Crazy Kong 2 was the version of donkey kong that I played when I was very little at the Thruway supermarket in Walden New York. I couldn't read yet so I didn't know that it was crazy Kong. , The last time I played this in a cabinet was in Iquitos Peru in 1993. The reason why you can put your whole name in is because it's based on the software from the japanese version. This is also why the level progression matches the japanese version and not the american. I was 4 years old and could place in the top 5. I have a lot of nostalgia for this version
The version of D. Kong that I remember most from my youth is 'Crazy Kong Pt. II'. In The Netherlands, in Europe. Never noticed the monkey being drawn worse and without animation. When I started playing ROMs I thought that the sound of Mario jumping was wrong. But the sound I remembered is the one from a certain enemy in 'Crazy Climber'. They probably used the sample chips that were on the 'Crazy Climber' board in 'Crazy Kong'. Bootlegs can cost a company a lot of money.
Saying that GCC saw success from pirated games doesn't... sound right. Their code was made to work on top of the original ROMs. Basically they were selling mods, which wouldn't do anything if the people they were selling to didn't already own a copy of the original. Legally grey perhaps but I don't know that piracy is the term for that?
"Hangly-Man" is a mistranslation that has somehow survived the ages. The original name was almost certainly ハングリーマン which would more appropriately transliterate to "Hungry-Man". An fitting and obvious name for a blatant hack.
Omg i remember being a child back then and coming across a Krazy Kong cabinet, and being very confused why it was called that! Thanks for unlocking a core memory for me!
The situation with GCC was more complicated than simple piracy. Most bootleggers sold replacement ROMs or complete kits that duplicated code from the original game, which was (and is) unambiguously copyright infringement. GCC designed hardware that piggybacked on the original and modified the game at runtime, containing none of the original copyrighted code. This is why the Atari lawsuit (and GCC's counter-suit) focused on things like dilution of trademarks and misrepresentation of origin rather than direct copying. When GCC refused to fold, Atari got cold feet over the possibility that they might lose and thereby establish a clear precedent legalizing unauthorized add-on kits, so they approached GCC to discuss a settlement. One of the agreed conditions was that GCC would no longer sell add-on kits without permission from the original copyright holder, which led to Crazy Otto becoming Ms. Pac-Man. Based on today's case law, GCC almost certainly would've lost, but at the time they were operating in a very gray area and it wasn't at all clear that what they were doing constituted piracy.
Falcon had to reimplement everything. The arcade board architecture was extremely different, they probably did what they could to get it out the door quickly.
A mini mart in my hometown in Ohio had Crazy Kong 2 but it was titled as Donkey King. I always loved that the jump sound sounded like Mario was yelling, "Crap!" I also remember a Pac Man bootleg where Pac Man was replaced by Popeye. Popeye's face. I guess the power pellets were Spinach?
Zaccaria is most probably also the source of the cabinets that ended up in the GDR during the time of the Iron Curtain. I remember playing Donkey Kong at the funfair as a child and I do remember one version with green platforms and one with orange ones. Why Zaccaria? I also remember a steam railroad themed pinball machine which was clearly Locomotion in the same arcade.
i believe the original Crazy Kong was an early version of Japan's Donkey Kong ROM before Nintendo cleaned it up to what we know of today. You can even see the "How High Can You Try" in the first version of Donkey Kong (Japan)
Pretty much everything is spot on. As a kid growing up in the 80s, I remember Elcon distributed the game in the states, mostly the Part II Revision, because Nintendo of America was also relocating from New York to Redmond, WA with a backlog of orders for cabinets, hence not being able to meet demand and giving Falcon the opportunity to import it here. Also, I think the decision for Falcon to use Crazy Climber hardware instead of licensing Nintendo's hardware was to cut costs as DK Hardware was more advanced than Crazy Climber Hardware. While nobody seems to have seen the Crazy Kong Junior or Crazy Junior ROM dumps, there was Junior King by an unknown manufacturer and Up Maguila by Aguipa and they are emulated in MAME. Also, I remember seeing Crazy Kong Part II in grocery stores, laundromats, and even an abandoned Flea Market 50 miles from where I once lived in Kentucky, especially in it's old Greasy Spoon next to a Genuine Space Invaders Deluxe machine and Ms. PAC-MAN and Mr. Do in generic cabs with mismatching Marquees. Even a grocery store back home had a Junior King and Cook Race (A Bootleg of Burgertime/Hamburger [In Japan Only]). Can't wait for your next video.
