Donkey Kong is a well known character in and outside the gaming community. His humble roots came from an arcade game called (you guessed it) Donkey Kong developed by Nintendo in 1981. In this game, you control Jumpman through up to four stages of a construction site chasing after Donkey Kong who kidnapped Lady. After winning the rivet stage , the game starts over in a harder setting. Game ends when all your lives are used up or you get bored of the game. The kill screen for the game occurs at level 22. My record is running through the levels completely three times then dying on the elevator level.
Some things you might not know about this game. Popeye was the inspiration for the game, but since Nintendo could not get the license for the characters, they decided to create new characters with the same plot. Thus, Jumpan (Mario) and Donkey Kong was born. Now, how did they come up with the name Donkey Kong? Well, Shigeru Miyamoto thought that "donkey" would translate to "stupid" in English. It doesn't, but the original name stuck, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Oh my god, just seeing that makes me want to play IMMEDIATELY!
ReplyDeleteCool blog! Post some more!
ReplyDeleteWell, looks like good luck with those characters to me :)
ReplyDeleteI had this as a handheld LCD game. Sorta looked like a Nintendo DS.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I heard Mario wasn't supposed to jump at first. Then Miyamoto changed it. "If a barrel came rolling towards you, what would you do?" is what he supposedly said.
I haven't played this in years...
ReplyDeletelol made my day
ReplyDeleteHaha Jumpman sounds like the most creative character name ever. But I remember this game, and it was soooo annoying when it didn't jump right.
ReplyDeleteI play this on my droid x. Check out my tutorial one emulators on your droid on my blog. Rootyourdroid.net
ReplyDeleteThe earlier days of video gaming....nostalgia
ReplyDeleteGame and Watch ftw..
ReplyDelete8bit games are still by far my favorite. Why? Because the programming makes them hard as hell to master. Games like Pacman, Centipede, and yes, Donkey Kong get increasingly more difficult as you beat level after level. Yeah, it's kind of cookie-cutter and repetitive, but it shows you that even a repeat of before can kick your ass.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I just found your blog, and I'm in love. Great posts!!!
Just listening to the music of this game inspirs memories of childhood vagrancy in the local arcades and the smell of fresh pizza.
ReplyDeleteI haven't played this in oh-so long. Thanks for the memories and the interesting insight on the origins. :)
ReplyDeleteI remember going to a local burger joint when this game first came out. They had a derivative of it called "Crazy Kong". I was too young to know the difference, though.
ReplyDeleteJumpman, lulz.
ReplyDeleteMario's first game!
ReplyDeletenostalgia!
I love classic video games.
ReplyDeleteFollowing.
I wouldn't change the name either, I love Donkey Kong!!
ReplyDeletegreat background on this, bro!
ReplyDeletelove this one, used to play it on my old Commodore 64
ReplyDeletegreat game! i just installed a bunch of emu's so might have to go play a few levels ;)
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the reasons I still own an NES.
ReplyDeletebest game of all time? I wish I had the game somewhere easy to play so I can finally beat it!@
ReplyDeleteif you want to get really inspired you should look up the king of kong documentary. The scores are insane.
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