Donkey Kong (game)

Donkey Kong was Nintendo's first big hit in America. It also marked the first appearances of Mario and Donkey Kong.

In this game, Donkey Kong had kidnapped Mario's girlfriend, Pauline. As Mario, your job was to get past Donkey Kong's obstacles to save Pauline.

When the game was first released, the hero was simply known as Jumpman and was a carpenter. Jumpman was later changed to Mario, supposedly because of a resemblance to Nintendo's landlord.

In addition to the arcade version, Donkey Kong was ported to the NES, Famicom Disk System, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, ColecoVision, and IntelliVision.

The game sold well and is considered a classic among classic game enthusiasts. It is one of four to the Nintendo Hall of Fame!

The original arcade version has four screen levels, but the NES version only has three (Screen Level 2 was cut from this version).

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".



Interesting Facts

 * Donkey Kong was the second platformer ever made, Space Panic being the first in history.
 * Donkey Kong's original engine was actually a heavily edited engine of Space Panic.
 * Pauline, according to the manual for the game, had blond hair. However, in the newer Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games, Pauline has brown-maroon hair.



History
Donkey Kong was created when Shigeru Miyamoto 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 Americans. The result was a major breakthrough for Nintendo and for the videogame 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 a large improvement over other games of its time, and with the growing base of arcades to sell to, it 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 - known as 'Jumpman' in this game. The machine was Nintendo's first worldwide success.

MGM sued Nintendo over copyright violations, claiming that Donkey Kong was a copy of King Kong. If victorious, this lawsuit would have crushed Nintendo of America, and the history of videogames would be drastically altered. Nintendo's lawyer, Howard Lincoln, who would go on to become a Senior Vice President of the company, discovered that MGM didn't own the copyright to King Kong either, and was able to not only win the lawsuit but get MGM to pay the legal costs.

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.

Story
Donkey Kong has kidnapped Jumpman's/Mario's girlfriend Pauline, and taken her to the top of a construction site. Jumpman must climb to the top of this construction site and rescue Pauline from the giant ape.

Sequels
This game had four sequels: Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis.

Trivia

 * In the Frantic Factory level of Donkey Kong 64, an original arcade machine can be found. If Donkey has learned to pull levers, he can play the original game. (as Mario, though).


 * It is debated that the Donkey Kong in this game is actually Cranky Kong, and that the Donkey Kong we know today is actually his son, probably Donkey Kong Jr.