Donkey Kong (Arcade)

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Donkey Kong
Studio
Publisher Nintendo
Senior Developer
  • Shigeru Miyamoto (Director, Designer)
  • Gunpei Yokoi (producer, designer)
    		•
    Erstveröffent-
    lichung    		 JapanJapanprobably July 9, 1981, probably July 1981
    United StatesUnited States
    genre Jump 'n' run
    Game mode Single and multiplayer modes
    control 4-way joystick , 1 button
    casing Upright, cocktail, mini
    Arcade system CPU : Zilog Z80 (3.072 MHz)
    Sound CPU: MB8884 (8035) (6 MHz)
    Sound Chips: Discrete Logic
    monitor Raster standard resolution 224 × 256 vertical; Color palette: 521

    Donkey Kong ( Jap. ドンキーコング , Hepburn : Donkī Kongu ) is a Jump 'n' Run video game, the first as arcade machines ( arcade game appeared) 1981. Under the leadership of Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi , it was developed by the Ikegami Tsūshinki company for Nintendo . The player takes on the role of the carpenter Jumpman who has to free his girlfriend from the clutches of the gorilla Donkey Kong .

    The game is the first offshoot of a three-part series of arcade games: The second part appeared in 1982 with Donkey Kong Jr. , the third with Donkey Kong 3 in 1983.

    The game's huge commercial success, with approximately 60,000 machines sold in the US, helped consolidate Nintendo's market power. A few months after the launch of the arcade machine , many portings and further developments for video game consoles and home computers followed. These included counterfeits that Nintendo took legal action against. In the early 1980s, the company was involved in a lawsuit over ownership of the source code and its similarities to King Kong .

    Donkey Kong is the founder of the platformer genre and is one of the most popular arcade games of the 1980s. It also shaped video game storytelling. The Super Mario series developed from the successor games .

    Game description

    Gameplay

    In Donkey Kong, the game is shown two-dimensionally in the side view. The player takes on the role of Jumpman (also called マ リ オMario ) and has to achieve the respective goal in the individual game levels. He dodges traps set by Donkey Kong and overcomes the obstacle-riddled path. To cope with this, Jumpman can not only run sideways and climb ladders vertically , but also jump. Jumpman has three lives. He loses one if he falls from too great a height, is touched by an opponent, or if the time runs out. After losing all lives, the player has failed.

    In Donkey Kong , points can be earned through certain actions. In addition, you receive points depending on how much time is left after completing a level. In each of the four levels there are also Pauline's (also called レ デ ィRedi or Lady "lady") umbrella, hat and wallet scattered around. By collecting these items, so-called items , the player gains bonus points. Another item is the hammer, two of which are available per level. When Jumpman picks up a hammer, it is invulnerable for a few seconds and defeats all opponents who touch it, but has limited mobility.

    Figures and history

    Protagonist of Donkey Kong is Jumpman, an average man, not a hero. Outwardly, he is characterized by large eyes, a mustache and a red cap, and he also wears red dungarees over a blue shirt. He works as a carpenter and has the gorilla Donkey Kong as a pet. Donkey Kong may not have a bad temper, but he feels humiliated because he is subordinate to an average person. That's why he breaks out and takes Pauline , the guard's pretty friend, hostage. He is hiding with her on a construction site.

    Game and storyline

    After a coin has been inserted into the arcade machine, the title screen appears. If this is confirmed with the Start button , a film sequence begins. This shows how Donkey Kong climbs up a scaffold on two ladders with Pauline over his shoulder. Once at the top, he maneuvers Pauline onto an even higher platform and stomps to one side, so that the steel girders bend. Next he grins viciously.

    The sequence is followed by a screen that informs the player that the game will now start. With the words HOW HIGH CAN YOU GET? (German: How high do you want to go? ) the goal of the game is illustrated: to reach the top of the stairs. Then the actual course of the game begins with the first stage.

    The first stage, 25 m, takes place at the place where the opening sequence took place. The two ladders that Donkey Kong used to climb are now split into small pieces that Jumpman can use to get to higher floors. Pauline stands on the top platform and shouts, visualized through a speech bubble , Help! (German help! ). Jumpman wants to save his girlfriend. But the gorilla tries to stop him by throwing barrels that roll over the steel girders and sometimes down the ladders, and fire. Jumpman now has to climb the scaffolding made of steel girders and ladders of the unfinished building in order to free Pauline. Jumpman must not come into contact with these obstacles. He can only dodge by jumping.

    Eventually Jumpman reaches the top platform and he and Pauline are reunited - a heart appears over both of them. Donkey Kong does not give up and grabs Pauline again. He climbs higher with her. The next level 100 m takes place on the top of the high-rise. At this stage the steel beams are blue instead of red. The aim here is not to reach the top, but the eight yellow rivets of the scaffolding have to be removed by Jumpman running or jumping over them. Donkey Kong doesn't throw barrels here, Jumpman is followed by flames. Jumpman finally manages to collapse the building. The gorilla falls headfirst and Jumpman and Pauline are reunited. This last animation represents the end of the story.

    Level sequence

    After the game has run as described, it will restart. The other rounds of the game contain two new levels, the purpose of which is to make the game longer and more difficult. New intermediate animations are not added. The one new step, 50 m , is called the cement factory , after the cement tanks there that serve as obstacles. There are conveyor belts here where cement pots and fireballs are a hazard. Furthermore, the ladders move up and down. The next additional level, 75 m, includes small platforms and elevators. Here Donkey Kong throws parts of steel girders that first jump and then fall down. Their movements follow a certain pattern; Jumpman must not be hit.

    Only when the player has used all attempts does the game end. The 22nd run cannot be passed due to a programming error, so the game ends here at the latest. The stages within the rounds follow a certain order. The American level sequence differs from that in the Japanese version in that it corresponds to the motto How High Can You Get? (How high can you get?) Fits. The following table shows the sequences:

    Passage Sequence of steps (American version) Sequence of Levels (Japanese Version)
    1 25 m, 100 m 25 m, 50 m, 75 m, 100 m
    2 25 m, 75 m, 100 m
    3 25 m, 50 m, 75 m, 100 m
    4th 25 m, 50 m, 25 m, 75 m, 100 m
    5-21 25 m, 50 m, 25 m, 75 m, 25 m, 100 m

    Structure and variants of the machine

    Amusement arcade model
    Donkey Kong was also available as a cocktail table.

    The arcade game Donkey Kong was offered in three different housing variants: upright cabinet , cocktail table and mini cabinet . The majority of production is made up of the stand models, the side walls and front of which were initially red and then light blue. Other smaller designs are the cocktail table, which can be served while sitting, and the Mini Cabinet , which Nintendo produces in significantly smaller numbers .

    The housings of all types, which are often made of chipboard , house the power supply unit, the control panel with 4-way joystick and three buttons, the coin validator, the display unit and various computer boards and other control electronics. (Engl. On the main board computer motherboard ) is in each case a clocked at 3.072 MHz in both published revisions Zilog-Z80 - microprocessor installed as a central electronic processing unit. There are also the ROM memory modules containing the actual game software and a coprocessor for the synthetic sound generation. The number of attempts available to the player, scores for bonuses to be achieved or free games can be set by the machine operator using DIP switches on the circuit board .

