2 and 4 Board Donkey Kong PCB sets - What's the diff?

Madaracs

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2 and 4 Board Donkey Kong PCB sets - What's the diff?

I assume the programs are the same but I thought I'd ask anyway:

What are the major differences between the 2 and 4 board DK PCB stacks?

Obviously there is a difference of 2 boards. They're sizes are thus different... but I'm wondering if there are small programming bugs they may or may not have fixed?--Things like that.

Are the EPROM sets the same but just in a different order?
 
I assume the programs are the same but I thought I'd ask anyway:

What are the major differences between the 2 and 4 board DK PCB stacks?

OK, so I'll answer myself. Although he doesn't claim to be an expert, according to Mike at Mike'sArcade.com, there is no difference between the programs only the hardware they ran on.

If you own a DK model number: TKG4-UP-US then it's likely that you have a 2 board set in your machine.

If you own a DK model number: TKG2 and TKG3-UP-US then it's likely that you have a 4 board set in your machine.

I -think- the 4 board sets were originally for cocktails. They were shipped overseas and put into the early TKG3 blue and red machines as they were the only boards available when they began mass producing the DK cabinets in blue. I think.

I assume this thread http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=64571 is trying to glean exact dates of what happened by piecing together this info.
 
The early 4 board sets had slightly different EPROMS which allowed the ladder cheat. TKG4 EPROMS became available to ops to eliminate this cheat.
Here is a service bulletin sent out to ops on the new "speed up kit".
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Madaracs - The TKG2 and TKG3 uprights originally came with the 4 board stack. The TKG4 uprights were the start of the 2 board stacks. All of the orginal 4 board upright games had the cheat that Mr. jimkirk posted about. This cheat was eliminated when they went to the 2 board TKG4 set. They also sold upgrade kits to eliminate this cheat from the original 4 board sets at this point as well. So a lot of the original 4 board set's were also converted to the new programming.

It is rare to find a 4 board stack with the original programming these day's. The title screen on the monitor will tell you which version you have.

Original 4 board will say C Nintendo 1981

4 board with updated programming and 2 board will say C 1981 Nintendo of America Inc.
 
The "Nintendo Of America" also has to do with a trick to get free credits (as I have heard anyway). People would stick a straw into the door at the hinge and jiggle it to trip the coin switch. The door design was subsequently modified to prevent that.


As far as the board version goes. I have played both types and I can't tell the difference. I did not know about the ladder trick, though. I had an upright with the 4 board version but it had been around the block. Started out as a Popeye, then was DK3, then was at least 1 Vs. game (all according to serial tags) and was finally converted to DK. A trip, for sure.
 
The early 4 board sets had slightly different EPROMS which allowed the ladder cheat. TKG4 EPROMS became available to ops to eliminate this cheat.
Here is a service bulletin sent out to ops on the new "speed up kit".

What a racket! ;) That is super ultra cool. Thanks for sharing! :D:D

Just noticed that's from my home town too.

I know two ops and a couple of sales people from there personally. All of them are retired. Also Kent Hrbek's daughter used to be a receptionist there I think in the late 90s.
 
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