Donkey Kong Cabinet Colors

[Superully]

no, this is not the usual "which game originally came in which cabinet thread", this is a thread about something i've been wondering for quite a while!

have a look at those donkey kong and the dk junior cabinets



i guess these are the color combinations seen most often - donkey kong in light blue and junior in orange. however, since the donkey kong artwork's color scheme is clearly orange and the color scheme of junior is obviously light blue, i'm wondering why NOONE (and please correct me if i'm wrong) has tried switching those colors around.

imho DK would look much nicer in orange and JUNIOR so much better in light blue!

after all, DK 3 in a red cab looks absolutely KICKASS because the artwork's color scheme is uniform



i will definitely be trying that approach on my DK restos and i give a sh** about being original or not - a game has to look good!!!

c'mon guys, your turn, bring it on

[ataritoobin]

no, this is not the usual "which game originally came in which cabinet thread"

I saw pictures of a dedicated Japanese Donkey Kong Junior (still on location!) on a Japanese website and the cabinet was indeed blue (and had alternate artwork, just like the flyer).  So it looks like the artwork was designed with the blue in mind.  A collector friend of mine actually restored a DK Jr. to the light blue and it looks great!

It could be argued that the original DK artwork was designed with the red Radarscope cabinets in mind as that was what they were initially intended to convert for the U.S. market.  I imagine since Sky Skipper was released around the same time, they may have already had the blue cabinets built/in production in Japan.

[Belike]

The original DK game & watch was the first Dk game afaik, it was orange and I'm totally agree with you Ully, the arcade cabinet would look much nicer in that colour or that red one, that looks absolutely kickass indeed!

[gyruss]

Looks like the Japanese version was indeed blue, but i guess they designed the art to be compatible with all three colors.


If you look at the official flyer's you can see they mixed them around themselves.
http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=archive&db=videodb&name=donkey+kong&year=&manu=&source=&submit=Search+the+Archive

I also like the baby blue jr and red dk3 a lot, now i want more nintendo's.  

[Ronald Reagan]

I used to have the same thoughts about the coloring combination, the first time I encountered the Nintendo cabinets. The colors doesnt seem to match at all. But now I am used to it, and I understand why they made this color decision ( I guess). Because if they chose for only one color, f.i. the baby blue, you''ll end up with a blue cabinet where the side art, marquee and cpo are drawn into the back of the cab, because the whole cab is dominated by only ONE color, blue. But, if you use 2 different main colors for a cab, your vision gets broken and you'll see more different things. In other words there is contrast. Hope you understand what I mean.

(same story goes for the white Marqee on the yellow PacMan cab).

[Etienne MacGyver]

attention to all Photoshoppers around here,

Can one of you make the ideas visual ?

Pics here please 

[level42]

Ully....WTF have you been drinking ?

[level42]

I absolutely hate the DK3 in a red cab. What a waste of a nice red cab that is ! DK should be in there !!!

That machine looks like one big red blob !

I prefer contrasting colors.

Red on red= too red

Blue on blue = too blue

Oran......well you know.

The best looking DK is a red one IMHO. The colors on the marquee and bezel really compliment the red cab.
I really think they designed the DK with the 3000 unsold Radar Scope cabs in mind...

[level42]

By the way, what is THIS ?



-happ joystick
-speaker grill !!!
-coin door !!!!

[level42]

Lovely:

[Superully]

Ully....WTF have you been drinking ?

glühwein?

[Superully]

Lovely:

i agree with you that this looks indeed lovely, but since my DK3 is going to be RED (yes andré - RED ON RED ), i want to have my DK (if i ever get an original one) in a different color scheme. and the light blue version from the japanese flyer looks just great!!!

[funkycochise]

Bruno explained the because of the red color.
If you don't know yet, early DK model were red because they were simply radar scope conversions.

Sorry if this point is already obvious for everyone...

[level42]

@Funky: duh....my MB still has a (very light) Radar Scope burn in on the CRT

@Ully: Gluhwein....mmmmmmmmm !


Wait a minute, what are you getting DK3 ? That would be my "least desired" Nintendo game I guess. I'd convert that red cab to DK.
Then what's next ? I must admit that the blue Jr. on the flyer doesn't look too bad....

How about going with D2K blue  

[Etienne MacGyver]

By the way, what is THIS ?



-happ joystick
-speaker grill !!!
-coin door !!!!

looks like a scratch build to me..
also the instructionsticker is not in the right spot

not to mention the bottom... (the sidepanels are too long with a strange curve to the bottom section)


bet those buttons are non original too..