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I Wrote Donkey Kong

dadhacker.com — DadHacker author Landon Dyer has posted a compelling account of his time working as a programmer for Atari back in the early 80s, where he created, among other things, the cartridge game version of Donkey Kong. It's a fun read and gives a pretty unique perspective on the early days of the video game industry.

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  • ennTOXX, on 03/16/2008, -5/+23Who doesn't like Donkey Kong? Remember Donkey Kong JR.? Ahhhhh, the days of Arcade... :||
    • amar5677, on 03/16/2008, -19/+6DONKEY KONG SUCKS!
      • PongGod, on 03/16/2008, -10/+6I'll have to second that. There were so many better video games back then.
      • bugsy187, on 03/16/2008, -3/+3You know something, YOU SUCK!
      • solid12345, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1Sad when a Billy Madison quote gets dugg down. Of course this is coming from digg kids who think "Epic Movie" is comedic gold.
    • bigt8dogg, on 03/16/2008, -0/+16This article is about the development of the Atari ST, not Donkey Kong. It is a great article, but this is a completely misleading title.

      The only reference in this article to Donkey Kong is in the comments, and it takes you to another site completely... http://www.gamestooge.com/2008/03/13/developing-do ...
    • AndrewNorris, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1It's not that I don't like him, I just don't get why he's named after a donkey.
      • zenox, on 03/18/2008, -0/+0"Donkey Kong was created by Nintendo's game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He believed "donkey" meant "stupid" in English, and assumed the name would convey the sense "stupid ape" to an American audience. When he suggested this name to Nintendo of America, he was laughed at, but the name stuck"

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_%28charac ...
  • dixiedee1001, on 03/16/2008, -8/+1I remember my kids playing donkey kong. LOL
    • john2kx, on 03/16/2008, -1/+2Haha, good times. o_o
    • Killeroid, on 03/16/2008, -2/+1Unhh, almost everyone on digg played donkey kong at one point or another, so , big deal
      • vornan19, on 03/16/2008, -0/+2Yes, but how many of us have Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 over in front of the TV ready to play?
        I do.
        Truthfully I actually have Pinball in the Atari right now but DK is out and waiting.
        • OrangeSoda31, on 03/17/2008, -0/+1How many of us have the Atari pack on steam and a TV out port?
  • bobrobon, on 03/16/2008, -1/+98-bit is my hero.
  • RBrenner14, on 03/16/2008, -15/+130 Diggs and down.
  • Chocolatefatkid, on 03/16/2008, -2/+21It's on like Donkey Kong.
  • HockStar795, on 03/16/2008, -42/+2yea so did i
    check out the video proof: http://youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
    • dvicklund, on 03/16/2008, -1/+14I didn't even have to click on that to know what you were trying to do.

