Donkey Kong (game): Difference between revisions

<blockquote><i>"HELP! HELP!" cries the beautiful maiden as she is dragged up a labyrinth of structural beams by the ominous Donkey Kong. "SNORT. SNORT." Foreboding music warns of the eventual doom that awaits the poor girl, lest she somehow be miraculously rescued. "But wait! Fear not, fair maiden. Little Mario, the carpenter, is in hot pursuit of you this very moment."<br>

Throwing fate to the wind, risking life and limb, or worse, little Mario tries desperately to climb the mighty fortress of steel, to save the lovely lady from the evil Mr. Kong. Little Mario must dodge all manner of obstacles- fireballs, plummeting beams and a barrage of exploding barrels fired at him by Donkey Kong. Amidst the beautiful girl's constant pleas for help, your challenge is to maneuver little Mario up the steel structure, while helping him to avoid the rapid-fire succession of hazards that come his way.<br>

''Donkey Kong'' stars Mario, who attempts to reach the top of a [[Construction Site|construction site]] where Lady is held captive. He can walk along platforms, jump, and climb [[ladder]]s as well. In the process, Donkey Kong may attempt to hinder Mario from a higher location by sending obstacles at him. Mario has the ability to jump over these obstacles or obliterate them using a [[Hammer]]; in both cases, he obtains a number of points that are added to a [[score]]. However, if Mario ends up falling off the side of a platform and lands on one below him (or none), and the difference in height is greater than Mario's by one and a half, he loses a life. Each time Mario reaches Lady, Donkey Kong will carry her away on a pair of ladders to the next level until the fourth stage, where he is defeated upon completion.

|Fireballs that are larger than usual, making them harder to jump over. Multiple Fires spawn from the sides of the screen, and can be fended off using a Hammer.

|Hammers can be used to defeat all enemies in the game. As soon as Mario grabs a hammer, he starts swinging the hammer back and forth repeatedly, and strikes anything in his path. While holding the hammer, Mario cannot jump. After a certain time, the hammer disappears and cannot be used again until another one is picked up.

Although the game is intended to be playable indefinitely by not having a level cap, it is impossible to complete the first screen of level 22 (this is the 85th screen in the Japanese versions and 117th screen in the international versions), due to a [[glitch]] within the process of calculating the time limit. Said time limit is calculated using the formula ''(10 &times; level number) + 40'' and shown in hundreds as a bonus counter in the top right edge of the screen. Because the calculated value is stored as an 8-Bit integer, which can only save 256 different values ranging from 0 to 255, and the formula results in a value of 260 for level 22, an integer overflow occurs and the value is saved modulo 256, which means 260 is saved as 4. This leads to a starting value of 400 for the timer of level 22, so that Mario dies a few seconds after starting the level, being unable to finish it.<ref>http://donhodges.com/how_high_can_you_get.htm</ref>

''Donkey Kong'' was created in late 1980 when [[Shigeru Miyamoto]], under the supervision of the late [[Gunpei Yokoi]], was assigned by Nintendo to convert ''{{wp|Radar Scope}}'', a poorly selling arcade game in North America, into a game that would have more appeal to more gamers. Shigeru Miyamoto later admitted that he did not focus on the story of the game, instead creating a basic plot with colorful characters and music that he himself penned<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz0P_TcikwA&t=27m24s A Discovery Channel documentary on video games] reveals that Miyamoto wanted to make ''Donkey Kong'' tell a story, and also wrote the music for the game. ''YouTube''. Referenced March 22, 2015</ref>. He said that Mario and Lady were not intended to have a relationship, and he did not know where the idea came from, but he thought that it did not matter much.{{ref needed}} The game was also originally designed to have Mario escape from a maze, and jumping was not yet implemented, making platforming too difficult.<ref>[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/11/25/news-miyamoto-mario-initially-couldn-t-jump.aspx GameInformer interview with Shigeru Miyamoto]</ref> In a time where arcade games took around two to three months to build, ''Donkey Kong'' was built in four or five months and Shigeru Miyamoto was focused on developing it for a global market rather than just for Japan.<ref name=NESClassic>[https://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/donkey-kong-developer-interview Developer Interview Donkey Kong]</ref> The final version of the game was a major breakthrough for Nintendo and for the video game industry, becoming one of the best selling arcade machines of its time. Its platforming gameplay also distinguished it from most other arcade games at the time.  

