Who Really Made Donkey Kong?
Head to https://squarespace.com/nostalgianerd to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code NOSTALGIANERD ~ The original Donkey Kong Arcade Game is something of a genesis point for Nintendo. It was not only the birthplace of their most famous character, Mario, but also Donkey Kong as well. The thing is, Donkey Kong wasn’t made to be a fantastic game, it was actually made solely because of another game, a game which doesn’t really get talked about, and because of that, Donkey Kong was made in an impossibly short period of time.
You can find the text version of this video at https://www.nostalgianerd.com/nintendo-didnt-create-donkey-kong/
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⌚Timings⌚
00:00-03:29 Radar Scope
03:29-06:08 Conception
06:08-06:59 SqSp
06:59-13:56 Design
13:56-20:19 Development
20:19-24:48 Marketing
24:48-26:10 Lawsuit
26:10-26:40 Conclusion
26:40-27:05 Credits
🔗Video Links🔗
Scmupulations: https://shmuplations.com/donkeykong/
Critical Kate: @ACriticalHit
Scramble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vc-RIkpk40
Sheriff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI8oHZ9ouck
Radar Scope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kbliYx51ok
Donkey Kong Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJkcNP4VkiM
Interview 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGw2dyN6AFY
Interview 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8JdkqTZkRY
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Some material in this video may be used under Fair Dealing / Fair Use. Where under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 (UK: Sections 29 and 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988), allowance is made for purposes including parody, quotation, criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, education and research. Fair Dealing / Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
@NoseyGit
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Iv only watched 2 of your videos and I already know that you should have 1m followers and will have. These videos are some of my favourites Iv ever seen on here. I knew nothing about computers and as a kid we were very poor and my best friend had money and had all these games. Iv always looked at them from afar wondering about their history. Fantastic. Keep it going.
@timbaker435
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
when I was 15 Donkey Kong was my fav and my friend's fav was Tempest. We'd spend ours feeding quarters into these games.
@scottandrewhutchins
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
I played a Donkey Kong arcade console a year or two ago at Coney Island USA, and it is hard AF compared to the NES version. The controls are incredibly stiff and exacting. Getting on and off the ladders requires a lot more precision.
I don't think the pie stage and the elevator stage got reversed. What the video doesn't mention is that the arcade version goes stage 1 to stage 4 on level one, then adds stage 3 to level 2, and finally stage 2 for levels 3 and beyond. The machine was one that included Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros and added a continue feature, but it was an extreme quarter eater. The free video games were to get people to buy drinks, but with me they had a broke teetotaler. I swear I must have hit continue more than 50 times before I could get to the pie factory stage, which you have to beat six stages to get to, which I ended up completing almost as soon as I got to it. The machine eventually ran out of free credits, but it was close enough to closing time, that they didn't restore them. The free game night was on the coldest day of the year, January, probably 2023, and they repeated it the next weekend. I didn't go, but I did my part and promoted the heck out of it on Facebook, which is how I found out about it the previous weekend. They had five or six pinball machines and three multigame consoles. One of the pinball machines titled before the evening was over. I didn't do it. I was on the machine next to it when it happened.
One of the pinball machines was Evel Knievel, and everyone was noticing how the artwork was really inappropriate for children because of the association of such games with children these days. The Evel Knievel pinball game showed a lot of women in skimpy, tight tops with nipple bumps. Clearly they were thinking of bars and not of family entertainment.
@SevenDeMagnus
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Interesting
@hdufort
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
The arcade game was transcoded (direct code conversion) to the Tandy Color Computer 3, which runs on a 6809 CPU clocked at 1.78 MHz. Showing that the arcade cabinet's hardware was perhaps even a little overpowered for the task!
@qarnos
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
The vast majority of z80 institutions took 4 or 7 cycles. Few took 10.
@ribenasquash
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
You know what? I've never booted up Donkey Kong. I suppose it's because I can see by watching footage that it's just maybe a bit too simple? Maybe I should try it. Seems like alot of effort though… Update: so I played it. It's really horrible. Almost any game ever is more fun.
@ribenasquash
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Here's what I think happened. Those Miyamoto draughts are forgeries and Ikagame actually designed the game piecemeal. Just a feeling. Based on Nintendo's less than stellar track record of honesty and Miyamoto's track record of never designing anything ever.
@Turtleboy971
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
When I was very young, we had an Atari VCS (2600), and one of the games we had was Nintendo's Donkey Kong. While all Atari cartridges were black, this one was Grey. My sister and I played that game a ton.
@barmymagician2970
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
I'm subscribed but your videos don't seem to pop up any more….
@blacksunshine7485
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Jump Man and Mr.Needlemouse at the London 2012 Olympic Games
@ridureyu
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
So he was almost Ass Kong.
@Ryusuta
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
It really is kind of amazing that Popeye was the biggest direct inspiration for both Superman and Super Mario. He was always my hero growing up, and still is to this day.
@fensoxx
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
I had Donkey Kong in the early 80s on a tiny toaster sized tabletop arcade machine. Crappy graphics probably, I don’t remember, but I played the hell out of that thing and mastered that game.
@A9rdX9BW
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
15:34 62500 appears to be very specific, but you might as well have used 'over 9000' and it would not have been much less accurate 😉
More correct: 65536 (1 GiB / 16 KiB, with 1 GiB being 2^30 ) or 61035.15625 (1 GB / 16 KiB, with 1 GB being 10^9)
@bzdirt
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Around 18:30 there's math formulas being displayed while talking about second degree derivatives…
In fact, you just add gravity to vertical speed each frame before applying that speed to position. (Something like pos+=(++spd)). Now without floats it's gonna be way too fast so you right shift (some sort of crude but fast division) and you've basically got fixed point maths.
And plenty of games still do it like this, even the fixed point part (for example, in online games it helps predictability)
@solaufein1374
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
2:52 this background music kicks ass. What is it? I want dance floor remix 🙂
Great documentary too.
@MarklovesTV
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
A fascinating video about a groundbreaking game.
@crashban4t.f.s.b783
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Changed his look but, kept his name. Changed his pal and changed his daaame but, he came and changed the game and the world was not the same.
@meteorain2940
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Nintendo's biggest mistake was rejecting Sony and their idea for a CD system
@luciferlight5082
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
I remember arcades and seeing pacman machines in the lobbys of restaurants and hotels;often out of order, but just sitting there ,anyway I was always prudent with my money to subsequently afford a second quarter to continue the arcade game.
@volzschlittseyxavierkoopa9287
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
💜
@wtfisthisbs1337
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Donkey Kong IS racist as hell. Name means "Ass Gorilla" more or less, a hip-hop loving primate, now with human facial expressions. Most people who lack melanin and are over-exposed to the sun's rays tend to have the most nauseating ideas.
@Clownacy
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Nostalgia Nerd's Worst Title
@nachiopistachio
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
The biggest reveal being jumping in video games not being much of a thing until then and it being actually Ikegami’s idea…
@mwk1
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
tyś cały jak "ganpej" …
@Enan63
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Donkey Kong is an character that can get shift tones and change of designs a lot!
@Bruce-LeeLSA
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Great work with the video! Nintendo definitely has interesting history!
@tommythorn
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Fascinating story! I wonder how many other companies/projects had revolutionary potential but slipped for some reason or another. (I immediately think of the original IBM PC which despite being slow, limited, and way overpriced ended up winning)
@werewolf74
January 1, 2026 at 9:35 pm
that art at 22:06 is CLEARLY influenced by Popeye.
Comments are closed.