Donkey Kong (game)
Donkey Kong is an arcade game created by Nintendo, released in 1981. The game introduced two of Nintendo's most important characters, Mario and Donkey Kong. The unusual name of the game is commonly believed to be due to a mistranslation, but Shigeru Miyamoto actually intended for it to have this name. The "Kong" part is obvious (see King Kong), but the "Donkey" part represents "Stubborn".
In the game, the player's character "Jumpman" (later: "Mario") must rescue his girlfriend Pauline.
Stages
There are four stages, each made up of a single screen, and which combine in various orders to form levels:
In the first screen, Jumpman must scale a crooked construction site while jumping over or hammering barrels tossed by Donkey Kong.
In the second, he must avoid pans of cement while running across conveyor belts. This level was omitted for the NES version and some other console versions.
In the third screen, he must ride up and down lifts to reach Pauline.
In the fourth screen, he must remove the rivets from the girders supporting Donkey Kong.
Successive levels become progressively harder and contain longer groups of screens. After 21 levels, the game's timer ticks down so quickly that the 22nd cannot be started.
In the original game as sold in Japan, the stages are simply run through in the order described above. The version sold in the United States is more complicated: 1,4,1,3,4,1,2,3,4.
Legacy
Donkey Kong was released at a time that Nintendo's American branch most needed it. Their most recent game, Radarscope, flopped in the arcade market, and they needed a game that would help keep them afloat. After Nintendo's Japanese branch had finished the game, Nintendo of America decided to test the marketability of the game in a similar fashion that Atari did with Pong - put it in a local tavern and see what the reaction was. The next day, the coin box had over $30 in quarters inside it, which the Nintendo execs took as the OK to start mass production.
Donkey Kong had two direct sequels: Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 3. Mario Bros. was a spin-off featuring the popular Jumpman character, now renamed Mario.
A clone of Donkey Kong called Crazy Kong, manufactured by Falcon, was licensed for some non-US markets. However, Crazy Kong games found their way into some U.S. arcades during the early 1980s, and Nintendo was quick to take legal action against those distributing the game in the U.S. Illegal bootleg copies of Donkey Kong also appeared in both the U.S. and France under the Crazy Kong name.
In 1994, the enhanced remake Donkey Kong '94 was released on the Game Boy, with Super Game Boy support, many new stages, and enhanced graphics and controls. This game may be regarded as the canon depiction of events in Mario and Donkey Kong's story.
Rareware revived the Donkey Kong license in the 1990s, for a series of platformer games and spin-offs; see the main Donkey Kong page for more.
The Killer List of Videogames (KLOV) readers rank Donkey Kong as the #3 most popular arcade game of all time. The KLOV includes it on its "Top 100 Videogames" list. It is the fifth most popular arcade game among collectors.
Ports
Like most arcade games of the era, Donkey Kong was ported to numerous home systems including Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Commodore VIC-20, e-Reader, Game & Watch multiscreen, Game Boy Advance, PC, Intellivision, Mini-Arcade, NES, and the TI 99/4A.
- A2600 Donkey Kong.png
- Intv Donkey Kong.png
- Coleco Donkey Kong.png
- C64 Donkey Kong.png
- A7800 Donkey Kong.png
In defence of the Atari 7800 version, the purplish girders are a result of poor colour tables in 7800 emulation. The actual Donkey Kong 7800 game features distinctly red girders.
Songs inspired by Donkey Kong
In 1982, Buckner and Garcia recorded a song titled "Do the Donkey Kong", using sound effects from the game, and released it on the album Pac-Man Fever. The song's refrain is, C'mon c'mon, c'mon c'mon, do the Donkey Kong, yeah you can do the Donkey Kong.
The game is also referenced in "Human Video Game" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.
Trivia
Sound effects from the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong are often heard in television shows where generic video game sounds are needed. In most cases, the audience cannot see what game is being played and these sound effects are consistent regardless of the game console being shown. In an episode of the 1993 series Kung Fu:The Legend Continues, these sounds were even heard when the character, during a childhood flashback sequence was playing what was obviously a handheld electronic football game.
