Red Donkey Kong on Craigslist Indianapolis - Not Mine

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Waldron on January 8, 2009 at 10:03am

That's actually a good deal for one of those, even not working. Figure a couple hundred to repair it and clean it up, and it would be a nice game. Full restoration maybe another hundred or so. I'd get it if I had the cash.

Anyone have an empty Nintendo cab? I'd like one with all the hardware on it, but other than that I have everything else. Need one for my DK Jr. restoration! Supposedly a dime a dozen, but I'm not having any luck finding one.

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Permalink Reply by Alan on January 11, 2009 at 6:40pm

I just got back from Indy (Southport) and guess what I have in my possession?

I emailed the person selling the Donkey Kong the morning after it was listed. I asked if it was still available... no answer. I emailed again a couple of days later and got a response that it was available. I basically said I would take it if they could assure me it would be available when I drove up (almost 3 hours from Lexington). After a little email tag and several days, I finally got their phone number and set up a time I could pick it up today.

The reason it was so touch and go was the lady did not have internet access, so her daughter was listing it for her. I can only assume it took that long for the daughter to communicate with the mother. But she was extremely nice and grateful to get it out of her garage. I might have been able to talk the price down a little, but once I saw the cabinet, I thought it was a good deal already.

I brought it back without turning it on so I had no idea if it would work. But once I got it home I took the chance and plugged it in. As far as the game goes, it works fine. But the monitor is washed out with vertical lines all across (picture below). Anyone have any idea if this is just an adjustment? I'll probably install a cap kit anyway, just to be safe.

I didn't buy it with the intention of flipping it. I knew I wanted a red cab when I found out they existed. Even though I had a perfectly fine Donkey Kong in my game room, I decided to "upgrade." The red cabinet won't really fit my Kentucky basketball theme, but I'll make the exception, just this once.

Now, as far as I can tell, this is an original red cabinet. There are dings, rough spots, and scratches that need to be repaired, but no sign of any other color underneath. The lady said someone gave it to her son about 12 years ago. Before that she didn't know where it came from.


Now, before I post pictures below, is there anything else I can look for to determine if it was a Radar Scope conversion? Where would the serial number fall?

Also, I just want to add the instruction card still looks great (although you can't tell from the picture)... and, is the red ball a replacement or did the older DK's come with it because I've only seen black.

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Permalink Reply by Shane on January 12, 2009 at 6:27am

Alan said:

I just got back from Indy (Southport) and guess what I have in my possession?

I emailed the person selling the Donkey Kong the morning after it was listed. I asked if it was still available... no answer. I emailed again a couple of days later and got a response that it was available. I basically said I would take it if they could assure me it would be available when I drove up (almost 3 hours from Lexington). After a little email tag and several days, I finally got their phone number and set up a time I could pick it up today.

The reason it was so touch and go was the lady did not have internet access, so her daughter was listing it for her. I can only assume it took that long for the daughter to communicate with the mother. But she was extremely nice and grateful to get it out of her garage. I might have been able to talk the price down a little, but once I saw the cabinet, I thought it was a good deal already.

I brought it back without turning it on so I had no idea if it would work. But once I got it home I took the chance and plugged it in. As far as the game goes, it works fine. But the monitor is washed out with vertical lines all across (picture below). Anyone have any idea if this is just an adjustment? I'll probably install a cap kit anyway, just to be safe.

I didn't buy it with the intention of flipping it. I knew I wanted a red cab when I found out they existed. Even though I had a perfectly fine Donkey Kong in my game room, I decided to "upgrade." The red cabinet won't really fit my Kentucky basketball theme, but I'll make the exception, just this once.

Now, as far as I can tell, this is an original red cabinet. There are dings, rough spots, and scratches that need to be repaired, but no sign of any other color underneath. The lady said someone gave it to her son about 12 years ago. Before that she didn't know where it came from.


Now, before I post pictures below, is there anything else I can look for to determine if it was a Radar Scope conversion? Where would the serial number fall?

Also, I just want to add the instruction card still looks great (although you can't tell from the picture)... and, is the red ball a replacement or did the older DK's come with it because I've only seen black.

Very cool Alan, nice quick pick up.

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Permalink Reply by CrazyKongFan on January 12, 2009 at 10:25am

Just curious, does it have the ladder cheat? I remember seeing a red kong that had that version. You can tell by the title screen, it'll say "1981 Nintendo" instead of "1981 Nintendo of America". The ladder cheat lets you sit at the top of the ladder on the barrel board, and they won't come down on you. Also, the red ball is probably a replacement. I believe most OEM Nintendo sticks have a little set screw on the ball, and I'm sure those come loose and fall off. I've seen a few machines that just had the stick with no ball on top. Your boardset looks just like my cocktail one (they used the 4 board sandwich due to lack of space) Mine has the audio card (the 1/2 one on the end) on the bottom too, which unfortunately covers the Z80 chip. I'd like to get the D2K upgrade for mine, but I'll have to move the board hopefully without damanging it, if I do get it. Mine also has those white "jailbars" too, but mine are very faint and the colors alot brighter...hopefully mine doesn't eventually look like that ;) As far as sound, make sure all the connectors are connected properly. All of them are different sizes, so it shouldn't be hard to make sure the right ones are where they belong. I believe there's also a cable that goes to the power supply on the 4 board sets (that isn't there on the 2 board sets)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Rothe on January 12, 2009 at 4:30pm

Glad to see that a collector on this forum picked up the game. Thanks for sharing....and glad to see that you are planning on keeping it, that you want it, not to flip it....

