Donkey Kong
Golden Age Game
Class of 2017 Inductee
Donkey Kong is a 1981 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for arcades.
As Mario (occasionally referred to as “Jumpman” at the time), the player runs and jumps on platforms and climbs ladders to ascend a construction site and rescue Pauline from a giant gorilla, Donkey Kong. It is the first game in the Donkey Kong series and Mario’s first appearance in a video game.
Donkey Kong was created to salvage unsold arcade cabinets following the failure of Nintendo’s Radar Scope (1980), and was designed for Nintendo of America’s audience. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo’s president at the time, assigned the project to first-time video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Drawing inspiration from “Beauty and the Beast” and 1930s American media such as Popeye and King Kong, Miyamoto developed the characters and scenario and designed the game alongside chief engineer Gunpei Yokoi. It was the most complex arcade game at that point, using graphics for characterization, including cutscenes to illustrate a plot, and integrating multiple unique stages into the gameplay. Donkey Kong pioneered the platform game genre before the term existed, is the first to feature jumping, and is one of the first video games with a damsel in distress narrative, after Sheriff. It had a limited release in Japan on July 9, 1981, before receiving a wide release some weeks later.
Although Nintendo of America’s staff was initially apprehensive, Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically, becoming the highest-grossing game of 1981 and 1982.
Wikipedia Link:
King of Kong Movie:
The 2007 documentary The King of Kong follows the efforts of Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell to break the world record for high scores in Donkey Kong.
It sparked a resurgence of interest in competitive play, and there has been a string of record breaking Donkey Kong scores since the documentary was released.
Arcade Museum Article:
International Video Game Hall of Fame Class of 2017