    A tube monitor with a refresh rate of around 60 Hz is used to display the raster graphics provided by the board with a resolution of 224 × 256 points and 256 possible colors .

    Background, development and publication

    The plot, gameplay, design and sound for Donkey Kong were created within the development department Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R & D1). The development team essentially consisted of the designer Shigeru Miyamoto (* 1952) and the producer Gunpei Yokoi (1941–1997), Miyamoto's mentor and head of department at the time. The external company Ikegami Tsūshinki did the programming and production. Four programmers were responsible for Donkey Kong , the development team also comprised two composers.

    prehistory

    Donkey Kong was the first project with Shigeru Miyamoto's responsibility.

    Nintendo had been a Japanese playing card manufacturer since 1889. Decades later, the company tried to expand with new offers such as instant rice or love hotels . Subsequent attempts were made in the 1970s to profit from the emerging business of electronic entertainment. This move is mainly due to Gunpei Yokoi. Yokoi was head of R & D1 at the time. The company entered the arcade market in the late 1970s. One of Nintendo's first arcade games, Radar Scope , was very popular in Japan.

    In order to gain a foothold in the rising business of arcade games on the US market, the Nintendo of America (NoA) subsidiary was founded in April 1980 and started delivering arcade machines in December. The management had Minoru Arakawa held, the son of former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi . The hoped-for success initially failed to materialize. Out of a total of 3000 radar scope machines, NoA was only able to sell 1000 devices. As a result of this failure, the branch faced financial ruin. The only option was to design a more popular game for the 2,000 remaining machines and to convert the machines.

    The order for a corresponding video game went to Shigeru Miyamoto because the other designers at the time were busy. Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977 at the age of 24 as an industrial designer. He owed this to his father, who was friends with Yamauchi. Miyamoto initially designed artworks for machine housings. Probably in March 1981, Yamauchi commissioned him with a new game that runs on the radar scope machine so that the remaining units can be sold in the USA.

    At that time, video games were mostly developed by a single person who not only had to program but also design. Conversely, Miyamoto had no programming experience, but was exclusively a designer. Gunpei Yokoi worked with him as he was not previously responsible for his own project. Miyamoto decided to ditch the concept of Radar Scope and instead create a game from scratch.

    Concept and design of the characters

    Originally, characters from Popeye were intended for the game .
    Mario statue at Nintendo's Swedish office in Kungsbacka (corresponds to the design of Mario in Super Mario Bros. )

    The protagonist of the new game should initially be Popeye . Miyamoto conceived a backstory in which Olive Oyl was kidnapped by Popeye's rival Bluto. The sailor should then intervene to rescue. On the way to Olive Oyl he had to overcome obstacles and be strengthened by spinach in the fight against Bluto. Because Nintendo did not ultimately succeed in obtaining the license, Miyamoto had to create his own characters for his game.

    Eventually, Miyamoto created a plot that carries the essence of classic narratives like Beauty and the Beast and King Kong . With the gorilla Donkey Kong, he conceived an antagonist who, however, should not be of bad disposition. Olive Oyl simply became a lady in the new storyline. As the protagonist and replacement for Popeye, Miyamoto created Jumpman. Jumpman has no special skills; Miyamoto made a conscious decision against a cool, superhuman protagonist in order to give the player sufficient opportunities for identification. The concept of the weak and average man facing great dangers is quite common in Japanese culture.

    When it came to the graphic design of his characters, Miyamoto was subject to tight limits due to the limitations of arcade technology, which is clear from the example of Jumpman. The plumber's face consists of a nose, two eyes and a chin, although no mouth is drawn, but a mustache. Jumpman wears a hat on his head so that no hair can be seen, because it would not have been possible to display it with the hardware. The color of Jumpman's dungarees is designed to make him more recognizable as he runs and jumps. The arms swinging back and forth are clearly recognizable because of the white gloves.

    Conception of the game principle

    Following the conception of the action, Miyamoto put together the actual game principle. He first analyzed other arcade games to determine which elements make the game fun. He exchanged ideas with Yokoi and planned game concepts. However, because of the weak hardware, many ideas could not be implemented. For example, Yokoi suggested integrating a seesaw into the game - but the computing power of the hardware did not allow this. In order not to overwhelm the machine, the developers had to incorporate simpler elements. On Miyamoto's idea, a prototype was created in which barrels roll down a scaffold. Ladders connected the scaffolding and a pawn had to pass the scaffolding. In order not to be hit by the barrels, the figure had to climb the ladders.

    Miyamoto's concept was expanded further. Although it required the joystick of the present machines, they still had an additional button. The two developers built a jump function for the key. In doing so, they also solved a game design problem, because if the character had only been able to avoid the barrels by climbing, the game would have been too difficult. Now the figure could jump directly over obstacles, and further concepts were possible, such as crossing platforms that were ascending and descending.

    Originally, the four levels of the game were supposed to be linked by scrolling . The hardware used, however, did not allow this, so that four independent levels were created. The programmers did not understand this structure at first, but thought that one should make four separate games.

    R & D1 composer Hirokazu Tanaka was responsible for the game's sound effects . The short, simple background melodies in Donkey Kong are attributed by some sources to Yukio Kaneoka. According to other sources, the pieces are said to have been composed by Miyamoto himself on a keyboard. In May 2013 Miyamoto confirmed that he had composed the music in Donkey Kong himself.

    Programming and manufacturing

    Main board of a Donkey Kong machine

    The program code of the finished game takes up about 20 kB of ROM space and was written by four programmers.

    Because R & D1 did not yet have the necessary resources to program independently, the Ikegami Tsūshinki company acted as a programmer. Ikegami now manufactures radio, video and television equipment. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the company was still operating as a shadow developer , meaning that it developed games without openly mentioning its involvement. Often, such shadow developers only hid references to their programming activities in the source code, because credits listing the names of the developers were not common at the time.

    After Miyamoto and Yokoi had designed the plot, characters and game mechanics, Nintendo signed a contract with Ikegami Tsūshinki in April 1981. This stipulated that Ikegami programmed the game, produced the mainboards and then sold them to Nintendo. According to the contract, Ikegami should produce 8,000 mainboards for 70,000 yen each. Nintendo paid about 10 million yen (about $ 100,000) for this collaboration.

    Naming and localization

    Originally, the name of the game's protagonist was supposed to be the Japanese expression “Ossan”, which can be translated as “middle-aged person”. After that, Miyamoto wanted to rename his character in Video- san and appear in other games. Finally, the carpenter was christened “Jumpman” - inspired by the names “Pac-Man” and “Walk-Man”.

