ColecoFan1981

While you watch this video, if you manage to score a Perfect Bonus collecting all coins on an invisible platforms Bonus Stage, you are greeted to a special Donkey Kong-themed board, with the "How High Can You Get" jingle intact plus the girder tilesets and some DK enemies (barrels) included.

I wonder if the original 1983 Mario Brothers arcade game actually had the Donkey Kong special level in it if you managed to score a Perfect Bonus on the invisible platform Bonus Stage?

~Ben

Were there any ColecoVision titles that were never released, for reasons other than the general effects of the 1983-84 video game crash?

One of these non-crash-related reasons could be: the title was not released because the graphics couldn't be made sufficient to fit in a 32K ROM cartridge, which was the maximum size for all ColecoVision cartridge-based media.

I wonder if the such planned for late 1983-early 1984 releases like AtariSoft's Pole Position, as well as Parker Brothers' Circus Charlie license, were cancelled for this particular reason (the graphics couldn't be made sufficient for a 32K ROM)? The only media for the ColecoVision larger than cartridges were the ADAM digital data packs, which was why there were improved ports of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong, Jr. available.

~Ben

I wonder if Opcode is interested in doing this? Released in December 1982 by Namco in Japan and all other markets except North America, and in January 1983 by Atari for North American sales.

From the USA perspective, no console ports of this game appeared until Atari released this for its 7800 system in 1987, followed by Bandai's NES release in 1989. But, I wonder what the ColecoVision version of Xevious would've looked like if on a 32K ROM cartridge, in the same style of graphics as other AtariSoft efforts like Dig Dug and Jungle Hunt??

Atari 7800:


Nintendo NES:


~Ben

What would Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong 3 have looked like on the ColecoVision, in the usual CV/ADAM graphical style (not the Opcode Games MegaCart-type porting) of other ports of Nintendo games, such as Coleco's own Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong, Jr., released for the CV in 1982 and 1983 respectively?

RetroIllucid would probably be able to help me on these two.

These two being products of the year 1983 in arcades, these obviously never saw a release on the CV because of Nintendo's setback with Coleco during the 1983 CES show where Coleco demonstrated a version of Donkey Kong (on cartridge) to be released for their upcoming ADAM computer, angering both Nintendo and Atari, the latter of whom was assigned as distributor for all computer-based ports (Coleco, as you should remember, was given the console-based rights to DK). The Atari/Nintendo tie-up also involved Atari in being the U.S. distributor of Nintendo's FamiCom console, but such plans never materialized although the Coleco debacle eventually played no part in this pact.

The Donkey Kong Super Game was only released later in 1984 for the Coleco ADAM computer, but in data pack format, and after Atari's sale to Jack Tramiel (former boss of Commodore computers) from Warner Bros.

Most home versions of Mario Brothers were never released by Atari other than their own consoles and computers (the 2600, 5200 and 7800 consoles, and the XL and XE series computers; Nintendo released the game on its own for its FamiCom console in 1983, and to the NES in 1986). Two non-Atari computer/console ports eventually were developed but never finished by AtariSoft in 1983-84: for the Apple II and Commodore 64 computers.

Donkey Kong 3, as many of you here should know, was only ever released for the FamiCom (in 1983) and the NES (1986), although in Japan it also saw a release on the NEC PC-8801 computer (released by Hudson Soft, which also published under license from Nintendo Super Mario Bros. Special).

Thank you,



Ben Edge

I wonder if Eduardo has any interest in getting this 1983 DK installment done for the ColecoVision/ADAM, seeing that it's the least known of the original trio behind the original 1981 Donkey Kong and its 1982 sequel Donkey Kong, Jr.?

You are Stanley, a gardener. Bugs of all types invade your garden, as DK scratches the beehives at the start of every board. Stanley must either spray DK all the way up (don't let him fall down or you lose a life), or spray all the bugs DK throws out at you from the beehives, to win each and every board.

Coleco had plans to release DK3 to the ColecoVision in 1984 (going by its entry in the ColecoVision FAQ under "Unreleased Games"), but it was scrapped because of the video game crash of '83 and because of Coleco's setback with Atari and Nintendo over a primordial version of the original DK to be released for the forthcoming ADAM computer system (at the 1983 Summer CES convention).

~Ben