I read Gamemaster Classified earlier this year and was surprised to find out that Crazy Kong was in fact an authorized clone. Thanks for doing this video, Pojr!
I have a Congorilla machine. It has Crazy Kong Pt.2 boards, with Falcon copyright. It doesn't have Falcon etched on the boards though. The cabinet has a Nintendo Seal of Approval on the back. I question how legit this is. I was unsure why Crazy Kong could have been perceived as harder. The hardware cannot handle as many sprites, so that makes it easier from the start. It also retains the ladder trick from the early Japanese releases. Since the game is based off of the Japanese release, it has the 1-2-3-4 order, which means the levels are easier. Thus, for example, the first pie factory doesn't have as many fireballs. The elevators never get as hard as DK, as there are only two springs at a time. The "Black Hole" or warp is a cool bug, which was in the first Japanese release of Donkey Kong. This was patched in the first DK update, and "How High Can You Try?" was changed to "How High Can You Get?". CK pt.2 adds the extra hammer-drop bug on the Conveyor Belt. I always wondered why the pies would vibrate over the fire. I realize now that the conveyors must be going too fast, causing them to overshoot and reverse. The speed of the conveyors must also throw Jumpman off to where he drops the hammer. It really adds to the fun. I loved to jump at just the right time for a pie to hit the dropped hammer. I loved the still motion snapshot. I always preferred the polish and music of Donkey Kong, but I loved Crazy Kong. I only had Crazy Kong Pt. 2 in my area, but it was at EVERY corner store, Boy's Club, and bowling alley. Donkey Kong was in arcades and movie theaters, but CK 2 was in the off sites. Back in the day, I appreciated Crazy Kong, because it always had a right-handed option. It either had the jump button to the left of the stick or both sides. Donkey Kong was only "left-handed". Game strategy books would suggest crossing one's hands, to make it "right-handed". I find that funny now, because that has totally reversed since the NES control pads use the left thumb for movement. Now it seems natural either way. It's funny how we can psyche ourselves out. Fun video to visit a unique game situation. As others have mentioned, I find it is important to stress that it was not originally a bootleg (as I had thought at one time), and GCC did not create bootleg games. They did not alter ROMs. They created mods, which didn't infringe on copyrights. That is why Atari settled out of court. The only they asked Midway to work with them is because it was part of the settled agreement with Atari. In that agreement, they worked for Atari, and they had to promise to not create any mods without permission. They were already working on Crazy Otto, and Atari allowed them to continue. Midway just decided to keep it more in the Pac-Man universe.
Hey POJR. I was wondering when you were going to cover this. Back in the day, there were a lot of Crazy Kong uprights and tabletops on U.S. Shores when they were not supposed to be here. Watching it now to get your take.
Crazy Kong is the same as Nintendo Japan ver 01 on different hardware - It also says how high can you Try. This code was stolen and bootlegged, You are talking about Crazy Kong Pt 2.
I was hoping this would be mentioned. It includes the "Black Hole" level warp, as well the ladder trick. I think they had the rights to use the code, but the hardware could not handle the number of sprites that Donkey Kong hardware could. Crazy Kong was always much easier than Donkey Kong, due to the aforementioned. I am confused as to why the video claims it is more difficult.
I remember playing Crazy Kong at a gas station and thinking, "This is crap! Nintendo should sue whoever made this!" I never played it again and I am shocked Nintendo would allow another company to distribute its games.
I could be wrong, but I believe the information on where Crazy Kong could be distributed is incorrect. I have always heard that it was supposed to be distributed around Europe and most Asian countries, basically the ones where Nintendo had no foothold, but it was supposed to stay out of Japan and North America, since Donkey Kong was being distributed in those regions. Basically Crazy Kong was supposed to be in regions where Donkey Kong was not being distributed, but not in countries where it was being distributed. Once they started showing up in North America, though, that’s when Nintendo went after them and terminated the agreement.
OMG, finally. I saw the jailbreak thing a long time ago. Told my friend that I saw a version of Donkey Kong that had that cutscene. Friends did not believe me for 30 years. I knew I was not crazy.