    There are several legends about the origin of the curious name "Donkey Kong" ("donkey" = "donkey"). According to one, Miyamoto, who could hardly speak English at the time, was looking for an English equivalent for "stubborn monkey". In a Japanese-English dictionary he is said to have discovered an equivalent for “stubborn” with “Donkey”; “Kong” was generally associated with gorillas in Japan. This legend was confirmed in interviews by Miyamoto himself. Another claims that the name Monkey Kong was originally intended ("monkey" = "monkey"), but that "Donkey Kong" is said to have emerged from it due to an error in the translation or incorrect communication.

    Miyamoto explains why the game is not named after the protagonist, but after his opponent: it was best to choose Donkey Kong, the character with the most elaborate character, as the title giver.

    Donkey Kong was developed with the US market in mind, so it did not need to be translated and localized for US release . Since NoA wanted to print the game story on the machine and was looking for new names for Jumpman and the Lady, they were renamed. The protagonist in the US version was named Mario. This name goes back to the Italian landlord of the NoA branch, Mario Segale, with whom the branch was in debt at the time. The kidnapped friend goes by the name Pauline in the American publication. The godfather for the name is said to have been the wife of the Nintendo employee Don Jamens, who is actually called Polly .

    publication

    The NoA employees viewed the finished game with great skepticism. They didn't like the name and the unconventional gameplay. A game of the genres of the time such as Shoot 'em up or Maze was considered to be commercially more promising. The branch had placed hopes on the game of solving its financial problems. Despite everything, Yamauchi was convinced that the game would be a success. In a phone call with Arakawa, he said that Donkey Kong would enable Nintendo to finally gain a foothold in the United States. Arakawa was not that convinced. He asked Yamauchi to rename the game, but his father-in-law refused.

    A first test run with machines in two bars, one near Nintendo's headquarters in the USA and one near the University of Washington , was positive. The bar managers asked for more machines after taking around $ 30 every day for a week. So NoA decided to publish. The American employees received the components for Donkey Kong machines from Japan and assembled them by hand. Donkey Kong was published in Japan by Nintendo and in the USA by NoA. It was presumably sold in Japan from July 9, 1981, and in the USA also since July. These dates are controversial.

    When Donkey Kong quickly became extremely popular, Taito , the company behind Space Invaders , wanted to buy the rights to Donkey Kong for a large sum. The offer was made to Arakawa, whose employees agreed. Yamauchi thought it better not to surrender the rights, but left Arakawa the free choice. This finally refused.

    Economic success and merchandising

    Donkey Kong quickly became a commercial success and was extremely successful economically in both Japan and the United States. After the 2000 radar scope machines were used up, new devices were assembled on site by around 25 NoA employees. This number soon rose to 125 employees, who put together 250 machines per day. In October 1981 alone, it sold 4,000 times in the United States. In some cases, the machine achieved higher demand than Space Invaders or Pac-Man . In the end, around 60,000 machines were sold. NoA had sales of $ 180 million from the sale of these machines, with the lion's share of $ 100 million in 1981.

    However, there are no explicit sales figures for the Japanese market. The Japanese video game historian Masumi Akagi speaks of a total of almost 100,000 units sold, according to which 40,000 machines were delivered in Japan.

    The marketing campaign in the United States claimed a budget of $ 1 million through 1982. Nintendo had thousands of brochures printed, advertised the game in trade magazines and presented it at trade fairs. Promotional items such as Donkey Kong T-shirts were also created. More than 50 companies became licensees of the character and name "Donkey Kong". They made merchandising products such as cornflake boxes and board games. A cartoon show was also created. The royalty income was approximately $ 8.5 million. The entire Donkey Kong franchise brought in a total of $ 280 million for Nintendo by 1983.

    reception

    Criticism / reactions

    Since the time of Donkey Kong of video game journalism was not yet established, there are no critical game reviews immediately after the release of the machine. Instead, there are some retrospective reviews. 25 years after its publication, in 2006, IGN reporter Lucas M. Thomas said the game was a great, nostalgic experience and still a lot of fun: “[...] you can see the excellence of Miyamoto's early work shimmering through in the smallest details . "

    In 1982, Steve Bloom referred to Donkey Kong in his book Video Invaders as another weird cartoon game from Japan . Electronic Games, the first US video game magazine, awarded Donkey Kong in January 1983 at the 1982 Video Game Awards with the Certificate of Merit in the category of best arcade game. In the form of the ColecoVision port, the game was also honored in the category of best solo game of the year. In popularity polls conducted by the magazine, Donkey Kong ranked first several times.

    The website metacritic.com ranked Donkey Kong 14th among the best Mario games. In 2007, the game was inducted into IGN's Video Games Hall of Fame . On the 1up.com list of the 200 best video games of their time, Donkey Kong is in 15th place. There is a quote from Miyamoto: “If it had n't been for Donkey Kong , I would be living in a different world today. I don't know if this world would be better or worse, but I like to be around Donkey Kong and Mario and Pikmin and my other friends. "

    Cultural influence

    The original version of Donkey Kong's soundtrack was released commercially in Japan at the beginning of January 2004 along with other game soundtracks on the album Famicom 20th Anniversary Original Sound Tracks Vol.1 , and the soundtrack was released on a separate album at the end of April of that year. Also in the US pop culture has Donkey Kong traces. For example, the single Do The Donkey Kong appeared in the album Pac-Man Fever by the duo Buckner & Garcia in 1982 . In television series such as The Simpsons or Futurama , parodies of the game appeared in the form of a cameo .

    Influence on video game history

    Innovation of the game principle

    Donkey Kong founded the video game genre Jump 'n' Run. The 2D Jump-'n'-Run SuperTux (2003) is shown as an example.

    Video game historian Chris Kohler compares the video game era around the beginning of the 1980s with the beginnings of the film industry : New genres were constantly being created. Games such as Pong , Space Invaders and finally Pac-Man became particularly popular . Because of the great success of these genre representatives, the concepts behind them have often been copied. In this context, Donkey Kong had a fresh and fresh gameplay.

    The game principle of Donkey Kong is characterized by the basic actions running and jumping. The idea of ​​jumping from one platform to another was an innovation at the time. Following this principle, a whole video game genre called Jump 'n' Run was born .

    Later jump 'n' runs are also based on the core principle of Donkey Kong : a figure jumps in a two-dimensional view over horizontal platforms, dodges opponents and collects strengthening objects. The genre was later heavily influenced by the Super Mario series.

    Aside from the founding of the genre, Donkey Kong set further milestones:

    "Miyamoto's first game changed the world, because it simultaneously broke new ground in nearly every area possible: character, game play, music, graphics, narrative, and cinematic."

    "Miyamoto's first game [ Donkey Kong ] changed the world because it pioneered almost every possible area at the same time: character, gameplay, music, graphics, narration and film."

    - Chris Kohler : Power Up, p. 271

    Video Game Narrativity

    Donkey Kong was a major influence on the narrativity of video games. The background story of most of the games at that time was only described in text form, there were only beginnings of a plot. In contrast, several video game journalists and media scholars refer to Donkey Kong as the first game that reproduces a complete narrative during the actual course of the game and in short animations. It introduced a beginning, middle, and ending narrative structure to video games. Accordingly, journalist Kohler considers the completion of the plot to be the main motivation for new Donkey Kong players. In contrast, the actual goal of many arcade games was to achieve the highest possible score. This will ultimately also be the goal for more experienced players of the machine, but before that a high score remains only of secondary importance.

