Mario Originally Couldn't Jump
In the first version of Donkey Kong Mario didn't have the ability to jump... which is weird considering jumping is pretty much Mario's whole schtick outside of mushroom abuse. Miyamoto changed the game forever when he saw barrels heading towards the characters and asked "What would you do?"
It Has an Insanely Hard to Find Easter Egg Landon M. Dyer was the coder tasked with transporting Donkey Kong to the Atari 400, a thankless task that didn't pay well. He decided to hide his initials in the game and he did it so well that they stayed hidden for more than a quarter of a century. He did it so well he himself forgot how to unlock it. Luckily, an equally insane man named Don Hodges told Kotaku.
• Play a game, setting a new high score that is either 37,000, 73,000 or 77,000. The digits for hundred thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones may be anything.• Kill off all of your remaining lives, but your last death must be by falling.
• Then set the game difficulty to 4 (press the option button 3 times.)
• Wait for the game to cycle through the demo screen where Kong jumps across the screen, then at the title screen, the programmer's initials, LMD, will appear. (Pictured above)
No wonder no one found it.
The Series Holds Eight Guinness World Records
In the 2008 video game edition of the Guinness World Records Donkey Kong racked up some pretty impressive honors. For instance, it was the first game to include storytelling via cut scenes, and Donkey Kong 64 had the most collectibles of any console game.
It's Got a Wicked Trademark
Ever said the phrase, "It's on like Donkey Kong!"? Well, of you have then you may have violated Nintendo's trademark. They sought to trademark the phrase in 2010, though I haven't been able to see if they actually managed to do so. Considering it's now widely used by everyone from rappers to American politicians I'm betting they didn't make it. After all, Donkey Kong belongs to us all. Happy birthday, big guy!
Jef has a new story, a tale of headless strippers and The Rolling Stones, available now in Broken Mirrors, Fractured Minds. You can also connect with him on Facebook.