It's a shame none of the ports were able to capture the arcade gameplay, having bad controls, missing stages, or both.

I remember discovering this game at the county fair one year and being quite impressed with the quasi 3D perspective and vibrant graphics.

I inherited an Atari 2600 when I was little and Congo Bongo was one of the games I wound up with. I barely got the hang of it, and it took me forever to actually get to stage 2, which only happened once. Even then, I had NO idea what to do in that stage. I don't think I ever liked it and just played it whenever I was bored with the other games. And funny thing, this game is CLEARLY inspired by the success of Donkey Kong, and Congo Bongo was the name of the island on the Donkey Kong Country cartoon. I refuse to take that as coincidental.

I can imagine kids back then getting a port with only 2 levels then for a birthday present their parents taking them to an arcade that might be a few towns over and having their minds blown when they got to stage 3.

As someone who played the A2600 version, I can confirm that only two stages are featured. But unlike many versions, there is an ending similar to the AC version.

“The Intellivision… the poor man’s Colecovision.” That’s a little unkind. The Intellivision came out in 1979, while the Colecovision released in 1982-only a year before the Famicom. The Intellivision also had some real gems in its library, including the first console RPG I’m aware of, the Treasure of Tarmin.

The arcade version is in my top 10 all time arcade games, cheers from Florida USA

I laugh about the title screen of the MSX version, where Bongo shakes a tree to let the hunter to fall down, the made me chuckle🤣

oh hey look, isometric 3D Donkey Kong.

I only ever saw this on my friend's VCS back in the day- I didn't even know there was an arcade game until years later. I just always assumed it was a Donkey Kong-a-like

Great video! I played this game on my c64 when i was a kid and the vic 20 seems a Tiger electronics version 😂 weird that Sega didn't release this game at least on the Master System or made a remake :/

Loved this game in the arcades back in the early-mid 1980s when I was a young adult (though it was rare to find it). Interestingly, the PSP has the arcade version, on the Sega Genesis collection, as an unlockable. Now I can suck all over again :)

Great video, as always. The arcade version looks good, and the Colecovision is the best port in my opinion.

Most of the ports are nothing but missed opportunities. I ❤ the coin-op.

Strange how many versions only have 2 short stages , would get bored very quickly

I have had the C64 since I was a kid. Also have the SG-1000/SC-3000 version. Wish they had some more content.

Thanks for a great show. There is also a disk version for the Commodore 64. That game improves on everything compared to the tape version.

You missed an European C64 version, which looks like souped up Apple version and contains all 4 stages

Outside of the moving sprites the Apple 2 port looks very nice. Stylish. Ive done the ones that are on Retroachievements. An underrated classic.

Glad I only played the Colecovision version back in the day.

Ikegami Tsushinki, the developpers of Congo Bongo also developped Donkey Kong and many popular games of the time.

even though it looks like it controls weird, i'm pretty impressed with what they were able to do with the 2600 port. :)

Ah. I was looking at this old arcade game recently because the latest mame release (0.264 in march 2024) post mentioned a rare 1983 game called Vampire from Entertainment Enterprises. I read online that it seemed to be similar to this specific game on Sega's Zaxxon hardware.

While Donkey Kong was easy to learn(especially the US screen order), yet hard to master, Congo Bongo was hard to learn and even harder to play and master. Graphically it was a step up from DK, and I think most of us saw it in arcades and put a token in for no other reason than how amazing it looked. But then you soon realize that playing it wasn't anywhere near as easy as DK was to play. It was Q-Bert meets a platformer, and while QB only required you to come to grips with the angle(the angled joystick helps), CB required you to learn the angle and move, run and jump in that same space. It just really wasn't well thought out past the we need a DK game, and make it look good, as nothing else seemed to matter. I owned the ColecoVision version, and by the looks of it, I had one of the better versions, if not the best as some of these shouldn't have even been attempted.

You're right about the IBM PC version's jumping sometimes not working -- it's a bug in the program (and not the emulator for a change!). I also remember having to step back before attempting a forward jump. Still, it's good for 15-20 minutes of fun.

I always liked Pengo and Congo Bongo in the arcades... especially Pengo cause it was really fun and stood out as a very colorful game... iirc Pengo ended up getting a 16bit MegaDrive update but it is a bit of a shock that Congo Bongo never made it past the SG-1000 even when there was a bit of a retro 80s arcade near perfect porting during the early 90s before PS1 came out and Ridge Racer reminded everyone about classic 80s arcade games that was brilliant by old Namco... and I always wanted Sega to copy that since they really could have.

Ikegami Tsushinki developed both Donkey Kong and this

Pretty cutting edge for 1983, compare against the mighty Atari's Crystal Castles also released the same year.

It's amazing how difficult it is to find the IBM disk version of this game nowadays. They're just not out there for sale.

The C64 had two versions of this.

Love this series. Bing watch time.

Sega's Answer to Donkey Kong

Quite the misfortune for Congo Bongo! But then again, this is 1983, before many powerful hardware, but even hardware that could pull if off, just had the wrong hands to work on them.

The Colecovision version cracks me up. Bongo just dumbly stands at the top, unmoving as coconuts fall. The Atari 2600 Bongo needs Ritalin. 😂 PS: the Atari 2600 version does have a final ending for Bongo screen.

The only port Ive ever played is the 2600 version, and that second stage always eluded me. I also wanna point out the irony that the Sega-developed port for the Sega-developed system can't even do the bare minimum that the Atari version did, in terms of level design.