    Intermediate animations only entered video game vocabulary through Ninja Gaiden (1989), although Donkey Kong already had several cutscenes. The circumstance for the lack of contemporary attention to the intermediate scenes in Donkey Kong is explained by the fact that the transition between the film scene and the actual course of the game were barely recognizable: the scenes act on the same screen as the actual game, apart from the intermediate screens before the start of a level. The cutscenes have been integrated into the game without breaking the continuity. The animations themselves were perceived as similar to a cartoon , in whose action the player could intervene. The great popularity of the game is due not least to the bond between the character and the consumer, as Kohler wrote.

    The portrayal of the protagonist also set a milestone in Donkey Kong , as Jumpman has a more differentiated appearance than previous video game protagonists . In part, this is due to the hardware that has become stronger. But Jumpman is also the first video game character to be clearly identifiable as a human being and enriched by the aspect of emotions.

    The relevance of the plot in Donkey Kong is already noticeable when looking at the development of the game. It is considered to be the first video game in which the plot and, based on that, the gameplay was first thought out.

    Meaning for Nintendo

    Donkey Kong prevented the bankruptcy of the American Nintendo branch and enabled the company to penetrate the local video game market. The machine was Nintendo's first international success and thereby laid the foundation for the later dominance of the local video game industry in the USA. Minoru Arakawa invested the profit generated in July 1982 in the purchase of 27 acres (~ 11 ha ) of land for a larger NoA building.

    Shigeru Miyamoto's first own project was also his first success. As a result, Nintendo granted him to develop more games. In the course of his career, Miyamoto created well-known game franchises such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda . Today he is one of the Nintendo managers and oversees the internal development processes. He is also considered the most influential video game developer of all time by video game journalists.

    Successor and game series

    Shigeru Miyamoto developed follow-up games directly after Donkey Kong , but these were far worse commercially. Released in 1982, Donkey Kong Jr. made about 30,000 sales. A year later, Donkey Kong 3 appeared with a total of just 5000 units sold. An offshoot of the series was the arcade game Mario Bros. , which also appeared in 1983 and introduced Mario's brother Luigi. The successor to Mario Bros. was the revolutionary Super Mario Bros. , which was followed by many other Mario games.

    It wasn't until 1994 that another game with the gorilla as the protagonist, Donkey Kong Country , was developed by the British studio Rare for the SNES . The Donkey Kong Country series continued the success of the game . In addition to this series, other Donkey Kong offshoots appeared irregularly .

    Highscore

    Steve J. Wiebe
    Billy Mitchell (center)

    The high score is the highest score in a video game. Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell dueled each other for a number of years to get the highest possible score . According to his statement, Mitchell was the first player to reach kill screen level 22 in front of cameras in 1982 , which was only achieved in 2000 by another player. The 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is about Mitchell and Wiebe . In February 2010, the 35-year-old cosmetic surgeon Hank S. Chien from Queens achieved a new high score. Chien was later dethroned by Mitchell, who then surpassed Wiebe in August 2010. On January 10, 2011, Chien finally got 1,068,000 points in the game after playing 2:45 hours. In 2012, Chien outdid himself three times, scoring 1,138,600 points in November 2012. These were beaten three times in 2015 by Robbie Lakeman and Wes Copeland, most recently by Lakeman with 1,172,100 points. Again, these two players beat the record three times in 2016, most recently Copeland in May 2016 with 1,218,000 points; he lost none of his three lives in the process.

    In March 2011, for the 30th anniversary of Donkey Kong, a competition called Kong Off was held in the USA , in which the ten best Donkey Kong players competed live against each other, including Wiebe, Mitchell and Chien. No new world record was set. The competition was continued under the name The Kong Off II in 2012. The documentary filmmaker Alexis Neophytides accompanied Chien on his hunt for the world record. The result was the 18-minute documentary Doctor Kong: Cutting Up the Competition , which was released in 2011.

    Legal uncertainties and alleged plagiarism

    Fakes

    Howard Lincoln (left), a former lawyer for Nintendo and later vice president of NoA, took action against counterfeiters.

    The popularity of the Donkey Kong machine drew counterfeiters into play: in 1982 half of all machines with the title Donkey Kong were said to have been counterfeited. On behalf of Nintendo, attorney Howard Lincoln worked with police to track down and sue Donkey Kong counterfeiters. Thousands of motherboards and arcade cases were confiscated by a court order. In total, Nintendo brought proceedings against 35 companies that offered counterfeit Donkey Kong . Despite these efforts, Nintendo lost about $ 100 million in revenue from the plagiarism.

    The arcade game Crazy Kong was published by Falcon in November 1981 in Europe. Often referred to as plagiarism, it has actually been officially licensed for use outside of the US. The game is very similar to the original game, albeit with minor changes. On the title screen, it's called Part II.

    King Kong from Tiger Electronics

    OR Rissman, then president of the US manufacturer of handheld video games Tiger Electronics , visited Tokyo in the summer of 1981 and became aware of Donkey Kong there . Back in the United States, he asked Universal Studios for a license to produce a video game based on the film King Kong and the White Woman . He mistakenly thought Donkey Kong was also a film adaptation. In September, Tiger Electronics received the license for the planned video game. In January 1982, Vice President Steve Adler, after assessing Donkey Kong, stated that Tiger Electronics did not primarily want a license to be able to implement King Kong , but rather to be able to copy Donkey Kong .

    In May, the agreement was therefore initially dissolved, but Rissman wanted to get it back. Ultimately, Universal allowed implementation, but set conditions. So the protagonist should wear a fire helmet, the rolling barrels should be replaced by bombs and horizontal platforms should be used instead of inclined platforms. This should ensure that the game doesn't become a mere clone of Donkey Kong . The game was released in June 1982, both for the Atari 2600 and as a handheld game.

    Universal City Studios, Inc. vs. Nintendo Co., Ltd.

    prehistory

    In April 1982, Sid Sheinberg, then President of Universal Studios, found out about Donkey Kong . He saw the game's backstory violating the company's rights to the name and character of King Kong . Universal employees had previously had concerns about copyright problems but did not forward them. After the company's attorney, Robert Hald, confirmed the suspicion, Sheinberg first spoke to Arnold Greenberg, CEO of Coleco, on April 27 about the Coleco ports of Donkey Kong .

    The next day, Universal asked NoA and Coleco to immediately stop the sale of all Donkey Kong products, destroy any inventory that was still in existence, and hand over any profits made through the game. A deadline of 48 hours was set and a court action was threatened.

    Coleco agreed with Universal to pay 3 percent of the revenue to Universal for each Donkey Kong module sold . That would have been equivalent to $ 4.6 million with six million units sold. Nintendo did not comply with Universal's demands, although they are said to have made a similar agreement. On May 6, Lincoln and Arakawa, on behalf of NoA, asked Universal to provide evidence of King Kong's claim. Promised documents that should prove universal ownership of King Kong, however, never reached Nintendo.

