Free Donkey Kong Game
Use the arrow keys to control the direction
of Mario through the free Donkey Kong game levels and use the space bar to
jump. You may need to click on the game with the mouse
before the arrow keys actually work. This online version of
Donkey features the first two levels. Donkey Kong History
Donkey Kong is an arcade game that was released by
Nintendo in 1981. The game is an early example of the platform
genre as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character
across a series of platforms while dodging obstacles. The
storyline in Donkey Kong assigns Mario (originally called Mario)
the task to rescue a damsel in distress, Pauline, from a giant
ape named Donkey Kong. The hero and ape went on to become two of
Nintendo's more popular characters. Along with
Pacman, Donkey Kong is one of the most
popular arcade games of all time.
The game was the latest in a series of efforts by Nintendo to
break into the North American market. Hiroshi Yamauchi,
Nintendo's president at the time, assigned the project to a
first-time game designer named Shigeru Miyamoto (now a legend in
the gaming industry). Drawing from a wide range of inspirations,
including Popeye and King Kong, Miyamoto developed the scenario
and designed the game alongside Nintendo's chief engineer,
Gunpei Yokoi. The two men broke new ground by using graphics as
a means of characterization, including cut scenes to advance the
game's plot, and integrating multiple stages into the gameplay.
Despite initial misgivings on the part of Nintendo's American
staff, Donkey Kong proved a tremendous success in both North
America and Japan. Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, who
developed home console versions for numerous platforms. Other
companies simply cloned Nintendo's hit and avoided royalties
altogether. Miyamoto's characters appeared on cereal boxes,
television cartoons, and dozens of other places. A court suit
brought on by Universal City Studios, alleging that Donkey Kong
violated their trademark of King Kong, ultimately failed. The
success of the Donkey Kong game and Nintendo's win in the courtroom
helped position the company to dominate the video game market in
the 1980s and early 1990s.
How to Play Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is an early example of the platform genre (it
is sometimes said to be the first platform game, although it was
preceded by Space Panic and Apple Panic). Competitive video
gamers and referees stress the game's high level of difficulty
compared to other classic arcade games; the average game lasts
less than a minute. Winning the game requires patience and the
ability to accurately time Mario's ascent. In addition to
presenting the goal of saving the Lady/Pauline, the game also
gives the player a score. Points are awarded for finishing
screens; leaping over obstacles; destroying objects with a
hammer power-up; collecting items such as hats, parasols, and
purses (presumably belonging to the Lady/Pauline); and
completing other tasks. The player receives three lives with a
bonus awarded for the first 7,500 points. The highest recorded
score was set by Billy
Mitchell on June 26, 2007; he achieved 1,050,200 points.
The game is divided into four different one-screen stages. Each
represents 25 meters of the structure Donkey Kong has climbed,
one stage being 25 meters higher than the previous. The final
screen occurs at 100 m. Later ports of the game omit or change
the sequence of the screens; the original arcade version
includes:
- Screen 1 - Mario must scale a
seven-story construction site made of crooked girders and
ladders while jumping over or hammering barrels and oil
barrels tossed by Donkey Kong. The hero must also avoid
flaming balls, which generate when an oil barrel collides
with an oil drum. Players routinely call this screen
"Barrels".
- Screen 2 - Mario must remove eight
rivets, which support Donkey Kong. The fireballs remain the
primary obstacle. Removing the final rivet causes Donkey
Kong to fall and the hero to be reunited with the
Lady/Pauline. This is the final screen of each level.
Players refer to this screen as "Rivets".
- Screen 3 - Mario rides up and down
elevators while avoiding fireballs and bouncing objects,
presumably spring-weights. The bouncing weights (the hero's
greatest danger in this screen) emerge on the top level and
drop near the rightmost elevator. The screen's common name
is "Elevators".
- Screen 4 - Mario must climb a
five-story structure of conveyor belts, each of which
transports pans of cement. The fireballs also make another
appearance. This screen is sometimes referred to as the
"Factory" or "Pie Factory" due to the resemblance of the
cement pans to pies.
These screens combine to form levels, which become
progressively harder. For example, Donkey Kong begins to hurl
barrels more rapidly and sometimes diagonally, and fireballs get
quicker. The victory music alternates between levels 1 and 2.
The 22nd level is unofficially known as the kill screen due to
an error in the game's programming that kills Mario after a few
seconds, effectively ending the game. With its four unique
levels, Donkey Kong was the most complex video game at the time
of its release, and only the second game to feature multiple
levels.
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