Introduction

Donkey Kong began as a 1981 arcade platformer built by Nintendo R&D1 under Shigeru Miyamoto, assigned by Gunpei Yokoi to rework unsold Radar Scope cabinets into something with wider appeal. The result introduced a carpenter hero originally called Jumpman, his captured love interest Pauline, and the giant ape Donkey Kong, wrapped in some of the earliest story-driven cutscenes the arcade medium had seen. Nintendo brought the game home to the Famicom in 1983 and to the NES in North America in 1986, trimming the arcade original down to three stages instead of four, since the cement-factory level was cut to fit early cartridge memory limits, though the port otherwise plays close to the coin-op it’s based on. Players guide Jumpman up a series of girder-and-ladder construction stages, dodging rolling barrels and fireballs to reach the top and rescue Pauline, all in service of a rescue plot that would go on to define the character now known worldwide as Mario.

Donkey Kong

How to Play Donkey Kong Online

Press Start Game above to load the NES emulator, then press Start to choose game mode A or B (B is faster and harder). Donkey Kong needs just a D-pad and one button: arrow keys move and climb, and the default jump key is mapped to the NES A button. All keys can be checked in Control Settings in the emulator menu.

Donkey Kong Controls

NES button	Action
Left / Right	Walk along the girders
Up / Down	Climb ladders
A	Jump
Start	Start or pause

Tips for Saving Pauline

Jump barrels for points. Each barrel cleared with a jump is worth 100 points, and jumping two at once is worth more.
Watch out for barrels on ladders. Some barrels roll down ladders instead of along the girder. Never stand at the bottom of a ladder when a barrel is above it.
Use the hammer carefully. While holding the hammer Mario cannot jump or climb, and it disappears after a few seconds. Grab it only when the path below is clear.
Do not fall. Mario survives only small drops. Walking off a high girder costs a life.
Beat the bonus timer. The bonus counter keeps ticking down; whatever is left when you finish a stage is added to your score.
Pick up Pauline’s items (hat, parasol and purse) on the later stages for extra points.

Stages

The NES version has three stages that repeat with rising difficulty: the sloped girders where Donkey Kong rolls barrels, the elevator stage with bouncing springs, and the rivet stage where removing all eight rivets sends Donkey Kong crashing down. The arcade original also has a conveyor-belt factory stage that was left out of this home version; you can play the full four-stage arcade game in Donkey Kong (Arcade).

Legacy

Donkey Kong introduced the character later known as Mario, then called Jumpman, and launched Nintendo as a major game maker. Fans of the series can move on to Donkey Kong Country on the SNES or the original Super Mario Bros.