Hmmm... how about K.C. Munchkin! for the Magnavox Odyssey 2? It was a game that was meant as a clone of Pac-Man, but had its own distinct features and gameplay differences, and it was more popular for a time than the actual Pac-Man. However Atari (who had exclusive rights to Pac-Man in the US) filed a lawsuit, and while they lost the first time, they won the appeal and thus K.C. Munchkin! was forcefully pulled out from stores.
I still find it hard to believe this was ever legit. I played this in Houston, along with a clearly bootleg Crazy Climber that was next to it. Black cabinets, and the stick was more like an Atari joystick - not a ball stick. I always preferred the levels in Crazy Kong, and was so surprised to see it show up in MAME back in the day, since I’d never seen anything about it after that one Convienience store.
There was small convenience store in my neighborhood circa 1984 that had Crazy Kong, but it was called "Congorilla". I believe that is an alternate name to Crazy Kong or perhaps the U.S. version of it?
Really interesting video - also, have you slightly modified how you narrate? A lot of TH-camrs voices go 'Up' at the end of EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE. I'm glad this video doesn't do that. Thanks!
Logger and Congo Bongo are somewhat knock-offs of Donkey Kong, they still qualify as originally made titles. Just wanted to point that out XD. Anyways, great video as always. I might consider subscribing to the channel.
You are wrong about GCC. They were a group of 4 guys and they didn't make Super Missle Attack to go after a different audience, they sold the romsets and whatever extra hardware needed to arcade owners as a way for then to offer something new to customers without having to spend a ton of money on all new cabinets. After a while popular titles started to draw less activity and less money which created the need for the arcade owners. They did this for a few other games too when they began work on A Pac-Man hack called Crazy Otto. Itc was finished and shown to Midway when Atari sued them. They settled with Atari and part of the conditions were that they make no more game mods and they came to work for them. Namco had been wanting a successor to Pac-Man and Crazy Otto for the bill so they bought the rights to Crazy Otto and made it into Ms. Pac-Man. I'm not sure if GCC where the ones that programmed the final Ms. Pac-Man sprites or not. Do yes... while GCC made hacked/modded games from existing one they were never selling them as separate, full fledged arcade cabinets.
Is this the same bootleg as con gorilla? If so, there's a hack at the end of the first ramp of the first level. You would climb up that ladder. Tap yourself to the right until 3/4 of your foot is off of it, then backwards jump and it would drop you through the bottom of the screen and would consider the level complete.
I find it interestign that Crazy Kong kinda predicted the look mario would have in Super Mario Bros. Granted its green instead of brown, but you get the idea
Whenever there is a bootleg, hack, or pirate of a popular arcade game in a public area, it only means the owner of that place doesn’t care about the greatest hits but only about what machine will take the most quarters.
Might actually be a great video idea. I did talk about them briefly in the "You've been playing the wrong Namco GBA museum game" video, but going into more detail might be a good idea.
Me too. One two fireballs came out in the beginning on the pie factory board instead of 3 to 6 in the Donkey Kong game. Also, the 1-2-3-4 sequence of screens and the easier barrel level (not as many barrels at a time) was easier than the Donkey Kong game where eventually every other level was a barrel level. Crazy Kong kept the original Donkey Kong behavior that you could rest at the top of a ladder on the barrel stages (after those initial barrels came through). Most Donkey Kong machines were changed so the barrel would come down on you every time if you did that making it much more difficult. Crazy Kong had some cool bugs like the "hammer drop" you could do on the pie factory on level 2 and greater, and being able to jump through the floor on the barrel levels to clear the screen if you did it just right.
@@3Cr15w311 The warp bug, in addition to the ladder behavior, were from the original Donkey Kong Japanese release. The Japanese DK releases (including all revisions) used the 1-2-3-4 sequence, but only the first had the warp and "How HIgh Can You Try?". I think the hammer drop is a bug, because the conveyor belts were never meant to go that fast. Not even the pies act correctly. Instead of incinerating, they vibrate over the oil barrel at the top. The hammer drop is a very cool trick though.
There's a Crazy Kong in a game store not far from me. Ive debated trading him my Neo Geo MVS for it. Then I'd have all the Donkey Kongs, and one of the red-headed step children.
Wow I never knew this. I liked Falcons part 2 more then the original DK because it was harder and the "black hole" on level one was easier, contradict much? If I remember on some cabinets you could walk through DK on map 4. at the end of the day I was a kid but man I loved this game. I don't remember the original Crazy Kong missing the ladder on map 1?