      I mean, come on, that's not even close to tricky.
    • xxBondsxx, on 03/16/2008, -1/+8yeah seriously that sucked dude. rick rolls have to be GOOD to get promoted
    • Satenru, on 03/16/2008, -1/+2this is getting really old
    • f3l1x, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1Welcome to 4chan. Home of nothing ***** useful EVER. ...except maybe to unclog toilets with our SUCK.
  • hypnotoad32, on 03/16/2008, -2/+60Donkey Kong for the 2600 ≠ Donkey Kong
    • Langford, on 03/16/2008, -1/+5Maybe not, but when it was the only version I had access to, it was good enough.
    • capnarrr, on 03/16/2008, -2/+5this is referring to the 8-bit atari version of donkey kong which was better in the NES version in many ways (contained all 4 levels, better gameplay and sound, etc)
  • CaptainEO, on 03/16/2008, -1/+36There's a Donkey Kong kill screen comin' up....
  • WickEd101, on 03/16/2008, -2/+9Anyone remember the little clamshell Donkey Kong game that had little red squishy buttons? That was fun.
    • jonnyeh, on 03/16/2008, -0/+2If you are referring to the Nintendo Game & Watch game, then yes, it was awesome. They released a compilation of those games on the GBA, go check it out for some great nostalgia. They were great games!
      • ipodfreek, on 03/17/2008, -0/+1I still have my DK Game & Watch! It works perfectly. I've had it since probably 1983 when it was released.
    • h2g242, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1no?
  • JustJoe4Life, on 03/16/2008, -8/+2I *rode* Donkey Kong.
  • TheJuggernaut, on 03/16/2008, -8/+243 Diggs and down?
  • chugger1992, on 03/16/2008, -7/+2Google Cache
    http://209.85.207.104/search?q=cache:6ix7SMPyqfEJ: ...
  • Regulator980, on 03/16/2008, -4/+6Dugg Mirror caught it: http://duggmirror.com/
  • Linkin4, on 03/16/2008, -10/+1They expect me to read all that??
    • mykalimba, on 03/16/2008, -0/+8No, just look at pictures for the rest of your life -- that's the only way to learn anything.
    • historicity, on 03/16/2008, -0/+3Funny, I was thinking," Where is the rest of it?"
  • LordHelmet, on 03/16/2008, -0/+25Ummm...Donkey Kong for the 2600 was made by Coleco, not Atari. This article is referring to the Atari 8bit computer version, which is a brilliant translation.
    • bigt8dogg, on 03/16/2008, -1/+3Atari ST had a 32 bit processor on a 16 bit bus.
      • loggia, on 03/16/2008, -0/+3He made Donkey Kong before the ST and the Tramiels...
  • FaithclubDotNet, on 03/16/2008, -0/+7In the early days of the arcade a young kid could expect "anything" to pop in on the arcades. Now a days, I pre-order my game like 6 months in advance and know what is going to be like before I even play it. Even games that haven't been made yet a person can generally theorize what is possible and what isn't. I think either Doom 1 or Dune 2 was the last time I was surprised by a game.
    • Murdats, on 03/16/2008, -3/+3yeah, but now that games cost $100 a pop (here in australia anyway) you generally want to be sure if that $100 is worth it.
    • Daz3, on 03/16/2008, -2/+3Haven't played portal then?
      • gunsandammo, on 03/16/2008, -3/+1portal is revolutionary how?
        • shutz, on 03/16/2008, -0/+3If you have to ask, you either haven't played it, or you just don't "get" truly original games.
        • gunsandammo, on 03/16/2008, -2/+0I "get" new gimmicks.
        • sat0shi, on 03/16/2008, -1/+3It was original but I really don't think it was revolutionary. I personally thought the game got old after a while, even though it was really cool to see at first.
    • Gerbil_Juice, on 03/16/2008, -0/+2Katamari Damacy was a breath of fresh air.
    • 1310nm, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1It's either a) FPS game with bad storyline (Call of Duty 4 has been the only impressive FPS I've played in years), b) 3rd person RPG/adventure game with a protagonist who wields ridiculous physical abilities (see Assassin's Creed, Devil May Cry, etc), c) MuhMorePuhGuh to be crushed by EQ...no wait, WoW these days, d) Unoriginal racing, e) Unoriginal fighting with people who wield ridiculous meta-physical abilities.

      I would love to see more cinematic, involved storylines like the old Quest games Sierra made (particularly Police Quest), or games that mix FPS with 3rd person cinematics, being involved in even transitions in the storyline (CoD4 nuke scene).
    • solid12345, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1The best surprise to come out in years is Guitar Hero. Fad or not, it changed the way we view how playing a video game should be, and it is one of few games that even my parents or friend's parents want to actually pick up and try. Video games should be for entertainment and to innovate on the concept, not to woo us with slick visuals and a race to see which game can bump up the polygon count.
  • spgass, on 03/16/2008, -14/+1Very cool.... Classic games rule! If interested, I wrote a blog post a couple months ago about retro plug-and-play games here: http://lowtechtimes.com/2007/12/20/classic-video-g ...
    • bigsteve, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1I bet he doesn't even know why he's getting dunked.
  • zephc, on 03/16/2008, -0/+6I worked with Landon at a small startup circa 1999 - really smart guy, and it was cool hearing about him working on these now-ancient games.
  • xlar54, on 03/16/2008, -0/+27What an amazing timeperiod to be in the software development industry. Today its all web, trying to imitate the desktop. big woo hoo. Gaming is all the same. It's all become rather boring and mundane really. Computers are faster, but really, they arent DOING anything. Back in the day, trying to push a 6502 processor over its capable limits to do things never imagined was truly amazing. Kudos to the vets. Its an embarrassment to write code in Java or C# when these folks used bare knuckle assembly...in 10 feet of snow...up hill... both ways...
  • Torx, on 03/16/2008, -0/+2Now that was a trip down memory lane, before i was even born lol
  • megaton, on 03/16/2008, -1/+44Am I the only one getting an article about him working on the Atari ST and without any mention of Donkey Kong?

