“Tim and Chris Stamper founded Ultimate Play the Game in 1985; the company would later be re-established under the new name Rare Ltd., producing many memorable games along the way”

Prior to Nintendo’s buyout of the company Rare had been on a development marathon producing over 50 games in a five year period most of them for the NES console. An astronomical development rate by today’s standards but it helped Rare make enough profits to invest in some computer graphics hardware that would benefit the company going forward. The Silicon Graphics workstations that they purchased allowed them to create advanced 3D models and push the bounds of what was possible for video game graphics at the time. After the buyout they were tasked by Nintendo to use the new technology to create a 3D CGI game that game would become Donkey Kong Country. Due to the limitations of the 16-bit era of console gaming there was no way Rare could make a true real-time rendering 3D game so like others at the time, pre-rending the assets was the way to go. Myst was one of the first games to pioneer this method of creating a pseudo 3D game with pre-rendered graphics. The process for Donkey Kong Country involved modelling and animating the main characters and enemies on their graphics workstations. Then they would save of a series of image stills and turn them into 2D animated sprites that had the appearance and lighting of 3D models. The Finnish developers Bloodhouse had used a similar technique for their 1993 game Stardust. The limitations of the hardware also made it difficult when implementing some of the games other graphical elements. The games 3D backgrounds also taxed the SNES consoles limited memory so the team had to carefully arrange backgrounds that repeated elements but trying to make them appear as natural as they could. These techniques helped the game stand apart from most of its competitors and rivals when the game went on the market in November of 1994.

“It was the work by Rare on Donkey Kong Country and the team at Cyan Inc. with their Myst that helped push forward the era of 3D gaming.”

Nintendo’s 16-bit SNES console was always under pressure from its main rivals Sega who boasted 32-bits and a CD-ROM drive with their SegaCD console. Nintendo needed a title that would show off their consoles hardware potential and compete with their high memory rivals. The launch of Donkey Kong Country helped them do just that with the game becoming an instant hit with the gaming community. The game would go on to reach over 9 million in sales and pick up a host of video game awards along the way. It helped Rare gain international status and cement the relationship between them a Nintendo that would carry on for the next number of years. The Donkey Kong franchise now given a new lease of life would continue to see regular video game releases over the following decades with an iconic look that is still influenced by Rare’s original character designs.

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“Nintendo have relied on countless revisions of the Mario games to help boost console sales, but how long can this tend continue?”

However Nintendo’s policies where formed in an era when the video game industry was in its infancy and companies were viewed a kin to toy manufactures. Nintendo having a long and successful history in the toy manufacturing business prior to their switch to the video game industry. The problem they face now is that the video game industry has moved on from its kid orientated origins and matured alongside its aging gamers. Gamers who want something a little more than Mario in a cat suit, a game like The Last of Us dealing with adult subject matter raking in a host of awards over the last year. It is a sign of the times that as far as the console market is concerned games are generally aimed towards an adult audience. Nintendo over the last decade has managed to sell record amount of devices with their Wii console hitting the 100 million mark. In spite of this sizeable market lead many AAA titles that are ported over to the console failed to sell anywhere near those numbers expected for such a popular console. A fact that has led publishing giant EA to become increasingly hesitant to publish any of its titles to Nintendo’s latest WiiU console. Former EA CEO John Riccitiello stating in March of last year, that no future titles were in the works for the WiiU platform.

 “Nintendo’s flagging console sales saw a sharp increase with the launch of the Wii, its successor the WiiU has come nowhere close in comparison.”

