Donkey Kong Was Released in Japan (1981)

On this day, Donkey Kong was released in Japan. It was the first major game by legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto and the title that firmly established Nintendo as a major force in the video game industry—a position the company still holds today. Before Donkey Kong, Nintendo had already released several video games and even scored a global hit with Game & Watch.

Nintendo was eager to break into the American arcade market, but its earlier attempts had fallen short. Games that performed well in Japan struggled to attract arcade operators in the United States. The company’s leadership challenged its American division to create a game that would appeal specifically to U.S. players, and the project was handed to Shigeru Miyamoto. At the time, he wasn’t a game programmer but an industrial designer. Many believe that became one of his greatest strengths: because he wasn’t constrained by the technical limitations of the hardware, he focused on creating memorable gameplay first.

Nintendo sold around 60,000 Donkey Kong arcade cabinets during the game’s first year, with more than 100,000 eventually sold worldwide—an extraordinary success for the time. The company later released home versions for multiple consoles, which sold in the tens of millions of copies. Today, Donkey Kong is still available on the Nintendo Switch.

Donkey Kong also introduced a character named Jumpman, who rescues his girlfriend from the giant ape Donkey Kong. That character would later be renamed Mario and go on to star in hundreds of games, becoming one of the most recognizable figures in video game history.

Sources

• Super Mario History: Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Facts — History.com
• Donkey Kong (1981) — SYSSRC Museum
• Donkey Kong (1981 video game) — Ultimate Pop Culture Wiki