olive Oyl from the clutches of the evil Bluto. As the concept evolved, it shifted to a carpenter, Jumpman, saving his girlfriend, “the Lady”, from the top of an under-construction building from the giant ape, Donkey Kong. Of course, Jumpman would later become Mario (and change careers from carpenter to plumber), and “the Lady” would be known as Pauline. Donkey Kong would stick til this very day.

The game takes place over four different levels. Each one is a different configuration of levels, girders, and enemies. The ultimate goal of the first three screens would remain the same: get to the top of the screen and rescue your girlfriend. The fourth screen would change it up. Instead of simply reaching your girlfriend, Jumpman must cross eight rivets. Each disappears when crossed. Removing all eight undermines Donkey Kong’s platform, causing him to fall and temporarily reuniting the couple. Finish the fourth screen, and the cycle starts over.

Donkey Kong became a massive success for Nintendo, not only in Japan but in the US as well. Building the game around a story helped to draw players in. Solid platforming mechanics and a variety of gameplay mechanics kept them plunking quarters in for years.

Atari 2600

It’s easy to make fun of the primitive visuals of the Atari 2600 conversion of Donkey Kong, especially compared to the ColecoVision and Intellivision versions, which were out around the same time. But the real beauty of this version isn’t the look; it’s what went into making this port happen in the first place.

Nintendo gave Coleco the license for Donkey Kong. In turn, they developed versions for the ColecoVision, as well as Mattel’s Intellivision and Atari’s 2600 VCS. Legendary programmer Garry Kitchen, who programmed the ColecoVision version, was the sole developer and programmer for the 2600 version. Kitchen recalls working on it during the summer of 1982 under an extremely short deadline. He had only limited assistance and access to an arcade machine for reference. The cartridge ultimately sold nearly 4 million copies.

Original 2600 cartridges contained only 4KB of space. This was the primary constraint that shaped the game’s design and the sacrifices it required. The detail of all graphic elements had to be turned down. Donkey Kong looks more like a giant orange gingerbread man than a gorilla. But even with the reduction in fidelity, everything is recognizable.

The other major tradeoff was fewer available screens. The 2600 version offered only two of the four original playfields: the initial girder level and the final rivets screen. While the game didn’t have the wide variety of the original, including two different screens instead of simply repeating the first screen over and over gave the game the sense of progression from the arcade original.

Even though it is one of the least faithful translations of the original game, Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 is one of the most commercially important versions, having sold nearly 4 million copies during the life of the system. It showed that, while the system could not necessarily handle arcade-perfect conversions, it could produce versions that captured the original’s spirit at home.

ColecoVision

If the 2600 version demonstrates compromise, the version developed for the ColecoVision demonstrates aspiration.

It is often thought, since Coleco had their own console to think of when developing Donkey Kong for home systems, that they intentionally sabotaged the other versions, the 2600 version in particular. In reality, the systems’ constraints at the time allowed them to develop a version closer to the arcade original for the ColecoVision than for Atari’s console.

Even though the ColecoVision port looks nearly arcade-perfect on the surface, sacrifices were necessary to bring it home. The Cement Factory level (screen 3 of the arcade game) had to be eliminated to fit the game on a cartridge. And while the graphics are much closer to the arcade version than the 2600, many elements still have reduced detail.

One of the biggest reasons that the ColecoVision version was so successful was that it was included as a pack-in game for every ColecoVision system sold. Many credit the bundle with helping drive early hardware sales. While Atari could claim that they had a version of Donkey Kong, Coleco was able to show that they had a game that actually looked the part, and a system that could provide that experience at home.

Commodore 64

Donkey Kong on the king of 8-bit computers is a tale of two developers. While Coleco owned the rights to home console conversions, Atari bought the rights to home computer ports. They created the Atarisoft label specifically for these types of arcade conversions.

In 1983, they released the first version of Donkey Kong for the C64 in North America. Without the same space constraints as the home console versions, Atari could include all four screens in the C64 conversion. The graphics, while nearly as detailed as the arcade version, were stretched from the original’s vertical orientation to fill the entire home computer screen. The 64’s advanced sound capabilities allowed programmers to produce sounds and music that, while obvious versions of the originals, were recognizably Commodore creations.

Three years later, publisher Ocean commissioned a new version of the game for European users, developed by Arcana Software Design. In the three years since the original’s release, developers had gotten better at creating arcade ports closer to the originals, and users had come to expect much more sophisticated versions. Ocean’s version also included all four screens. The graphics were redesigned to look closer to the originals, while the playfield had been compressed to more closely emulate the arcade’s vertical orientation.

Comparatively, the Atarisoft version is generally seen as a slightly slower, more precise gameplay experience, while the Ocean version is mechanically closer to the arcade original but sacrifices some of the Atarisoft version’s smoothness. Both versions are worthy entries in the compendium and should be experienced by any 8-bit computer fans.

Game Boy

This is the true wildcard of Donkey Kong conversions. Released in 1994, Donkey Kong on the original Game Boy starts out as a standard but impressive version of the arcade original. Once you make it through the fourth screen, instead of starting over at the first screen again, after Donkey Kong grabs Pauline and exits the top of the screen, Mario follows. Then the actual game begins.

It turns out the original four levels were merely an introduction to the actual game, which consists of 97 levels that, while borrowing their mechanical vocabulary from Donkey Kong, turn the game into a modern puzzle platformer. Mario must find the key on each level and unlock the exit to the next.

Mario gains a number of new abilities here, like backflips, handstands, wire swings, and the ability to carry and throw objects. The backflip and side-somersault ideas are particularly notable because similar moves would later appear in Super Mario 64.

The level mechanics are expansive. Enemies can be stood on, thrown, and used to help Mario reach otherwise inaccessible areas. Some stages let Mario temporarily create ladders, platforms, and springs to move around the level. Mastery of these tools will be important to completing each level. While retrieving the key may be easy, getting both Mario and the key to the exit may be another challenge altogether. You can drop the key temporarily and pick it up again, but if you leave it alone for too long, it will return to its starting place, and you’ll need to backtrack to get it again.

Donkey Kong for the Game Boy is also notable as the first game to support the Super Game Boy adapter for the SNES. When used with the SGB, it gains specially assigned color palettes and presentation enhancements designed specifically for television play.

Unlike arcade Donkey Kong, which is fundamentally an endless score challenge, the Game Boy version is a substantial adventure and therefore includes multiple save slots. This illustrates how much game design had advanced in the 13 years since the original’s release.