This is the fundamental root of Nintendo’s problems is that despite the falling out between the company and major publishers like EA they ultimately seem unconcerned. Nintendo long ago became the kingpins of the video game industry and it’s a state of mind that they haven’t lost even in the face of their impending failure. Nintendo’s failure is not something that can be predicted by diving into the future but instead taking a look back at the past and a company in a similar situation Nintendo is in today. Sega were Nintendo biggest rivals with the two consistently going head to head with their console platforms throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Like Nintendo they often favoured first party development over licencing deals with third party companies, relying on iconic video game characters like Sonic The Hedgehog to sell their consoles. The 1998 release of the revolutionary but ultimately poorly selling Dreamcast is the device that spelled an end to Sega’s days as a console manufacturer. Sega announcing its intention to become solely a video game publisher only three years later, this has allowed them to remain reasonable profitable within the video game industry. Even going as far as to swallow their pride and negotiate an exclusivity deal for the Sonic franchise with their old rivals Nintendo.

 “Nintendo might take heed for their former rivals Sega. Whose consoles failure to gain a sizable percentage forced the company out of the console market for good.”

Pride is something that would be a bitter pill for the Nintendo executives to swallow if they ever came to approach Sony or Microsoft about licencing Mario to rival platforms. It is also the fact that despite poor sales for their WiiU console they have managed to retain a decent share of the handheld market in the face of stiff competition from mobile devices. Since the launch of the GameBoy back in 1989, Nintendo have managed to rack up impressive unit sales in that sector of the market. The games developed for the handheld market are generally of a more casual nature and aimed at a younger audience. Something that Nintendo excels at with franchises like Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Kirby, etc. Many analysts have stated that one way for Nintendo to re-establish itself in the industry would be to port many of its handheld titles over to mobile platforms. The latest version of their handheld devices the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS have sold over 42 million units combined, double that of their preceding device. Although something has be said for the fact that there are over 250 million iPhones and over 1 billion Android devices. Just looking at the numbers it might seem like an obvious move for Nintendo to port its games to mobile, but it is unlikely Nintendo will want to enter into a market where they would have to relinquish a certain level of control. More importantly they would have to share in the profits with Apple and Goggle, one reason why Nintendo are so guarded over they own IP’s.

 “Nintendo have hinted that they are doing some research into smart phone technology, but seeing any of their games on iPhone or Android will be a long way off yet.”

Nintendo is somewhat stuck at a crossroad with it obvious to see that their latest console is a failure but on the other hand they seen positive sales of handheld titles. The latest games in the Pokémon franchise accumulating over 11 million in sales in the last 12 months. Boosts to profits like these will only help Nintendo in a small way with its general loss of market share in the console sector not looking good on their financial reports. Should Nintendo follow Sega’s path and give up on the manufacturing side of things and primary focus on software development. That question will become clearer based on the sales of Nintendo’s next console; the company cannot afford to have another console launch fail to generate sales. Another WiiU would surely spell the end for Nintendo’s console days. However many would have said the same around the time of the GameCube, that like the WiiU lost Nintendo a sizeable share of the market. However they were able to bounce back with the highly successful Wii console so a lot rides on the success of their next console launch. In essence Nintendo needs to remove itself form its self-imposed ideology formed in the early 80’s and join the rest of its competitors in the 21^st Century.

By Colm O’Sullivan

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“Sonic was not just Sega’s mascot he would become the face of the industry; to join the likes of Mario, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.”

The Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) had superior technical specifications over its rival the NES. However the Genesis failed win over consumers with its 16-bit system. What Sega needed was standout title that would get consumers to buy their console. The task was given to their internal development studio Sega AM8, to design and create a video game character that would raise brand awareness. One of the team members Naoto Ōshima drew a sketch of a hedgehog character original named ‘Mr. Needlemouse’. The team soon latch onto the idea and started to develop the game as a side scroller but with a twist. They wanted to make their video game hedgehog the fastest of all the video game characters, renaming their character to Sonic to better fit with his new abilities. This increase in speed caused the developers to think differently about classic side scroller level design. Players would have to traverse loop-the-loops, springs, high fall and long jumps all at a higher speed then they would be normally accustomed too. Development began in 1990 with Sega anxious to get the game to market as soon as possible with Nintendo close to releasing their own 16-bit system the SNES. Sega however believed rightly that they had a hit on their hands with their new Sonic game, so much so that the Sega AM8 development team where affectionately nicknamed the Sonic Team.

