Donkey Kong arcade cabinet

genre and indeed it was certainly one of the forerunners of the platform game. It pre-dates Donkey Kong but the latter also added to the genre. It seems a small thing now but Donkey Kong gave us the ‘jump’, something unknown in arcade gaming until then.

Donkey Kong was an early development project by Nintendo and it’s chief designer was Shigeru Miyamoto.  Disappointed by audience reactions to Radar Scope, Miyamoto was hired to turn the project into something that would appeal to the U.S. market.  There seems to be something stereotypically Japanese about the background story – a love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter and a girl.  The story does seem to ‘borrow’ some elements from the King Kong story, but a famous court case involving Nintendo and Universal Studios established that they (Nintendo) had not stolen the idea.

Miyamoto was not, in fact, responsible for the programming of the game – he was more of an idea’s man, suggesting game elements to his development team and receiving replies as to whether these were possible.  Donkey Kong was therefore responsible for introducing elements into arcade machines such as the familiar rolling barrels, ladders and in particular, making the game multi-stage, meaning four different levels with different designs.  It was also the first game with an in-built story-line.

The multi-level element was a real step forward although the development team originally regarded it as merely repeating the same level.  After persuading them that it was the way to go, the game was eventually finished and tested.  The main character, who was originally known as Jumpman, become known as Mario following the introduction of the game into the United States.  Mario, of course, became the hero of the various Nintendo games featuring that character, beginning with Mario Bros.

Donkey Kong was a commercial success following its release in 1981 and led to a series of franchises which is still in development today.  Most recently, Donkey Kong Country Returns was developed in 2010 for the Nintendo Wii.

The history of Mario however, dates back earlier than the eponymous games in which he featured.  Donkey Kong was the game which created the character of Mario, battling to rescue the princess from the giant, barrel throwing ape.  Witness Mario in full flight below:

So the character of Mario was something of a natural progression for Nintendo.  Two of the developers of Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokai, were responsible for the creation of the upgraded Mario, now set to feature in his own game.  In Donkey Kong, Mario is somewhat limited in his abilities and, the developers realised, a new game called for something extra.  That ‘something extra’ was still fairly limited by the technology of the day, but Mario could now fall from any height.  He could also kill his enemies in a slightly convoluted way – he must jump up and hit the platform on which the enemy is standing (a feature that remained in future Mario games).  This would flip the enemy over and Mario would then run into the struggling creature – this would act as a kick and it would die.

In Donkey Kong, the character was known as Jumpman and an apocryphal story relates how the name Mario was derived from the landlord of the property where the American Nintendo staff were based.  The landlord apparently resembled Mario – Italian, moustache, etc.  Mario Bros also featured Mario’s brother, Luigi.

The sewer setting of Mario was also inspired by New York, with its massive network of pipes.  In the game, enemy creatures emerged from bright green pipes and it was Mario’s task to defeat these monsters to progress to the next level.

There’s not too much romance or sentimentality surrounding the creation of the character.  In the late 1980s Nintendo dominated the console market and the Mario Bros. complemented that domination, providing fans with a recognisable character and back-story which would hook them into any future offerings.  As the new entrant into the market Sega needed to compete on this level.  They had tried Alex Kidd with moderate success but realised they needed something more.

A creative team under the management of Naoto Ōshima was formed to design a new character and came up with, among others, Mighty the Armadillo plus several other characters who would go on to feature in various games themselves.  Sonic the Hedgehog of course was the character chosen.  Blue was the colour of the Sega logo and the character was nicknamed Mr. Needlemouse.  As frustrated gamers can testify Sonic could not swim and this was because one of the designers was under the false impression that hedgehogs could not.

We now had a recognisable character but it was refined further for the American market.  Sonic’s fangs were removed and so was his girlfriend, Madonna.  These changes caused some tension between the Japanese designers and their American counterparts but the changes remained and in the long term Ōshima admitted it was probably for the best.

In 1991 the game was released for the Megadrive/Genesis and was a great success.  The high speed gameplay, including supersonic speed boosts was the antithesis of Mario, the slower Nintendo platformer and performed well in Japan, America and Europe.  Sega was now in the game.

Part two follows….