There was an Amstrad CPC version advertised by Amsoft in 1985, and a planned ZX Spectrum version but both were scrapped

Early days for Sega here 😎

Hey Mark. Was always impressed with this games graphics when it first came out. It's basically Sega's attempt to do Donkey Kong in an isometric perspective. It doesn't always work,the control can be a bit wonky,but it did stand apart from other games at the time. I still have the Colecovision version and it was pretty good for the time. A fun game from a time before DEI was inserted in everything even Sega games .

there’s also an atari 800 port (8 bit computer). though from my memory it may be the same as the atari 5200 version.

A Master System port is needed. Sure it will be more closely to the arcade that anyone of these. You need a lot of imagination for playing Atari 2600 games in general terms 😂

I remember playing this game at the bowling alley on those Chinese bootleg icade machines.

3:15 wow! just wow! imagine if there's an amiga port of battletoads in battlemaniacs from probe software, where it glitches in ways to make you die from many unfair ways: you die from jumping in place, you die from using the attack button, you die from respawning, you die from replenishing your health, you die from not even doing anything with the game, you die from an idle animation, you die form pausing and unpausing and you die from completing the level.

Congratulations!! Good!!

Fun comparison. But you forgot to include the second C64 version (US Gold 1985) which is the better and more complete one.

Never heard of this one. That’s a hilarious setup, the ape sets fire to the players housing 😂 SEGA never released a Master System port?

ColecoVision seems to be the best attempt here. Otherwise, the best ports not mention are C64 Disk Version and Sega Ages 2500 PS2.

Buen video👍

I loved playing this game at the arcade as a kid even more so than Donkey Kong. On actual console hardware though it was only the Colecovision at a friends/relatives house. Even with emulation I've never seen it move/sound that fast. That footage looks like you may be playing the PAL version on a NTSC hardware, or a PAL ROM playing of a emulator set to NTSC.

I don’t think that I ever got past the first stage 😮

No idea how…but I had an SG1000 and this game in ‘83 or ‘84 in New Zealand. Not sure how that happened.

Another good vid.

You forgot the remake found on SEGA AGES 2500 Vol. 23: SEGA Memorial Selection on PS2

I think Congo Bongo is neat and looks cool, but I didn't like playing it. Isometric-type games are really just not for me. I've only played the arcade and 2600 versions though, and I do have to say that going the sort-of de-make route with the SG-1000 version was kind of interesting. Considering how terrible some of these other ports seem to play by your experience, maybe some of the other ports should have tried to do something different as well.

Just to say. Battle of the ports when it's Saturn, PSX and arcade is not so interesting (like, at all). This is why I subscribed. Lots of different versions on lots of different computers. 👍

In Europe came with a ridicolous name: *Tip Top*

Maybe most ports were missing two stages, because Donkey Kong ports also did? (Even Famicom/NES had missing pie stage, with is honestly bullcrap)

When you say "How come..." at 5:14, it's with the voice of a slightly annoyed parent speaking to a child, as in "How come when I want to do the washing, your clothes are strewn all over the floor?"

Nintendo didn't see that coming, eh?

"Ah the Intellivision, the poor's man ColecoVision" Harsh but true! 😂

I'm pretty sure it's best to say that the Colecovision wins over all of the ports trying to translate the original arcade game, even though it has 3 out of 4 stages.

The MSX character looks like some fat bloke rolling around to move, especially when his animations stop

what happened to the c64 us gold version form 1985 it has all 4 stages and looks much better than the sega 1983 version you showed here.

Mark, can you explain where the music for the intro and credits came from?

11.26 🤣🤣🤣

Oops, you missed the Atari 800 version. Although it's basically the 5200 one.

You forgot a big port in this vid. The Sega AGES 2500 Memorial collection version on PS2. That version is the very best one, bar none. Oh and Congo Bongo was made by Sega collaborating with Ikegami Tsushinki, who helped Nintendo make the original 2 DK games

Most of those old arcade ports for european computer were usually so bad that when you try to emulate them today you are always unsure if the emulation doesn't work properly or really those games were published broken beyond any playability. Old farts like us can tell you: yeah, they were published like that and yeah, that was awful as it looks like and maybe even a little more.

There is another c64 port from what i've seen on youtube

Hello Mark you missed the sega ages version anyways i dont like it either. I stick to the arcade and the 2600 version. Quiestion does the arcade is missing a sound sample?

I wouldn't be surprised if the TI-99 port used a different perspective during development. The movement makes no sense at all.

The Sega version of Nintendo's Donkey Kong

No Atari 800 port?

You forgot the second C64 version, that does have more stages : kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hbZzmcajuMuxZHk.html

Amazing they never ported this to any Sega consoles. Like they were ashamed of it or something.

Kong the lesser

You forgot the PS2 version!

Bit of a lame effort by SEGA for their own console it seems. The 1985 C64 version looks better than the one here but I don't know how it plays.

For a game that is older than me, it looks (the arcade version) rather nice. They even made hippo sprite with a color gradient. Intellivision even has an intro. That's interesting. Instead of joystick or a D-pad, controller for Intellivision has a rotating disc and a phone-like numpad. Yes, Atari 5200 was a huge failure for the company. The controller was abysmal and failure prone. "2600 is a pixel barf, as usual." VIC-20: "Hold my beer."

From someone who's never played the arcade or any ports I have to say it looks incredibly unappealing on every system.

None of these console/computer versions look spectacular. Colecovision's is OK but it misses a level. 5200 is awful. The monkeys in stage 1 of the 5200 version look like pixelated kittens. Stage 2's choppy movement is really off-putting. C64's disk version is a major improvement over the cartridge one shown here. All 4 levels are in it and it has wonderful graphics. Sadly it does leave out the ending.

Donkey Kong wannabe

This game stinks