Released on this day in 1981: Donkey Kong

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Previously at DU:

July 9, 1981 – Donkey Kong, a video game created by Nintendo, is released.

Donkey Kong (video game)

Donkey Kong


1981 North American arcade promotional flier

Developer(s)
Nintendo R&D1
Nintendo R&D2 (NES)
Release
JP: July 9, 1981
NA: July 31, 1981
EU: 1981
Genre(s): Platform
Mode(s): Single-player
Cabinet: Upright, mini, and cocktail
Arcade system: Radar Scope
CPU: Z80 @ 3.072 MHz
Sound: i8035
Display: Raster monitor (vertical, 224×256 resolution, 256 out of 768 colors

Donkey Kong is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. An early example of the platform game genre, the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Mario (originally named Mr. Video and then Jumpman) must rescue a damsel in distress named Pauline (originally named Lady), from a giant ape named Donkey Kong. The hero and ape later became two of Nintendo's most popular and recognizable characters. Donkey Kong is one of the most important games from the golden age of arcade video games as well as one of the most popular arcade games of all time.

Mario

Mario



Mario (Japanese: マリオ Hepburn: Mario, pronounced [ma.ɾi.o]; English: /ˈmɑːrioʊ, ˈmær-/; Italian: [ˈmaːrjo]) is a fictional character in the Mario video game franchise, owned by Nintendo and created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as the company's mascot and the eponymous protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation. Depicted as a short, pudgy, Italian plumber who resides in the Mushroom Kingdom, his adventures generally center upon rescuing Princess Peach from the Koopa villain Bowser. His younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick is Luigi.
....

Appearances

Main article: [link:List of Mario video games|List of Mario video games]

1981–1990



Mario's sprite animation from Super Mario Bros. (1985).

Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong on July 9, 1981. He is shown to be a carpenter and has a pet ape called Donkey Kong. The carpenter mistreats the ape and Donkey Kong escapes to kidnap Jumpman's girlfriend, originally known as the Lady, but later named Pauline. The player must take the role of Jumpman and rescue the girl.

[ProudLib72]

1. More

In 1981, Nintendo was pursuing a license to make a game based on the Popeye comic strip. When this fell through, Nintendo decided that it would take the opportunity to create new characters that could then be marketed and used in later games.[2][3] Shigeru Miyamoto came up with many characters and plot concepts, but he eventually settled on a gorilla/carpenter/girlfriend love triangle that mirrored the rivalry between Bluto and Popeye for Olive Oyl.[4]

Bluto was replaced by an ape, which Miyamoto said was "nothing too evil or repulsive", and the pet of the main character.[5] Miyamoto has also named "Beauty and the Beast" and the 1933 film King Kong as influences for the character.[6]

Miyamoto used "donkey" to convey "stubborn" in English; the name Donkey Kong was intended to convey "stubborn ape" to the American audience.[7][8][9] When he suggested this name to Nintendo of America, he was laughed at, but the name stuck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(character)

I can't imagine a world in which Donkey Kong was replaced by Bluto!

[TlalocW]

2. You don't have to imagine

It happened.

TlalocW

[ProudLib72]

3. I have been to a lot of arcades and played a lot of games

I believe this is my first time seeing this.

Just not the same at all!

[TlalocW]

4. I remember playing it as a kid in the 80s

I don't know why, but it was freakin' hard for me, and I was better than average at most games.

TlalocW

[norman_tonne]

5. Really nostalgaic..

I think i played it on a monochrome Apple computer. Was a gamer in those days

[PatrickforO]

6. Wow. That brings back old memories.

I used to play this, and pong.

But my favorite was asteroids.

[Ron Obvious]

7. On my old Kaypro II (which had no graphics) there was a version with only alphabetic characters

And the usual ASCII symbols. Everything was cleverly constructed with equal signs, dashes, brackets, etc. I think the Mario character was represented as a p when running one way, and q when running the other way.

I think it was called something like Ladders, and it was surprisingly fun to play.