Did You Know: Donkey Kong = Popeye?
September 16, 2012
"Hey, let's play a video game - geh geh geh geh geh..."
Did you know that the inspiration for the characters in Donkey Kong came from the characters in the classic old cartoon Popeye?
When a 1981 video game called Radar Scope sold poorly, Nintendo suddenly had 2,000 empty arcade-game cabinets to fill. At the same time, a deal with King Features to make a Popeye Nintendo game fell apart, so staff designer Shigeru Miyamoto used the Popeye love triangle for inspiration: Popeye, his girlfriend Olive Oyl, and brute Bluto became Mario, Pauline, and a giant ape named Donkey Kong.
Just one tidbit of inspiration-based information you can learn right in your own head—so to speak—from “You’re My Inspiration,” the very first article in Uncle John’s HEAVY DUTY Bathroom Reader. You can order yours today. Or tomorrow.
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Well, blow me down!
Amazing how and where inspiration can come from.
It is, it is!