Growing up in the 80′s, the good ol’ cathode ray tube burned a million images into my young, impressionably squishy brain. The worst offenders were the video games. I read once that they steal your dreams. It’s no lie. Play for long enough and all you’ll see when you close your eyes is pixelly goodness. Today’s games with their fancy graphics and cinematic cut-scenes and plots can’t hold a candle to the primary-colored power of Pac-Man, Joust or Pitfall!.
Donkey Kong is right at home in the 80′s. He also fits my own personal theme for Illustration Friday this year. He’s had a bit of a makeover in the past few years, but I prefer his original flat charm to the new version with his three-dimensional pompadour.
Click the image to see gorilla-sized Kong.
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really cool. like all of it.
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Shigeru Miyamoto was a new staff artist for Nintendo and he knew nothing about programming—Hell, he had grown up without a television. This was to be his first video game. Although his ideas seemed to come from old King Kong movies from America, he didn’t know what the hell to call it, and since the game would be played in arcades in the US, he needed another name for his main character besides King Kong. Something that described how “GANKO” this creature was. Something that just wouldn’t do what it was told. He already had one animal. What other animals were known for being notoriously hard to deal with? Mules… camels… donkeys…
And that was it.
Donkey Kong.



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