Donkey Kong (No Hammer Challenge) (102,300) [MAME]

Donkey Kong was released on July 31, 1981 in the USA. Donkey Kong © 1981 Nintendo. Donkey Kong is a legendary arcade platform game in which the player takes on the role of Jumpman, who would later be renamed Mario and would go on to become Nintendo's mascot and a gaming legend. In this game, he must battle his way to the top of each level to rescue his beloved Pauline; who has been kidnapped by the giant ape, Donkey Kong. Jumpman is controlled with a joystick and a single JUMP button and must avoid the rolling Barrels thrown at him by Donkey Kong, as well as other enemies, including Fireballs, Cement Pies, Springs, and Firefoxes. Screens are negotiated with the use of ladders, ramps, conveyor belts and elevators. For additional points, players can collect umbrellas, hats, purses and other bonus items that Pauline has dropped on her way to the top of the building. Jumpman can also grab a hammer to smash Barrels, Beams, Fireballs, Cement Pies, and Firefoxes to earn additional bonus points. The hammer can only be used for a limited time, however, and Jumpman cannot jump or climb ladders while in possession of the hammer. On the Ramp, Elevator and Conveyor Belt stages, whenever Jumpman reaches Pauline, Donkey Kong will grab her and carry her off to the next level. (Exception: On the Conveyor Belt stage, Jumpman only needs to reach Donkey Kong's platform to clear the stage.) On the Rivet stage, Jumpman must remove eight rivets by running or jumping over them. After all eight rivets are removed, Donkey Kong will fall head first onto a stack of girders, knocking him out, and Jumpman and Pauline will finally be reunited. The game then starts over again with an increased level of difficulty. Donkey Kong was to be Nintendo's first big breakthrough into the western - and particularly American - arcade scene. Before Donkey Kong, Nintendo was having difficulty establishing itself in these markets. After the game's massive success Nintendo quickly established their headquarters of Nintendo of America to ensure that the game was being distributed properly. Mario was named after Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo of America's first warehouse location in Seattle (though it was debated whether this occurred before or well after the game was released). Mario was originally called 'Jumpman'; only the arcade version of Donkey Kong has ever called the hero Jumpman; most home conversions, particularly the NES version, game him the Mario name Although Mario is a plumber in later games, his career in Donkey Kong is that of a carpenter. Mario's appearance (and consequently his career) was dictated by the primitive graphics hardware of the time - the only way to have his arms appear 'separate' to his torso was to have them as a different colour - hence he wears 'dungarees'. The mustache is present merely to indicate where Mario's mouth is, again due to the low graphics resolution imposed by hardware limitations. Mario wears a hat so his head is distinguishable from the game's black backgrounds. About 60,000 units were sold in the US. Oddly, despite it being one of the ten best selling games of the golden age of video games, it never reached #1 on Replay's popularity charts. Instead, it was stuck at #2 behind mega hits "Pac-Man" and "Ms. Pac-Man" - the two best selling games ever. Donkey Kong inspired a catchy hit song by Buckner and Garcia called 'Do The Donkey Kong' released on the 'Pac-Man Fever' album. A Donkey Kong unit appears in the 1983 movie 'War Games', the 1984 movie 'Gremlins', the 1985 movie 'The Heavenly Kid', and the sitcom 'Two and a Half Men' (Season 5, Episode 2 - People Who Love Peepholes). MB (Milton Bradley) released a board game based on this video game (same name) in 1982. Save the girl and avoid the barrels and fireballs as in the video game. The gameboard is laid out like the video game's Ramp Stage. 'Can You Battle Donkey Kong and Save the Fair Maiden?'. Donkey Kong also spawned a cartoon series of the same name: Ruby-Spears Productions. Produced by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Originally aired September 17, 1983 as part of 'Saturday Supercade' on CBS. Mario was voiced by veteran voice actor Peter Cullen, while Donkey Kong's voice was provided by the late actor/comedian Soupy Sales (1926-2009). Michael Jackson used to own this game (Blue Upright model). It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on April 24, 2009. UPDATES The original Japanese version had all four stages displayed in their original, logical order 1-2-3-4. For this US version, they changed it to match the 'How High Can You Try/Get?' theme, with the stage order as follows: L-01: 1-4 L-02: 1-3-4 L-03: 1-2-3-4 (as in all levels of the Japanese version) L-04: 1-2-1-3-4 L-05: 1-2-1-3-1-4 L-06 through L-21 all remain the same as L-05 L-22: 1 (Kill screen). #donkeykong #arcade #mame #arcadegame #highscore