Game:

Donkey Kong (1981)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 8:46

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Note: Mame Cheat is used on this Playthrough.

Donkey Kong was produced by Nintendo in 1981. Donkey Kong is a legendary arcade platform game in which the player takes on the role of Jumpman, who would later be renamed Mario and would go on to become Nintendo's mascot and a gaming legend. In this game, he must battle his way to the top of each level to rescue his beloved Pauline; who has been kidnapped by the giant ape, Donkey Kong.

Jumpman is controlled with a joystick and a single JUMP button and must avoid the rolling Barrels thrown at him by Donkey Kong, as well as other enemies, including Fireballs, Cement Pies, Springs, and Fire Foxes. Screens are negotiated with the use of ladders, ramps, conveyor belts and elevators. For additional points, players can collect umbrellas, hats, purses and other bonus items that Pauline has dropped on her way to the top of the building. Jumpman can also grab a hammer to smash Barrels, Beams, Fireballs, Cement Pies, and Firefoxes to earn additional bonus points. The hammer can only be used for a limited time, however, and Jumpman cannot jump or climb ladders while in possession of the hammer.

On the Ramp, Elevator and Conveyor Belt stages, whenever Jumpman reaches Pauline, Donkey Kong will grab her and carry her off to the next level. (Exception: On the Conveyor Belt stage, Jumpman only needs to reach Donkey Kong's platform to clear the stage.) On the Rivet stage, Jumpman must remove eight rivets by running or jumping over them. After all eight rivets are removed, Donkey Kong will fall head first onto a stack of girders, knocking him out, and Jumpman and Pauline will finally be reunited. The game then starts over again with an increased level of difficulty.

The game was originally going to be called 'Monkey Kong' but a mistake during the translation process from Japanese to English resulted in the now legendary name. The game's creator, the equally-legendary Shigeru Miyamoto denies this story to this day - claiming that the naming is deliberate as he wanted an animal name that would capture the 'stubborn' nature of the Kong character (as in 'stubborn as a mule'). Few within the industry believe this explanation, however.

The Japanese word for 'stupid' or 'foolish' literally means 'donkey-like'. So Donkey Kong can be interpreted as 'Stupid Kong'. However, since the Japanese language has no obscenities, translators usually use the same word when an obscene adjective is needed. So Donkey Kong can also be interpreted as 'F---ing Kong'. Mario was originally called 'Jumpman' when the arcade version of the game was first released. He wasn't officially renamed Mario until "Donkey Kong Jr.", but several home conversions of Donkey Kong, especially the NES/Famicom ports, have given him the Mario name. Likewise, Pauline was originally called "Lady". Her name changed about the same time Mario's name was changed.

Nintendo was sued by Universal Studios who said the Donkey Kong character infringed on the King Kong copyright. Nintendo's legal counsel, John Kirby of Latham & Watkins LLP, recalled an old case were the RKO Pictures sued Universal Studio for the same reason. At this time, Universal Studio had argued that King Kong was in the public domain. So, Universal Studio lost and had to pay Nintendo $1.8 million in damages. To thank John Kirby, Nintendo created a personage with the name of Kirby (originally called Popopo).

Donkey Kong introduced a number of wholly original game-play ideas to the platform genre. It was the first ever game to feature multiple play-fields, for example. It was also the first game that allowed players to jump over objects. The idea of jumping over objects came from Gunpei Yokoi. Initially, Shigeru Miyamoto assumed that the barrel could be avoided by climbing a ladder.

Its creation came about due to the commercial failure of another game called "Radar Scope". A consequence of which was an excess of redundant arcade cabinets. In an attempt to limit their losses, Nintendo commissioned Donkey Kong and history was made. Originally both the US and Japanese versions asked us 'How High Can You Try?'. This was quickly grammatically corrected to ask the familiar 'How High Can You Get?'.

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