The game was the latest in a series of efforts by Nintendo to break into the North American market. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo’s president at the time, assigned the project to a first-time video game designer named Shigeru Miyamoto. Drawing from a wide range of inspirations, including Popeye, Beauty and the Beast, and King Kong, Miyamoto developed the scenario and designed the game alongside Nintendo’s chief engineer, Gunpei Yokoi. The two men broke new ground by using graphics as a means of characterization, including cutscenes to advance the game’s plot, and integrating multiple stages into the gameplay.
Regardless of initial doubts by Nintendo’s American staff, Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically in North America and Japan. Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, who developed home console versions for numerous platforms. Other companies cloned Nintendo’s hit and avoided royalties altogether. Miyamoto’s characters appeared on cereal boxes, television cartoons, and dozens of other places. A lawsuit brought on by Universal City Studios, alleging Donkey Kong violated their trademark of King Kong, ultimately failed. The success of Donkey Kong and Nintendo’s victory in the courtroom helped to position the company for video game market dominance from its release in 1981 until the late 1990s (1996–1999).
The 2007 motion picture documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters explores the world of competitive classic arcade gaming and tells the story of Steve Wiebe’s quest to break Billy Mitchell’s King Kong record.
Released in December 1980, Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I aka Zork I was an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Read more
WWF WrestleMania was a game developed by Twilight and published by Ocean Software in 1991 for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and DOS. It was the first WWF licensed game available for these computers Read more
In the distant future, the B.E.D.A. Corporation, a company involved in the development of electronic equipment and military weapons, is actually a front operated by a race of alien beings who Read more
Transformers: War for Cybertron - Autobots and Transformers: War for Cybertron - Decepticons are the Nintendo DS iterations of Transformers: War for Cybertron These versions have different gameplay from the console Read more
Transformers: War for Cybertron is a third-person shooter video game developed by High Moon Studios and published by Activision. It was released in North America on June 22, 2010 and Read more
A video game based on the cartoon series of the same name was released by Takara in 1987 for the Family Computer Disk System (FDS). It can be played in Read more
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is an action-adventure video game based on the Transformers toy franchise. It was developed primarily by Edge of Reality, with the Nintendo 3DS version Read more
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a 2009 third-person shooter video game based on the 2009 live action film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Read more
Transformers: Human Alliance is an arcade rail shooter developed by Sega and released in 2013, based on the live action films. The game can be played with one or two Read more
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is a third-person shooter video game developed by High Moon Studios and published by Activision. It is the sequel to the 2010 video game Transformers: War Read more
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (marketed as Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Stealth Force Edition for Nintendo 3DS and Wii) is an Action-adventure video game which was released on June Read more
Transformers: Cybertron Adventures is the Wii version of the video game Transformers: War for Cybertron. It was developed by Next Level Games and published by Activision. The game was released Read more
Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals is a 1999 versus styled fighting game based on the Beast Wars cartoon series and toy-line for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. The Nintendo 64 version Read more
Transformers Universe was a third person multiplayer online battle arena game developed by British game develop Jagex Games Studio in partnership with American toy company Hasbro. The game was officially Read more
Transformers: Prime – The Game is a brawler video game developed by Nowpro for the Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS and Altron for the Nintendo DS. Transformers: Prime – Read more
Transformers G1: Awakening is a turn-based tactics mobile game in the Transformers franchise developed and published by Glu Mobile. It was originally released for feature phones on November 12, 2008, Read more
Transformers Decepticons is a video game based on fictional alien robots, Transformers. This version follows an alternate plot of the 2007 live action film Transformers. Most prominently, while the Autobots version Read more
Transformers Autobots is a video game based on fictional alien robots, Transformers. This version follows the plot of the 2007 live action film Transformers. Most prominently, while the Autobots version has Read more
Transformers Animated: The Game is a video game for the Nintendo DS handheld based on the Transformers television incarnation, Transformers: Animated. The story is centered around the rogue factory robots and Read more
Based on the film, the game is a third-person action-shooter. All the robots have at least five attack types: a light weapon, a heavy weapon, a melee attack, and the Read more
Brett Summers
Brett founded CultFaction.com in 2014 a website and podcast that deals with cult film and tv. He also has a strong interest in grappling martial arts both as a practitioner and as a historian.