Today Nintendo is one of the largest video game companies in the world publishing major hits including Pokemon, Super Mario Bros., Animal Crossing and more. Not only did they make games but they also made video game consoles, some of the most memorable consoles include Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and their most modern system the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo's beginnings is what set the company up for what they are today.
The first ever game to be released by Nintendo was Donkey Kong, this was a major hit when it came out and also help set a stage for future games. The game included characters that would later on get their own games but also join up again in bigger collaboration games. These characters included Donkey Kong, Mario, and Princess Peach.
The premise of the game would be that would you play as Mario, and you would have to climb up ladders to try to save Princess Peach while Donkey Kong would throw barrels at you to make it hard to advance through the game. The idea of Princess Peach getting stolen and Mario saving her became the premise of all future Super Mario Bros. games.
The game did amazing sales during its time and the game is still played today. The game was loved by everyone who played it, except Universal City Studios. Universal felt that Nintendo got the idea of Donkey Kong from King Kong and therefore sued Nintendo in 1982 for copyright infringement.
Universal claimed Shigeru Miyamoto based the game Donkey Kong on King Kong's characters and story from the movie. Nintendo would fight back saying that King Kong was in public domain after it was revealed so by Universal in an old lawsuit against RKO Studios over film rights.
The lawsuit would last years before it would be settled. In the end, the United States District Court would side with Nintendo in the argument that King Kong was in Public Domain and that Donkey Kong did not violate any copyright laws.
With the courts decision Nintendo was also paid $1.8 million by Universal, which was major for Nintendo since this was the first game that they ever released to the public.
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