Viewing Single Trivia
subdirectory_arrow_right Donkey Kong Junior (Game)
▲
1
▼
The development of the first Donkey Kong game was outsourced by Nintendo to Ikegami Tsushinki, a company who is believed but not confirmed to have previously worked with Nintendo on several of their early ventures into arcade games. They produced and sold to Nintendo somewhere between 8,000 and 20,000 printed circuit boards for Donkey Kong, and it is believed that Nintendo went on to copy an additional 80,000 boards from this batch without Ikegami's permission. Despite the sale, because no formal contract was known to have been signed between the two companies, Ikegami owned the source code to Donkey Kong as they had created it, and never sent it over to Nintendo.
In order to create a sequel on the coattails of the success of the first game, Nintendo employed subcontractor Iwasaki Giken to reverse-engineer Donkey Kong so Nintendo’s staff could develop the game's sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. Should this narrative be verifiably true, this would make Donkey Kong Jr. Nintendo's first "in-house" video game created by themselves without any assistance from outside development companies. Ikegami viewed this use of the source code as blatant copyright infringement, and sued Nintendo in 1983 for ¥580,000,000 (around $91,935,800). A trial in 1990 ruled that Nintendo did not own the source code to the original Donkey Kong, and the parties settled out of court the same year for an undisclosed amount.
In order to create a sequel on the coattails of the success of the first game, Nintendo employed subcontractor Iwasaki Giken to reverse-engineer Donkey Kong so Nintendo’s staff could develop the game's sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. Should this narrative be verifiably true, this would make Donkey Kong Jr. Nintendo's first "in-house" video game created by themselves without any assistance from outside development companies. Ikegami viewed this use of the source code as blatant copyright infringement, and sued Nintendo in 1983 for ¥580,000,000 (around $91,935,800). A trial in 1990 ruled that Nintendo did not own the source code to the original Donkey Kong, and the parties settled out of court the same year for an undisclosed amount.
Comments (0)
You must be logged in to post comments.
Related Games
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong 3
Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers
Donkey Kong Plus
Donkey Kong 3
Donkey Kong Junior
Donkey Kong: Original Edition
Super Donkey
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
Donkey Kong Country 2
Super Mario 3D Land
SSX on Tour
Super Mario Kart
Diddy Kong Pilot
Donkey Kong Country
Diddy Kong Racing
Mario Kart Tour
Mario Golf
Mario Party 9
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Mario Strikers Charged
Dr. Mario
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
Mario Party: Star Rush
Tetris Attack
Mario Teaches Typing
Mario Tennis Open
Super Mario 3D All-Stars
Mario Sports Mix
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
DK: Jungle Climber
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Mario RPG
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
Crazy Kong
Super Mario 64: Shindou Pak Taiou Version
Super Mario Party
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Mario Bros. Classic Serie
New Super Mario Bros. U
Mario 128
New Super Mario Bros. 2
Dr. Mario
Princess Peach: Showtime!
Super Mario 64 DS
BS Super Mario Collection