NINTENDO MEGA-POST!
You may have noticed in our recent work a distinct lack of attention to Nintendo, one of the biggest names in early 80s arcades. Well, friends, that ends today! I present to you five of Nintendo’s most famous and beloved arcade games, now in a vertical format that’s pretty accurate to the original cabinets. @ArsInvictus created earlier overlays for a couple of these, which I’ve updated to follow the original cabinet format.
All of these overlays feature two screen sizes, a Medium size that shows all of the original bezel and a Large size which modifies the bezel to fit a larger game screen. In RetroArch, these are separate Zip files within the download, just install whichever you prefer. The MAME versions of each also include a darker version.
Download all 5 overlays here:
MAME version
RetroArch version
We begin where it all began…
DONKEY KONG (1981)
MAME version
RetroArch version
The first game designed by now-legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Donkey Kong was anything but a planned success – it was intended as a replacement game for unsold Radar Scope cabinets, and its concept was conceived after Nintendo failed to secure the rights to create a Popeye game. The rest is, of course, history, as Donkey Kong and the franchises it spawned came to define Nintendo for decades.
DONKEY KONG JR. (1982)
MAME version
RetroArch version
Following from the success of Donkey Kong, Miyamoto and Nintendo followed up with its first sequel, which flipped the script to make Mario the villain, the titular ape the kidnappee and Donkey Kong’s offspring the hero. It also added more novel gameplay elements, with vertical vine-climbing in addition to horizontal platform running and the ability to kill enemies with falling fruit, in addition to increasingly expressive character designs.
DONKEY KONG 3 (1983)
MAME version
RetroArch version
For their third outing, they went a totally different direction, removing Mario from the equation entirely (he was off chasing pests with Luigi in New York, apparently) and replacing him with Stanley, a gardener trying to protect his precious plants from an onslaught of bugs. The gameplay took another left turn as well, combining platform elements like the previous games with shooter action vaguely reminiscent of a slow-motion Galaga or Centipede. (This is actually my favorite of the Donkey Kongs, mostly because it’s not nearly as difficult!)
POPEYE (1982)
MAME version
RetroArch version
After designing Donkey Kong in the image of Popeye, Nintendo created its actual Popeye game a year later, borrowing elements of the original game while giving it a unique concept and gameplay. To rescue Olive Oyl from the clutches of Brutus*, Popeye must catch the hearts, notes and cries of H-E-L-P she drops, while avoiding not only Brutus but the Sea Hag and other nasties. Popeye can’t jump, but he can knock out Brutus by grabbing his favorite canned leafy snack. This overlay features a custom instruction strip based on the cocktail cabinet instructions, as it didn’t come with an official one.
( * Fun fact: Though he’s named Brutus in the game, Popeye’s nemesis was originally named Bluto. Paramount-owned Fleischer (later Famous) Studios produced 234 Popeye cartoons (!!!), many of which included Bluto, and then sold the rights, at which point their popularity skyrocketed. The creator of the original print comics, King Features, then decided to produce its own Popeye cartoons. However, King mistakenly believed that Paramount still owned the rights to the name Bluto, so they renamed him Brutus. The new owners produced another 220 (!!!) cartoons with Brutus as the main villain, but later versions of Popeye, including the movie with Robin Williams, reverted him to Bluto. The game, produced somewhere in the middle based on the King Features version, uses the name Brutus.)
MARIO BROS. (1983)
MAME version
RetroArch version
The third game featuring Mario, Mario Bros. also brings along his brother Luigi to scour the sewers of New York City to clean up an infestation of turtles, crabs, flies and other pests. Though the mechanics differ from later games, Mario Bros. cemented Mario’s characterization as an Italian-American plumber, his trademark ability to jump on and defeat menacing animal life and his love of giant coins. The game’s multiplayer gameplay and elements of its design were reportedly inspired by Joust. This overlay also includes a custom instruction strip, as there was no official version.
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