    At another meeting on May 21, Arakawa told Universal that it had not acted wrongly as the company was not entitled to King Kong. Indeed, Lincoln rated Universal's claim too weak to win a possible lawsuit. Sheinberg then threatened to file a lawsuit and promised legal consequences to each of the 50 Donkey Kong licensees. With the exception of Milton Bradley , who was not followed up, all licensees gave in.

    process

    Judge Robert W. Sweet

    On June 29, 1982, Universal finally filed a lawsuit against Nintendo in New York State . Lincoln and John Kirby, another lawyer, conferred with Yamauchi in Kyoto . They also discussed this with the game developers.

    The negotiations took place in the first instance under Judge Robert W. Sweet. Universal argued in court that the studios had been licensed by RKO Pictures , the production company of King Kong, and by the heirs of film director Merian C. Cooper . However, it seemed to turn out that Universal Studios might not be owned by King Kong: Universal had never protected the King Kong trademark , which is why it fell under the public domain . Nobody owned the copyrights and licenses to the film anymore.

    Universal's lawyers argued that they had rights to the name and character of King Kong because of the authorship of a reprint of the film. In court, the original from 1933 and the new edition from 1976 were compared with Donkey Kong . Judge Sweet finally decided that Nintendo was not breaking any of Universal's rights, as Universal had no more rights to the remake than to the original film. Universal appealed to the Supreme Court , but also lost there.

    The damage caused by Universal threatening Nintendo licensees had to be reconciled. In addition, it emerged in court that Tiger Electronics was too similar to King Kong and Donkey Kong, so that Nintendo could either claim legal damages or the money that Universal had earned through the licensing. Nintendo opted for the latter, so Universal had to pay Nintendo $ 56,689.41.

    On July 25, 1985, Universal was sentenced to reimbursement of costs of $ 1.8 million. This marked the definitive end of the lawsuit, dubbed Universal City Studios, Inc. vs. Nintendo Co., Ltd. went down in history. Meanwhile, Coleco had withdrawn from the video game business in 1983 due to the collapse of the video game market.

    Source code litigation

    Due to the high demand for Donkey Kong machines, Nintendo produced more devices itself when the original inventory of 8,000 copies was exhausted. In December 1982, a Space Invaders Part II case was ruled in court that program code was copyrighted material. The contract between Nintendo and the programmers Ikegami (see section Programming and Production ) did not reveal which company owned the source code of Donkey Kong . Both companies claimed the rights for themselves. In the contract it was said that Nintendo should not copy Donkey Kong , which is why Ikegami demanded 10% of the previous income - up to 100,000 machines are said to have been sold at this time, the lion's share of them being manufactured by Nintendo.

    While Ikegami had ended the collaboration with Nintendo and developed games for Nintendo's then competition SEGA (including Zaxxon , Arcade 1982, or Congo Bongo , Arcade 1983), Nintendo found a new partner in Iwasaki Giken. Shigeru Miyamoto designed the successor Donkey Kong jr. In order to be able to program this , Iwasaki constructed the original game around March 1982; Donkey kong jr. based on modified Donkey Kong source text. Because Ikegami claimed that Nintendo was now infringing copyright law with both Donkey Kong and its successor, they went to court in July 1983 and demanded 580 million yen in compensation for Donkey Kong and an unknown amount for Donkey Kong Jr. The process was not decided until March 26, 1990, when Ikegami was no longer a game programmer. It was found that Nintendo did not hold any rights to the Donkey Kong source code. The two companies agreed on an unknown amount.

    Portings and new editions

    Donkey Kong enjoyed great success as a slot machine game, which is why the game was gradually ported to many of the home consoles and computers popular at the time. Many of the individual ports also became commercially successful, and some of them are also relevant in the context of video game history. A port as Nintendo Game & Watch has been sold over a million times. Nintendo distributed licenses to Coleco and Atari for home console and computer versions. The majority of home computer ports were developed for Atari. Coleco initially brought out a version for the in-house ColecoVision , which was sold together with the system and made its success possible. Coleco ports for Intellivision and Atari 2600 came out later, the latter alone went over the counter about 4 million times. At the end of 1983 Coleco had sold a total of 6 million Donkey Kong modules. This contributed to the company's market consolidation. Nintendo later released a port for the Famicom / Nintendo Entertainment System.

    To date, Donkey Kong has been reissued several times. Almost always it was not the arcade, but the NES version that was re-released.

    Ports

    Game & Watch

    Donkey Kong Game & Watch

    Nintendo released Game & Watch devices from 1980 . These are LCD gaming devices, of which a total of 60 different ones came out. Donkey Kong was also created as Game & Watch under the direction of Yokoi and Satoru Okada . The game can be played alone or in pairs, offers four levels of difficulty and belongs to the Multi Screen group , so it has two screens and can be folded up. The gameplay has been changed and made simpler. Donkey Kong was released as Game & Watch on June 3, 1982, in Germany it was sold by Bienengräber & Co. under the Tricotronic label from 1982 onwards. It sold about a million times worldwide.

    Collaboration between Nintendo and Coleco

    Tabletop Donkey Kong

    Around Christmas 1981, NoA decided to offer Donkey-Kong on home consoles as well. Despite its previous success, the company was still small and did not have its own home console, so it was necessary to work with a home console manufacturer. Atari, Coleco and Mattel , all three of whom were fighting for the home console market at the time, wanted to cooperate with Nintendo. Coleco inquired directly from Yamauchi in Japan and received the licenses for Donkey Kong to develop an implementation for the in-house console, ColecoVision . On February 1, 1982, a contract was signed that excluded Nintendo from responsibility for Porting Colecos. The contract stipulated that Nintendo would receive $ 1.40 for every Coleco port sold. For a tabletop - Donkey Kong -Implementation of Coleco per copy $ 1.00 went to Nintendo. In addition, Coleco paid an undisclosed amount.

    Porting for ColecoVision

    Donkey Kong module for ColecoVision (right)

    In July 1982 Coleco released the ColecoVision console together with the associated port of Donkey Kong as a bundle. The version can be played alone or in pairs and offers four levels of difficulty. At the time, it was highly praised for its controls and sound and is still considered one of the best Donkey Kong portings. But it only contains three levels and other small omissions.

    The fact that the port was sold as a bundle with the system contributed significantly to the success of ColecoVision. Manny Gerard, vice president of Warner Communications, the then owner of Atari, thinks it impossible that Coleco would have entered the home console market without Nintendo's help. At the end of December 1983 Coleco had sold a total of 6 million Donkey Kong modules. As a result of the collapse of the video game market in 1983 , Coleco had to file for bankruptcy in 1987.

