Don’t tell Nintendo but IntellivisionRevolution has ported Donkey Kong Jr to the Mattel Intellivision console. Sure, the platform already had an official version but that has never stopped fans from doing this sort of thing before. Often the fan port is presented as a much better version – such as the fan ports of Pac-Man to the Atari 2600 which blow the official version away. Donkey Kong Jr by IntellivisionRevolution certainly looks better than the 1983 version.

It is hard to pinpoint where to start with improvements in the graphics as there are so many. Let’s begin with Donkey Kong himself. The IntellivisionRevolution version has him resembling his ape like self while the 1983 version seems to have mistakenly placed a green alien in that cage at the top of the screen. Next Donkey Kong Jr himself appears to be more ape like in the remake than the original where he was a white sprite that had a rather interesting animation for climbing ropes.

Both versions botched the heck out of Mario though – neither has a decent representation of what would become Nintendo’s, if not gaming’s for a period, mascot.

The 1983 original did do a few things better than the IntellivisionRevolution version. The level with the blue chains hanging looks better in the original – they look like chains hanging. The remake makes these appear to be more like blue ropes.

Also, the first level with grass and land platforms looks better in the original, at least the platforms do. In the remake they are a jumbled mess of pixels while the original had better grass dithering on the edges giving them platforms a bit of realism.

All in all, the remake is certainly better looking than the 1983 original. While not legal in any way, Nintendo is not known for licensing out their titles or intellectual properties (thanks Philips), this is still an impressive remake.

If you want to grab an original copy of Donkey Kong Jr then check eBay or buy a copy from Amazon. If you want the remake then check the IntellivisionRevolution website.