The Kong that almost wasn't

As this year we celebrate Donkey Kong's 30th Anniversary it's almost hard to imagine what the world would be like without the simple game of an ape hurling barrels at Jumpman in order to keep Pauline to himself. Luckily Universal Studios never ruined this for us or Nintendo.

In 1982, Universal Studios brought legal action to Nintendo and Coleco to cease the sales or the Donkey Kong game and even asked for them to give all the money they had made from sales over to Universal Studios. Why? Because they felt that the game was too much like King Kong. They stated that the game was borderlining on copyright infringement. Nintendo not bowing out of the fight brought forth their argument that King Kong was a movie about a large ape that gets kidnapped from it's island home and kidnaps a woman to terrorize a skyscraper and swat airplanes out of the sky. What does this have to do with a man trying to rescue a girl being held by an average size gorilla by leaping over barrels and smashing them with a hammer? Imagine what they would have said over George in the arcade game Rampage! Of course Universal Studios lost and Nintendo went on to create a beautiful franchise out of the title that also sparked a great hi-score war.

So what's in store for the 30th anniversary for our favorite ape? Sadly nothing special. But in celebration I will be playing the great arcade classic. And if you can't find an old school cabinet or you don't own it for NES or even MAME you can play it here! Now excuse me but it's on like Donkey Kong!