Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is a arcade game released 1981, it is the first videogame that the legend Miyamoto designed. Donkey kong was what made Nintendo, since it was its first big seller and it was the beginning of the Nintendo as we know it now.

• • Published by: Nintendo

  • Developed by: Nintendo

  • Designer: Shigeru Miyamoto

  • Platform: Arcade

  • Year Released: 1981

  • Significant Contributors to Game Development: Gunpei Yokoi

  • Genre: Platform Game

• Other Games in Series:

  • • Donkey Kong Jr. (1982)

    • Donkey Kong 3 (1983)

    • DK Country (1994)

    • DK Country 2 (1995)

    • DK Land (1995)

    • DK Country 3 (1996)

    • DK land 2 (1996)

    • DK land 3 (1997)

    • Donkey Kong 64 (1999)

    • Donkey Konga (2003)

    • Donkey Konga 2 (2004)

    • DK Jungle Beat (2004)

    • DK king of the swing (2005)

    • Donkey Konga 3 (2005)

    • DK Barrel Blast (2007)

    • DK Jungle Climber (2007)

    • DK Jungle Beat Wii (2009)

History

Donkey Kong is one of the first brain-child's of the legendary game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamoto started out as a painter and a designer before he got hired to Nintendo as Nintendo´s first artist. It is not known why Miyamoto was hired but ether it was because of his creativity or because the owner of Nintendo owed Shigeru´s father a favor. For three yeas he worked as a designer that made art on arcade machines and other novelties for Nintendo, and it was not until 1980 when he got his big opportunity.

Yamauchi-san, the owner of Nintendo, called Miyamoto to his office and told him to redesign a game called "Radarscope" that was made with the intention to penetrate the American market but failed. Yamauchi told him that videogames lacked memorable characters and that they relied to much on violence. Then he told Miyamoto to go and make Radarscope into something that would sell.

Ultimately the game Miyamoto made had nothing to do with Radarscope. The game that he had created featured a protagonist called Jumpman, a mustachioed carpenter that wore bright red overalls and a bright red cap as a match.

When the game was completed Nintendo was called crazy to be releasing that game, that lacked all violence and instead of a spaceship came a pudgy feller with a silly hat and a mustache. But Yamauchi, being a eccentric business man that tried to distribute any product ever made, decided that he was going to send Donkey Kong to America. 1981 was the year Nintendo had their first arcade hit with Donkey Kong.

To name the game he used a English/japanese dictionary and the company´s export manager, so he selected the name "Kong" which was supposed to evoke the runaway gorilla. Then he needed a descriptive word for the gorilla, he ended up choosing the word donkey, that he thought would describe the ape´s stubbornness and stupidity.

Game Design Elements

Gameplay

The gameplay of "Donkey Kong" is simple, a side scrolling game. It was designed to look like a flip book or something you would read through.

The mechanics of the game are of the simpler type, it is just a x and y axis movement (x being for going up and down stairs) with the addition of being able to jump, hence the name "Jumpman". Other mechanics include a hammer, which is not really a necessity, it smashes barrels, it lasts only for a short while and prevents the player from jumping or climbing up stairs. Other mechanics may also be the accessories Jumpman´s girlfriend has lost and scattered around the last level after she got kidnapped, those give points.

Another mechanic is the obstacles Jumpman has to overcome, and they include barrels, and fireballs that have eyes, elevator platforms, rivets, springs and conveyor belts.

What are the elements of gameplay and mechanics? Did it include weapons, vehicles etc? Anything significant about those?

Only one player can play at a time but the game gives the possibility of a 2 player mode where players take turns after each life lost.

The only difference in the gameplay comes in the last level, when Jumpman has to save his girlfriend, the player has to remove 8 rivets that hold the construction to make Donkey Kong fall to the ground so he wont be able to carry Pauline off again.

Controls

Very simple controls, left and right to run on the ramps, up and down for the stairs, and then one button to jump, simplest of controls but everything that is needed for this game.

Plot

Donkey Kong is a simple story about a carpenter but since Miyamoto was a creative designer he decided that his carpenter was not any ordinary carpenter, he was a carpenter on a mission, and that mission was to save his girlfriend, Pauline, from his own pet gorilla. Jumpman is running and jumping around a building site trying to save his girlfriend from Kong. There are 4 main levels, but to beat the game you have to play them numerous amounts of time in different orders.

Characters

Donkey Kong contains only three characters, Jumpman, Jumpman´s girlfriend, and Jumpman´s pet gorilla, Kong.

Jumpman has a very descriptive look, bit pudgy, bright clothes and a mustache. There is a good reason for the mustache and clothes though, since the screen was pixelated it was hard to make a convincing mouth, so a mustache was made, and the over alls and hat were made bright red so the character would really stand out from the background. Couple of years later Jumpman changed professions and became a plumer, and then got the name Mario.

Art

Visual

Donkey Kong was the first videogames to utilize cutscenes to develop the story of the game and to introduce different levels into the game play. The art includes like said before, Jumpman, carefully designed to show his character as well as possible,

also includes a obvious girl, that has long strawberry blond hair and a pink dress (along with some lost pointgiving accessories). The game makes it very obvious where the setting takes place by making girders and ladders the environment, which tells us it is in a building site. The gorilla is a cranky looking cartoonized big monkey. Important and moving elements of the game have very bright colors and really stand out from the black background and the environment. It is outstanding what they were able to do with only 16 bit graphics.

Sound

The sound is a unamplified mono, which means it requires one channel. The sounds were all composed of Miyamoto by using a synthesizer that was connected to his computer.

References

Chaplin, Heather, and Ruby Aaron. Smartbomb. Algonquin: Chapel Hill, 2005.

"Killer List of Video Games". KLOV.com. 2/23/10 <http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=7610>.

Links

• More info

• Donkey Kong wiki

• Playable first level