Donkey Kong

The classic story of a beautiful woman, a horny ape, and an Italian plumber, told countless times over the course of traditional oral history, is given new virtual life.

Donkey Kong was the very first creation of Shigeru Miyamoto (in collaboration with Gunpei Yokoi and under the commission of Nintendo boss Hiroshi Yamauchi). Miyamoto has identified Donkey Kong as his favorite game and raison d'être:

It was from [Donkey Kong] that I chose the path that I took and I went from a simple industrial designer to a "game design specialist".¹

Donkey Kong also marked the very first appearance of both Mario (known as "Jumpman" at the time) and the character Donkey Kong, two of Nintendo's most beloved characters.

Trivia

Due to its popularity in arcades, Donkey Kong was outsourced to several other home consoles, among them Atari, Apple II, Commodore 64, ColecoVision, and Intellivision, before arriving on Nintendo's own NES. In addition, Donkey Kong was released as a Game & Watch title and licensed for use on cereal boxes, board games, pajamas, and hundreds of other consumerish things.

Universal Studios, owners of the intellectual rights to King Kong, sued Nintendo for copyright infringement. Universal lost the court battle, and in winning, Nintendo had a strengthened resolve to be real pricks to its contemporaries in the entertainment industry. Also borne from the court battles: Nintendo named the character Kirby after John Kirby, the lawyer hired by Nintendo to represent the company in court. Nintendo thanked John Kirby for his service with a $30,000 yacht christened "the Donkey Kong along" with "exclusive worldwide rights to use the name for sailboats."²