The story behind Donkey Kong itself is a great one not many people are aware of.
You will all be familiar with the ultra fun game of the same name 'Donkey Kong', where Mr Kong stands atop a series of constructions, with a female hostage, hurling items at our would-be-hero as he makes his way up ladders, jumps obstacles and avoids danger at every step.
Did you however know that our hero in the game is actually Mario, the now iconic Nintendo front man, in his first ever outing!
This game, released first in 1981 was down to a bit of luck.
In November 1980 an arcade cabinet containing the game 'Radar Scope' was shipped to the US by Nintendo, but although receiving acclaim early on it quickly lost popularity with gamers. This left Nintendo red-faced and needing a solution. Radar Scope designer Shigeru Miyamoto quickly knocked up an evolution in terms of arcade gaming, Donkey Kong - a new game which fit inside the old Radar Scope cabinets (Of which there were a total 3000) - 2000 of these cabinets remained in storage, not on the arcade floor, where they should have been. Miyamoto slapped the new Donkey Kong game in the stored cabinets and shipped them out to arcades and the rest, quite frankly, is history, with Donkey Kong now recognisable by 99% of the worlds gamers.
The franchise went on to be released on Nintendo's Game & Watch system where it lays claim to another world first - the D-Pad! (In the guise we know and love it today).
Did you know that the female you have to rescue in the original Donkey Kong is not Mario's beloved Princess Peach? She is a woman by the name Pauline!
Donkey Kong has gone on to star in many, many games - here are just a few:
Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat & Super Smash Bros Melee to name a few.
Check out our footage of the NES version of Donkey Kong:
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