If you’re looking for a specific date, here it is: July 9, 1981. That is when Donkey Kong was created and released into the wild of Japanese arcades. But honestly, just giving you a date feels like a massive disservice to how weird and desperate the whole situation actually was. It wasn't some grand, planned masterpiece. It was a "save our skin" project born out of a massive failure.
Nintendo was basically broke in America at the time. They had thousands of unsold cabinets of a game called Radar Scope sitting in a warehouse, collecting dust and losing money. If they didn't find a way to turn those literal boxes of junk into something people actually wanted to play, Nintendo of America was probably going to fold. Enter Shigeru Miyamoto, a guy who wasn't even a programmer—he was a staff artist.
The 1981 Pivot That Changed Everything
Most people assume Nintendo always had the Midas touch. Not true. In the late 70s, they were just another company trying to figure out if this "video game thing" had legs. When they finally decided to replace the Radar Scope guts with something new, they didn't even want a gorilla. Originally, they were chasing the Popeye license.
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Can you imagine? Mario was almost Popeye. Bluto was almost the big bad. But the licensing deal fell through, which forced Miyamoto to get creative. He had to invent his own characters to fit the hardware they already had. He came up with a love triangle involving a stubborn ape, a carpenter, and a girlfriend. It was essentially a soap opera played out on four screens of steel and silicon.
The game hit the US market later in 1981, specifically around July or August, depending on which port you were standing in. It was an instant, screaming success. It didn't just sell; it dominated. By 1982, Nintendo had moved something like 60,000 units. That's insane for that era.
Why the Name Sounds So Weird
"Donkey Kong." It’s a bizarre name if you really think about it. There’s a persistent urban legend that it was supposed to be "Monkey Kong" and a fax machine error or a typo changed the 'M' to a 'D.'
That’s actually a myth.
Miyamoto wanted to convey the idea of a "stubborn ape." He used a Japanese-English dictionary and found that "Donkey" was listed as a synonym for stubborn or silly. He liked the sound of it. He thought it sounded "tough but cute." When he told the American distributors the name, they reportedly laughed at him. They thought it was ridiculous. But Miyamoto stood his ground, and well, we all know who won that argument.
What Really Happened When Donkey Kong Was Created?
The development process was a mess of technical limitations. You have to remember that 1981 hardware was incredibly primitive. Every pixel mattered. Every byte of memory was a battleground. Miyamoto worked with a small team of engineers at Ikegami Tsushinki, a contract company, because Nintendo didn't have the internal resources to code the whole thing themselves.
This created a massive legal headache later on.
The Ikegami Tsushinki Lawsuit
Since Nintendo didn't actually write the code, the relationship with the developers soured. Ikegami Tsushinki eventually sued Nintendo, claiming they owned the copyright to the program code. This is why you rarely see the original arcade ROM of Donkey Kong in modern Nintendo collections; they often use the NES port or a rebuilt version to avoid the ghost of that 1980s legal battle. It’s a weird bit of "lost" history that most casual fans never hear about.
Evolution of the "Jumpman"
Mario wasn't called Mario in 1981. In the original design documents, he was "Ossan" (a generic term for a middle-aged man). Then he became "Jumpman." The name Mario only came about when the team at Nintendo of America's warehouse were being chewed out by their landlord, a guy named Mario Segale.
They were behind on rent. The landlord was angry. After he left, the staff jokingly decided to name the little character after him.
The character's look was entirely functional, too.
- The Mustache: They couldn't draw a mouth at that resolution, so they gave him a mustache to show where his nose ended.
- The Overalls: These were added so you could see his arms moving against his body. Without them, his torso would just look like a solid colored blob.
- The Hat: Drawing hair that looked realistic while jumping was too hard. A hat was easier.
It’s funny how some of the most iconic character traits in history were just "hacks" to get around 1981 technical limitations.
The Impact on the Arcade Landscape
Before when Donkey Kong was created, most games were about shooting things. Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-Man (which was about eating). Donkey Kong introduced the concept of the "platformer." It was one of the first games to tell a visual story with a beginning, middle, and end.
You weren't just chasing a high score. You were trying to save Pauline.
The Screen Progression
- The Girder Stage: The iconic slanted ramps.
- The Conveyor Belt: Introducing moving obstacles.
- The Elevators: Timing-based platforming that still frustrates people today.
- The Rivet Stage: The final showdown where you actually bring the tower down.
Most games back then just sped up the same level over and over. Donkey Kong actually changed the environment. That was revolutionary. It felt like a movie.
The Universal City Studios Legal Battle
You can't talk about the creation of Donkey Kong without mentioning King Kong. Universal City Studios saw Nintendo making millions and decided they wanted a piece. They sued Nintendo, claiming the game infringed on their copyright for the King Kong movie.
Nintendo was a tiny underdog at the time. They hired a lawyer named John Kirby (yes, that’s where the pink puffball's name comes from). Kirby discovered that Universal had actually sued RKO Pictures years earlier to prove that King Kong was in the public domain so they could make their own remake.
The judge basically told Universal they couldn't have it both ways. Nintendo won. It was the "David vs. Goliath" moment that gave Nintendo the confidence to take over the world.
Actionable Insights for Retro Fans and Collectors
If you're looking into the history of when Donkey Kong was created, you might be interested in more than just trivia. There is a whole subculture built around this specific 1981 release.
- Watch 'The King of Kong': If you haven't seen the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, go find it. It covers the obsessive world of high-score chasing on original 1981 hardware. Just keep in mind it's edited for drama—the reality is a bit more nuanced.
- Identify Original Boards: If you are buying an arcade cabinet, look for the four-board stack. Original 1981 Donkey Kong PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) are notorious for being "fragile" due to their age and the way they were manufactured.
- Play the Arcade Version: The NES version is great, but it's missing an entire level (the Pie Factory/Conveyor belt stage). To get the true 1981 experience, you need to play the arcade ROM, which is available on the Nintendo Switch "Arcade Archives" series.
- Check the Serial Numbers: Early production runs of the cabinet were actually repainted Radar Scope machines. If you find a cabinet with blue paint over red (or vice versa in some rare cases), you’re looking at a piece of the original 1981 pivot that saved Nintendo.
The creation of Donkey Kong wasn't just about a game. It was the birth of the modern gaming industry's mascot and the moment Nintendo pivoted from a struggling toy company to a global powerhouse. It all started with a stubborn ape and a warehouse full of unsold circuit boards. Just goes to show that sometimes, the best things come from the biggest failures.