In keeping with your “fad” theme, Donkey Kong is another early 80s fad that has a second life. I think I know how/why it became such a big deal in the 21st century. But I’d bet that in the early 90s nobody was paying much for an old, beat up former arcade cabinet from a decade earlier in an era where arcades were out of fashion. The Kong characters were never irrelevant, thanks to Nintendo repurposing them for future games, but somehow Donkey Kong, of all the 80s cabinets, is the king of 80s classics. You never hear about competitive Frogger or Tempest players four decades later. But the original Kong captivates the competitive gamers like no others. So how did it get to be that way? How many of those original cabinets were manufactured in the ’80s. And is the game more prolific today thanks to emulators and multi-cab gaming?
Donkey Kong
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