You probably didn't know it, or maybe you did, but Donkey Kong, the original, was the first platform video game in which the player had a button dedicated to jumping. What we have so internalized today was an enormous revolution. So much so that no one gave a damn that the name of the machine itself was meaningless: What does a donkey have to do with in English) with what happens in the game?
Nintendo's landscape was especially particular before the creation of Donkey Kong. The toy company had developed several video games, but none had been successful, and to make matters worse, the plan to offer a game with the well-known license of Popeye it had gone to waste.
Luckily, a young and restless Shigeru Miyamoto worked his magic: he made the most of the hardware available, devised a hilarious game and reimagined the protagonists, replacing the evil Brutus with a very bad-tempered monkey. Donkey Kong was born.
Donkey Kong, proof that Miyamoto is right even when he is wrong
As you might expect, the name of a video game then and now is a momentous matter and, in many ways, is directly related to its success. It has to be hooky, of course, but also be fun. So Miyamoto and his companions came up with the idea of calling both that great ape and the arcade Donkey Kong.
Had they confused the word donkey with monkey? Rather, they were wrong in the meaning of the word. What they really wanted to make clear is that that ape was quite stupid. Very stupid. So, consulting a Japanese dictionary, they came to the conclusion that the word donkey was used to refer to the profile of an idiotic person.
Something that also happens in Spanish, but definitely does not apply to Shakespeare's language. So they came across the classic case of Lost in translation.
We wanted to give the game a name that suggested a goofy gorilla, so we called it Donkey Kong. Donkey is the name of an animal, the donkey, but when we consulted it in the dictionary we saw that it could also mean “stupid person.” That's why we proposed it to Nintendo of America, but they said no, claiming that the word donkey didn't suggest “stupid” to them. (laughs)
What really had to be a picture worth seeing was how the idea of calling that machine Donkey Kong at the Nintendo of America offices. But, on the other hand, Miyamoto is a genius even when he makes a mistake: he knew that if that poorly proposed name had created such an impression among English speakers, the best strategy to achieve the success that the company was asking for was to use it.
Miyamoto at that time did not have the weight in the company that he has now, so the final approval of the name Donkey Kong It would come either from the legendary Gunpei Yokoi or from Hiroshi Yamauchi himself. And well, we have to admit that it sounds very good. Although it gives room for conclusion, it is striking and from there, the quality and fun of the game did the rest.
They said it didn't make any sense, but I decided to go with the name Donkey Kong, because it made an impression. A year later everyone used it without thinking about it, so I deduced that any name would do, because people eventually get used to it. I realized that making an impression is essential, another thing Donkey has taught me.
However, what Miyamoto had not calculated is that the second part of the name added to the resounding success of the video game would end up getting the game and even Nintendo itself into a mess of titanic proportions. More or less, about the size of King Kong.
We have come across Universal Pictures!
Currently, the relationship between Nintendo and Universal is like a movie. Never better said: together they have shaped Super Mario Bros. The Movie (where Donkey Kong appears) and they have numerous common projects in hand, such as Super Nintendo World. But in the mid-eighties the panorama was very, very different.
The success of Donkey Kong It spread to the entire planet Earth. And in the absence of reaching infinite space, the Universal offices entered, who understood that part of the overwhelming reception of that Nintendo video game came from the popularity of one of its most valuable intellectual properties: the game itself. King Kong. And what is even worse: they were profiting from it.
Universal took the legal route and that put the Japanese company in check. It was not a misunderstanding but rather, if the lawsuit were successful, Nintendo would not only have to make a payment that would put its future on the line, but also, and in addition, it would lose its greatest asset in the video game industry. What's more, Universal had already gotten Coleco to pay royalties in the past.
Why was the word “Kong” used? Here, again, the jump from one language to another was also decisive: as Miyamoto himself stated in statements to Wired, the word “Kong” is widely used in Japan to refer to great apes. In fact, as a reference, if we do not take into account the name of the game itself, both on the flyer and in the instructions for Donkey Kong The Japanese machine refers to the character specifically as Kong (コング). And he makes all the sense in the world: he is a great ape.
So who is right? The quick answer is Kirby. More specifically, lawyer John Kirby.
John Kirby not only demonstrated that Nintendo did not infringe any trademark or intellectual property with the video game Donkey Kongbut recalled that in 1975, Universal had already gone to trial with RKO Pictures to establish that even the plot of King Kong It was public domain. As a result, Nintendo not only won the case, but the process cost Universal a whopping $1.8 million (in 1982) in legal fees.
Coincident or not, many years later, a brave, rosy hero, very capable of anything, would be born on the Game Boy: the no less iconic Kirby.
Nintendo's first success, and Universal's last big animated surprise
Nintendo was fully aware that Donkey Kong It was too good a name not to use in a video game. That this success escaped his control perhaps caught everyone by surprise.
Maybe the “donkey” thing doesn't make any sense, and the “kong” thing almost resulted in a big scare, but in the end what prevailed was not the name, but a video game that even today is enjoyed wonderfully in the current systems. And its consequences, even more so.
All's well That ends well. And despite the clash of positions between Nintendo and Universal, we are left with this beautiful romance that both companies are currently experiencing and the way in which, working together, they are able to combine the best of each house when it comes to making movies.
Because, who would have told us 40 years ago that the same Donkey Kong, After his time in Pixels, would he make his triumphant entry on the big screen combining the talents of Universal and Shigeru Miyamoto himself?
A character who now calls himself simply DK and who, perhaps, is not as recognizable as Super Mario, but from which we draw two conclusions: although he is still not very smart, he has a cool name. So much for having his own movie.
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