Donkey Kong 
Donkey Kong
COLECO1 MODEL
  |   |  |  |
| Front (U) | Back (U) | Cart (U) | Manual (U) |
Box scanned by Chuckwalla
Donkey Kong™ is the trademark of Nintendo of America, Inc. ©1981
Authorized Exclusive Licensee - Coleco Industries, Inc.
Printed in U.S.A. Packaged in U.S.A.
Package, Program and Audiovisual ©1982 Coleco Industries, Inc., Amsterdam, New York 12010.
CBS3 MODEL
 |  |  |  |
| Front Ref 7425-2R1 | Back Ref 7425-2R1 | Cart Ref 4L1920 | Manuel Ref 2L2082 |
Donkey Kong™ is a trademark of Nintendo of America, Inc. ©1981 | |||
 |  | | |
| Front Ref 7425-2R1 | Back Ref 7425-2R1 | Cart Ref 4L1920 | |
Donkey Kong™ is a trademark of Nintendo of America, Inc. ©1981 During a long time, I thought this model did not exist. In fact the first model was printed in Holland and packaged in the UK. The second one was printed and made in Spain.
| |||
Australian variant :
 | | | |
| Box Ref 7425-2R3 | Warranty |
Donkey Kong™ is a trademark of Nintendo of America, Inc. ©1981
Package ©1983 CBS Inc., 51 West 52nd Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10019
Program and Audio Visual ©1982 Coleco Industries, Inc.
Made in The U.K. for CBS Electronics, A Division of CBS Records Australia (Incorporated in N.S.W.), 15 Blue Street, North Sidney N.S.W. 2060
Printed in Holland
ACC 241101
 |  | ||
| Cart (D) Ref 4L1922 | Manual (D) Ref 2L1971 |
GAME DESCRIPTION
Based on the sensational Nintendo arcade game, COLECOVISION™ DONKEY KONG™ features an action-packed rescue adventure of man against ape! Donkey Kong™ has stolen Mario’s girlfriend and taken her to the top of a steel structure. You move Mario over girders and up ladders, leap over tumbling barrels, dodge lethal fireballs and jump onto fast-moving elevators, trying to rescue Mario’s girlfriend from Donkey Kong™!
DONKEY KONG™ features three incredible adventures – ramps, rivets and elevators. Your skill and speed determine your point total. How high can you score trying to rescue Mario’s girlfriend?
Port of Nintendo’s arcade game released during July 1981.
HISTORY
Coleco wanted "Donkey Kong", a very hot arcade hit, to be their pack-in. In December '81, they went to Japan to make a deal with Nintendo for the rights to Donkey Kong. The Coleco executive wanted to return to the US to show his lawyers the contract before signing, but was told to sign now, or risk losing Donkey Kong to Atari or Mattel, who were currently going though channels to get the rights themselves. Under the pressure, the Coleco executive signed.
In April '82 Coleco and Nintendo were threatened with lawsuits from Universal Studios who claimed Donkey Kong was an infringement on their King Kong.
Coleco had invested a fortune in the ColecoVision version of Donkey Kong that was only 4 months from its premiere release. Thinking that they didn't stand a chance in court, Coleco decided to settle, agreeing to pay Universal 3% of all Donkey Kong sales.
Nintendo decided to fight it, and some time later actually won. Coleco then filed suit and got some of their lost royalties back.
Source : Colecovision FAQ - Copyright (c) 1998 Kevin Bowen, Thomas J. Crugnale, Joseph M. Huber and James Carter
OPINION
Strategically sold with the console to push the owners of Atari 2600 and Intellivision to buy a ColecoVision, this port was a total success.
Even if it lacks the intermission scenes between each level and the conveyor belt level, graphics and sounds match the original. If you know the arcade game, you will notice more little differences, but nothing annoying.
This title was a revolution. It brought home arcade quality for the first time.
Note : 5/5
MISCELLANEOUS
GAME TRIVIA
Donkey Kong is one of the launch titles of the console. In most countries it was bundled with the console. In other countries like Denmark, Mouse Trap was the pack-in game
Zachary Smith at Coleco programmed Donkey Kong.
Paul Jaquays says "I think that for the original release of the system, Donkey Kong may still have been housed in 24K of ROM. They quickly got it down to 16K and then contracted an outside firm (Nice Ideas) to rewrite the code in machine language and get it all onto a single 8K part.
We cut a lot of cool, original play fields from the super versions of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior. As I understood it, Nintendo would not allow us to create original content based on their game. We could only interpret the existing game play. "
Source: Coleconation #9
Super Donkey Kong was to be released for the Super Game Module. But as this module was canceled, the game was ported to the Adam Computer.
Donkey Kong Super Game for the Adam computer is closer to the arcade version. The pie factory level is included in the game and many details have been added.
Coleco had plans to add additional levels to Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., but Nintendo put an end to that as they didn't want their games changed.
ALSO ON