In 1982, around a year after the game's release, {{wp|Universal Studios}} sued [[Nintendo]], claiming that ''Donkey Kong'' infringed on Universal Studios's intellectual property rights to the film ''{{wp|King Kong}}''. {{wp|Howard Lincoln}}, attorney and future president of [[Nintendo|Nintendo of America]], decided to fight the case and hired seasoned attorney {{wp|John Kirby (attorney)|John Kirby}} to represent Nintendo. When Kirby showed that not only was Nintendo not likely in violation of any trademarks, but also that Universal Studios themselves had sued RKO Pictures in 1975 to prove that the plot of ''King Kong'' was in fact in the public domain, Judge Robert W. Sweet ruled in Nintendo's favor, ordering Universal to pay Nintendo $1.8 million in legal fees. In an ironic twist, Judge Sweet also ruled that Tiger's ''King Kong'' video game, licensed by Universal, infringed on ''Donkey Kong''. After the victory, Nintendo awarded John Kirby with a $30,000 sailboat, christened the ''Donkey Kong'', and gave him "exclusive worldwide rights to use the name for sailboats."<ref>Sheff, David (1999). ''Game Over: Press Start to Continue: The Maturing of Mario''. Wilton, Connecticut: Gamepress. Page 126.</ref><ref name=Universal>[https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/615/838/1515073/ Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co. Ltd.] at Justia. Retrieved March 19, 2021.</ref>

To meet unexpectedly high demand for arcade machines, Nintendo licensed production to other companies.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19811001p/page/n11/mode/2up Game Machine #174 October 1, 1981 issue, page 24]</ref> ''[[Crazy Kong]]'' was an officially-licensed clone of ''Donkey Kong'' manufactured by Falcon. They were allowed to produce a certain amount of printed circuit boards (PCB) and were banned from exporting them. Falcon breached this agreement by producing more than 9000 excess units and also by exporting them to the US. On January 29, 1982, Nintendo terminated their license agreement. On June 1, Nintendo Japan filed for an injunction against Falcon in Kyoto District Court, which was granted on June 5. A countersuit by Falcon was won by Nintendo.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19820815p/page/n13/mode/2up Game Machine #194 August 15, 1982 issue, page 26]</ref> On October 13, Nintendo launched a lawsuit seeking damages against Falcon.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19821201p/page/n13/mode/2up Game Machine #202 December 1, 1982 issue, page 26]</ref> This experience led Nintendo to decide to produce all ''[[Donkey Kong Jr. (game)|Donkey Kong Jr.]]'' machines by themselves.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19820915p/page/n15/mode/2up Game Machine #196 September 15, 1982 issue, page 30]</ref> Falcon's president was later arrested for unauthorized copying of ''Donkey Kong Jr.'' PCBs.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19830301p/page/n15/mode/2up Game Machine #207 March 1, 1983 issue, page 30]</ref>

**The game does not work on the Intellivision II due to an intentional cartridge lockout, meant to affect Coleco and other third party cartridge producers. The Intellivision II checks that valid numeric values have been put in the addresses used by the Exec routine's "Mattel Electronics Presents" startup screen. ''Donkey Kong'' skips this routine in favor of a custom Coleco startup screen, thus failing to pass the subsequent later check of the data. ''Donkey Kong Jr.'' (and other 3rd party games) would later work around this by putting appropriate values in the copyright memory locations, even though they still did not use the Exec's startup screen.

**A prototype made its debut at the June 1983 Consumer Electronics Show and caused a dispute with Atari which held the rights for home computer releases. Atari cancelled a nearly finished deal to distribute a localized version of the upcoming [[Family Computer]] in North America in retaliation on the mistaken belief that Nintendo gave its blessing to Coleco's port.<ref>[https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/02/feature_remember_when_atari_turned_down_nintendo_and_sega Remember When Atari Turned Down Nintendo And Sega?]</ref> Coleco justified its existence in that the prototype used a ColecoVision cartridge as opposed to a cassette or floppy disk. Coleco agreed to not bundle this port as a pack-in game for the Adam so its release was pushed back to 1984, which by then the disastrous faults of the Adam had become well known. The released version, part of Coleco's Super Game series, uses a proprietary cassette. Nintendo awarded Atari the rights to publish ''[[Mario Bros. (game)|Mario Bros.]]'' for both home consoles and computers outside of Japan one week after the CES.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/game-machine-magazine-19830815p/page/n14/mode/1up Game Machine #218 August 15, 1983 issue, page 28]</ref> These events, along with the {{wp|video game crash of 1983}}, caused Nintendo to push back the development and release of the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] in North America for two years.

