Wanted: Feedback For Donkey Kong & Donkey Kong Jr

[nosweargamer]

Thanks as always for all the comments to my previous posts. I try to include all the comments that are posted by the time I record. I think they really help make the podcast better!

I'm looking for feedback for the next episode of the Atari 7800 Game By Game Podcast (you can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube or use this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/78gbg )

What are your memories and/or thoughts on Donkey Kong & Donkey Kong Jr on the 7800?

Also, how would you rate them? I use a system of 4 choices (From Best to Worst):

Hall of Fame Game (Top 5 game on the system)

Solid Game

"Meh" Game

Trash Game (Bottom 5 game on the system)

These games will be covered on Episode 19.

You can also e-mail text or audio to atari7800podcast@aol.com

Just keep it family friendly

You can also send feedback on previously covered games or the system itself. Thanks!

[Shawn]

DK and DK Jr. are right between solid\HOF. If I have to I'll say HOF.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Agree with Shawn.

 

Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. For the 7800 is borderline Solid and Hall of Fame material. Graphically equal with the NES. And fun to play on both systems. Put it in as Hall of Fame. They both get an A grade.

[+sramirez2008]

Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. are both solid! Each game sports great graphics, crisp controls but both are lacking in sound/music. My favorite of the two is Donkey Kong. Jr. I love the challenge of this game.

 

-Steve

[phoenixdownita]

Both Solid+, both grating/abrasive off key music.

One is led to think if the devs even tried to listen to it.

[+Cafeman]

Both Solid+, both grating/abrasive off key music.

One is led to think if the devs even tried to listen to it.

My thoughts exactly. Its just too bad about the terrible use of the TIA chip for sound. The sounds make me turn the volume off.

 

Thats why Tep392's 7800 Donkey Kong w//Pokey sound is a gift from the heavens!

[DracIsBack]

They aren't bad. I'm more borderline Meh and Solid. I guess weak solid. They could be better, but they are fun.

 

The XM update that was done is fantastic!

[Jinks]

Both solid for sure. I like the levels in dk jr. it surprised me the first time playing as I thought nah it cant be better than the coleco version. But I was wrong.

The horrible sound is the atari 2600 "charm" shining thru on the super 2600.

[gambler172]

Hi

i also agree with Shawn

If you take the DK XM, it is for sure HOF

greetings Walter

[+save2600]

All things considered, including the native sound, I'd say DK is HOF material and DK Jr. is solid. Like original DK better, but Jr. is pretty damned good or excellent as sequels go.

[DesertJets]

I am awful at both of them but still give it a solid, with like most others the sound being what kills it. TIA can do some nice things sound wise -- look at Ms. Pac-Man. With a little work Atari could have made it sound better even without Pokey.

[Trebor]

An underwhelming experience...

"Meh" wins out for both.

The horrible utilization of TIA sound, (arguably) the worst sounding games in the 7800 library, easily knocks these ports down considerably.

Focusing on the graphics, we have the pointy elbow Kong appearing in DK. Mario is stretched wide in appearance. They only port to have this effect worse is the C64. Mario's scissor walk is hard not to cringe at, and of course, we're missing the Pie Level. Pauline should be crying for help in DK.

Under DK Junior, the protagonist looks a little blob-ish (Two vine climb is particularly weird looking). Donkey Kong seems very wide mouth/bloated in the face. The nemesis, Mario, appears oddly designed. The snapjaws in DK Junior are proportioned inexcusably tiny. Flashing key should easily be present, instead it's absent.

Overall both titles demonstrate only a fair to good conversion and management of the system's pixel aspect ratio and utilization of it.

Factor the unnecessarily oversized-wide font with the subpar designed status/score area; it leaves these two titles not placed in the best of light. Similar to but not as bad as Rampage and Double Dragon, a little more attention and time, DK and DK Jr. could have presented better.

The challenge is greatly water-downed from the Arcade. Typically, the "Advanced" setting is supposed to come very close to the Arcade difficulty, and "Expert" is supposed to surpass it. For both titles (especially so under DK) even on Expert, the games pale in comparison to the challenge and flow presented under the Arcade originals.

Look to the excellently developed and executed Joust to see difficulty options handled correctly as an original retail release for the system.

Nonetheless, gameplay mechanics for the most part are present and good. Both games can be viewed as more enjoyable with the aforementioned horrible sound turned very low or off completely, which is quite sad. Neither title is "Trash" worthy, but trying to see either game as anything better than a "Meh" is a bit hard (albeit not impossible) to sell. I agree with DracIsBack, if a "Solid" were to be assigned, it would indeed be a weak one.

Side note: A standing-o to Perry and Marco's work with DK PK / XM, and tip of the hat and thanks to Kevin for cleaning up some of the DK Jr graphic issue mess.

I really want to like the original retail releases more. There are too many things glaringly, if not distractingly, wrong with these ports.

[PhoenixMoonPatrol]

HOF game.

