Few people are aware that Donkey Kong’s programming was outsourced by Nintendo to a company called Ikegami Tsushinki.
In 1997, one of those Ikegami employees wrote his own take on the making of Donkey Kong, based on documentation he’d held onto since 1981. The 11-page article contained surprising new details about the game’s creation that have never appeared in any Shigeru Miyamoto interview.
Until now, this information has been buried in an old Japanese tech journal. Gaming historian Critical Kate (acriticalhit.com) learned of the article while working on an upcoming video essay, and believes it too historically important to leave to machine translation. However, it’s also an extremely lengthy article, which goes beyond typical volunteer work.
So Critical Kate is teaming up with gaming preservation organizations GamingAlexandria (gamingalexandria.com) and Hit Save! (hitsave.org) to fundraise a complete translation by Shmuplations (shmuplations.com), where the translation will be hosted once it’s made available to the public.
Help us reach our goal of $750 to fund this translation.
Hit Save! is a non-profit organization, and is exempt from taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. Contributions by U.S. taxpayers are deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Any amount you can donate would be greatly appreciated! If you’re a fan of gaming history, Nintendo history, or forgotten history, please consider donating to the cause.
Thank you!