If you're gonna use a green screen, why use a boring background? You got to up the stakes for sub numbers. Tell people to sub and you'll shave your head if you hit 10,000
Awesome video. 👍 Just one comment and don’t take this the wrong way. But the name of your channel is all wrong. It makes me think of poo 💩 in a jar 🫙 when I read it. Pojr doesn’t have a very good ring to it at all. Maybe spread it out to something more fun and entertaining like Pixel Odyssey Journey Realm. Or better yet just make up a fake word that is catchy and memorable like RetroRumble or Pixelphile to be the name of your channel. These are just off the top of my head, I’m sure you can think of a way better name than me. I’ve watched quite a few of your videos now and I’m subscribed. But the name of your gaming channel is really hurting your growth IMHO. You make awesome documentary level content and I don’t see why you’re channel can’t rival someone like the Gaming Historian. Maybe even reach out to him for a colab. I’m sure many of his viewers and subs would love your channel as it offers the same sort of high quality well researched content. Anyway, if you’ve read this far, I appreciate you. Keep doing what you’re doing but also try thinking outside the square and the breakthrough will eventually come to your channel. I can sense you’re not far away at all from a serious level up on your channel. It just needs some tiny tweaks here and there and you’ll be on your way. The good thing right now is that your channel is still small enough to make these changes before you blast off. TLDR 1. Make a better channel name 2. Colab with some bigger more well known retro gaming doco style channels 3. Keep doing everything else you’re currently do. 👍
Crazy Kong 2 was the version of donkey kong that I played when I was very little at the Thruway supermarket in Walden New York. I couldn't read yet so I didn't know that it was crazy Kong. , The last time I played this in a cabinet was in Iquitos Peru in 1993. The reason why you can put your whole name in is because it's based on the software from the japanese version. This is also why the level progression matches the japanese version and not the american. I was 4 years old and could place in the top 5. I have a lot of nostalgia for this version
The version of D. Kong that I remember most from my youth is 'Crazy Kong Pt. II'. In The Netherlands, in Europe. Never noticed the monkey being drawn worse and without animation. When I started playing ROMs I thought that the sound of Mario jumping was wrong. But the sound I remembered is the one from a certain enemy in 'Crazy Climber'. They probably used the sample chips that were on the 'Crazy Climber' board in 'Crazy Kong'. Bootlegs can cost a company a lot of money.
Without a doubt those are Crazy Climber sounds. Nichibutsu wouldn't have been happy.
@@jmoglerAren't Falcon a subsidiary of Nichibutsu?
If you ever get a chance to play this game in an original cab, its definitely interesting. It makes you feel like you are in bizarro world
I wouldn't mind trying it on real hardware. For this video, I used the Mister FPGA, which is the next best thing.
Saying that GCC saw success from pirated games doesn't... sound right. Their code was made to work on top of the original ROMs. Basically they were selling mods, which wouldn't do anything if the people they were selling to didn't already own a copy of the original. Legally grey perhaps but I don't know that piracy is the term for that?
I knew nearly all of this but still the usual very informative video. Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
"Hangly-Man" is a mistranslation that has somehow survived the ages. The original name was almost certainly ハングリーマン which would more appropriately transliterate to "Hungry-Man". An fitting and obvious name for a blatant hack.
Omg i remember being a child back then and coming across a Krazy Kong cabinet, and being very confused why it was called that! Thanks for unlocking a core memory for me!
You're welcome, and now you know!
6:29 *"GIVE UP!!"*
Truly one of the greatest cinematic scenes of all time.
Great video as always pojr! such a great story behind this game.
Thank you!
The most offending flaw to me is those holes in Crazy Kong's sprite when he beats his chest.
Yeah I noticed that when I made the thumbnail. It's almost like they didn't finish the sprite.
Interesting to think that Crazy Kong has Mario's first official voice among the SFX samples used in the game.
The situation with GCC was more complicated than simple piracy. Most bootleggers sold replacement ROMs or complete kits that duplicated code from the original game, which was (and is) unambiguously copyright infringement. GCC designed hardware that piggybacked on the original and modified the game at runtime, containing none of the original copyrighted code. This is why the Atari lawsuit (and GCC's counter-suit) focused on things like dilution of trademarks and misrepresentation of origin rather than direct copying. When GCC refused to fold, Atari got cold feet over the possibility that they might lose and thereby establish a clear precedent legalizing unauthorized add-on kits, so they approached GCC to discuss a settlement. One of the agreed conditions was that GCC would no longer sell add-on kits without permission from the original copyright holder, which led to Crazy Otto becoming Ms. Pac-Man. Based on today's case law, GCC almost certainly would've lost, but at the time they were operating in a very gray area and it wasn't at all clear that what they were doing constituted piracy.
