Donkey Kong Four-Board Set - Real/Bootleg/Early?

lizardu

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What do I have? It's 4 board set, only 2 boards are labeled "Nintendo". Is this an early set that wasn't labeled or is it a reproduction?

The "how high" screen reads "How High Can You Try?"
and the screen order is:
25m - Barrels
50m - Conveyors (a.k.a. Pies)
75m - Elevators
100m - Rivets

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Early boardset on early rom revision. Never seen those input connectors on a 4 board stack could've been replaced by someone. I personally really don't like the 4 board stacks but if that one works for you then great. That boardset might be from Japan tbh.
 
My memory may be flaky, but from my understanding, these boards with the weird connectors and non-conforming TKG labels are regarded as bootlegs among the Japanese collectors. I seem to recall that they don't use an inverted monitor either. Is that the case with yours?
 
My memory may be flaky, but from my understanding, these boards with the weird connectors and non-conforming TKG labels are regarded as bootlegs among the Japanese collectors. I seem to recall that they don't use an inverted monitor either. Is that the case with yours?
You know what you're right I think it is a bootleg. Look at the clk board with the radial caps being used instead of axials, Nintendo would never allow that. That board is a bootleg but it was made in the same factory as Nintendo. If I'm not mistaken the factories just kept producing pcbs even when Nintendo didn't have orders with them and sold them on their own independently and forced Nintendo to pay them a licensing fee or something, similar story with crazy kong. Definitely a Japanese board set at the very minimum if it isn't bootleg.
 
Oh dang I don't remember anything about their production, but have gone down the rabbit hole on them a few times whenever one pops up on Yahoo Auctions Japan.

I think they're interesting though, and they do have a cool use case if the monitor signal isn't inverted.

They've definitely popped up before!
Here is a 2013 thread about them, and in this thread from a couple years ago @smalltownguy2 said that Mike's Arcade has documented them? There are more out there but those are from a quick search.

Welp, now I've got myself questioning them all over again. 🤷😂

Let us know about that monitor signal if you get a chance! 🙃 Eek my memory may be failing me though... 🤦😅
 
There is some speculation about these boards. I've always taken the stance that they are bootlegs or were at a minimum not made by Nintendo. These boards do not use the same connectors, lack the typical ROM labeling (of which they had always done), and used lower quality components. Also notice the lack of heatsinked components on the clk board seen with other bootlegs. Also notice the lack of a shield on the clk board over the crystal circuit. Also notice that signetics chips are found on this board, very unusual to find those on donkey kong boards. There is also a severe lack of serial numbering. Nintendo boards always had a serial tag on each of the boards (at least fron block fever forward, computer othello had its serial numbers ink stamped). The power audio amp would have also been wrong. Nintendo was using MB3712 at the time and would not have labeled it as such. That circuit was changed a bit but did not vary between radarscope and donkey kong.

Others have said that they are "grey market" early boardsets. I don't really buy into this. Others say that they were licensed boardsets akin to the crazy kong fiasco. I don't really buy into this either but don't know. These sets are very interesting to me, but I have not sounced one for myself.
 
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seem to recall that they don't use an inverted monitor either. Is that the case with yours?
The cabinet that this was pulled from didn't have a Sanyo but instead a 19K4675 so I'm going to guess it is not inverted

and they do have a cool use case if the monitor signal isn't inverted.

what's that use case? I don't have a cabinet to put this in and it's just collecting dust on a shelf like so many others
 
There is some speculation about these boards. I've always taken the stance that they are bootlegs or were at a minimum not made by Nintendo. These boards do not use the same connectors, lack the typical ROM labeling (of which they had always done), and used lower quality components. Also notice the lack of heatsinked components on the clk board seen with other bootlegs. Also notice the lack of a shield on the clk board over the crystal circuit. Also notice that signetics chips are found on this board, very unusual to find those on donkey kong boards. There is also a severe lack of serial numbering. Nintendo boards always had a serial tag on each of the boards (at least fron block fever forward, computer othello had its serial numbers ink stamped). The power audio amp would have also been wrong. Nintendo was using MB3712 at the time and would not have labeled it as such. That circuit was changed a bit but did not vary between radarscope and donkey kong.

Others have said that they are "grey market" early boardsets. I don't really buy into this. Others say that they were licensed boardsets akin to the crazy kong fiasco. I don't really buy into this either but don't know. These sets are very interesting to me, but I have not sounced one for myself.
From what I understand there was no copyright protection in Japan for code or programs at the time of Donkey kongs release so these factories which really made them for Nintendo would just make them independently as well but yeah using some lower quality components to increase profit margins. You can see that pcb itself is the exact same quality as a real Nintendo board set because it really is the same. Not sure if all bootlegs did non-inverted.
 
thanks for everyone's input!

I'm probably going to put this in a FS thread. It was working when pulled in ~2023 but sound board made the wonderful background siren when VR3 was turned up much.
Any thoughts on a fair price to ask? PM me if anyone wants it before I make the FS post.
 
You can see that pcb itself is the exact same quality as a real Nintendo board set because it really is the same.
The pcbs are not exactly the same. Several silkscreen differences and the power amp circuit is different. That's just from a glance.

I don't buy into the "just keep the line going" thought process. There too many deliberate changes to justify it. Could they have been made at the same place? No idea. But I don't think that they were part of the same line or process as real ones. That does not make sense.
 
The cabinet that this was pulled from didn't have a Sanyo but instead a 19K4675 so I'm going to guess it is not inverted



what's that use case? I don't have a cabinet to put this in and it's just collecting dust on a shelf like so many others

For when you want to put DK in a cabinet that doesn't have an inverted monitor! 🕹️🙃

I can see these being an attractive option for Japanese operators back in the day, where conversions happened a lot earlier and more frequently than the U.S.

They are interesting boards!
 
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