Donkey Kong (1 results)

The January 1983 issue of Electronic Games, featuring Mario's first magazine cover appearance alongside Donkey Kong, both in early iterations of their character design. Mario was introduced as the protagonist of Donkey Kong (1981), voted by Electronic Games in this issue's annual awards, "Best Solitaire Videogame". Electronic Games is the earliest known American magazine dedicated to gaming. This issue came out at an exciting time for the games industry; as Arnie Katz writes in her editorial, "all the great games didn't spring into existence this year, despite appearances to the contrary." The release of this issue was close to that of the the Atari 5200, and the Coleco ports of Donkey Kong for various consoles. The package release with the ColecoVision console drastically boosted its sales, reported here to have caused "pandemonium". In a feature article, Rich Peral imagines a futuristic gaming experience in 2001. The short history of electronic gaming is not forgotten, and the Player's Guide to Climbing within - which heavily features the first Donkey Kong - is nostalgic for the coin-operated arcade machines slowly being replaced by home consoles. The writer claims the original "coin-op" Donkey Kong was "even more chock-full of dazzling, eye-popping animation and graphic effects." Folio. Colour illustrations and text throughout. Original illustrated wire-stitched wrappers. Minor split to wrapper around lower staple, holding firm, one short closed tear to head of rear wrapper, minor rubbing: a near-fine copy.