“Over the years a host of different characters have been introduced into the Sonic series with some become standout characters, receiving their own video game titles.”

In June of 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog was released exclusively for the Sega Genesis, the game was an instant success. The sales of the Genesis console dramatically increased with gamers buying the system just to play Sonic the Hedgehog. Releasing the game prior to the launch of the SNES console helped the Genesis gain a sizeable amount of the market share, holding over 60% of the North American video game market at one time. Sonic now became the face of Sega with the blue hedgehog front and centre of any of the companies’ promotional material. The Sonic Team was instantly put to work on a sequel, this time Sonic would be joined by his sidekick a flying fox known as “Tails”. Just like Sonic, Tails became an iconic character that Sega could use to promote the brand. The sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released in November of 1992 and again proved to be a hit with gamers, selling 6 million copies on the Genesis console. Since the original game released in 1991 a Sonic themed game has been released year on year. Sonic has also featured in his own animated TV show, comic book series and countless other forms mediums used to promote the Sega brand. Even though Sega are no longer a console manufacturer, Sonic’s role as the company mascot still remains the same. From an initial concept that seemed to ludicrous to ever possibly be a success has now become one of the industry’s most recognisable characters, even reviling Mario in popularity stakes.

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“The Famicom Disk System was on the very cutting edge of console technology at the time, which did lead to many technical hitches like disk faults and damaged belt drives”

The development for Metroid was heavily influenced by Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien. The design team wanted to emulate the same atmosphere of confinement and anxiety. The gameplay was one of the first in the side-scrolling genre to allow the player to move both right and left with a more open ended structure to the levels. Whereas previously players would be guided down a linear path and reach a definitive end point, Metroid would have an open map that the player could explore. Although certain areas would be locked until the player found a particular power up, often forcing the player to retrace their steps. Due to the large nature of the levels and potential hours of gameplay, the developers wanted to offer a way for the player to complete the game in multiple sittings. The new Famicom Disk System with its increased memory capabilities allowed for game saves, a player could now save their progress and pick up where they left of when they returned to the game. The games soundtrack echoed the theme of the game, with the unusual composition far removed from the typical jingles used in games at the time. Hirokazu Tanaka wanted to blur the lines between music and sound effects, were the score would make the player feel as if they are encountering a “living organism”. The game was finally released on the 6^th of August 1986 exclusively for the Disk System.

“The gameplay mechanics featured the side-scrolling of Super Mario Bros. with the free roaming exploration of The Legend of Zelda.”

Although in retrospect the game has become a cult series at the time it a commercial flop. This in part was due to the game been exclusive to the Disk System which was only sold in the Japanese market. However a ported version for the NES released in Europe and North America a year later reversed the fortunes for the Metroid franchise. Due to the limitations of the cartridge based NES console, level passwords were used instead of save games. All in all Metroid has sold 2.73 million copies worldwide and has become a cult icon in the video game industry. One of the main reason for the Metroid series becoming so popular was the narrative twist featured in the games ending. Another unique aspect of Metroid was the multiple endings that would alter depend on how fast the player completed the game. If the player was fast enough they received an ending cut scene that revealed the main protagonist of Samus Aran to be a women. No indication is given of the character’s gender during the game with even the games manual and promotional material referring to Samus as a ‘he’. A female protagonist was ground-breaking for a male dominated industry, although games like Baraduke and Mach Rider had featured female characters prior to Metroid. Samus was the character that struck a chord with gamers, receiving multiple follow up titles over the years. The Metroid series like Mario and Zelda has become key title in Nintendo catalogue of first party games.