I have to wonder... Did Nintendo instruct Falcon to make changes, or did Falcon make the changes on their own accord?
Good point. I wasn't able to find much information on this. I assume Nintendo wanted the game to be made, no matter how it was achieved.
Falcon had to reimplement everything. The arcade board architecture was extremely different, they probably did what they could to get it out the door quickly.
the chill vibe of your videos combined with your research (I always learn some new trivia) keep me watching to the end every time. Well done.
A mini mart in my hometown in Ohio had Crazy Kong 2 but it was titled as Donkey King. I always loved that the jump sound sounded like Mario was yelling, "Crap!"
I also remember a Pac Man bootleg where Pac Man was replaced by Popeye. Popeye's face. I guess the power pellets were Spinach?
Your channel needs way more subs than that man ! Awesome content (as always !)
Zaccaria is most probably also the source of the cabinets that ended up in the GDR during the time of the Iron Curtain. I remember playing Donkey Kong at the funfair as a child and I do remember one version with green platforms and one with orange ones. Why Zaccaria? I also remember a steam railroad themed pinball machine which was clearly Locomotion in the same arcade.
Love the sounds from Crazy Climber
Same, especially the jumping sound from Crazy Kong. It's so bad, it's good.
01:48 Much like rouguelikes and Wario-Likes or Sonic-Likes, that genre is what we call PacMan-Likes.
i believe the original Crazy Kong was an early version of Japan's Donkey Kong ROM before Nintendo cleaned it up to what we know of today. You can even see the "How High Can You Try" in the first version of Donkey Kong (Japan)
Pretty much everything is spot on.
As a kid growing up in the 80s, I remember Elcon distributed the game in the states, mostly the Part II Revision, because Nintendo of America was also relocating from New York to Redmond, WA with a backlog of orders for cabinets, hence not being able to meet demand and giving Falcon the opportunity to import it here.
Also, I think the decision for Falcon to use Crazy Climber hardware instead of licensing Nintendo's hardware was to cut costs as DK Hardware was more advanced than Crazy Climber Hardware.
While nobody seems to have seen the Crazy Kong Junior or Crazy Junior ROM dumps, there was Junior King by an unknown manufacturer and Up Maguila by Aguipa and they are emulated in MAME.
Also, I remember seeing Crazy Kong Part II in grocery stores, laundromats, and even an abandoned Flea Market 50 miles from where I once lived in Kentucky, especially in it's old Greasy Spoon next to a Genuine Space Invaders Deluxe machine and Ms. PAC-MAN and Mr. Do in generic cabs with mismatching Marquees. Even a grocery store back home had a Junior King and Cook Race (A Bootleg of Burgertime/Hamburger [In Japan Only]).
Can't wait for your next video.
This is actually some really good information. Didn't know about Junior King.Thank you! I wonder what the Crazy Junior game was like.
I read Gamemaster Classified earlier this year and was surprised to find out that Crazy Kong was in fact an authorized clone. Thanks for doing this video, Pojr!
BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW MARIO'S SPRITE COLORS IN CRAZY KONG ARE BASICALLY THE SAME AS THE NES SUPER MARIO BROTHERS?
Nintendo didn't learn their lesson from this and later on allow Philips to ruin Mario and Zelda.
Very true!
I have a Congorilla machine. It has Crazy Kong Pt.2 boards, with Falcon copyright. It doesn't have Falcon etched on the boards though. The cabinet has a Nintendo Seal of Approval on the back. I question how legit this is.
I was unsure why Crazy Kong could have been perceived as harder. The hardware cannot handle as many sprites, so that makes it easier from the start. It also retains the ladder trick from the early Japanese releases. Since the game is based off of the Japanese release, it has the 1-2-3-4 order, which means the levels are easier. Thus, for example, the first pie factory doesn't have as many fireballs. The elevators never get as hard as DK, as there are only two springs at a time.
The "Black Hole" or warp is a cool bug, which was in the first Japanese release of Donkey Kong. This was patched in the first DK update, and "How High Can You Try?" was changed to "How High Can You Get?".