    Atari 2600 and Intellivision

    The module of the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong

    In early 1983 Coleco released a port of Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 home console , programmed by Garry Kitchen . It can only be played alone and contains two of the four levels from the arcade version. Both graphics and sound are considered very bad. At IGN, the port ranks 10th among the worst arcade ports for home consoles

    Despite the poor quality, the Atari 2600 port was a huge commercial success: With four million units sold, it achieved sales of $ 100 million and is Donkey Kong's most successful home adaptation . At the same time Coleco released a version for Intellivision .

    Coleco employee Michael Katz commented on the underlying sales strategy: “We knew that we needed a hot piece of software to bring the product out, because software sells hardware. We got it from a little company called Nintendo - Donkey Kong . Donkey Kong was exclusive to ColecoVision for the first six months, and we put it in the system. If you had an Atari [2600] or Intellivision, you could n't get Donkey Kong for the first six months. It was a pretty good sales strategy. Six months later, when enough people had bought ColecoVision, we wanted to make a profit from the Atari and Intellivision owners, so we sold Donkey Kong as third party software . "

    Coleco Adam

    In 1983 Coleco presented its new Coleco Adam home computer at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Chicago and at the same time a Donkey Kong porting for the device. At that time it was under discussion that Atari should bring out the Famicom for Nintendo in the USA, which had just been released in Japan . Yamauchi and Arakawa were also at CES. Instead of reaching an agreement, however, they met Atari President Ray Kassar , who claimed that Coleco's porting was a breach of the contract with Atari. Nintendo had given Atari the rights to implement conversions for diskette-operated systems, Coleco for cartridge-based systems; Coleco Adam used cartridges. Kassar mistakenly thought that Coleco should only have produced home console, Atari computer ports. He claimed Nintendo had secretly sold the rights to Coleco and threatened not to sell the Famicom.

    That same day, Yamauchi arranged a meeting with Coleco President Greenberg and others. There he obtained Coleco's retreat, although Coleco was right. Still, Atari did not sell the Famicom: Kassar was laid off the following month and the company lacked the money to sell it.

    Famicom / Nintendo Entertainment System

    On July 15, 1983, Nintendo released the Famicom in Japan. One of the starting titles was a port of Donkey Kong . For the non-Japanese version of the console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), this version was released in the USA in 1986 and in Europe in October of that year. It was programmed by Toshihiko Nakago .

    The Famicom version was a big reason to buy the console. All film sequences except the final animation and a level were missing - allegedly due to the low storage space. The NES version has the same omissions. The animations and controls, however, were considered well done, the music an exact reproduction, only the sound effects did not correspond to the original. Critics call the Famicom port one of the best.

    Donkey Kong Classics was released in October 1988 for the NES, a few years earlier it had been released for the Famicom. In addition to a Donkey Kong version, it also includes Donkey Kong jr. and a selection screen. This port also contains the same omissions.

    New editions

    Game Boy / GameCube / Game Boy Advance

    In June and in Europe in September 1994 a game called Donkey Kong was released for the Game Boy. The first four levels are based on the arcade game; in total the game contains 100 levels and completely different game concepts. The game founded the series Mario vs. Donkey Kong .

    In December 2001 the simulation game Animal Forest appeared in Japan for the N64 , in September of the following year in America and Europe as Animal Crossing for the GameCube . There the NES version of Donkey Kong can be unlocked. The game can be transferred to the Game Boy Advance (GBA) with a connection cable. Since the downloaded game is in the console's memory, it will be deleted when the system is turned off.

    Game Boy Advance with plugged-in e-reader

    In November 2002, Donkey Kong-e came out for the Nintendo e-Reader , which was only available in Japan. The games in card form are read by the e-reader and can then be played on the GBA. This version of Donkey Kong is again the NES port.

    Donkey Kong was released in Japan on June 7, 2004 as part of the NES Classic series for the GBA. This was the first Donkey Kong reissue for the GBA, which was available in modular form. A two-player mode via link cable and a highscore list, which is saved on the module, have been added.

    Donkey Kong as unlockable or downloadable content

    On December 8, 2006, Donkey Kong was released as a virtual console game in downloadable form for the Nintendo Wii . In 2011, IGN's Lucas M. Thomas did not recommend this re-release because it was based on the shortened NES version. “This isn't the full Donkey Kong . Not the first masterpiece game to secure Shigeru Miyamoto's career. It's a cut, summarized and compromised version that really needs to stop marketing now. "

    Donkey Kong can be unlocked in the game Donkey Kong 64 ( N64 , 1999), but there the arcade version. Next is Donkey Kong limited time after being validated in Super Smash Bros. Brawl playable (Wii, 2008). In addition, one of the levels from the game is available as a stage. For the stage, Hirokazu Tanaka created an arrangement based on the sound effects he had created for the arcade game.

    On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Super Mario series in 2010, Nintendo released a special red Wii console. A port of Donkey Kong is preinstalled exclusively in the European version . This is based on the NES version, but contains the omitted animations and the missing level.

    In Nintendo Land , a collection of twelve mini-games that came out with the Wii U , there is a mini-game based on the arcade game Donkey Kong : Donkey Kong's Crash Course . The NES port, released in the West in 1986, was digitally re-released by Nintendo on July 15, 2013 for the Wii U.

    literature

    • William Audureau: The History of Mario . 1981–1991: The rise of an icon, from myths to reality. Pix'n Love Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-2-918272-23-6 , pp. 14-140 .
    • Chris Kohler: Power Up. How Japanese Video Games Gave The World An Extra Live . BradyGames, Indianapolis, Indiana 2004, ISBN 0-7440-0424-1 .
    • Steven L. Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games . From Pong to Pokémon and Beyond - The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World . Prima & Three Rivers, Roseville, New York 2001, ISBN 0-7615-3643-4 .
    • David Sheff: Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped An American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, And Enslaved Your Children . Random House, 1994, ISBN 0-679-40469-4 .
    • Joe Grand, Frank Thornton, Albert Yarusso (Authors), Frank Thornton (Eds.): Game Console Hacking: Have Fun While Voiding You Warranty . Syngress, Boston 2004, ISBN 1-931836-31-0 , pp. 186 & 187.
    • Marvin Udzik: Representation of female and male characters in the Japanese video game . GRIN-Verlag, Munich / Ravensburg 2011, ISBN 3-640-81767-2 , p. 11.

