DONKEY KONG ARCADE VIDEO GAME

                                PLAYS, DONKEY KONG JR & DONKEY 3 TOO

DONKEY KONG

Donkey Kong is an arcade game made by Nintendo in 1981. This type of arcade game is called a platform game, because the main focus of the game is to move the main character across a series of platforms, while at the same time, dodging and jumping over various obstacles. In the game, Jumpman must rescue a Lady, from a giant ape named Donkey Kong. Jumpman and the ape later became two of Nintendo's most popular characters.

How To Play The Game

The main goal of the game is saving the Lady. The game also gives the player a score. You earn points by finishing screens; jumping over obstacles; destroying objects with a hammer power up, collecting items such as purses, hats, parasols (apparently belonging to the Lady/Pauline), or completing many other tasks. The player typically receives three lives with a bonus awarded for the first 10,000 points. In order to win the game, you need a lot of patience and skill to accurately time Jumpman’s ascent.  The game is divided into four (4) 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 as follows:

Screen 1 (25 m), Jumpman 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. He must also avoid flaming balls, that appear when a barrel of oil collides with an oil drum. Players usually call this screen "Barrels".
Screen 2 (50 m), Jumpman must climb a five-story structure of conveyor belts, that carry cement pans. 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.
Screen 3 (75 m), Jumpman rides up and down elevators while dodging fireballs and bouncing objects, such as spring weights. The bouncing weights appear on the top level and drop near the rightmost elevator. The screen's common name is "Elevators".
Screen 4 (100 m), Jumpman must remove the eight (8) rivets which support Donkey Kong. The fireballs are still the main obstacle. Removing the final rivet causes Donkey Kong to fall and the hero to be reunited with Pauline. This is the final screen of each level. Players refer to this screen as "Rivets".

The player loses a life if:

Jumpman runs into a barrel, fireball, flaming oil barrel, spring weight, cement pan, or Donkey Kong
Jumpman falls off the structure or through open rivet holes

The bonus timer reaches 0.

The levels are formed from all the screens combined. At each level, the game becomes much harder. For example, Donkey Kong begins to throw barrels harder and faster and sometimes diagonally, and fireballs come faster. 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 Jumpman after a few seconds, effectively ending the game. With its four (4) unique levels, Donkey Kong was the most complex arcade game at the time of its release, and only the second game to feature multiple levels.

Story and Characters

Donkey Kong is considered to be the earliest video game with a storyline that visually unfolds on screen. The Donkey Kong character is the game's villain. Donkey Kong is the pet of a carpenter named Jumpman. (The name Jumpman was chosen for its similarity to Walkman and Pac-Man. The carpenter mistreats the ape, so Donkey Kong escapes and kidnaps Jumpman's girlfriend, originally known as the Lady, but later named Pauline. The player must take the role of Jumpman and rescue the girl. This game was the first occurrence of the damsel in distress scenario that would provide the template for countless video games to come.  At the game's end, Jumpman and the Lady are reunited.

The game uses graphics and animation as vehicles of characterization. Donkey Kong smirks upon Jumpman's demise. The Lady is instantly recognized as female from her pink dress and long hair and "HELP!" appears frequently beside her. Jumpman, depicted in red overalls and cap, is an every “everyman” character, a type common in Japan. Graphical limitations forced his design: Drawing a mouth was too difficult, so the character was given a mustache; the programmers could not animate hair, so he got a cap; and to make his arm movements visible, he needed colored overalls. The artwork used for the cabinets and promotional materials make these cartoon-like character designs even more explicit. The Lady for example, appears (like Fay Wray) in a torn dress and stiletto heels.

Donkey Kong is the first example of a complete narrative told in video game form, and it employs cut scenes to advance its plot. The game opens with the gorilla climbing a pair of ladders to the top of a construction site. He sets the Lady down and stomps his feet, causing the steel beams to change shape. He then moves to his final perch and sneers. This brief animation sets the scene and adds background to the gameplay, a first for video games. Upon reaching the end of the stage, another cut scene begins. A heart appears between Jumpman and the Lady, but Donkey Kong grabs the woman and climbs higher, causing the heart to break. The narrative concludes when Jumpman reaches the end of the rivet stage. He and the Lady are reunited, and a short intermission plays. The game then starts over at a higher level of difficulty.