CK pt.2 adds the extra hammer-drop bug on the Conveyor Belt. I always wondered why the pies would vibrate over the fire. I realize now that the conveyors must be going too fast, causing them to overshoot and reverse. The speed of the conveyors must also throw Jumpman off to where he drops the hammer. It really adds to the fun. I loved to jump at just the right time for a pie to hit the dropped hammer. I loved the still motion snapshot.
I always preferred the polish and music of Donkey Kong, but I loved Crazy Kong. I only had Crazy Kong Pt. 2 in my area, but it was at EVERY corner store, Boy's Club, and bowling alley. Donkey Kong was in arcades and movie theaters, but CK 2 was in the off sites.
Back in the day, I appreciated Crazy Kong, because it always had a right-handed option. It either had the jump button to the left of the stick or both sides. Donkey Kong was only "left-handed". Game strategy books would suggest crossing one's hands, to make it "right-handed". I find that funny now, because that has totally reversed since the NES control pads use the left thumb for movement. Now it seems natural either way. It's funny how we can psyche ourselves out.
Fun video to visit a unique game situation. As others have mentioned, I find it is important to stress that it was not originally a bootleg (as I had thought at one time), and GCC did not create bootleg games. They did not alter ROMs. They created mods, which didn't infringe on copyrights. That is why Atari settled out of court. The only they asked Midway to work with them is because it was part of the settled agreement with Atari. In that agreement, they worked for Atari, and they had to promise to not create any mods without permission. They were already working on Crazy Otto, and Atari allowed them to continue. Midway just decided to keep it more in the Pac-Man universe.
Yay new pojr video. A good start to my Wednesday
Glad to hear it!!
Hey POJR. I was wondering when you were going to cover this. Back in the day, there were a lot of Crazy Kong uprights and tabletops on U.S. Shores when they were not supposed to be here. Watching it now to get your take.
Never played Crazy Kong. Never even saw any of the cabinets growing up. Too bad dude got arrested before we could see their take on Donkey Kong 3 😂
Congratulations ahead of time for hitting 10K.
Thank you!!
Hair looking much better. Now we get him a shave and we'll be at 10k.
Yup, finally got it cut!!
I love the game and I used to play in the arcade back in 1981. I still play it to this day on Mame.
0:39 and I actually just got a haircut too lol.
If it was officially licensed, it isn't a bootleg.
It was an officially licensed game that became a bootleg, and then the sequel, Crazy Junior, was a true bootleg.
Crazy Kong is the same as Nintendo Japan ver 01 on different hardware - It also says how high can you Try. This code was stolen and bootlegged, You are talking about Crazy Kong Pt 2.
I was hoping this would be mentioned. It includes the "Black Hole" level warp, as well the ladder trick. I think they had the rights to use the code, but the hardware could not handle the number of sprites that Donkey Kong hardware could.
Crazy Kong was always much easier than Donkey Kong, due to the aforementioned. I am confused as to why the video claims it is more difficult.
I remember playing Crazy Kong at a gas station and thinking, "This is crap! Nintendo should sue whoever made this!" I never played it again and I am shocked Nintendo would allow another company to distribute its games.
I could be wrong, but I believe the information on where Crazy Kong could be distributed is incorrect. I have always heard that it was supposed to be distributed around Europe and most Asian countries, basically the ones where Nintendo had no foothold, but it was supposed to stay out of Japan and North America, since Donkey Kong was being distributed in those regions. Basically Crazy Kong was supposed to be in regions where Donkey Kong was not being distributed, but not in countries where it was being distributed. Once they started showing up in North America, though, that’s when Nintendo went after them and terminated the agreement.
OMG, finally. I saw the jailbreak thing a long time ago. Told my friend that I saw a version of Donkey Kong that had that cutscene. Friends did not believe me for 30 years. I knew I was not crazy.
You weren't crazy. The game was.
I played crazy Kong in the 80s at the arcade before I saw a donkey Kong machine. I actually thought crazy Kong was a little better.
Hmmm... how about K.C. Munchkin! for the Magnavox Odyssey 2? It was a game that was meant as a clone of Pac-Man, but had its own distinct features and gameplay differences, and it was more popular for a time than the actual Pac-Man. However Atari (who had exclusive rights to Pac-Man in the US) filed a lawsuit, and while they lost the first time, they won the appeal and thus K.C. Munchkin! was forcefully pulled out from stores.
