Donkey Kong (arcade game)

Donkey Kong is an arcade game created by Nintendo, released in 1981. The game introduced two of Nintendo's most important characters, Mario and Donkey Kong. The unusual name of the game is commonly believed to be due to a mistranslation of the Japanese for "monkey", but Shigeru Miyamoto actually intended for it to have this name. The "Kong" part is obvious (see King Kong), but the "Donkey" part represents "Stubborn".

Stages

There are four stages, each made up of a single screen, and which combine in various orders to form levels:

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In the first screen, Jumpman must scale a crooked construction site while jumping over or hammering barrels tossed by Donkey Kong.

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In the second, he must avoid pans of cement while running across conveyor belts. This level was omitted for the NES version and some other console versions.

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In the third screen, he must ride up and down lifts to reach Pauline.

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In the fourth screen, he must remove the rivets from the girders supporting Donkey Kong.

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Successive levels become progressively harder and contain longer groups of screens. After 21 levels, the game's timer ticks down so quickly that the 22nd cannot be started.

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In the original game as sold in Japan, the stages are simply run through in the order described above. The version sold in the United States is more complicated: 1,4,1,3,4,1,2,3,4.

Related Topics:
Japan - United States

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