Episode 263 challenges the 800-lb. gorilla of retrogames: Donkey Kong
This week, you will learn how high we can get.
While the remit of Retronauts requires us to venture into unfamiliar areas of video game history—it's right there in the name! Retro-nauts, explorers of gaming's past—sometimes it's nice to settle in and chew on a more familiar topic for a while, too. That's what we've done this week, looking back at one of the most familiar topics of all: Nintendo's Donkey Kong. We did a sort of broad Kong overview episode back a decade ago in the 1UP.com days, but as is usually the case for topics we revisit years later, this time we go (1) deeper and (2) more granular while being (3) more informed on the subject.
To wit: this episode is specifically about Donkey Kong's arcade era. Not about the Country reboots or the sequels and remakes on platforms of the ’90s or beyond. Just Donkey Kong, the arcade sequels, and a few odds and ends of home releases. We'll get to those other topics some other day, don't you worry, but this time it was all about the original and its direct follow-ups.
Fittingly for such a classic topic, we assembled a classic old-school Retronauts lineup by summoning Chris Kohler and Ray Barnholt to join the conversation. And there are many dumb jokes, goofy remarks, and gross misstatements fact-checked in real-time. It's like the old days, except better!
And now that this is out of the way, maybe we can get on with the New Super Mario Bros. episode we keep talking about but not actually posting.
Retronauts Episode 263: Donkey Kong
MP3, 47.6 MB | 1:42:36
Direct download | Retronauts on iTunes | Retronauts on Libsyn
Episode description: We put together a classic Retronauts lineup (Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, Ray Barnholt, and Chris Kohler) to discuss the history of an all-time arcade classic: Donkey Kong. (And also its lesser ’80s sequels.)
