showing 3 games
| name | publisher(developer) | year arrow_downward | description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donkey Kong | Coleco;Zellers;Star Game (Coleco) | 1982 | [media=youtube]1Py4AEKTi4A[/media]*** [126]***You are Mario and that big old gorilla, Donkey Kong, has run off with your girlfriend. It's up to you to struggle up those ladders and balance on those beams to rescue your lady fair. She's held captive at the very top. But Donkey Kong is not ready to giver her up so easily. He's tossing barrels and fireballs at you at every turn. It's up to you to outmaneuver that wily ape. Good luck, your lady awaits.***Published by Coleco / Zellers / Star Game / CBS Electronics / Pet Boat Coleco had gotten the rights to a guaranteed bestseller. They had 90 days before Christmas to take advantage of it. They went searching for an independent programmer with Atari VCS experience. At this point in history experience VCS programmers worked for Atari or they worked for Activision. It has been said there were only 7 VCS programmers in the world that didn't work for Atari, at that time, and 6 worked for Activision. They were able to track down Gary kitchen who had independently using his own resources, reverse engineered the VCS and several games in order know how it worked. He had developed one VCS game that US Games had published. Coco a management apparently had reasoned that they had the hottest arcade game license and it would sell no matter what. The game didn't have to be good, just needed to turn on and not crash, people would buy it. Kitchen was able to become authorized to use a 4K cartridge rather than a 2K cartridge. he had never in fact worked with 4K cartridges but he knew that the 2K cartridge especially wouldn't cut it. He would have liked to have had a six or a cake cartridge and has stated that an 8K cartridge version would have had four full levels. With the 4K cartridge, and only 90 days, the game would only get two levels. And informed his bosses that do the game property would take 3 to 4 months and at least a 6K cartridge. They said thank you and send him back to work on the 4K cartridge. It has been said that Coleco had no other path to the VCS version of Donkey Kong. Kitchen has assured people that even if he had been given an 8K cartridge, the 90 day deadline still would have arrived at the game that he provided. From a business point of view, Coleco expected to sell every copy they manufactured. They had little incentive to spend three to four times more money on the cartridge and still sell the same number of them. They had every disincentive to delay the game until after Christmas. They would have most definitely sold less copies of the game in that case. Gary kitchen has expressed a desire to do an 8K version of Donkey Kong for the Atari VCS but adamantly states that he never will so long as he continues to work with Nintendo. There are some aspects to this game which are notable achievements. There is no flicker which was a problem with a number of arcade games converted to the VCS platform. And preserves the slanted platforms. Many VCS conversions did not bother with slanted platforms from arcade games and simply redesigned the levels to have only horizontal platforms.*** [48] | labelimagesubject |
| Mario Bros. | Atari;CCE;Zirok | 1983 | labelimageminimize | |
| Donkey Kong Jr. | Coleco;Atari;CBS Electronics | 1983 | Mario has kidnapped Junior's Papa! Donkey Kong Jr. was originally released in the arcades in 1982 as a sequel to Donkey Kong. In this game, Mario plays the antagonist, finally having captured Donkey Kong, and has put the ape in a locked cage. As Donkey Kong Jr., players will have to make their way through four different levels (Vines, Springboard, Chains and Mario's Hideout) in an attempt to find keys to free the little monkey's father. Along the way, Mario will send out Snapjaws, swooping purple birds, and electric sparks in an attempt to stop Junior. Junior can defend himself by dropping fruit found around the levels on the heads of his foes. The more foes a piece of fruit hits in a falling sequence, the higher bonus points can be scored. Junior can also avoid enemies more easily by grabbing hold of two chains or vines at a time to climb away faster, or by jumping over his foes. However, any long fall or falling into the water on certain levels will mean the loss of a life for Junior. In the final cut scene, Junior will free Donkey Kong and both will escape after giving Mario the boot. Once all four levels are cleared, the game levels will start over at a higher difficulty. Like the original Donkey Kong, the earlier 1980's console versions do not have all of the levels and animations from the arcade.***Published by Coleco / Atari / CBS Electronics / CCE / Tron | labelimagesubject |