Sooo close to 10,000!
Great work, as always....Love the hair
My pops "rip !! Had a pool hall back in the days. I remember he had crazy kong.. we had fun for many hours with Krazy kong. Great video.
I still find it hard to believe this was ever legit. I played this in Houston, along with a clearly bootleg Crazy Climber that was next to it. Black cabinets, and the stick was more like an Atari joystick - not a ball stick. I always preferred the levels in Crazy Kong, and was so surprised to see it show up in MAME back in the day, since I’d never seen anything about it after that one Convienience store.
There was small convenience store in my neighborhood circa 1984 that had Crazy Kong, but it was called "Congorilla". I believe that is an alternate name to Crazy Kong or perhaps the U.S. version of it?
It's an unauthorized bootleg of the u authkrized/grey market import.
I wish I never knew there was a Crazy Junior. It's all I can think about now!
crazy kong the parallel universe of donkey kong
Pojr always has the freshest retro content.
Never knew about this. Great video!
Really interesting video - also, have you slightly modified how you narrate?
A lot of TH-camrs voices go 'Up' at the end of EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE. I'm glad this video doesn't do that. Thanks!
In Italy we never seen the original Donkey Kong, just the crazy kong ones
That’s because half of Italy's arcade games are bootlegs such as Final Crash and Buccaneers.
Heh, from the intro I briefly got the idea you were going to do an MSX themed video!
Logger and Congo Bongo are somewhat knock-offs of Donkey Kong, they still qualify as originally made titles. Just wanted to point that out XD. Anyways, great video as always. I might consider subscribing to the channel.
You are wrong about GCC. They were a group of 4 guys and they didn't make Super Missle Attack to go after a different audience, they sold the romsets and whatever extra hardware needed to arcade owners as a way for then to offer something new to customers without having to spend a ton of money on all new cabinets. After a while popular titles started to draw less activity and less money which created the need for the arcade owners. They did this for a few other games too when they began work on A Pac-Man hack called Crazy Otto. Itc was finished and shown to Midway when Atari sued them. They settled with Atari and part of the conditions were that they make no more game mods and they came to work for them. Namco had been wanting a successor to Pac-Man and Crazy Otto for the bill so they bought the rights to Crazy Otto and made it into Ms. Pac-Man. I'm not sure if GCC where the ones that programmed the final Ms. Pac-Man sprites or not. Do yes... while GCC made hacked/modded games from existing one they were never selling them as separate, full fledged arcade cabinets.
Is this the same bootleg as con gorilla? If so, there's a hack at the end of the first ramp of the first level. You would climb up that ladder. Tap yourself to the right until 3/4 of your foot is off of it, then backwards jump and it would drop you through the bottom of the screen and would consider the level complete.
How come Ikegami didnt sue over this?
Is it Wednesday already? You're within grabbing distance of that 10K subscribers.
Indeed!! Almost there
Congrats on 10k Pojr
I find it interestign that Crazy Kong kinda predicted the look mario would have in Super Mario Bros. Granted its green instead of brown, but you get the idea
im not into arcade games anymore but i doubt nintendo would EVER allow this anymore
haircut??What did they do, clip one strand lol.Just kidding.Great video.
That was before SML used Mario characters. I will always stick to Nintendo's proper original Donkey Kong.
Can anyone tell me what the music during the conclusion chapter is?
I saw a Crazy Kong game once in a local pizza place & wondered why Nintendo didn't raise a stink about it. 🤨
Whenever there is a bootleg, hack, or pirate of a popular arcade game in a public area,
it only means the owner of that place doesn’t care about the greatest hits but only about what machine will take the most quarters.
Pojr can you make a video on the original namco museum games on PS1? Those games are my childhood
Might actually be a great video idea. I did talk about them briefly in the "You've been playing the wrong Namco GBA museum game" video, but going into more detail might be a good idea.
@@pojr I second that video idea, that'd be amazing!