    Court records

    • Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Elcon Industries, Inc., 564 F. Supp. 937 - Dist. Court, ED Michigan 1982, October 4, 1982 ( online at scholar.google.com )
    • Universal City Studios v. Nintendo Co., 578 F. Supp. 911 - Dist. Court, SD New York 1983, December 22, 1983 ( online at scholar.google.com )
    • Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd., 797 F. 2d 70 - Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 1986 from July 15, 1986 ( online at scholar.google.com )
    • Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd., Nintendo of America, Inc. 746 F.2d 112 - United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit 1984 of October 4, 1984 ( online at law.justia.com )

    Web links

    Commons : Donkey Kong  - collection of images, videos and audio files

    Footage

    Databases

    Retrospectives

    development

    Remarks

    1. ↑ a b The exact release date of Donkey Kong is controversial. July 9, 1981 is considered likely for Japan, this information has its origin in the process Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Elcon Industries, Inc. dated October 4, 1982 and is reproduced from multiple sources. Kent also mentions July as the month of publication; from this time on the game was also mentioned in magazines. Other sources, however, assume the end of June. October 10 is also mentioned. Nintendo has not yet made any statement in this regard. See kotaku.com in this regard
    2. ↑ a b There is also no official information on the American publication date. The indication of July 1981, which originated in the Universal City Studios v. Nintendo Co dated December 22, 1983. Don James, a Nintendo of America employee at the time of Donkey Kong , named August the release month. See themushroomkingdom.net
    3. ↑ In the game, the steps are named according to their height, matching the theme of the game, climbing a building.
    4. ↑ Gunpei Yokoi's first name is often written with an m. This spelling appears on his business card and is used by Kent, among others. For the n-variant, however, David Sheff decided in his book Game Over .
    5. ↑ Kent, p. 157, dated Yamauchi's commission with 1979. According to Akagi, p. 305–307, a decision was not made for a new game until March 1981. Sheff, p. According to Universal City Studios v. Nintendo Co., 578 F. Supp. 911 - Dist. Court, SD New York 1983 of December 22, 1983 ( online at scholar.google.com ) began development in March 1981, which is consistent with Akagi's statements.
    6. ↑ Nintendo later managed to get the license for Popeye, and the arcade platformer Popeye was born .
    7. ↑ The first actual platform game is Space Panic (1980), but it is not part of the jump-'n'-run genre, as there is no jump action there yet. See Chris Crawford : Chris Crawford on Game Design , p. 19, online
    8. ↑ This date is given in the entry for Donkey Kong in the Museum of Game & Watch Gallery 2 (GBC, 1998).
    9. ↑ This figure also includes Intellivision and Atari 2600 modules.