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Permalink Reply by Rory Blake on January 12, 2009 at 6:54pm

Congratulations, Alan

Thanks for the pictures:

I'd like to see a picture of the serial number plate.
Since the cab as two bolts on each side, I'd say the serial number is less than 1100.
That would make it part of the first run of dedicated machines.
There should be red paint in the serial number stamping. (indicates DK)

The RS cab does not have the side bolts, and only 5 slot (instead of 7 slot) speakers.
My radar scope cabinet serial number is less than 900, and likely the last one made.
Yours may be one of the first with side art, as well.
Great job!
Rory

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Permalink Reply by Alan on January 12, 2009 at 8:09pm

Rory Blake said:

Congratulations, Alan

Thanks for the pictures:

I'd like to see a picture of the serial number plate.
Since the cab as two bolts on each side, I'd say the serial number is less than 1100.
That would make it part of the first run of dedicated machines.
There should be red paint in the serial number stamping. (indicates DK)

The RS cab does not have the side bolts, and only 5 slot (instead of 7 slot) speakers.
My radar scope cabinet serial number is less than 900, and likely the last one made.
Yours may be one of the first with side art, as well.
Great job!
Rory

Thanks. Here is the plate. It does have the red numbers, but it's 2531. And I don't think there's a picture of it, but it does have 7 slots for the speaker. Any more thoughts?

Also, as far as the sound goes, there is no wire going from the board to the monitor. I'll have to dig one out and see if that's the only issue.

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Permalink Reply by David Richardson on January 12, 2009 at 11:45pm

I Would be recapping the monitor and turning the screen voltage down on the flyback. You should get a bright crisp picture once this is down.

CrazyKongFan said:

Just curious, does it have the ladder cheat? I remember seeing a red kong that had that version. You can tell by the title screen, it'll say "1981 Nintendo" instead of "1981 Nintendo of America". The ladder cheat lets you sit at the top of the ladder on the barrel board, and they won't come down on you. Also, the red ball is probably a replacement. I believe most OEM Nintendo sticks have a little set screw on the ball, and I'm sure those come loose and fall off. I've seen a few machines that just had the stick with no ball on top. Your boardset looks just like my cocktail one (they used the 4 board sandwich due to lack of space) Mine has the audio card (the 1/2 one on the end) on the bottom too, which unfortunately covers the Z80 chip. I'd like to get the D2K upgrade for mine, but I'll have to move the board hopefully without damanging it, if I do get it. Mine also has those white "jailbars" too, but mine are very faint and the colors alot brighter...hopefully mine doesn't eventually look like that ;) As far as sound, make sure all the connectors are connected properly. All of them are different sizes, so it shouldn't be hard to make sure the right ones are where they belong. I believe there's also a cable that goes to the power supply on the 4 board sets (that isn't there on the 2 board sets)

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Permalink Reply by Alan on January 14, 2009 at 10:40pm

CrazyKongFan said:

Just curious, does it have the ladder cheat? I remember seeing a red kong that had that version. You can tell by the title screen, it'll say "1981 Nintendo" instead of "1981 Nintendo of America". The ladder cheat lets you sit at the top of the ladder on the barrel board, and they won't come down on you. Also, the red ball is probably a replacement. I believe most OEM Nintendo sticks have a little set screw on the ball, and I'm sure those come loose and fall off. I've seen a few machines that just had the stick with no ball on top. Your boardset looks just like my cocktail one (they used the 4 board sandwich due to lack of space) Mine has the audio card (the 1/2 one on the end) on the bottom too, which unfortunately covers the Z80 chip. I'd like to get the D2K upgrade for mine, but I'll have to move the board hopefully without damanging it, if I do get it. Mine also has those white "jailbars" too, but mine are very faint and the colors alot brighter...hopefully mine doesn't eventually look like that ;) As far as sound, make sure all the connectors are connected properly. All of them are different sizes, so it shouldn't be hard to make sure the right ones are where they belong. I believe there's also a cable that goes to the power supply on the 4 board sets (that isn't there on the 2 board sets)

I forgot you asked this. I haven't tried the "cheat", but it does say "1981 Nintendo" on it. And as David mentioned, adjust the voltage on your flyback. I'll still recap my monitor, but it looks 100x better now. Thanks David.

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Permalink Reply by CrazyKongFan on January 15, 2009 at 11:44am

Sorry for sounding like a noob, but I've only got the one game (DK). How do you adjust the voltage on the flyback? I have a cocktail, so the back of the monitor isn't really accessible without pulling it out of the cabinet (which I'm not comfortable doing by myself) Mine doesn't look anything like his photo posted here though. It just has faint white lines when I first turn it on. Actually, they aren't even really that noticable unless I open it up, so I'm not looking thru the smoked glass bezel. The colors look really good on it.

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Permalink Reply by CountD on January 15, 2009 at 10:47pm

I am just trying to get to the bottom of something. So, if the first dedicated Donkey Kong machines are still red, but they are not made from the red Radarscope cabinet are they still red cabinet Donkey Kongs? I think people are confusing the red Donkey Kongs that are made from Radarscope cabs and the first dedicated ones that are red as well. The reason I am trying to get to the bottom of this is that I have a red Donkey Kong cab just like this one with a higher serial number, but it obviously (like this one) has never been repainted or is made from a Radarscope cabinet. Thanks

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Permalink Reply by CamaroMurph on January 16, 2009 at 12:05am

That is interesting information. Would you care to share your complete tag data? Not sure yet how high a serial number would make it odd to still be a red cabinet.

The red cabinet DK's and the red cabinet DK's built from Radarscope's would visually look identical for the most part. Same cabinet....

Murph

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