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Radar Scope
As of the beginning of 1981, Nintendo's efforts to sell in the North American video game market had failed, culminating with the flop Radar Scope in 1980. To keep the company afloat, company president Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to convert unsold Radar Scope games into something new. He approached a young industrial designer named Shigeru Miyamoto, who had been working for Nintendo since 1977, to see if Miyamoto thought he could design an arcade game. Miyamoto said he could.[31] Yamauchi appointed -
Donkey Kong released
Donkey Kong (ドンキーコング Donkī Kongu?) is an arcade game released by Nintendo in 1981. -
1982
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. The game's initial 2,000 units sold, and more orders were made. Arakawa began manufacturing the electronic components in Redmond because waiting for shipments from Japan was taking too long. By October, Donkey Kong was selling 4,000 units a month, and by late June 1982, Nintendo had sold 60,00. http: -
Made for Nintendo
Nintendo Co., Ltd. (任天堂株式会社 Nintendō Kabushiki gaisha?) is a Japanese multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889[2] by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards.[6] By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel.[7] Nintendo developed into a video game company, becoming the most influential in the industry, and Japan's third most valuable listed company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninten -
early platform genre
Donkey Kong is one of the earliest examples of the platform game genre; it is sometimes said to be the first platform game, although it was preceded by Space Panic. In contrast to Space Panic, however, Donkey Kong was the first platform game to feature jumping, introducing the need to jump between gaps and over obstacles or approaching enemies, setting the template for the platform genre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_%28video_game%29 -
ColecoVision bundles
Coleco did not offer the game cartridge stand-alone; instead, they bundled it with their ColecoVision. The units went on sale in July 1982. Coleco's version was a more accurate port than earlier games that had been done. Six months later, Coleco offered Atari 2600 and Intellivision versions, too. Notably, they did not port it to the Atari 5200, a system comparable to their own (as opposed to the less powerful 2600 and Intellivision). Coleco's sales doubled to $500 million and their earnings quad -
In 1983, Atari released several computer versions
In 1983, Atari released several computer versions under the Atarisoft label. All of the computer ports had the cement factory level, while most of the console versions did not. None of the home versions of Donkey Kong had all of the intermissions or animations from the arcade game. Some have Donkey Kong on the left side of the screen in the barrel level (like he is in the arcade game) and others have him on the right side. -
character licensing
By late June 1982, Donkey Kong's success had prompted more than 50 parties in the U.S. and Japan to license the game's characters.[62] Mario and his simian nemesis appeared on cereal boxes, board games, pajamas, and manga. In 1983, the animation studio Ruby-Spears produced a Donkey Kong cartoon (as well as Donkey Kong Jr) for the Saturday Supercade program on CBS. In the show, mystery crime-solving plots in the mode of Scooby-Doo are framed around the premise of Mario and Pauline chasing Donkey -
sequels
Donkey Kong spawned the sequels Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong 3, as well as the spin-off Mario Bros. A complete re-make of the original arcade game on the Game Boy, named Donkey Kong or Donkey Kong '94 contained levels from both the original Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr arcades. It starts with the same damsel-in-distress premise and four basic locations as the arcade game and then progresses to 97 additional puzzle-based levels. It was the first game to have built-in enhancement for the Supe -
16 and 32 bit
While other companies were moving on to 32-bit systems, Rare and Nintendo proved that the Super NES was still a strong contender in the market. In November 1994, Rare released Donkey Kong Country, a platform game featuring 3D models and textures pre-rendered on SGI workstations. With its detailed graphics and high-quality music, Donkey Kong Country rivaled the aesthetic quality of games that were being released on newer 32-bit CD-based consoles. -
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
In 2004, Nintendo released Mario vs. Donkey Kong, a sequel to the Game Boy title. In it, Mario must chase Donkey Kong to get back the stolen Mini-Mario toys. In the follow-up Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, Donkey Kong once again falls in love with Pauline and kidnaps her, and Mario uses the Mini-Mario toys to help him rescue her. Donkey Kong Racing for GameCube was in development by Rare, but was canceled when Microsoft purchased the company. In 2004, Nintendo released the first of -
Donkey Kong Wii
In 2007, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast was released for the Nintendo Wii. It was originally developed as a GameCube game and would have used the bongo controller, but it was delayed and released exclusively as a Wii title with no support for the bongo accessory. Super Smash Bros. Brawl features music from the game arranged by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka[44] and a stage called "75m", an almost exact replica of its Donkey Kong namesake.[92] While the stage contains her items, Pauline is missing from her perc -
"Its on like Donkey Kong"
Today, Donkey Kong is the fifth most popular arcade game among collectors. The phrase "It's on like Donkey Kong" has been used in various works of pop culture. In November 2010, Nintendo applied for a trademark on the phrase with the US Patent and Trademark office.