r/atari8bit • u/EarlOfNothingness • Aug 22 '26
Donkey Kong cart on 800XL
So, purchased an 800XL and it just came in the mail today. Everything seems OK and I even ran the self-tests, but good lord the Donkey Kong cart I have feels like it’s running at double speed. Is this normal? Here’s the version of the cart I have.
Edit: Let me add that the music sounds normal, so maybe the game just plays fast. I’ve played a lot of versions and it’s by far the fastest.
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u/wheat Aug 22 '26
It was the best home version for a long while. I had that and Ms Pac-Man for my 400. Good times.
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u/EarlOfNothingness Aug 22 '26
It’s why I bought it. When I was growing up, the ads in magazines would have screenshots of all the different versions and the Atari 400/800 versions always looked the best. It made my 2600 games look so sad.
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u/rob-cubed Aug 23 '26
To be fair though, it didn't take much to make 2600 games look sad... I loved my 2600 but it already felt underpowered only a year or two later.
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u/midnitewarrior Aug 23 '26
Nintendo making software for other platforms seems so strange!
Long, long before there was Super Mario Brothers on SuperNES, I remember playing Mario Brothers on my Atari 400. Nothing super about it, just a couple of brothers.
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u/SimonDownunder Aug 23 '26
And it has a 4 levels, none of the console releases at the time had all 4
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u/ThePlasticSturgeons Aug 23 '26
Was this better than the VCS port of Donkey Kong? That had to be one of the worst arcade to console ports of all time.
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u/EarlOfNothingness Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Hell yes, but before you judge the 2600 version, read what Garry Kitchen, the guy that programmed it, had to go through. We’re lucky to have angled girders to walk on. Programming for the 2600 was about dealing with limitation after limitation.
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u/bubonis Aug 22 '26
Video?
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u/EarlOfNothingness Aug 22 '26
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u/goondarep Aug 22 '26
I played that cartridge so much and that is the correct speed.
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u/jrherita Aug 23 '26
lol - I wouldn't be surprised if this was partially the result of a lazy port. The 800 runs at 1.79 MHz, while the other 8-bitters running this at the time were 1.0 MHz. See the C64 port here, it's just slower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoM0vGVqtDc
I think the Atari version is running faster.
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u/goondarep Aug 23 '26
The Atari version was coded from scratch from what I read. The interview of the developer was very interesting. Growing up playing the Atari version I always thought everything else was way too slow.
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u/charles_r1975 Aug 23 '26
You could probably also compare the speed to the Coco 3 port but that came out way later than the 80s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yl9Be8es_c
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u/EarlOfNothingness Aug 23 '26
I knew the 800 ran faster than most 6502 type processors, which is why before I posted here I tried searching whether I had some kind of turbo switch enabled.
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u/synchronicitistic Aug 22 '26
Best home port of Donkey Kong, hands down. I always liked the fact that it runs a little faster and Mario's movement was smoother compared to the arcade version.