**In 25 m, blue barrels do not appear, and are instead replaced by barrels that go sideways.

**The second port, entitled ''Donkey Kong Original Edition'' (ドンキーコング オリジナルエディション), attempted to adhere to the arcade version, and was pre-installed for the European release of the Mario 25th Anniversary limited edition red [[Wii]] in 2010. This version restored some missing animations and the level 50 m, which was cut from the NES version, although Donkey Kong mistakenly stands still in this level, and while the port's graphics are an improvement to the NES port, it is still inferior to the true arcade version, which remains unavailable on Virtual Console. This port was made available on the [[Nintendo 3DS#Nintendo eShop|Nintendo eShop]] in Japan when a [[Club Nintendo (rewards program)|Club Nintendo]] member purchased the download version of one of two games, one of which was ''[[New Super Mario Bros. 2]]''<ref>http://nadgame.blogspot.com/2012/07/new2dl.html#!/2012/07/new2dl.html</ref>, from July 28, 2012 to September 2, 2012.<ref>http://themushroomkingdom.net/games/dkoe-3ds</ref> A similar promotion took place in the US between October 1, 2012 and January 6, 2013, exclusively to members of Club Nintendo who have, within the aforementioned time frame, linked their systems to their Club Nintendo accounts and have purchased the downloadable version of one of five select 3DS titles (one of which was ''[[Paper Mario: Sticker Star]]''). There are currently no plans for a wide release of this version in the U.S., although it was released in Europe for the 3DS eShop on September 18, 2014.

*''[[amiibo tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits]]'' (NES version included as a "highlight"; the player can play on 25 m, 75 m and 100 m in three separate "scenes", each of which are 180 seconds long)

Although Ikegami Tsushinki is uncredited, a 1996 article published in Bit Magazine and written by one of the programmer involved, Hirohisa Komanome, reveals the name of the programmers who worked on the game<ref>Hirohisa Komanome, [http://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/~ninten-zatsugaku/donkeykong.html ドンキーコング・池上通信機器事件], web transcript published on December 26 2002. Retrieved April 21, 2016.</ref>.

*''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]'': [[Clawgrip]] tosses down rocks and beats his chest in a similar manner to Donkey Kong in this game.

*''[[Donkey Kong 64]]'': A direct port of the arcade game is playable by accessing an arcade machine in [[Frantic Factory]]. The song that plays in [[Creepy Castle]] is also a remade version of the music that plays when Donkey Kong is climbing up the construction site with Pauline. A red girder which looks similar to those from 75 m can also be seen inside [[DK's Tree House]].

*''[[Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker]]'': The music played and animation when the player picks up a [[Super Pickaxe]] are identical to when Mario grabs a Hammer in this game. Also, the level [[Retro Ramp-Up]] is based on this game, but replacing Donkey Kong with a [[Spike]] throwing spiked balls.  

*''[[Super Smash Bros. for Wii U]]'': 75 m returns as a stage. This game is also once again featured as a Masterpiece. Pauline appears in the form of a trophy. In addition, the ending of [[Pac-Man]]'s debut trailer, "Red, Blue, and Yellow", subtly referenced the game by showing Mario and Donkey Kong slightly off screen with arrows pointing to them with the year "1981" on top while Pac-Man and Mr. Game & Watch were quarreling.

*''[[Super Mario Odyssey]]'': Pauline brings up the events of this game in a few lines of dialog, and stand-ins for her items appear as part of a quest to find her a gift. Mario's original outfit appears as the Classic Suit for Mario. Red girders appear in the [[Metro Kingdom]] (which is a reference to the ''Donkey Kong'' series) and are in a few parts of the city. Many of the billboards use art from the arcade cabinet, and Pauline and Donkey Kong's original designs appear as graffiti art on a building as well. The license plates for the taxi cabs also read "1981-ND", a reference to the year ''Donkey Kong'' released. In an 8-bit segment using sprites from ''Donkey Kong'' in the Metro Kingdom, Mario must climb girders while avoiding barrels. Oil Drums also appear, along with coins spelling out "DK". The music for 25 m can be heard in "[[Jump Up, Super Star!]]", as well as during the ending cutscene variation of "[[Break Free (Lead the Way)]]". Also, the sound effect that plays when Mario jumps over a barrel can be heard in the aforementioned riff.

*''[[Mario Kart Tour]]'': Portions of this game can be seen in Times Square's screens in New York Minute. Mario (Classic) uses Mario's original outfit colors.