I found Crazy Kong (and II) to be easier than Donkey Kong
Me too. One two fireballs came out in the beginning on the pie factory board instead of 3 to 6 in the Donkey Kong game. Also, the 1-2-3-4 sequence of screens and the easier barrel level (not as many barrels at a time) was easier than the Donkey Kong game where eventually every other level was a barrel level. Crazy Kong kept the original Donkey Kong behavior that you could rest at the top of a ladder on the barrel stages (after those initial barrels came through). Most Donkey Kong machines were changed so the barrel would come down on you every time if you did that making it much more difficult. Crazy Kong had some cool bugs like the "hammer drop" you could do on the pie factory on level 2 and greater, and being able to jump through the floor on the barrel levels to clear the screen if you did it just right.
@@3Cr15w311 - the code for Crazy Kong was actually an early version of the Japanese ROM of Donkey Kong which uses the same board order
@@3Cr15w311 The warp bug, in addition to the ladder behavior, were from the original Donkey Kong Japanese release. The Japanese DK releases (including all revisions) used the 1-2-3-4 sequence, but only the first had the warp and "How HIgh Can You Try?".
I think the hammer drop is a bug, because the conveyor belts were never meant to go that fast. Not even the pies act correctly. Instead of incinerating, they vibrate over the oil barrel at the top. The hammer drop is a very cool trick though.
my father had crazy kong 2 at his restaurant
I remember Crazy Kong having the levels in a different order than DK.
There's a Crazy Kong in a game store not far from me. Ive debated trading him my Neo Geo MVS for it. Then I'd have all the Donkey Kongs, and one of the red-headed step children.
Great video! I LOVE the bootleg versions of these games. lol
"Preservation community"
Call them by what they are, hoarders.
Crazy kong is better in every way to donkey kong. Better gfx better sound and it is easier not harder. Absolutely better than donkey kong.
I wonder if Cranky Kong from DKC was at all influenced by this? I mean... it would make sense if Cranky were a parody of an older Crazy Kong.
Nintendo getting people in trouble with the law, still doing it to this day
You know what? - i actually think the sound is kinda better. Its more acme cartoon like....
The Power Pad was a bootleg that Nintendo later acquired and licensed themselves along with Stadium Events.
...no? No it wasn't? Are you smoking crack or something?
Wow I never knew this. I liked Falcons part 2 more then the original DK because it was harder and the "black hole" on level one was easier, contradict much? If I remember on some cabinets you could walk through DK on map 4. at the end of the day I was a kid but man I loved this game. I don't remember the original Crazy Kong missing the ladder on map 1?
At least first crazy Kong give us a süper Mario color palette Mario 😄
id kill for that hair
"Hmmm, let ask for interactions instead talking about video topic. That way I'll get sbscribers."...
I have to disagree. I always preferred Crazy Kong over Donkey Kong :-) the sounds are more memorable… but just my opinion.
Good video ✌
Nice!
The camera quality and fake background 🫠 go big or keep it simple!
konkey dong
pojr
If you're gonna use a green screen, why use a boring background? You got to up the stakes for sub numbers. Tell people to sub and you'll shave your head if you hit 10,000
I hit subscribe button and it unsubscribed me. Oh well. Sorry.
All good lol
Donkey Kong was also made using recycled game cabinet hardware from a game that didn't sell
I liked when your hair was long. You should grow it out again.
Awesome video. 👍
Just one comment and don’t take this the wrong way. But the name of your channel is all wrong. It makes me think of poo 💩 in a jar 🫙 when I read it.
Pojr doesn’t have a very good ring to it at all. Maybe spread it out to something more fun and entertaining like Pixel Odyssey Journey Realm.
Or better yet just make up a fake word that is catchy and memorable like RetroRumble or Pixelphile to be the name of your channel. These are just off the top of my head, I’m sure you can think of a way better name than me.
I’ve watched quite a few of your videos now and I’m subscribed. But the name of your gaming channel is really hurting your growth IMHO.
You make awesome documentary level content and I don’t see why you’re channel can’t rival someone like the Gaming Historian.
Maybe even reach out to him for a colab. I’m sure many of his viewers and subs would love your channel as it offers the same sort of high quality well researched content.
Anyway, if you’ve read this far, I appreciate you. Keep doing what you’re doing but also try thinking outside the square and the breakthrough will eventually come to your channel.
I can sense you’re not far away at all from a serious level up on your channel. It just needs some tiny tweaks here and there and you’ll be on your way.
The good thing right now is that your channel is still small enough to make these changes before you blast off.
TLDR
1. Make a better channel name
2. Colab with some bigger more well known retro gaming doco style channels
3. Keep doing everything else you’re currently do. 👍