 

Donkey Kong is one of the best games ever for me. One of my earliest memories of arcade gaming is this along with Zaxxon. Both machines were standing next to each other in a giant arcade near my town in 1981. Was this game the first to ever have side scrolling? not sure but it so damn good running from level to level,jumping over barrels and killing enemies with that hammer. As a kid I was lucky to own the game for both the Atari 2600, and Coleovision. I try to play every version of the game out there by any means,through real hardware or by emulation. The DK2 Arcade(which holds both the original and its sequel) for Intellivision is probably my favorite of all ports. Incredible graphics and sound for that console and the gameplay is as good as it ever was.

 

Definyaely will be getting the Coleco SGM and Atari 7800 XMs version when theyre released. I think the only other games that compare to the greatness of DonkeyKong would be Pacman/MsPacMan,Phoenix,MoonPatrol,Asteroids, and Daytona USA from Sega.

 

 

The 7800 version I think is great,except for the annoying sound hardware but thats to be expected. Its not quite Intellivision version perfect but its still a damn good port,I play it allot,only with the sound down.

Edited October 9, 2015 by PhoenixMoonPatrol

[+wongojack]

I think these are both HOF for the 7800. I actually went through a stint where I played a bunch of different versions of DK Jr recently. I played the arcade version quite a bit, but went through and played the 2600, 7800, NES, and the A8 version too. I think I played the Coleco briefly as well. I honestly appreciated the differences of the 7800 version, and I really liked the menu selection for difficulty (something I don't remember the NES having). The sounds were noticeably not awesome, but I didn't really think that took away from the experience. After all, I like the 2600 sounds. One thing to mention here is the significant update from the 2600 versions. Asteroids, Dig Dug, and Centipede are better than their 2600 counterparts, but these two are soooo much better. Honestly for me, these games might be 2 of the best reasons to own a 7800.

 

Another positive is that with only one active button, you can use any 2600 controller to play these.

[oyamafamily]

I am terrible at Donkey Kong, but I'm good at Donkey Kong Junior.

 

Donkey Kong - MEH game

Donkey Kong Junior - SOLID game

[SoulBlazer]

Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior -- it's so weird having these Nintendo games on the 7800! Anyway, both of these are very good ports of the arcade game. The graphics are missing some of the small touches and fine detail that was present in the arcade versions, such as the animations of Kong/Mario taking his 'captive' off the stage when you beat it, the opening and closing animations, and Pauline asking for HELP! Still, the graphical detail is quite good, almost as good as the NES versions. Controls are just fine with anything beyond the stock 7800 joystick, and I didn't have any issues with Mario/Junior getting stuck trying to climb or descend on ladders or vines. Donkey Kong is of course missing the Cement Factory level, but that's even missing on the NES version. The main weakness of these versions, is, of course, sound. It sounds good for a 2600 game, and all the music and sound effects are there...but this is a 7800 game, not a 2600 game. I'd still personaly play the NES versions of these games if I wanted to play a console port, but the Atari 7800 versions are almost as good. Both games get a Solid from me.

[Bloodcat]

Gah! Thought I had some time to actually send in a submission on this one!

 

But if it helps any Phil my thought to not work 7800 just powered on fine meaning I might only need an Edladdin dongle and a Composite mod kit and I can happily play my 7800 collection!

 

I just didn't realize I had an extra sealed edition of DK and Jr! And thanks to your podcast I just ordered a complete boxed Crossbow. (Ninja Golf and Midnight Mutants are two more I want but not at their going rates. If I ever do some audio submissions I will get into why I don't really want many 7800 games. More expensive to get inferior editions of games superior on other platforms.)

[nosweargamer]

Gah! Thought I had some time to actually send in a submission on this one!

 

But if it helps any Phil my thought to not work 7800 just powered on fine meaning I might only need an Edladdin dongle and a Composite mod kit and I can happily play my 7800 collection!

 

I just didn't realize I had an extra sealed edition of DK and Jr! And thanks to your podcast I just ordered a complete boxed Crossbow. (Ninja Golf and Midnight Mutants are two more I want but not at their going rates. If I ever do some audio submissions I will get into why I don't really want many 7800 games. More expensive to get inferior editions of games superior on other platforms.)

 

Never too late to send audio submissions! Even if it is for a previously covered game. You could always pull a Christian and send a submission that covers all the previously covered games in one shot as well as your additional thoughts. That would be great!

[Jinks]

Gah! Thought I had some time to actually send in a submission on this one!

 

But if it helps any Phil my thought to not work 7800 just powered on fine meaning I might only need an Edladdin dongle and a Composite mod kit and I can happily play my 7800 collection!

 

I just didn't realize I had an extra sealed edition of DK and Jr! And thanks to your podcast I just ordered a complete boxed Crossbow. (Ninja Golf and Midnight Mutants are two more I want but not at their going rates. If I ever do some audio submissions I will get into why I don't really want many 7800 games. More expensive to get inferior editions of games superior on other platforms.)

I don't get it. If they are sealed and your collecting them that way your not playing them. Why would it matter if they were deemed inferior?

[+swlovinist]

I always liked Donkey Kong Jr better. Agree sound on both did not help the overall experience. I would say meh for both games.

[Mister-VCS]

Donkey Kong Junior: HOF

Donkey Kong: between solid and HOF

[Austin]

Solid on both. Gameplay is great on each and can get quite challenging when you loop them a few times. Graphics are a little wonky compared to the arcade ones, but it doesn't bother me. The sound is what kills any opportunity of being HOF games.