Donkey Kong (game)

Donkey Kong was Nintendo's first big hit in America. It also marked the first appearances 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 NES version only has three (50m was 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.

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
 * Donkey Kong (Villain)

Enemies

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

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 the U.S., into a game that would have more appeal to gamers. Shigeru Miyamoto said that he didn't focus on the story of the game. He also said that Jumpman and the lady were not intended to have a relationship, and he didn't know where the connection idea came from, but he thought it didn't 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.

Kill Screen
The 22nd board is the final level of the game. The player can actually only play about 8 seconds of the level. After the time has past, Mario will instantly die and the player will receive a game over, regardless of how many lives the player has left. This happens because, due to a programing oversight, the game does not have enough memory to continue. This is called a kill screen. Many classic arcade games like Pac-Man or Duck Hunt have kill screens. Very few people have reached the kill screen. One of the most famous kill screens was recorded in the movie "King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters" by Steve Wiebe when he attempted to reach the world record score on Donkey Kong that was, at that point, held by Billy Mitchel. The record was held by Hank S. Chien after a while, but the record is now claimed by Billy Mitchell once again.

King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters
For years, many people have tried to earn the world record of most points on Donkey Kong. In 2007, a documentary was released about what is probably the most famous fight for "The King of Kong". In it, Billy Mitchell is the reigning "King of Kong" along with his records for Pac-Man and Burger Time. We are then introduced to Steve Wiebe, a man who has been laid off from Boeing. He then decides to play Donkey Kong. He then breaks Billy's score and becomes the "King of Kong". However, some extenuating circumstances resulted in his score being dropped. He then went to Funspot, a popular arcade for record holders, in order to redo his score. He then broke the record live at Funspot and even reached the Kill Screen. His celebration was short lived, as shortly after, Billy sent in a tape with a score that was higher than Steve's. Steve then traveled to a tournament in order to once again beat Billy. He fails, but Walter Day, the founder of Twin Galaxies, a game record holding company, finally accepted Steve as a legitimate gamer. The movie reaches the end of the third act with Steve failing to win. However, before the credits, it is shown that Steve finnaly reaches the record with a total of 1,049,100 points, followed by the credits. On the DVD release, a special feature called "The Saga Continues..." reveals what happened between the end of shooting of the movie and the release of the DVD. It turned out that, during the 25th anniversary of Billy's old score, Billy played a live score and took back the record with a total of 1,050,200 points. Steve previously tried to beat it at the premier of the movie but failed. In the years since the movie's DVD release, a Queens resident named Hank Chien earned the title of "King of Kong" with a total of 1,061,700 points. Billy has since beaten the record with a score of 1,062,800 points.

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

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

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

 * 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".
 * Another game, Donkey Kong Jenga, was themed after this game.
 * Strangely, the clothes Mario is wearing on the cover of the game are different to the clothes he wears in-game.
 * In "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters", Steve Wiebe actually does play the game Donkey Kong, but he plays it in a Donkey Kong Jr. cabinet.