School me on Donkey Kong.

SRS

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I looked at a Donkey Kong today and the guy selling it made a big deal out of it being in a red cabinet. He said the red ones were rare.

I told him that the color didn't mean shit to me. He looked like I just kicked his puppy when I said that.

So what's the big deal if it's red?
 
Yes, the red cabs were the early ones, but we need more information to determine exactly what this is.

Get the serial # of the game from the back plate, and post it here.

How many holes in the front speaker grille and was there only one coin slot?

Then we'll know what you have or don't have.

Thanks.
 
As the above poster mentioned, the red cabinets are the earliest ones. Original ones are quite rare. If I recall correctly, they are actually factory-converted Radar Scope machines.

If you want to just play the game, I'd try and find a cheaper blue one. But there is something very cool and unique about those early red DK cabs. Not several hundred dollars unique, though. (In my opinion)
 
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I think you're right about them converting Radar Scopes, Hyde. I think the red DK's are really cool, and I like how the art goes with it, but I (personally) wouldn't pay more than $50 dollars extra.
 
I think you're right about them converting Radar Scopes, Hyde. I think the red DK's are really cool, and I like how the art goes with it, but I (personally) wouldn't pay more than $50 dollars extra.

It could be valuable depending on which red cabinet it is. The earliest known machine sold a few years ago and there was a write up done which explained the numbering system. If this could be proven to be the original game (which is possible but unlikely) or earlier than that machine was, then it could be worth considerably more than a blue cabinet.

There are threads about this....
 
School me on Donkey Kong

dk.jpg
 
Yes, the red cabinets are actually from unsold Radarscope machines that were converted in the Nintendo of America warehouse to be Donkey Kong. You have to remember, Donkey Kong was pretty much the "Hail Mary" pass that NoA made to stay in business. Radarscope was a flop.

That's why Donkey Kong's Jumpman became Mario in later games -- NoA's warehouse landlord's name was Mario, and he was lenient with them when they started to have financial trouble. So Mario, the character, was named in his honor.
 
Red ones are worth alot more IMO, mostly because I love the game, I think the red color looks way better. And there are an estimated less than 1000 of them (right?).
 
Red ones are worth alot more IMO, mostly because I love the game, I think the red color looks way better. And there are an estimated less than 1000 of them (right?).

+1 I just went 4hrs to meet Groffdaddy for one. Look for the restore thread coming to a screen soon near you!
 
They're rare, but I'm beginning to think they're not as rare as a lot of people seem to think.

There are some widespread misconceptions out there. The story everyone knows is that there were about 2000 red radar scopes that were converted to DKs. These are the TKG2-UP models. BUT . . . after that, Nintendo made quite a few Red DKs that started life as DKs at the factory. These were not radar scope conversions. These are models are labeled TKG3-UP. There are also some blue TKG3-UP models.

The serial numbers are not that great of a guide becuase its not clear what system they were using and there look to be two seperate serial number systems for the early models. From what I can tell, there were somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 red DKs (this is by no means set in stone). Assuming people are right that 60,000 DKs were produced that's somewhere between 5% and 8% red DKs.

Look at the linked thread for more info. I do think it's pretty weird that the last TKG3 serial number we have is 7,791 and the next one we have after that is 30,467. The latest DK we have on our list is 165,105 (ie. 65,105 because Nintendo started putting a "1" in front of the serial numbers). It almost looks like they stopped the TKG3-UP around 8,000 and started the TKG4-UP at 30,000. Meaning that the assumed production numbers could be about 20,000 off.

I have to go now, some football playeers are giving me a swirley at 4:30.
 
Yes, the red cabs were the early ones, but we need more information to determine exactly what this is.

Get the serial # of the game from the back plate, and post it here.

How many holes in the front speaker grille and was there only one coin slot?

Then we'll know what you have or don't have.

Thanks.

I didn't get a serial number, it had one coin slot, and I have no idea how many holes the grille had (I wasn't thinking to count grille holes when I went to see it).

I offered the guy 350 for it yesterday, and he said he would have to think about it. He thought about it and decided that he wants 500. I told him no thanks.
 
You'll find better deals if you wait. Theres tons of DKs out there.. but id pay 500 for another red one.
 
Well now there is one more red DK out there. I just converted a VS cab that was converted from a Radar Scope back to a DK machine. So its very possible that there are red cabs that started as something else that got converted then converted again......Plus you can always buy a serial number plate to stick on it.
 
Hey Jam - Good point on the serial numbers. The area of serial numbers from 10K to 30K were the TKG2 games. The uprights were from 10K-19.9K. I think it is very possible that there were less than 1000 in that serial number range. The TKG2 cocktails were serial numbers in the 20K-30K range. I would bet even fewer cocktail in that range than uprights in it's range. Probably less than 1500 games total in both.

My guess is Nintendo didn't even think of selling 10K Donkey Kongs as they could even sell 1K Radarscopes so they started the conversion games at 10K and 20K thinking they would never get that high. When demand deemed they would make more games than expected they choose to skip those ranges.

Murph
 
Well now there is one more red DK out there. I just converted a VS cab that was converted from a Radar Scope back to a DK machine. So its very possible that there are red cabs that started as something else that got converted then converted again......Plus you can always buy a serial number plate to stick on it.

Thats like putting a Jaguar hood ornament on a Honda Civic.
 
Red is overrated. The intended color for DK was blue. Red is the color of Radarscope. THE END. :D :D :D
 
A little OT. But last night I wore my DK (Pic of the first level) shirt to Chilli's and two kids one about 8 and one about 4 (Both black not that it matters) said Donkey Kong and pointed at my shirt. I though it was weird as DK is up in the upper corner and not that big. And they should be too young to reconize the first level. Maybe from the new Mario or Mario Party. Though DK Country is coming out on the Wii.

The Red ones look cool but I always remembered playing the blue ones so that would be the one I want.
 
I think the game is best in a real Nintendo red cabinet with the early one slot coin door and original board set because that's where it all began...
 
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