Donkey Kong (video game)

Donkey Kong is an arcade video game made by Nintendo in 1981. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi after their other games failed in North America. It is the first game starring Mario (then called Jumpman) and Donkey Kong, where Mario has to climb a construction site to save his girlfriend Pauline from Donkey Kong, an escaped gorilla.

Donkey Kong
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Producer(s)	Gunpei Yokoi
Designer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto Gunpei Yokoi
Series	Donkey Kong/Mario
Engine	Radar Scope
Platform(s)	Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, TI-99/4A, ZX Spectrum, PC:DOS, MSX, NES, Famicom Disk System, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console (Wii, 3DS, Wii U), NES Classic Edition/Famicom Mini, Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online
Release	Arcade: JP: July 9, 1981 NA: July 31, 1981 EU: August 2, 1981 AU: November 22, 1981 2600, ColecoVision, INTV: NA: 1982 Atari 8-bit, Apple II, C64, TI-99, MS-DOS: NA: 1983 NES port: JP: July 15, 1983 NA: June 15, 1986 PAL: October 15, 1986 Famicom Disk System: JP: April 8, 1988 7800: NA: 1988 e-Reader: NA: November 11, 2002 Game Boy Advance: JP: February 14, 2004 NA: June 7, 2004 PAL: July 7, 2004 Virtual Console (3DS): JP: October 17, 2012 NA: August 15, 2013 PAL: November 21, 2013 EU: September 18, 2014 (Original Edition) AU: September 19, 2014 (Original Edition) KOR: March 2, 2016 Virtual Console (Wii U): WW: July 15, 2013 NES Classic Edition/Famicom Mini: JP: November 10, 2016 AU: November 10, 2016 NA: November 11, 2016 EU: November 11, 2016 Nintendo Switch (Arcade Archives): NA: June 14, 2018 JP: June 15, 2018 EU: June 15, 2018 AU: June 15, 2018 Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online: NA: September 18, 2018 JP: September 19, 2018 EU: September 19, 2018 AU: September 19, 2018 HK: April 23, 2019 KOR: April 23, 2019
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Up to two players, alternating turns
Cabinet	Upright, mini, and cocktail
Arcade system	Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 MHz) Sound CPU: I8035 (@ 400 kHz) Sound Chips: DAC (@ 400 kHz), Samples (@ 400 kHz)
Display	Raster, standard resolution 224 x 256 (Vertical) Palette Colors 256

Gameplay

The player is Jumpman (Mario). He must climb to the top of the level to reach his girlfriend Pauline who has been kidnapped by Donkey Kong, who escaped from a zoo. There are four different levels, and Donkey Kong has different weapons in each. Donkey Kong rolls barrels down a busted construction site, and Mario has to climb ladders and jump over these barrels until he reaches the top. He can grab a hammer to defeat obstacles, and each level has three of Pauline's things that will give him bonus points.

When Mario beats the fourth level, it goes back to the first level and it gets harder. Like all arcade games with looping levels has an end level because the game cannot go farther than that. In this, Mario dies ten seconds into the final level.

Music

The music was made by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka. Several remixes have been made of music from this game and used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Development

Shigeru Miyamoto made Donkey Kong with the help of other people, such as Gunpei Yokoi. It was based on an older Nintendo game called Radar Scope, which did not do very well in the United States, so Hiroshi Yamauchi, the president of Nintendo, asked Miyamoto to make a game to replace Radar Scope.

Name

There are a lot of rumors about where the name comes from. One rumor says that someone misheard or mistranslated the phrase "Monkey Kong" into Donkey Kong when talking over the phone or on a fax machine. Another rumor is that Miyamoto used a Japanese-to-English dictionary to find words that meant stubborn gorilla and came up with Donkey Kong.

Reception

When Donkey Kong was first announced in America, game magazines thought it was not going to be a good game because it was not like other games being made at the time, which were mostly shooting games. But when it came out, it got great reviews and made a lot of money at the arcades. It is one of Nintendo's most famous games ever made.

Legacy

There was a documentary made about the game called The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters where someone tries to beat the high score for the game.

A lot of items from this game are used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. There is also a stage that copies the third level.

Sequels and re-releases

Donkey Kong has had many sequels. Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 3 were sequels to this game. The playable character called Mario went on to become the biggest game character of all time, making Nintendo more than 1 billion dollars and releasing more than 200 games, more than any other series. Donkey Kong went on to have his own series apart from Mario, starting with Donkey Kong Country for the Super NES. Donkey Kong also starred in many more sequels, as well as spin-offs like the Donkey Konga music games.

Donkey Kong has been re-released many times; first on the Nintendo Entertainment System where it was the same game except that it does not have the second level. It has also appeared on other consoles including Atari consoles. A sequel came out for the Game Boy called Donkey Kong, which has the first four levels and 100 new levels after that.

Donkey Kong appeared as a bonus game in the Frantic Factory level for Donkey Kong 64.

This game has not to be confused with the Game & Watch Donkey Kong Jr. portable game console, because the history of the game is a little different. In the Game & Watch version, the main character is Donkey Kong Jr., that has to save its father Donkey Kong from Mario. This game recently released for the Nintendo DSi as a downloadable for the cost of 200 Nintendo Points.