Indy's Donkey Kong Fan Site

Technical Specs

Hardware
Donkey Kong 3 is a 2D raster graphics arcade game. The vertical display is 224 x 256 pixels in size and uses a 96-color palette. The game's original controls featured a single joystick and a jump button. It runs on a Z80 microprocessor running at 4 MHz and an N2A03 microprocessor running at 1.342329 MHz, with the sound being processed on NES Audio I8035 microprocessor running at 21.47727 MHz.

Cabinet Styles
Donkey Kong 3 was manufactured in three different cabinets:

Cocktail - a flat, low table, designed for two people to sit facing each other and play doubles. The screen flips depending on whose turn it is. Dimensions: 22.75" x 33.75" x 22", 130#
Upright - the full-size arcade case. Dimensions: 67" x 23.5" x 33.5", 220#

Screenshots and Pictures

I'm not the authority on this game, since I've never gotten past the first three boards, but here they are as I understand them. Anyone who is an expert on this game, don't hesitate to contact me with better information.

Overview

Donkey Kong 3 was the follow-up to the enormously successful Donkey Kong and strong runner-up Donkey Kong Jr. Although not the powerhouse of its predecessors, it is probably the most difficult and challenging of all the Donkey Kong series games.

In this game, Stanley is a gardener protecting his garden from Donkey Kong, who is trying to swarm it with bees, worms, and other baddies.

This isn't my favorite. As a kid, I remember plugging more quarters than any one person should reasonably plug. The levels simply get too damn hard, in my opinion. Now, I like a tough game and a good challenge and all, and I'm sure there are experts who whip at this game, but I'm not one of them and this was ridiculous. In those days, they didn't make CONTINUE options on video games—if you died, you couldn't plug in a quarter and continue from where you left off. You had to start ALL OVER at the beginning. Because of this, good, hard, challenging games became no fun.

With MAME out there, and the Donkey Kong 3 ROM available, saving the state of the game is at least a step in the right direction, Of course, without owning a copy of DK3's ROM, I can't enjoy that feature, of course.

History

Donkey Kong 3 was released in 1983—following the 1982 Donkey Kong Jr., release, which followed the 1981 Donkey Kong release. As mentioned, it wasn't the overwhelming success of the previous games.