Best Console Ports of Donkey Kong?

[racketboy]

I've done a little googling, but I wanted to get the RB community's thoughts on this one

What is the best Donkey Kong console ports out there / that you've played.
Portable version?

I seem to have seen recommendations for these unofficial ports that are supposed to be pretty good:
Atari 2600: https://kotaku.com/after-30-years-donke ... -851576160
NES: http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.ph ... cts_id=103

Anybody here played either of those?

Any others that are "pretty good"?

My wife is a big Donkey Kong fan. On our first date, we went to an arcade after coffee and they still have the same Donkey Kong machine there. So in addition to it being a great arcade game, it also has some sentimental value.
(I'm actually thinking about trying to collect a lot of the ports and ports of the arcade sequels)

[marurun]

The ColecoVision port is missing one level but is otherwise really great.

[bmoc]

I've always heard that the unlockable version of Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong 64 is the best official home version. I've heard it is a bear to unlock though.

Donkey Kong '94 on Gameboy is pretty fantastic if you aren't looking for arcade accuracy. After the first few levels it becomes a puzzle platformer with DK-ish mechanics.

I'm really hoping Nintendo is able to have Hamster do a true arcade port like they recently did with Mario Bros. on the Switch. The internet seems to believe there is some sort of legal issue with that though.

[Tanooki]

I've looked into that and yeah that N64 one is a pain to get there but it's about as spot on as you can get for a home console arcade copy. The NES one lacking the stage sucks but it's fun, and if you get the very late released 'original edition' while still not totally right does put that missing stage in so it is quite a nice upgrade. I'd buy it instantly if it went ACA, any of the 3 actually as I like Jr and DK3 as well.

[samsonlonghair]

Donkey Kong '94 on Gameboy is pretty fantastic if you aren't looking for arcade accuracy. After the first few levels it becomes a puzzle platformer with DK-ish mechanics.

This is my favorite version of Donkey Kong! You can play in color if you have Super Game Boy.

I'm really hoping Nintendo is able to have Hamster do a true arcade port like they recently did with Mario Bros. on the Switch. The internet seems to believe there is some sort of legal issue with that though.

That's the first I've heard of it. Im no lawyer, but I fail to see how Nintendo could possibly lose the rights to Donkey Kong.

[bmoc]

I think it has something to do with the company helped distribute the Donkey Kong arcade cabs. I've never seen anything official from Nintendo so it could be completely false.

[marurun]

I had heard it had to do with the contract developer that programmed a large portion of the game for Nintendo.

[alienjesus]

I think it has something to do with the company helped distribute the Donkey Kong arcade cabs. I've never seen anything official from Nintendo so it could be completely false.

The arcade version of Donkey Kong was in DK64, so I'd be surprised that Rare could use it if Nintendo couldn't.

[bmoc]

The story goes that Rare used their own original code for DK in DK64 instead of using the arcade code so that they could get around the legality issues. If that is true, I don't see why it couldn't be done again.

[racketboy]

The story goes that Rare used their own original code for DK in DK64 instead of using the arcade code so that they could get around the legality issues. If that is true, I don't see why it couldn't be done again.

Yeah that would be my line of thinking as well. If Nintendo owns all the graphical likenesses, reverse engineering should take care of the rest. And Miyamoto did the level designs, correct?