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The Stanley Parable

“One of the reason for the game’s success is the high quality of voice acting, provided by Kevan Brighting”

The origins of Let’s Play is hard to nail down as gameplay footage of video games has being available on the web for long time. The unique factor that differentiates regular footage of gameplay and a Let’s Play is the accompany commentary that often tries add a comic element.  The website tvtropes.org points towards the Something Awful forums as the beginning of the trend, screenshots accompanied by humorous text that were posted on the site acting as the genesis for the Lets Play phenomenon. The trend progressed into the video format that we know today when user “slowbeef” upload his commentated playthrough of The Immortal in January of 2007. Regardless of how it started the proliferation of Let’s Play videos on the internet in particular on video hosting sites like YouTube or Blip, has caused many publishers and developers reevaluate their stance on copyright infringement. Traditionally it was up to the games creators or publishers to release gameplay footage and promotional material. Some companies would hire marketing firms to manage the distribution of any content from the game whether it be screenshots or videos. However with the growth of video sharing websites and the ease at which gamers can capture game footage, has turned this task into a losing battle. The general attitude towards Let’s Play videos is that it is a form of free publicity. Often reigniting interest in older games or helping obscure indie titles gain more popularity.

“The original mod relied heavily on Source engine assets, with the help William Pugh the mod was rebuilt for the HD remake”

One company that has taken a stance against the trend is Nintendo, who have a history of exercising strict license agreements and copyright control. Initially the company was more favourable towards Let’s Play videos with Nintendo utilizing them for the marketing of their 2011 game Xenoblade Chronicles. Producing a 7 part Let’s Play series showcasing the game in the run up to its launch. However in May of this year Nintendo issued a series of Content ID Matches on videos featuring Nintendo games in particular Let’s Play videos. Many Let’s Play creators earn money from ads placed on the videos, Nintendo’s legal action would mean that any revenue generate by view counts would now go to them not the YouTube user. Nintendo stated that they wished to ensure that their first party content was distributed in an appropriate and safe manner. This stems from Nintendo’s early days combating third party developers producing poor titles in an unlicensed industry, which ultimately lead to the video game crash in 1983. Some recent reports form certain YouTube user have hinted that Nintendo might relax it copyright policies, although it is still unclear if they will do a 180 on this issue.

“Achievement Hunter and their YouTube Let’s Play channel have gained a substantial following, Minecraft been the feature of the majority of their videos.”

The monetizing of Let’s Play videos has allowed some YouTube user to make a full time living of playing and commentating on video games. It is unlikely that the trend is going to die down with Google producing a study recently, that shows the time people spent viewing gaming related videos has doubled year on year. Although publishers still rely on traditional review sites to promote their games or release teaser trailers and gameplay footage, now Let’s Play creator’s offer a new means of promotion. The Stanley Parable demonstrates the new emerging attitude to video game promotion that relies on the community to do the work for them. It remains to be seen if this marketing strategy will work out in the long run. Any stats relating to increased game sales as a result of Let’s Play videos with high view counts are hard to judge. Minecraft would be the most obvious example of this with Mojang the games creators actively embracing the trend of Let’s Play videos that featured the sandbox game. The Yogscast is a popular YouTube channel that have built up an entire business around Minecraft Let’s Play videos among others. They have for the second year running won the YouTube Gamer of Year at the Golden Joystick Awards. Proving that Let’s Play is not just a passing fad but a full time job for some. It is no doubt that the hundreds of YouTube video playthroughs helped Minecraft on its meteoric rise to it’s dominate position in the industry. How many downloads where directly responsible from Let’s Play videos, it’s hard to know. However it now one aspect of video game marketing that all developers and publisher must take into consideration, as it is only set to become a more and more popular trend.

By Colm O’Sullivan

The post The Stanley Parable Review appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

The development of the Famicom began in the early 80’s with Masayuki Uemura heading up the development. Originally he proposed a 16-bit home computer style devices with accompanying keyboard and mouse. However company president at the time Hiroshi Yamauchi believed that such a devices would be off putting for the less technologically savvy. After various revisions the console was released to the Japanese market on the 15^th of July 1983 as the Famicom. A name proposed by Uemura’s wife as a short hand version of ‘family computer’. After some initial product recalls for bad chip sets which resulted in early faltering sales. The device was soon however at the top of the list of console sales in Japan, thanks to the stellar line up of games available on the device. The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Metroid and many other titles that have continued to bring success to Nintendo over the last number of decades. Such success had the Nintendo executives looking towards the American market for future expansion. The initial plans were to licence the console to Atari who would sell the device under the name Nintendo Advanced Video Game System. However after licencing disagreements and the axing of the Atari CEO Ray Kasser the deal fell through. It wasn’t until 1985 that the Famicom was released onto the American market as the newly rebrand Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The initial launch was a market test with the console only distributed to the New York City Area in October of the same year. The country wide release would come in September of the following year.

