First Appearance: The first game is the first appearance not only of the titular ape, but also of Mario (then-known as Jumpman) and Pauline (then-known as Lady).
Ask different people involved with the franchise about the exact relationship between Donkey and Cranky and they will likely give a different answer. Originally, Rare had them as grandfather-grandson, but then Donkey Kong 64 (also by Rare) has Cranky pretty explicitly referring to DK as "son" (Gregg Mayles of Rare has attempted to Hand Wave this as Cranky having a senior moment). Since then, Nintendo has consistently stuck with the original grandfather interpretation save for a few localization hiccups, but then the Super Mario Bros. Movie developed by Illumination Entertainment established the father-son connection again, and it's unknown if THAT will stick for the future.
Who the hell is DK Jr? The current DK? DK's father? Somebody else entirely? Rare writer Leigh Loveday came up with Jr. being the current DK, something at least Nintendo of Europe agreed with. Prima Games, who made many of the guides for the original DKC entries, went one step beyond and claimed in a 2017 book DK Jr. IS DK and also a completely unrelated character, seemingly contradicting itself. Nintendo themselves do not mind referencing Jr. or even making him playable in some multiplayer games alongside normal DK (akin to Mario and Baby Mario), but they have never clarified on DK Jr.'s identity and appear to not care enough to do so for the time being.
Bad Export for You: Due to the American imports of the first two games using the bizarre level orders (see Difficulty by Region on the main page), the first cycle versions of stages 2 and 3 and the second cycle version of 2 could never be seen by American players. Also, while it's not too difficult to see stage 3 on either game, stage 2 requires a pretty high skill level to be able to experience at all due to it requiring beating six levels before getting to see it.
Breakthrough Hit: While Nintendo was already in the video game industry before then and scored a mild success in their home country with Radar Scope, it was Donkey Kong that established their name worldwide and gave the company their mascot.
Follow the Leader: The game was endlessly ripped off by other Japanese games companies, both straight clones and also variations - one of which, the 3D-isometric Congo Bongo, was foreshadowing-ly made by Sega. It also had home version clones, one of which was Miner 2049er.
Inspiration for the Work: Popeye was still a large influence on the game even after Nintendo was denied the actual license to the character. In addition to Popeye's connections to the origins of its main characters, the construction site setting was, according toShigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, directly inspired by the Max and Dave Fleischer Popeye cartoon "A Dream Walking".
Killer App: The ColecoVision's popularity was thanks in part to it hosting an impressive port of Donkey Kong as a pack-in title.
In a bizarre twist, the programming of the original arcade version of Donkey Kong was subcontracted to Ikegami Tsushinki, a maker of professional broadcasting equipment and TV cameras that also did uncredited work for arcade games at the time. The code was then reverse-engineered for Donkey Kong Junior and possibly other games. Unfortunately, there was no contract between Ikegami and Nintendo for the source, leading to a bitter dispute over the ownership of the code. This is believed to be the reason why the original arcade game was never directly released until 2018 (as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives series on the Nintendo Switch), with Nintendo instead selling ports (i.e., the later NES versions) remakes and updated versions until then. Considering that a near arcade-perfect port exists in Donkey Kong 64, this may also be a reason why that game would not see a rerelease until the Wii U virtual console release in 2015 (the inclusion of the Rare-owned Jetpac was another problem until then). DK64requires you to play – and beat – the two Embedded Precursors in order to reach the final boss.
The Arcade Archives edition is one of the few ACA games to be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch (along with Vs. Super Mario Bros.) — unlike most other titles in the lineup which are also released on PlayStation 4 — for obvious reasons.
Port Overdosed: Virtually every console and computer of the era had Donkey Kong released for it, and so have many since. Among 1980s arcade games, its ubiquity is surpassed only by Pac-Man.
Mario had a hat for two reasons. For one, Shigeru Miyamoto claimed that he was terrible at drawing hairstyles, but the major reason was that when Mario fell from a height, the programmers wouldn't be able to make his hair stick up.
Visual clarity is also the reason why he has prominent sideburns (to make his ears visible), a large nose and moustache (the sprite is too small for a mouth), and overalls (his arms would blend into his body with a regular shirt).
Mario's chubby because it makes for easier collision detection; his design fits neatly into a 16-by-16 pixel square.
Tie-In Cereal: Donkey Kong Cereal is the 1981 breakfast cereal based off of Donkey Kong.
Urban Legend of Zelda: Theories about what the name meant. One example, from a review in Acorn User magazine, was that the name was supposed to be Monkey Kong, but someone made a typo. In actuality, Miyamoto thought that "donkey" meant "stubborn", so he intentionally named the character Donkey Kong.
. This is believed to be the reason why the original arcade game was never directly released until 2018 (as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives series on the Nintendo Switch), with Nintendo instead selling ports (i.e., the later NES versions) remakes and updated versions until then. Considering that a near arcade-perfect port exists in Donkey Kong 64, this may also be a reason why that game would not see a rerelease until the Wii U virtual console release in 2015 (the inclusion of the Rare-owned Jetpac was another problem until then). DK64 requires you to play – and beat – the two Embedded Precursors in order to reach the final boss.