    Here's the REAL article about Donkey Kong: http://www.dadhacker.com/blog/?p=987

    Did anybody actually READ the thing, or is it just blindly being dugg up?
    • dawnraid101, on 03/16/2008, -0/+3yeh i got the thing about his days at atari no mention of donkey kong hmmmmmmm.
    • acetv, on 03/16/2008, -1/+5Yeah, I read this and the DK article. I liked this too, so I gave it a digg.
    • jserio, on 03/16/2008, -1/+1That's the most recent blog entry. Scroll down a bit to see the Donkey Kong article. Both of them are great reads!
    • verkon, on 03/16/2008, -0/+3I read the one about the Atari ST and thought, wow, that was a good read. Then when I closed the tab I was reminded by that I was actually looking for the donkey kong article.
    • blorc, on 03/16/2008, -0/+2I didn't read what you said, but I'm going to digg you up.
    • oshu, on 03/16/2008, -1/+1"Did anybody actually READ the thing, or is it just blindly being dugg up?"

      I see you are new to Digg, welcome aboard!
  • BillyB, on 03/16/2008, -8/+2I'm a big Joe Rogan fan.
  • curiousgrge, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1Ahhh the memories. Donkey was one of those arcade games that got owned badly. There were two known problems with the cabinet. One was that you could stick a straw through the hinge and give yourself credits by finding the right place. Another was the plexiglass opened right up. So again you could give yourself credits. I don't know if they took care of that problem or maybe it happened on certain units only.
  • tito13kfm, on 03/16/2008, -1/+1http://209.85.207.104/search?q=cache:jeUOU8OkvKwJ: ...

    Cache of the story that is actually about donkey kong.
  • karaokekidd, on 03/16/2008, -6/+1that aINT A monkey hanging from your back, that doneky kong!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liAQCXeTl-s
    mod up!
  • RyeBrye, on 03/16/2008, -0/+9This article has nothing to do with Donkey Kong.

    Can I have 10 minutes of my life back?
  • mas6705, on 03/16/2008, -1/+0Interesting article - I love the chalkboard reference. Who remembers the math classes with all the colored chalk........
  • dlllb, on 03/16/2008, -2/+2While reading these comments I found myself randomly loading the Wikipedia article on cheese. Snorefest.
  • twarner, on 03/16/2008, -6/+2That not a rick roll
    This is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcOZ6xFxJqg
  • jserio, on 03/16/2008, -0/+4Does anyone recall finding the easter egg he mentions in the article? He doesn't say what it is, just how to get to it.
  • uziko, on 03/16/2008, -0/+2It must have been awesome to be a pioneer in the electronics field, it was so much smaller back then.
  • shadowspawn, on 03/16/2008, -1/+3sad thing is that i understand this guy. i was one of those picking apart what they did and making it better in a garage or basement of a friend. there wasn't too much money back then, but we came up with some cool ass *****. even today i wonder when people are going to get a clue of what we have sitting around that runs the space shuttle, but apple's latest can't even hold a candle to what we did and still works.
    dugg for the memories and the spillage of a beer drop for those that made ***** happen with us, sitting at line-feed terminals.
  • Neiby, on 03/16/2008, -0/+10I was one of those people burned by the fact that the ST didn't have basic on it. I got one of those damned things for Christmas one year. I was only in junior high and was pretty freaking excited. I go to boot it up.....and it does boot, but that's it. I get a pretty Atari screen or something. WTF???