“An ejector lever was unnecessarily added to the cartridge slot, as Uemura believed children would be entertained by pressing it”

The NES was not only a successful console in monetary terms it also re-ignited the flagging video game industry and set many standards and practices that are still followed today. The unchecked copyright infringement of numerous video games and console had contributed to the crash of 83’.  Companies producing bad quality knock off games of popular arcade titles has soured consumer’s opinions of video games and consoles alike. Nintendo’s tactic was to regain their trust by establishing a high level of quality of control on all their devices. The first part of this plan was the ‘10NES’ lockout chip which made sure that other companies could not copy Nintendo’s games for use on other devices. The second was the now infamous “Official Nintendo Seal of Quality”, this quality assurance guaranteed a high level of quality from any game that was produced for the NES console. Both of these polices are still industry standards with game developers having to pay console manufactures a licencing fee to get there game onto a particular device. At the time in a market that was still reeling from a major financial crash, Nintendo’s polices helped propel the NES to the forefront of the industry. Within three years Nintendo had sold over seven million NES consoles with the final tally of over sixty-one million units sold worldwide.

“Shigeru Miyamoto revealed his genius in Super Mario Bros. re-inventing the side-scrolling genre in what would become one of the most popular video games of all time”

These sales were in no small part helped by the high quality titles sold with the device Super Mario Bros. the standout title among them. It was once again Shigeru Miyamoto who was key to Nintendo success, developing the game as a follow up to his earlier arcade tile Mario Bros. The NES launched with seventeen other titles popular among them was titles like Excitebike, Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman. As the decade progressed Nintendo looked unstoppable with no competition coming close to the NES and its host of first rate titles. However as the 80’s past into the 90’s Nintendo would be challenged by two other Japanese console manufactures, with Sega launching its Mega Drive/Genesis console towards the end of the decade and Sony releasing it PlayStation a few years later in 1994. It was time for Nintendo to innovate once again if it was to hold onto it position at the top of the video game industry. That technological innovation would as always be the task of Gunpei Yokoi, who in 1989 released the GameBoy handheld console to the market. A device that would dominate that sector of the market for the coming decade and beyond.

The post Compendium: Nintendo King of the Consoles appeared first on Game Design Ireland.

“An early promotional poster for Nintendo’s Hanafuda playing cards.”

Founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in 1889 as Nintendo Koppai in the city of Kyoto. The company was originally established as a manufacturer of ornately decorated playing cards known as Hanafuda. The company built its business around the Hanafuda cards, becoming the largest playing card manufacturer in Japan. However by the 1960’s the company had peaked in their particular industry and president at the time Hiroshi Yamauchi looked for new ways for the company to branch out. Their first major success outside of the playing card industry was a toy invented by one of their assembly line mechanics Gunpei Yokoi, it was an extendable grabbing arm called the “Ultra Hand”. It propelled Nintendo to the forefront of the toys industry in Japan. Helped by more innovate toys and gadgets developed by their new lead product designer Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo looked too compete with the more established Japanese Toymakers such as Bandai and Tomy. One way for the company to continue to succeed was to look for new industries to move into and by the 70’s, the video game industry was another avenue that the Nintendo Company looked to explore.

“Nintendo wanted to emulate the success of Atari’s Pong, the Color TV Game-6 featured six variations of a tennis like game similar to Pong.”