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ Nintendo: TKG4-13 circuit diagrams . (PDF; 1.8 MB) Accessed December 23, 2012 .
    2. ↑ a b c d e f g William Cassidy: Hall of Fame - Donkey Kong. gamespy.com , November 17, 2002, p. 2 , archived from the original on December 9, 2003 ; accessed on September 17, 2011 (English).
    3. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 47 f .; Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 37; Mathias Mertens : We were space invaders. Computer gaming stories . Eichborn, Frankfurt 2002, ISBN 3-9810685-0-5 , bitten by a monkey: Donkey Kong, 1981, p. 88 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
    4. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 41.
    5. ↑ a b Kohler: Power Up. 2004, pp. 39, 42.
    6. ^ A b c William Cassidy: Hall of Fame - Donkey Kong. gamespy.com , November 17, 2002, p. 1 , archived from the original on December 7, 2003 ; accessed on September 17, 2011 (English).
    7. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, pp. 39, 43.
    8. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 158; Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 51.
    9. ↑ donkey kong [coin-up] arcade video game, nintendo (1981). arcade-history.com, accessed August 17, 2012 .
    10. ↑ Donkey Kong - Videogame by Nintendo at arcade-museum.com (English). Retrieved April 7, 2012 .
    11. ↑ donkey kong at arcade-history.com (English). Retrieved April 7, 2012 .
    12. ↑ a b Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 155–157.
    13. ↑ a b c Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton: Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time . Focal Press, Boston and Oxford 2009, ISBN 0-240-81146-1 , pp. 272 .
    14. ↑ a b c d Travis Fahs: The Secret History of Donkey Kong ( English ) Gamasutra . July 6, 2011. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
    15. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 46 f.
    16. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 36.
    17. ↑ a b c d Iwata asks: New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Part 1, 1: Mario couldn't jump at nintendo.de at the beginning . (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved October 22, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nintendo.de  
    18. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 38 f .; Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 158.
    19. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 47.
    20. ↑ a b c d e Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 38.
    21. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 36 f .; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 47.
    22. ↑ GameSpots Presents: The History of Donkey Kong , page 3, at gamespot.com. Retrieved October 1, 2011 .
    23. ↑ a b c d The History of Super Mario Bros. at ign.com. Retrieved August 31, 2012 .
    24. ↑ Iwata asks: New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Part 1, 2: Why does Mario wear dungarees? at nintendo.de. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved October 22, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nintendo.de  
    25. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 37; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 48.
    26. ↑ The Mario You Never Knew , Part 8: The Hat Made Drawing Mario's Face Easy . In: uk.wii.ign.com. Retrieved January 22, 2011 .
    27. ↑ a b Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 48.
    28. ^ Hip Tanaka on his start at Nintendo, the Metroid soundtrack, Earthbound's sampling issues at gonintendo.com. Retrieved August 18, 2012 . Quote: I was creating sound effects for arcade games, so I was in charge of making things like the boom-boom-boom sounds in Donkey Kong, or Mario's walking sound and jumping sound.
    29. ↑ a b Donkey Kong's Fuzzy History . In: themushroomkingdom.net. Retrieved April 13, 2012 .
    30. ^ Miyamoto loved working on N64 games, wrote music for the original Donkey Kong. In: gonintendo.com. March 27, 2012, accessed January 15, 2015 .
    31. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games. 2001, p. 530.
    32. ↑ The unsung, underpaid heroes behind Donkey Kong . In: joystiq.com. Retrieved October 2, 2011 .
    33. ↑ a b c d Masumi Akagi: Sore wa "Pong" kara Hajimatta. Arcade TV Game no Naritachi . Amusement Tsūshinsha, 2005, ISBN 4-9902512-0-2 , pp. 305–307 (529 pp., Translation at jotaroraido.wordpress.com - Japanese: そ れ は 『ポ ン』 か ら 始 ま っ た: ア ー ケ ー ド TV ゲ ー ム の 成 り 立 ち .).
    34. ↑ unknown. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on January 15, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nintendo.de  
    35. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 45.
    36. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 48 f .; Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 158.
    37. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 39.
    38. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, pp. 45 f., 212.
    39. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 159; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 109.
    40. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, pp. 49, 109; Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 159; Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 45.
    41. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 45; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 109.
    42. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, pp. 109-111; Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 160.
    43. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 110.
    44. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 111.
    45. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 46; Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 160, 211.
    46. ↑ a b c Universal City Studios v. Nintendo Co., 578 F. Supp. 911 - Dist. Court, SD New York 1983, December 22, 1983 ( online at scholar.google.com )
    47. ^ Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Elcon Industries, Inc., 564 F. Supp. 937 - Dist. Court, ED Michigan 1982, October 4, 1982 ( online at scholar.google.com )
    48. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 215.
    49. ↑ wii.ign.com ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Original quote: "[...] you can see the excellence of Miyamoto's early work shining through in the smallest details." @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wii.ign.com
    50. ↑ a b Donkey Kong Virtual Console Review at wii.ign.com. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 29, 2009 ; Retrieved October 7, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wii.ign.com
    51. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 5; there quote: another bizarre cartoon game, courtesy of Japan.
    52. ↑ Electronic Games, January 1983, pp. 11, 23, 35; digitized at archive.org, accessed on May 19, 2012
    53. ↑ Best and Worst Mario Games at metacritic.com. Retrieved September 2, 2012 .
    54. ↑ IGN Videogame Hall Of Fame: Donkey Kong at games.ign.com. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 24, 2012 ; Retrieved October 14, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / games.ign.com
    55. ↑ 1up.com ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Original quote: "If there had not been Donkey Kong, I might be living a different life today. I don't know if it would be better or worse, but I like being surrounded by Donkey Kong and Mario and Pikmin and my other friends. " @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.1up.com
    56. ↑ The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time , page 9, at 1up.com. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 20, 2012 ; Retrieved October 14, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.1up.com
    57. ↑ Famicom 20th Anniversary Original Sound Tracks Vol.1 at vgmdb.net. Retrieved September 2, 2012 . , Game Sound Museum ~ Famicom Edition ~ 02 Donkey Kong at vgmdb.net. Retrieved September 2, 2012 .
    58. ↑ Pac-Man Fever / Do The Donkey Kong at vgmdb.net. Retrieved September 2, 2012 .
    59. ↑ a b Gaming’s most important evolutions , page 3, at gamesradar.com. Retrieved October 16, 2011 .
    60. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, p. 271.
    61. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, pp. 40, 51, 272.
    62. ^ Kohler: Power Up. 2004, pp. 51, 272.
    63. ↑ Britta Neitzel: Played stories. Structural and process analytical investigations into the narrativity of video games . Bauhaus University Weimar 2000, p. 182 ( http://e-pub.uni-weimar.de/volltexte/2004/72/pdf/Neitzel.pdf online file [PDF]).
    64. ↑ a b c Hall of Fame - Donkey Kong, page 3, at gamespy.com. Archived from the original on December 9, 2003 ; Retrieved September 18, 2011 .
    65. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 113.
    66. ↑ GameSpy's 30 Most Influential People in Gaming . Archived from the original on December 7, 2003 ; Retrieved September 17, 2011 .
    67. ↑ Top 100 Game Creators - 1. Shigeru Miyamoto at uk.games.ign.com. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 30, 2012 ; Retrieved September 17, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / uk.games.ign.com
    68. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 299/352.
    69. ↑ The Mario You Never Knew , page 2: Mario Wasn't Always A Plumber at wii.ign.com. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 28, 2012 ; Retrieved October 15, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wii.ign.com
    70. ↑ a b Classic Games: Nerds in Donkey Kong Fever. In: Galileo . Retrieved September 1, 2016 (video from August 29, 2016).
    71. ↑ Donkey Kong: Cosmetic surgeon sets world record . (No longer available online.) In: Chip. Archived from the original on January 21, 2011 ; Retrieved October 22, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.chip.de
    72. ↑ Hank Chien's Donkey Kong world record smashed by… Hank Chien. In: gonintendo.com. March 27, 2012, accessed January 15, 2015 .
    73. ↑ Donkey Kong: world record broken twice! , computerbild.de, September 22, 2015, accessed on September 1, 2016
    74. ↑ Donkey Kong player believes he has achieved the perfect world record , eurogamer.de, May 9, 2016, accessed September 1, 2016
    75. ↑ a b Battle of the Donkey Kong Elite: Dr. Kong beats everyone! at chip.de. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 1, 2011 ; Retrieved October 22, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.chip.de
    76. ^ Doctor Kong (2011) at imdb.com. Retrieved October 22, 2011 .
    77. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 116.
    78. ↑ a b GameSpot Presents: The History of Donkey Kong , page 3, at gamespot.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011 .
    79. ↑ Crazy Kong - Videogame by Falcon at arcade-museum.com. Retrieved October 9, 2011 .
    80. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 210 f.
    81. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 214/215/218.
    82. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 211 f.
    83. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 212 f .; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 117.
    84. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 213 f .; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 121.
    85. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 214 ff .; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 121 f.
    86. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 215/216.
    87. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 123.
    88. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 216-218; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 123.
    89. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 216-218; Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 124 f.
    90. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 216-218.
    91. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 218.
    92. ↑ Feature: The Unsung Contract Developer Behind Donkey Kong at gamasutra.com. Retrieved October 10, 2011 .
    93. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 49.
    94. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 208 f.
    95. ^ Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 111 f.
    96. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 209.
    97. ↑ a b GameSpot Presents: The History of Donkey Kong , pp. 3–3, at gamespot.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011 .
    98. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 205 f.
    99. ↑ Top 10 Tuesday: Worst Coin-up Conversions at ds.ign.com. Retrieved October 5, 2011 .
    100. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 209 f.
    101. ↑ Donkey Kong 2600 at garrykitchen.com. Retrieved September 2, 2012 .
    102. ↑ garrykitchen.com. Retrieved December 8, 2010 .
    103. ↑ Quoting from Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 209 f .; Original quote: “We knew that we had to have a hot piece of software to launch the product because software sells hardware. We got it from a little company called Nintendo - Donkey Kong . Donkey Kong was exclusive to ColecoVision for the first six months, and we packed it in with the system. If you owned an Atari [2600] or Intellivision, you couldn't get Donkey Kong for the first six months. It was a pretty good marketing strategy. Six months later, when enough people had bought ColecoVision, we wanted the profit from the Atari and Intellivision owners, so we sold Donkey Kong as third-party software. "
    104. ↑ a b Sheff: Game Over. 1994, p. 154 ff .; Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, pp. 283-285.
    105. ↑ Iwata asks: Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary , Part 2: NES and Mario , Section 2: Donkey Kong in your own home at nintendo.de. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved October 7, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nintendo.de  
    106. ↑ Kent: The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2001, p. 297.
    107. ↑ a b c d e 10 Interesting Things About Donkey Kong , page 3, at 1up.com. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 1, 2015 ; Retrieved October 2, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.1up.com
    108. ↑ GameSpot Presents: The History of Donkey Kong , page 3-1, at gamespot.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011 .
    109. ↑ Donkey Kong - Game Boy Advance Preview at gameboy.ign.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011 .
    110. ↑ Donkey Kong-e at gameboy.ign.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011 .
    111. ↑ Classic NES Series: Donkey Kong at gameboy.ign.com. Retrieved October 3, 2011 .
    112. ↑ Donkey Kong at nintendo.de. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved September 2, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nintendo.de  
    113. ↑ wii.ign.com ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Original quote: “This is not the complete Donkey Kong. Not the first masterpiece game that established Shigeru Miyamoto's career. It's a cut, condensed and compromised conversion, and its promotion really just needs to stop. " @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wii.ign.com
    114. ↑ Smash Bros. DOJO , official site of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 8, 2008 ; Retrieved October 15, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.smashbros.com
    115. ↑ Europe gets exclusive 'perfect version' of NES Donkey Kong in its Mario 25th Anniversary Wiis at gamesradar.com. Retrieved October 24, 2011 .
    116. ↑ E3: Nintendo Land's Donkey Kong Crash Course demo at destructoid.com. Retrieved September 2, 2012 .
    This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 6, 2012 .