Donkey Kong (game)

Donkey Kong was Nintendo's first big hit in North America. It also marked the first appearance of Mario (originally known as "Jumpman", a carpenter) and of the original Donkey Kong.

The game sold well in the United States. It is one of four games to be inducted into the Nintendo Hall of Fame. The original arcade version has four screen levels, but the Nintendo Entertainment System version only has three, with the stage 50m cut from this version.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl also has the game Donkey Kong as an unlockable masterpiece. Instead of starting from the beginning stage, players will start at the second stage. To unlock it, the player must play the game for ten hours. There is also an unlockable stage, 75m that is based on the third level of the game.

Story
Donkey Kong has kidnapped Mario's girlfriend Pauline (originally known as Lady), and taken her to the top of a construction site. Mario must climb to the top of this of this construction site and rescue Pauline from the giant ape, known as Donkey Kong.

Official Story Quoted From Nintendo of America
"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 in this very moment".

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. Donkey 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 girls' constant please 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.

As little Mario gallantly battles his way up the barriers, he is taunted and teased by Donkey Kong, who brazenly struts back and forth, beating his chest in joyful exuberance at the prospect of having the beautiful girl all to himself. It is your job to get little Mario to the top. For it is there, and only there, that he can send the mighty Donkey Kong to his mortal doom. Leaving little Mario and the beautiful girl to live happily ever after. "SIGH. SIGH".

Characters

 * Mario (Playable)
 * Pauline (Non-Playable)
 * Donkey Kong (Villain)

Enemies

 * Fireball
 * Foxfires
 * Cement Pie
 * Normal Barrels
 * Blue Barrels - (Also called Beams)
 * Springs

Items

 * Hammer
 * Pauline's items

Levels

 * 25m
 * 50m
 * 75m
 * 100m

History
Donkey Kong was created when Shigeru Miyamoto, under the supervision of the late Gunpei Yokoi, was assigned by Nintendo to convert Radar Scope, a poorly selling arcade game in North America, into a game that would have more appeal to gamers. Shigeru Miyamoto said that he did not focus on the story of the game. He also said that Jumpman and the Lady were not intended to have a relationship, and he did not know where the connection idea came from, but he thought that it did not matter much. The result was a major breakthrough for Nintendo and for the video game industry. Sales of the machine were brisk, with the game becoming the best selling arcade machine of all time in its era. The gameplay itself was the first of its time. With the growing base of arcades to sell to, the game was able to gain huge distribution. A little well known fact is that Donkey Kong was the first appearance of Nintendo's world famous Mario character - originally known as Jumpman in this game, but early renamed Mario by Nintendo of America. The machine was Nintendo's first worldwide success. In 1982, Universal Studios sued Nintendo, claiming that Donkey Kong infringed on Universal Studios' intellectual property rights to the film King Kong. Howard Lincoln, attorney and future president of Nintendo of America, decided to fight the case, and hired seasoned attorney John Kirby to represent Nintendo. When Kirby showed that not only was Nintendo not in violation of any copyrights, 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.

The Donkey Kong arcade saved Nintendo from certain bankruptcy. Due to the huge success of Donkey Kong, Nintendo of America was able to grow and release many more games in succeeding years and had the resources necessary to release the Nintendo Entertainment System in the USA.

Documentary
In 2007, a documentary film directed by Seth Gordon based of Donkey Kong was released. The film centers around a high school teacher, Steve Wiebe as he tries to get a world high score for the game, from the current reigning champion Billy Mitchell only to be beaten every time he gets a new high score.

Sequels
"Donkey Kong" has seven sequels to date.
 * Donkey Kong Jr.
 * Donkey Kong II
 * Donkey Kong 3
 * Donkey Kong '94

Ports
In addition to the arcade version, Donkey Kong was ported into several other gaming systems and computers.
 * NES
 * Game & Watch
 * GBA as Classic NES Series: Donkey Kong
 * Famicom Disk System
 * Animal Crossing
 * Atari 2600
 * Atari 7800
 * Atari 8-bit computers
 * ColecoVision
 * Intellivision
 * Commodore VIC-20
 * Commodore 64
 * Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
 * Amstrad CPC
 * ZX Spectrum
 * Virtual Console
 * Donkey Kong Classics
 * Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Jr./Mario Bros.
 * Donkey Kong 64 (arcade version included as a mini-game)
 * Donkey Kong Original Edition

It is also playable as a demo in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a Masterpiece. However, it starts on the third level, 75M. 75M also happens to be a stage that is unlockable in Brawl.

Trivia

 * The 22nd board is the final level of the game; Mario instantly dies within eight seconds of playing in the level, regardless of how many lives the player has left. This bug, known as a kill screen, happens due to a programing oversight in which the game does not have enough memory to continue. Games such as Pac-Man and Duck Hunt have kill screens too.
 * In the Frantic Factory level of Donkey Kong 64, an original arcade machine can be found. If Donkey Kong has learned to pull levers, he can play the original game (as Mario, though). In order to reach King K. Rool, this game must be completed twice up to the last level, with Mario starting out with one life and able to gain one more each per 10,000 points. When it is played the second time(after winning the bananna from the first time), Pauline is replaced with a Nintendo 64 coin, and the player receives this when beating the game again.
 * The reason it is in the game is revealed in the manual - Cranky Kong had personally designed a level called the "Great Girder Grapple," but doesn't see it anywhere on the list. He then assumes it might be in the game as an easter egg. That explains why it is, literally, an Arcade game.
 * Donkey Kong was the second platformer ever made, Space Panic being the first in history.
 * The 50m stage from the arcade game wasn't present in the NES version, supposedly due to a lack of space. As a result, that version only contains three stages, as opposed to the original four.
 * Intelligent Systems' own website claims credit for developing the NES port for Nintendo, but neither the cartridge nor title screen mentions them.
 * The Arcade game placed 103rd in the 200th Issue of GameInformer's "Top 200 Games of All Time".
 * Strangely, the clothes Mario is wearing on the cover of the game are different to the clothes he wears in-game.
 * It's also weird as to how Mario was referred to as Mario in the game's flier. His original name (or current name when the arcade game was introduced) was Jumpman, not Mario.