I first played it in an arcade on the Gold Coast in the early 90s, and was hooked. When an NES version suddenly appeared (and it was immediately borrowed from ABC Video in Camberwell, a venture now replaced by a $2 shop) expectations were high, but ultimately unfulfilled.
To put it mildly the Nintendo version was absolutely shite, with none of the charm of the original. In the coin-op version you'd punch on with sensationally named people like "Violence Jo" and "Brown Pants" whereas on the Nintendo it would be E.Apollo or A.Madman (ha ha! Get it? A madman!). They also added some kind of shitty 'simulation' mode to try and rope real boxing fans in. Anyone who is familiar with the NES will know that for all its good points it was NOT the system you wanted to be running a realistic simulation of anything on.
Anyway, are we supposed to be discussing the shonky NES version here? I think not.
The sound effects in the original are nothing short of genius. A typical punching/knockdown combo sounds something like *whack* *whack* *whack* *wheeeeeeeeeeeee!* as your opponent flies halfway across the ring, bounces off the ropes and lands face first on the mat for the balding, Village People rip-off referee to start counting.
When you win your boxer (known creatively as "Player") does a little dance in the middle of the ring to a celebratory tune and you start racking up cash.
Sure, the moveset is a tad limited and the only real strategy is to smack the two buttons as quickly as is humanely possible and once in a while run away from your opponent to reload before launching another attack but it still works. If only because every time one of the boxers is punched his hair explodes in a Don King like fashion.
And the ultimate? It plays a sensationally Atari-esque version of "Baby Elephant Walk" over the high score list for no apparent reason.
Ring King - Approved.
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