Author Topic: King of Kong  (Read 5892 times)

Blanka

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King of Kong
« on: September 27, 2010, 09:12:27 PM »
Just received a new catch from Marktplaats:
Coleco Donkey Kong.

I was in great doubt whether to buy a Coleco or not. Plastically they are not the greatest. A bit cranky and not the best injection mould designers who worked on this series.
I'm also not a big fan of these stickery models. Most have nice print on the plastic, these Coleco's have paper stickers on the plastic. Add a bad battery compartment cover design to this, and you can imagine why most of these Coleco's look so beaten up. Mine was no exception. Battery cover missing, and most stickers peel off.

But game-wise they are very well made. I opened the unit for cleaning, and you see these Coleco's have the largest VFD displays ever made for these type of games. With a red and a purple overlay, this screen simulates 4 colours. Mario is made of yellow and red, princess and donkey are purple, and the scoring is blueish green.

Also the unit seemed DOA. It was totally down, so mostly that means power problems. These Coleco's were hacked quite often, as they had no DC power in like most other handhelds. So mine had an amateur power port added in the back. It turned out to be bad solder work was the cause of the malfunction. I removed the plug, resoldered the battery cables and now it runs great again. Sound is quite decent, as they put a plastic cone on the usual piezo tweeter.

I did some cleaning (mostly sticky tape residue to keep the batteries in place), and now the unit is pretty much OK. Unfortunately, the dumb one who used the sticky tape put it over the side art, so you see a band running over it. Luckily this unit has no glue-rot, as many Coleco's have. This means the print on the stickers is complete and in the right colour, so I can trace it for replacement stickers. The bezel and control panel covers are laminated stickers, and are in great condition. Only small problem on the bezel is that some metal pin bumped into the bezel "glass" a few times. Hope I can use some plexy-polish to lessen the effect.

Thing to do now is to trace the side and marquee art and try to create nice replacement stickers.

Here's one pic to start with (I had no camera around with the first stage of restoration :( )


Etienne MacGyver

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Re: King of Kong
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2010, 11:17:04 PM »
Very nice !

DarthNuno

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Re: King of Kong
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2010, 05:22:54 PM »
Very cute!

I remember these models (mostly Pac Man and Galaxian) when they were brand new for sale, in my usual toys shop... long long time ago of course  :roll:
I also remember that they were very expensive comparing to the other electronic handheld games available at the time. So expensive that my parents did not buy it for me  :-X I mean not these COLECO models...
Fortunately for me, I got my revenge now  with all the 'full size' ones  ;D

Belike

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Re: King of Kong
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2010, 05:29:07 PM »
I have this model from Coleco, but  a piece of the pcb is missing  :(:






It's good for decoration, will sit in the top of the Namco Galaxian! ;D

Blanka

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Re: King of Kong
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2010, 08:48:29 PM »
That looks repairable! Can't be very difficult.

Belike

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Re: King of Kong
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2010, 09:30:41 PM »
If I should have a photo from the missing circuits...... ;)

Blanka

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Re: King of Kong
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2010, 09:47:40 PM »
How many pins of the VFD land in mid-air now? 1 or 2?

Belike

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Re: King of Kong
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2010, 09:18:53 AM »
Sorry for the late response, I made another close pic, I think there is 1 in mid-air and 2 further missing.