It was in 1975 when Nintendo moved into the video game market by releasing their first arcade title EVR Racer and gaining the Japanese distribution rights to the Magnavox Odyssey. Nintendo entered into the console market themselves in 1977 with their “Color TV Game-6”, a console that featured a number of Pong like games. That same year the company hired Shigeru Miyamoto, who began his career at the company as an artist and would go on to be their lead game designer. He started by creating the accompany art for many of Nintendo first forays in the video game market, providing the art for original Nintendo hits like Sheriff. The first game that Miyamoto helped to develop was Radar Scope which proved to be a relative success in Japan. However it failed to help Nintendo to break into the American market, Hiroshi Yamauchi subsequently tasked Miyamoto to develop a new game. The large amount of unsold Radar Scope cabinets would be converted to play the new game. Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi set about the development of the game which would become the now legendary Donkey Kong, released to major critical acclaim in 1981. It was the game that allowed Nintendo break into the American market and set them on their path towards dominating the video game industry. It was the main protagonist from Donkey Kong that received his own game two years later with Mario Bros., once again proving the Miyamoto was key to the success of the Nintendo Corporation. His game development skills would soon be needed to help sell Nintendo’s latest venture in the console market, by producing a series of game changing titles for the upcoming Nintendo Entertainment System.

Insert Coin To Continue…

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In 1982 they released Pitfall! on the Atari 2600, the game was a major success although Atari didn’t see any of the money that it generated. Atari had filled a lawsuit against Activision when the company was formed, arguing that the formation of Activision as a third party developer didn’t have a legal basis. In 1982 the court case went in favour of Activision and set a precedence for the establishment of third party developers. Following in the footsteps of Activision a host of new video game companies where established producing games for various consoles with the manufactures having no creative or financial control. Although Activision always produced high quality titles many others looked simple to cash in on the growing video game craze and some saw it as a cheap advertisement opportunity. Companies such as Quaker Oats who where a food manufacture hired developers to make games that often focused more on promoting the companies brand then actual gameplay. The most infamous in this wave of bad games was Chase Chucks Wagon which involved the player controlling a dog and eating dog food, the game was made by Purina a pet food company. At the time Atari had no licencing deals in place with these game developers and had no control on the creative process, any developer could make games for Atari console and not have to pay them any royalties.

“Chase Chucks Wagon started a long tradition of companies using poor and hastily produce video games to market their products”

Atari needed to combat this flood of poor titles with a best seller of their own. The Atari executives felt that a popular movie tie in would be able to recoup their companies loses. The film they looked to was Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The licence for the film was obtained in July of 1982 with Atari later reported to have paid nearly $25 million for the rights. The developer Howard Scott Warshaw was then only given 5 weeks to build the game in order to release in time for the Christmas season. The game is often cited has one of the worst in the industry with poor gameplay, limited graphics and a non-existent narrative leading to the games failure. In the same manner as they had anticipated great success for their Pac-Man port again with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial they overestimated how well the game would sell. The game did sell at 1.5 million units which was seen initially as a success but with over 3 million unsold cartridges once again Atari had gambled and lost. The unsold units rumoured to have been buried in a New Mexico landfill. It was the beginning of the end for Atari with the company continuing to struggle in an industry that was evolving at an ever increasing pace. Although Atari had the most high profile failures other video game manufactures failed to cope with the changing dynamics of the industry. Magnavox and Coleco both pulled out of the video game industry and others like Imagic went bankrupt and collapsed. The period of the early 80’s saw the industry grow out of control with companies forming and collapsing all in the hope of cashing in on the video game craze.

“Spielberg had originally asked Atari to make a Pac-Man like game, instead the developer felt that such a game would be to derivative”

The crash if often referred to as the North American video game crash as the European and Asian markets felt little effect during this period. The European market was less interested in console gaming, with the personal computer being a much popular gaming device. Companies like Commodore and Sinclair having great success with their respective devices the Commodor64 and ZX Spectrum. In Japan a well establish toy manufacture was having great success with its new gaming console the Nintendo Famicom. The company would soon take advantage of the failing American console market and change how third party developers and console manufactures would work together. Nintendo would rebrand the Famicom console as the Nintendo Entertainment System and lead the way in the console market for the rest of the decade.

