You’re probably looking for a specific year. 1981. That’s the short version. But if you actually want to know when was Donkey Kong made, the reality is a bit more chaotic than a simple calendar entry. It wasn't just "made"; it was forged out of a massive, looming corporate disaster that almost ended Nintendo’s American dreams before they even started.
Imagine a warehouse in New Jersey. It’s 1980. Nintendo of America is sitting on 2,000 unsold arcade cabinets of a game called Radar Scope. It was a dud. A complete disaster. Minoru Arakawa, who was running the show in the States back then, was basically staring at financial ruin. He begged his father-in-law, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, for a "conversion kit"—something new to put inside those useless wooden boxes.
Yamauchi handed the project to a staff artist who had never designed a game in his life. That guy was Shigeru Miyamoto.
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The Birth of the Ape in 1981
Miyamoto wasn’t a programmer. He was a dreamer. While most games at the time were about shooting pixels at other pixels, he wanted to tell a story. He originally wanted to use Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl. Honestly, if Nintendo had secured the rights to Popeye back in early 1981, the Donkey Kong we know wouldn't even exist. But the licensing deal fell through.
Miyamoto had to pivot. Hard.
He swapped Popeye for a carpenter (initially called Jumpman), Olive Oyl became Lady (later Pauline), and Bluto became a stubborn pet gorilla. This development happened in a frantic burst during the first half of 1981. Gunpei Yokoi, the legendary creator of the Game & Watch, supervised the technical side, helping Miyamoto figure out how to make a character actually "jump" over obstacles. That was a huge deal. It sounds silly now, but jumping was a revolutionary mechanic.
By July 1981, the game was ready. The first cabinets started hitting Japanese arcades that month. By the time it reached the U.S. in the late summer and early fall of 1981, the gaming landscape changed forever.
Development Milestones
- Late 1980: The Radar Scope failure creates the desperate need for a new game.
- Early 1981: Shigeru Miyamoto begins conceptual work on the "Popeye" replacement.
- Spring 1981: Programming is handled by Ikegami Tsushinki, a contract company that later sued Nintendo over the code.
- July 9, 1981: The official Japanese release date.
- Late 1981: The game dominates the U.S. market, eventually selling over 60,000 units.
Why the Tech of 1981 Mattered
Donkey Kong was a beast of a game for its time. It ran on a Zilog Z80 central processing unit. If you look at the hardware specs of the original board, it’s hilarious by today’s standards. We’re talking about a CPU running at roughly 3 MHz. Your toaster probably has more processing power now.
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But back then? It was magic.
The game used four different "stages." Most arcade games in 1981 just repeated the same screen over and over, just faster. Donkey Kong gave you a narrative progression. You had the girders, the rivets, the elevators, and the conveyor belts. It felt like a movie. This was the first time "cutscenes"—even though they were just a few seconds of a gorilla climbing a ladder—really took hold in the arcade space.
The Legal Drama You Probably Didn't Know About
Universal City Studios saw the success of Donkey Kong in 1982 and lost their minds. They sued Nintendo, claiming Donkey Kong was a blatant rip-off of King Kong. This is a crucial part of the "making" of the brand because it nearly killed the franchise.
Nintendo’s lawyer, John Kirby, did something brilliant. He proved that Universal had previously sued RKO Pictures to prove that King Kong was in the public domain so they could make their own remake. Basically, Universal had argued the character was free for everyone to use, and then tried to sue Nintendo for using it. The judge laughed them out of court. Nintendo was so grateful they later named a character Kirby after their lawyer. True story.
The Evolution Beyond the 80s
If you’re asking "when was Donkey Kong made" because you’re thinking of the 3D version with the tie, that’s a different era. That’s 1994.
Rare, a British developer, took the character and used Silicon Graphics workstations to "pre-render" 3D models into 2D sprites. It looked like nothing else on the Super Nintendo. It was a second birth for the character. Without Donkey Kong Country in '94, the character likely would have faded into "retro" obscurity like Pac-Man or Qbert*.
- Original Arcade: 1981 (The OG)
- Game & Watch: 1982 (The first dual-screen handheld)
- NES Version: 1983 (The home console port)
- Donkey Kong (Game Boy): 1994 (A hidden masterpiece)
- Donkey Kong Country: 1994 (The 16-bit revolution)
The Cultural Impact of 1981
When Donkey Kong was made, it didn't just save Nintendo of America. It established the "platformer" as a dominant genre. Before this, you had Space Invaders and Asteroids. After this, you had Super Mario Bros.
Jumpman eventually became Mario. He traded his hammer for a mushroom and his carpentry job for plumbing. But the DNA of every Mario game—the timing, the physics, the personality—started in those cramped Japanese offices in early 1981. It’s sort of wild to think that a failed space shooter and a missed license for Popeye are the only reasons we have Nintendo today.
How to Experience the 1981 Original Today
If you want to play the game that was made in 1981, you have a few options that aren't sketchy emulators.
- Nintendo Switch Online: The NES version is available, though it’s missing the "cement factory" level because of memory limitations on the original NES cartridge.
- Arcade Archives (Switch/PS4): This is the holy grail. It’s the actual arcade ROM, bugs and all.
- The Donkey Kong High Score Scene: If you’re feeling brave, watch The King of Kong documentary. It’ll show you just how obsessed people still are with this 1981 masterpiece.
The legacy of 1981 isn't just a date on a timeline. It's the moment the video game industry decided it could be about characters and stories rather than just high scores and lasers. When Donkey Kong was made, it proved that a "game over" wasn't the end—it was just the motivation to put in another quarter and try again.
Actionable Insights for Retro Fans:
To truly understand the 1981 version, try playing the "Arcade Archives" edition on Switch. Notice the delay in the jump and how the "kill screen" functions at level 22. This wasn't a programmed ending; the game's timer simply runs out of memory and kills the player instantly, a quirky reminder of the limited tech available when the game was first built. For those interested in the history of design, compare the arcade physics to the 1994 Game Boy version—it's a masterclass in how Nintendo refined a single character over a decade.