page_title: Donkey Kong (video game)
section_title: Ports
hierarchical_section_title: Donkey Kong (video game) / Ports
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Console Game &amp; Watch Donkey Kong présentée au Festival du Jeu Vidéo par le musée du jeu vidéo
context_page_description: Donkey Kong is an arcade game released by Nintendo in Japan on July 9, 1981. It was released in North America shortly after on July 31, 1981, and in Europe during the same year. An early example of the platform game genre, the gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms to ascend a construction site, all while avoiding or jumping over obstacles. The originally unnamed character, who was later called Jumpman, then Mario, must rescue a damsel in distress, Pauline, from the titular giant ape, Donkey Kong. The hero and ape would later become two of Nintendo's most popular and recognizable characters. Donkey Kong is one of the most important games from the golden age of arcade video games as well as one of the most popular arcade games of all time.
  The game was the latest in a series of efforts by Nintendo to break into the North American market. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's president at the time, assigned the project to a first-time video game designer named Shigeru Miyamoto.
context_section_description: Makers of video game consoles were also interested. Taito offered a considerable sum to buy all rights to Donkey Kong, but Nintendo turned them down after three days of discussion within the company. Rivals Coleco and Atari approached Nintendo in Japan and the United States respectively. In the end, Yamauchi granted Coleco exclusive console and tabletop rights to Donkey Kong because he believed that "It [was] the hungriest company". In addition, Arakawa believed that as a more established company in the U.S., Coleco could better handle marketing. In return, Nintendo received an undisclosed lump sum plus $1.40 per game cartridge sold and $1 per tabletop unit. On December 24, 1981, Howard Lincoln drafted the contract. He included language that Coleco would be held liable for anything on the game cartridge, an unusual clause for a licensing agreement. Arakawa signed the document the next day, and, on February 1, 1982, Yamauchi persuaded the Coleco representative in Japan to sign without review by the company's lawyers.
  Coleco did not offer the game cartridge stand-alone; instead, it was bundled with the ColecoVision console, which went on sale in August 1982. Six months later, Coleco offered Atari 2600 and Intellivision versions, too. The company did not port it to the Atari 5200, a system comparable to its own (as opposed to the less powerful 2600 and Intellivision). Coleco's sales doubled to $500 million and its earnings quadrupled to $40 million. Coleco's console versions of Donkey Kong sold six million cartridges in total, grossing over $153 million, and earning Nintendo more than $5 million in royalties. Coleco also released stand-alone Mini-Arcade tabletop versions of  Donkey Kong, which, along with Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Frogger, sold three million units combined. Meanwhile, Atari got the license for computer versions of Donkey Kong and released it for the Atari 400 and 800. When Coleco unveiled the Adam Computer, running a port of Donkey Kong at the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, Illinois, Atari protested that it was in violation of the licensing agreement. Yamauchi demanded that Arnold Greenberg, Coleco's president, withdraw his Adam port. This version of the game is cartridge-based, and thus not a violation of Nintendo's license with Atari; still, Greenberg complied. Ray Kassar of Atari was fired the next month, and the home PC version of Donkey Kong was not released.
  In 1983, Atari released several computer versions under the Atarisoft label. All of the computer ports have the cement factory level, while most of the console versions do not. None of the home versions have all of the intermission animations from the arcade game. Some have Donkey Kong on the left side of the screen in the barrel level (as he is in the arcade game) and others have him on the right side.
  Miyamoto created a greatly simplified version for the Game & Watch multiscreen handheld device. Other ports include the Apple II, Atari 7800, Intellivision, Commodore VIC-20, Famicom Disk System, IBM PC booter, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Atari 8-bit family, and Mini-Arcade versions. Two separate and distinct ports were developed for the Commodore 64 - the first was published by Atarisoft in 1983, and the second by Ocean Software in 1986.
caption: Game & Watch Donkey Kong
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