DONKEY KONG, THE GOLDEN AGE OF ARCADE GAMES

Donkey Kong

Today, The Grandma has stayed at home playing one of her favourite arcade games, Donkey Kong that was released by Nintendo on a day like today in 1981.

The Grandma loves Nintendo games and she remembers the first time she bought one of them, in the 80's, when she went to the commercial zone of the Port of Barcelona to buy an amazing console of Donkey Kong.

Some decades later, The Grandma continues loving this wonderful game and she wants to talk about its origins and its history. She has invited Claire Fontaine to play together.

Before talking about Donkey Kong, The Grandma has continued studying her Ms. Excel course.

Chapter 6. The Functions (II) (Spanish Version) 
 

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 is 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.

More information: Donkey Kong Nintendo

The game was the latest in a series of efforts by Nintendo to break into the North American market. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's president at the time, assigned the project to a first-time video game designer named Shigeru Miyamoto. Drawing from a wide range of inspirations, including Popeye, Beauty and the Beast, and King Kong, Miyamoto developed the scenario and designed the game alongside Nintendo's chief engineer, Gunpei Yokoi. The two men broke new ground by using graphics as a means of characterization, including cutscenes to advance the game's plot, and integrating multiple stages into the gameplay.

The Grandma & Claire ready to play Donkey Kong

Nintendo's American staff was initially apprehensive but Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically in North America and Japan. Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, who developed home console versions for numerous platforms. Other companies cloned Nintendo's hit and avoided royalties altogether.

Miyamoto's characters appeared on cereal boxes, television cartoons, and dozens of other places. A lawsuit brought on by Universal City Studios later Universal Studios, alleging Donkey Kong violated its trademark of King Kong, ultimately failed. The success of Donkey Kong and Nintendo's victory in the courtroom helped to position the company for video game market dominance from its release in 1981 until the late 1990s.

Following 1980's Space Panic, Donkey Kong is one of the earliest examples of the platform game genre even prior to the term being coined; the U.S. gaming press used climbing game for games with platforms and ladders. As the first platform game to feature jumping, Donkey Kong requires the player to jump between gaps and over obstacles or approaching enemies, setting the template for the future of the platform genre. With its four unique stages, Donkey Kong was the most complex arcade game at the time of its release, and one of the first arcade games to feature multiple stages, following 1980's Phoenix and 1981's Gorf and Scramble.

More information: Time

Competitive video gamers and referees stress the game's high level of difficulty compared to other classic arcade games. Winning the game requires patience and the ability to accurately time Mario's ascent. In addition to presenting the goal of saving Pauline, the game also gives the player a score. Points are awarded for the following: leaping over obstacles; destroying objects with a hammer power-up; collecting items such as hats, parasols, and purses presumably belonging to Pauline; removing rivets from platforms; and completing each stage determined by a steadily decreasing bonus counter.

The player typically receives three lives with a bonus awarded for 7,000 points, although this can be modified via the game's built in DIP switches. One life is lost whenever Mario touches Donkey Kong or any enemy object, falls too far through a gap or off the end of a platform, or lets the bonus counter reach zero.

The game is divided into four different single-screen stages. Each represents 25 meters of the structure Donkey Kong has climbed, one stage being 25 meters higher than the previous. The final stage occurs at 100 meters.

More information: Classic Gaming

Stage one involves Mario scaling a construction site made of crooked girders and ladders while jumping over or hammering barrels and oil drums tossed by Donkey Kong. Stage two involves climbing a five-story structure of conveyor belts, each of which transport cement pans. The third stage involves the player riding elevators while avoiding bouncing springs. The fourth and final stage requires Mario to remove eight rivets from the platforms supporting Donkey Kong; removing the final rivet causes Donkey Kong to fall and the hero to be reunited with Pauline. These four stages combine to form a level.

Upon completion of the fourth stage, the level then increments, and the game repeats the stages with progressive difficulty. For example, Donkey Kong begins to hurl barrels faster and sometimes diagonally, and fireballs speed up. The victory music alternates between levels 1 and 2. The fourth level, however, consists of 5 stages with the final stage at 125 meters. The 22nd level is colloquially known as the kill screen, due to an error in the game's programming that kills Mario after a few seconds, effectively ending the game.

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is considered to be the earliest video game with a storyline that visually unfolds on screen. The eponymous Donkey Kong character is the game's de facto villain. The hero is a carpenter originally unnamed in the Japanese arcade release, later named Jumpman and then Mario.

Donkey Kong kidnaps Mario's girlfriend, originally known as Lady, but later renamed Pauline. The player must take the role of Mario and rescue her. This is the first occurrence of the damsel in distress scenario that would provide the template for countless video games to come.

The game uses graphics and animation as vehicles of characterization. Donkey Kong smirks upon Mario's demise. Pauline has a pink dress and long hair, and a speech balloon crying "HELP!" appears frequently beside her. Mario, depicted in red overalls and a red cap, is an everyman character, a type common in Japan.

More information: Kotaku

Graphical limitations and the low pixel resolution of the small sprites prompted his design: drawing a mouth with such few pixels is infeasible, so the character was given a mustache; the programmers could not animate hair, so he got a cap; and to make his arm movements visible, he needed colored overalls.

The artwork used for the cabinets and promotional materials make these cartoon-like character designs even more explicit. Pauline, for example, is depicted to be disheveled like King Kong's Fay Wray in a torn dress and stiletto heels.

Donkey Kong is the first example of a complete narrative told in video game form, and like 1980's Pac-Man, it employs cutscenes to advance its plot.

The game opens with the gorilla climbing a pair of ladders to the top of a construction site. He sets Pauline down and stomps his feet, causing the steel beams to change shape. He moves to his final perch and sneers. A melody plays, and the level or stage starts. This brief animation sets the scene and adds background to the gameplay, a first for video games.

More information: Variety

Upon reaching the end of the stage, another cutscene begins. A heart appears between Mario and Pauline, but Donkey Kong grabs her and climbs higher, causing the heart to break. The narrative concludes when Mario reaches the end of the rivet stage. He and Pauline are reunited, and a short intermission plays. The gameplay then loops from the beginning at a higher level of difficulty, without any formal ending.

In his 1982 book Video Invaders, Steve Bloom described Donkey Kong as another bizarre cartoon game, courtesy of Japan. Donkey Kong was, however, extremely popular in the United States and Canada.

Electronic Games speculated in June 1983 that the game's home versions contributed to the arcade version's extended popularity, compared to the four to six months that the average game lasted.

In January 1983, the 1982 Arcade Awards gave it the Best Single-player video game award and the Certificate of Merit as runner-up for Coin-Op Game of the Year.

More information: Daily Dot

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Donkey Kong