Donkey Kong Red Cabinet

Oldworldman

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I see Donkey Kongs in Red cabinets and are selling for more money? Is this true that these are worth more because they used to be a radarscope machine? I am curious. Your thoughts?
 
Yup - consensus is that they're worth more. Nintendo experts know which serial numbers and physical traits confirm red cabinets as opposed to blue. The "complete package" includes original glass, artwork, and PCB; red cabinets had distinctions in these as well.

There are some folks who have re-painted blue cabinets red, but those are worth less than blue cabinets re-painted blue, IMHO.
 
I agree Pook! Thanks for the response. I have read more about it, and there is a lot involved. The mass collectors would not pay more than 500.00 for one of these. THat is from my research. To actually take a radarscope and convert one yourself, would be pointless from a collector's standpoint. THe original Donkey Kongs in the red Cabinets were said to not have come with side art but some did and some did not.

The bottom line looks of course to be the serial number.

Just do not get fooled if you go to purchase one of these babies. We do not have a Donkey Kong yet and the collector in me wants to try and find a dedicated red one with a 4 board set and matching serial number. That might cost me though.
 
The red ones are also more likely to use the four board stack vs the updated two board stack that most of the blue ones use

personally since I just want the game to play I'd settle for a blue one
 
Nice to meet you Dark. Yeah any two board set you have, would have Nintendo instead of Nintendo of America in the attract screen if those boards had the old ROMS in them and could run them. I am not sure though.
 
There are a few folks here who have made it nearly a vocation to understand the details behind the DK timeline.

PM Camaromurph, he'll get you all the info you need.

LOTS of good info here:

http://forums-new.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=64571

What I know:


  1. Earliest Radarscope to DK factory conversions used 4 board TRS board sets, converted at the factory to run DK.
  2. Serial number tag has all stamped numbers, not screened.
  3. They had black iso transformers (PT-8A)
  4. Speaker panel had 5 slots
  5. Coin bucket made with white laminate
  6. They had a PP-7A power supply (6p, 7p, 9p, 10p)
  7. No copyright info anywhere - bezel, cpo, instruction card, or marquee.
  8. Side art - the jury is still out on this one. I believe the early conversions did NOT have side art.
Not sure on the bezel style - there were two piece and single piece non-copyright bezels made, I just can't tell which ones were used where, or even if there's any rhyme or reason to it.

I'm fairly certain I could spot an imposter at this point.

Still, a really nice restored cabinet, regardless of color, should bring close to a grand if done right.
 
It get's pretty complicated.

Only the very early red DKs were Radar Scope conversions. These started life at the factory (in Japan) as Radar Scopes, and were converted to DK afterwards. The 4-board PCBs tend to have TRS printed on them with TKG2 stickers over top the TRS printing. The bezels tend to be two-piece bezels (clear plexi with art printed on the BACK, and a seperate tinted plexi behind). None of the artwork has "Nintendo of America, Inc." etc.

After that Nintendo started making red DKs at the factory. These are typically TKG3. They started life as DKs at the factory and were never Radar Scopes. They still have 4-board PCBs but the PCB has TKG3 printing directly on the board (no stickerd over TRS). The bezels used for these tend to be one-piece bezels, similar to the later ones, but they don't have any copyright info on them. The other artwork may have no copyright info at all, say "C Nintendo 1981" simply "Nintendo" or some other slight variation. There are plenty of BLUE DK cabinets during this period too. The factory in Japan seemed to be randomly using both blue and red cabinets at the same time. The artwork seemed to be getting revised as they went. Other than the color, the cabinets were using the same major components (such as the black transformer) and both styles had the "ladder cheat" although operators often "fixed" the ladder cheat by adding new e-proms so there are older TKG3 boards out there that had the latter cheat but were altered in the field to "fix" that.

It wasn't until Nintendo switched to the 2-board stack that all of the cabinets were blue and the production became much more uniform. By that time the artwork is pretty much always going to say "1981 Nintendo of America Inc." By this time the only games using the 4-board stack were the cocktails and caberets, and these late model cocktails and caberts are typcially using the TKG3-07 PCB which doesn't have the ladder cheat.

All of this info is general. Expect lots of exceptions to the rule. There is a thread on KLOV that goes into a ton of detail. Do a search for "Radar Scop Tag Data".
 
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Cool information. I am learning and collecting as I go. I love this hobby! I am glad that before my collection and restoration got too large and deep I have people such as you guys to tell me all I should know.

THank you so much!
 
I had a distinct memory of playing donkey kong for the first time on a red machine (at Happy Joe's Pizza parlour).

before finding KLOV a friend told me that memory was impossible as all DK's were blue.
glad to know I wasn't losing my mind...that time anyway.
 
I had a distinct memory of playing donkey kong for the first time on a red machine (at Happy Joe's Pizza parlour).

before finding KLOV a friend told me that memory was impossible as all DK's were blue.
glad to know I wasn't losing my mind...that time anyway.

One thing I've learned about this hobby is that there are no absolutes, at all. There were exceptions to every rule.

I once believed that there was no such thing as a cocktail style Mortal Kombat.
 
Yeah tell me about it! I saw a journey cocktail and I just had to have it! Now I saw a Satan's Hollow cocktail, and it looks cool, but I would rather have the full upright because it makes our arcade look flow better. I try and stick to the uprights unless the title is very rare to come by. Such as our Krazy Kong cabaret.

It just looks cool and it was one of the first games I collected, plus the art on the bezel and marquee was very unusual. Has so much mojo.
 
One thing I've learned about this hobby is that there are no absolutes, at all. There were exceptions to every rule.

And sometimes the "rules" aren't even right, e.g. people thinking most Midway cocktails had their art screened to the glass. We're still learning.

I once believed that there was no such thing as a cocktail style Mortal Kombat.

Please post in rare cocktails thread if you have a picture!

Yeah tell me about it! I saw a journey cocktail and I just had to have it!

Awesome - me too! I love it. Post pictures of yours if you can. :)
 
One thing I've learned about this hobby is that there are no absolutes, at all. There were exceptions to every rule.

This comment reminds me of when "a dildo" was discovered in a cab. In the event of a dildo, we have to use the indefinite article "a dildo", never "your dildo"

:D
 
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