    Neither I nor my parents knew that we had to buy BASIC separately, so for many days I had a completely worthless system. It didn't do *****. I was so bummed that it actually made my mom cry. I blame Atari for making my mom cry. Bastards...
  • yourpaljasper, on 03/16/2008, -0/+3So Donkey Kong was ported by a guy who's only source of reference was playing the coin op version? I didn't know atari sweded video games.
  • BHRecon, on 03/16/2008, -1/+18I wrote Donkey Kong too... he never replied.. that bastard.
  • retawd, on 03/16/2008, -0/+4I have DK on all 3 platforms (Atari, Intellivision, Coleco). It really doesn't impress the girls like I thought it would :P
  • YellowSnowDemon, on 03/16/2008, -0/+6H-H-H...Here we go!
    So they're finally here, performing for you
    If you know the words, you can join in too
    Put your hands together if you want to clap
    As we take you through this fun-ky rap! HUH!
    D. K.! Donkey Kong!
    * He's the leader of the bunch. You know him well.
    He's finally back to kick some tail!
    His coconut gun can fire in spurts
    If he shoots ya, it's gonna hurt!
    He's bigger! faster! and stronger too!
    He's the first member of the DK crew!
    D. K.! Donkey Kong! HEY!
    D. K.! Donkey Kong is here!
    This Kong's got style, so listen up dudes!
    She shrinks in size to suit her mood!
    She's quick n' nimble when she needs to be
    She floats in air and climbs up trees!
    If you choose her, you won't choose wrong
    With a skip and a hop, she's ONE COOL KONG!
    D. K.! Donkey Kong!
    He has no style, he has no grace
    This Kong...has a funny face
    He can handstand when he wants to
    And stretch his arms out just for you!
    In-flate himself just like a balloon
    This cra-zy Kong just digs this tune! HEY!
    D. K.! (D. K.!) Donkey Kong!
    D. K.! (D. K.!) Donkey Kong is here!
    He's back again, and about time, too
    And this time, he's in the mood!
    He can fly real high
    with his jetpack on...
    With his pistols out, he's one tough Kong!
    He can make you smile when you hear his tune...
    But, Kremlings beware
    'cause he's out after you!
    D. K.! Donkey Kong!
    D. K.! Donkey Kong!
    D. K.! Donkey Kong!
    D. K....
    Fi-nal-ly, he's here for you!
    It's the LAST member of the D. K. crew!
    This Kong's...so strong, it isn't funny!
    Can make a Kremling cry out for Mummy!
    He can pick up a boulder with relative ease
    Makes crushing rocks seem such a breeze
    He may move slow; he can't jump high
    But this Kong's one heck of a guy! Hehehe...
    Come on Cranky!
    Take it to the stage!
    ** Walnuts, peanuts, pineapple smells!
    Grapes, melons, oranges, and coconut shells!
    Oh, yeah!
    • doshindude, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1boo, you used the censored version.
  • kmesp86, on 03/16/2008, -2/+6I'm pretty sure video games were made by doped up hippies.
    Case in point: http://www.cracked.com/video_16019_video-game-pitc ...
    • Doctoxicated, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1very plausible, but the man got a hold of Qbert and used him to promote their electricity pyramid scheme. Yes Qbert turn on all the lights, the electric bills will skyrocket making the electric companies richer than ever before.
  • rsHoratio, on 03/16/2008, -2/+2I made Donkey
  • stoout1971, on 03/16/2008, -5/+0Who doesn't like Donkey Kong?
    100% Original Video on YouTube http://yuotnbe.com/watch?v=Pb2dwtZ2gRw ?

    Donkey Kong!
    http://yuotnbe.com/watch?v=NIAyQxGAvd4 ?
  • Doctoxicated, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1anyone remember the other Donkey Kong they did where instead of jumping barrels you had to destroy bugs and get DK to climb a rope. All the early incarnations were good, like the original mario brothers game before super mario.
    arcades rule, you would wait in line to play the newest games and if you sucked everyone watching nearby could make fun of you, that's some life lessons right there. No hiding online under a made up name either.
    oh and the King of Kong 2 is coming out soon. sweeeeet.
    • BlueLander, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1You mean Donkey Kong 3? DK was still the enemy. You controlled Stanley the Bugman.
  • jdeuel, on 03/16/2008, -0/+0I remember when he wrote it last week, and it was on reddit, boingboing, joystiq, and yes, even digg.
  • eagle123, on 03/16/2008, -2/+1this must be fake, donkey kong was made by japanese not americans
    • LocalH, on 03/29/2008, -0/+1Atari 8-bit port not original arcade.
  • Maddoktor2, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1The Donkey Kong article was very well written, and now I'm waiting for the next installment of the ST saga.
    Ah, memories... 8-)
  • OpalZimbo, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1Diddy Kong FTW!
  • unit451, on 03/16/2008, -0/+1Donkey Kong rules! Old school games rule!
  • efrain4, on 05/20/2008, -0/+0http://www.genericsmed.com
    http://www.generics.ws
  • portos12, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1I remember it back from the old days.
    http://www.e-uuu.com
    http://www.bestipodtips.info
  •  

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