Coleco Donkey Kong Jr. Mini-Arcade
 | |
| Coleco Donkey Kong Junior tabletop (The Strong National Museum of Play) | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo (Game & Watch tabletop CJ-71) |
| Manufacturer | Nintendo, for Coleco Industries |
| Type | Tabletop electronic game |
| Released | 1983[1] |
| CPU | Sharp SM511 4-bit microcontroller[2][3] |
| Memory | — |
| Storage | — |
| Display | Colour-overlaid LCD lit by daylight through the top of the cabinet[4][5] |
| Sound | Piezo buzzer[2] |
| Power | Two C cells[5] |
| OS / Firmware | — |
| Model no. | 2398 |
The Coleco Donkey Kong Jr. Mini-Arcade (model 2398) is the Donkey Kong Junior tabletop game that Coleco sold in 1983 alongside its VFD Mini-Arcades. Despite the name it shares no hardware with them. It is Nintendo's Game & Watch tabletop Donkey Kong Jr. (CJ-71) in a recoloured case with Coleco's artwork: a liquid crystal display (LCD) under a colour overlay, lit by daylight through a window in the top of the cabinet, with a built-in clock and alarm.[4][3][6]
History
[edit | edit source]Electronic Games announced Donkey Kong Junior in June 1983 as one of three new Mini-Arcades for that year, with Ms. Pac-Man and Zaxxon, and showed it "as a mini-arcade".[1] According to the Handheld Museum, Coleco first showed a prototype in the arcade-cabinet style of its VFD games in a Toy Fair catalogue, then sold Nintendo's tabletop version instead, changing only the colour of the case and the stickers.[4] MAME's notes on the Game & Watch range record that the tabletop version was licensed to Coleco.[3]
Coleco's instruction guide, No. 12230, is a Canadian printing copyrighted 1983 by Coleco (Canada) Limitée and printed in Japan.[5]
Hardware
[edit | edit source]A Sharp SM511 4-bit microcontroller runs the game and keeps the clock. It drives the LCD and a piezo buzzer; the joystick and buttons are on a separate control area at the front. A restorer who opened a Nintendo-branded CJ-71 found the SM511, the buzzer, the joystick and the buttons all working after the LCD had failed.[2] MAME has not dumped the CJ-71 and lists its chip as an SM511 with a question mark.[3]
The colours come from a coloured plastic sheet in front of the LCD, mounted at an angle in the cabinet, and the picture is lit from behind by light entering through a translucent panel at the back and top of the case. It cannot be played in the dark.[4][6] Coleco's guide warns not to cover the upper side of the unit, because it needs light from above.[5]
Controls and the clock
[edit | edit source]| Control | Use |
|---|---|
| Control lever | Moves Junior; in time setting, sets the hours |
| JUMP button | Jump and grab; in time setting, sets the minutes |
| GAME A, GAME B | Show that game's best score while held; the game starts on release |
| TIME | Starts the clock after setting; stops the alarm; shows the alarm time while held |
| ACL | Resets the unit into time setting, clearing the best scores and the alarm |
| ALARM | Enters alarm setting |
Game A is for beginners and Game B is harder. The game keeps the best score for each, and pressing ACL or taking the cells out erases them. After about five minutes idle at the end of a game the display returns to the clock. At the alarm time Mario whistles for about a minute; TIME stops it. To reset the time without losing the scores or the alarm, hold TIME while pressing and releasing ALARM.[5]
The guide says to press ACL and ALARM lightly with a pointed instrument but not with a pencil or a pin, and that holding ACL down for long shortens battery life considerably.[5]
Care
[edit | edit source]From Coleco's guide:[5]
- The game takes two C cells. Weak cells make the display faint and hard to read and the sound weak or absent; replace them at once, because exhausted cells harm the unit.
- Do not leave old cells in the game. Remove them for storage; see Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage if they have leaked.
- At low temperatures the display responds slowly or may not appear. High temperatures destroy the liquid crystal: never leave the game in a car in direct sunlight.
- Do not lift the unit by the screen.
- Wipe dust off with a soft dry cloth. Do not use thinners, benzine or alcohol.
Faults
[edit | edit source]An LCD that has leaked cannot be repaired; the Mini-Arcade site's repair guide treats liquid crystal bleeding as the end of a display.[7] The Hackaday.io restorer's CJ-71 had a completely dead display, with the liquid crystal leaked and the glass fogged, while the rest of the game worked; it was brought back by fitting a modern TFT screen and a Raspberry Pi Pico running a reimplementation of the game, powered from the original C cells.[2] The Coleco and Nintendo tabletops differ only in the case colour and stickers, so a Coleco unit is open to the same failure.[3][4]
The shared Mini-Arcade guides cover the VFD games and do not apply to this one.
Documentation
[edit | edit source]- Instructions and Game Rules, Guide No. 12230 (Coleco (Canada), 1983), described on Coleco Mini-Arcade Instruction Manuals.
Related pages
[edit | edit source]- Coleco Donkey Kong Mini-Arcade
- Coleco Mini-Arcade Instruction Manuals
- Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "More Mini-Arcades A Comin'", Electronic Games, vol. 1 no. 16, June 1983, p. 10. Internet Archive scan. Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong Junior and Zaxxon announced as the new Mini-Arcades for 1983; photograph captioned "Here's Donkey Kong Jr. as a mini-arcade".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Donkey Kong Jr. Table Top Revival (CJ-71)", Hackaday.io project, created 3 June 2026 (retrieved 2026-10-06): a Nintendo CJ-71 with a dead, leaking LCD; the Sharp SM511, piezo, joystick and buttons still working; two LR14 C cells; the LCD replaced with a TFT driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 MAME source, hh_sm510.cpp (retrieved 2026-10-06): the Game & Watch model list, with CJ-71 Donkey Kong Jr. (tabletop) listed as an SM511 that has not been dumped; and the notes on the Panorama version CJ-93, which say the tabletop version was also licensed to Coleco.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Handheld Museum, "Coleco Donkey Kong Jr." (retrieved 2026-10-06): 1983, LCD, two C cells, model 2398; planned as the sixth arcade-shaped game; prototype and box from a Toy Fair catalogue; the production game is the Nintendo Game & Watch tabletop with a different case colour and stickers; colour LCD lit by an external light source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Coleco (Canada) Limitée, Donkey Kong Jr. Instructions and Game Rules, model 2398, Guide No. 12230, 1983, printed in Japan: p. 1 (two C alkaline cells, clock with alarm, two skill levels), p. 2 (names of parts, time set), p. 3 (time and alarm set, game start, ACL erases high score), pp. 4–5 (play), p. 6 (points, misses, bonus, return to the clock after about five minutes), p. 7 (batteries and cautions). Hosted here as File:Coleco Donkey Kong Jr Tabletop Instructions Guide 12230.pdf (see Coleco Mini-Arcade Instruction Manuals).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Nicole Branagan, "Too Good to be First-Party: Coleco's Tabletop Donkey Kong Junior", Nicole Express, 26 October 2025 (retrieved 2026-10-06): the Coleco game is a rebadged and recoloured Nintendo Game & Watch tabletop, not a VFD game, lit through a translucent rear panel; the ACL button and the Sharp 4-bit microcontroller.
- ↑ Mini-Arcade, "How to fix a handheld game" (retrieved 2026-10-06), repair 6: liquid crystal bleeding or black ink spots on an LCD mean the screen is beyond hope. Generic advice for handheld games.