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The development of the game was in reaction to the failure of Nintendo’s earlier arcade title Radar Scope. The game was an attempt by Nintendo to break into the American market, unfortunately the game didn’t sell as well as expected and the American based Nintendo operation was left with a number of unsold Radar Scope cabinets. President of Nintendo at the time Hiroshi Yamauchi, approached a young designer at the company Shigeru Miyamoto with a plan to convert the unsold cabinets into a new game. Miyamoto took the novel approach at the time to draw up the designs and storyline for the game before any coding or development was carried out. This came from Miyamoto’s lack of programming skill and his primary job as an artist and designer, his first job at the company had being creating artwork for an earlier arcade game called Sheriff. His inspiration for the games titular character came from the Popeye series of cartoons with the villain of the comic Bluto being re-imagined as the ape known as Donkey Kong. Initially Nintendo had hoped to gain the licence for the Popeye characters with a movie being released in the same year it seemed like a good marketing opportunity. However the deal fell through and Miyamoto was forced to turn Popeye into a carpenter known as Jumpman and Olive Oyl into a Princess. When he approached the programming team at Nintendo with his concept for the game he was met with apprehension at the complexity of the game. Nevertheless the games development was soon underway with the unsold Radar Scope cabinets being converted to play the new game. When the US office received the game from Japan for testing, it wasn’t popular among the staff at the company who asked for the name to be changed. Their request was refused, however they did rename the princess to Pauline after the companies warehouse managers wife and the Jumpman character became Mario after the landlord of the warehouse. The latter of course would go on to be the companies’ most recognisable figures.

“The barrels that Jumpman had to avoid in order to scale the girders, became synonymous with Donkey Kong’s character”

The game was released in July of 1981 and was an instant success with the company soon selling 4,000 units a month and struggling to keep up with demand. Within a year they had sold over 60,000 units, earing the company around $180 million. The game announced Nintendo’s arrival in the American market and cemented them as one of the leading companies in video game development. Soon rival video game companies where looking to licence the Donkey Kong game for their systems, both Atari and Coleco vied for the rights for their respective consoles with Coleco winning out in the end. The game was packaged with the ColecoVision in order to boost sales of their console, later ports were also licenced to other consoles such as the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. All in all Coleco made $153 million of the sales of Donkey Kong cartridges on various consoles with Nintendo taking $5 million in royalties. There were many companies who looked to bypass Nintendo and it licence fees by simple making clones and illegal copies of the game. Versions such as Killer Gorilla for the BBC Micro or Sega’s Congo Bongo games where among the most popular clones. One company Tiger Electronics gained the licence to King Kong from Universal City Studios and used it to make a direct copy of Donkey Kong game under the King Kong name. This led to a court battle between Nintendo and Universal. The movie studio argued that Donkey Kong infringed on their own King Kong property, arguing that consumers would be confused by the similar names and themes. The court eventually ruled in Nintendo’s favour and ordered Universal to pay out the profits from Tiger’s game which amounted to $56,000, damages and attorney’s fees.

“Donkey Kong evolved from being the antagonist in the earlier games to being the main protagonist of later title such as Donkey Kong Country.”

Donkey Kong would continue to be a major franchise for Nintendo with numerous sequels produced and ports to subsequent consoles, the Famicom featuring the game as one of its launch titles. The game would later evolve beyond the basic platform genre that it pioneered and branch out into more advanced side-scroller’s such as Donkey Kong Country, with racing and rhythm based games also carry the Donkey Kong brand. The game has become one of a handful of Nintendo titles that have become the backbone of the company’s success with a multitude of Donkey Kong themed games being released on a regular basis. The game that was created to make up for a financial misstep by the company, went on to not only recoup their loses but herald in a golden age for the company and the beginning of their rise to the pinnacle of the video game industry.

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