What is Donkey Kong?
Donkey Kong is the 1981 Nintendo arcade game that introduced two things the industry kept: a game built around jumping over obstacles rather than shooting them, and a carpenter named Jumpman who was renamed Mario a year later. Shigeru Miyamoto designed it after an attempt to license Popeye fell through, and the premise is on screen from the first frame: Donkey Kong has carried Pauline to the top of a construction site and is throwing barrels down at you. You climb.
What runs on this page is a Flash remake of that arcade game, loaded into the Ruffle emulator so it works without the Flash plugin. It keeps the shape of the original: four stage types, the hammer, the bonus timer, and the How High Can You Get? screen between rounds.
How to play
Get from the bottom of the girders to Pauline at the top without touching anything Donkey Kong throws. Barrels roll along the girders and drop down ladders at random, fireballs climb after you, and on the conveyor stage pies ride the belts. The round counter climbs each time you clear the rivet stage, and the game tallies barrels jumped and enemies hammered for the game-over screen.
- Press Play above, then click once inside the game so it has keyboard focus.
- At the title menu move the Mario cursor with ↑ ↓ and press Enter. The menu also lists High Scores, Controls and Credits.
- Run with ← →, climb with ↑ ↓ when Mario is lined up with a ladder, jump with Space.
- Jump into a hammer to swing it for a few seconds. Barrels, pies and fireballs it touches are destroyed for points, but you cannot use ladders until it runs out.
- Pick up Pauline's dropped items for bonus points, and on the rivet stage cross all eight rivets to drop Donkey Kong and finish the round.
The four stages
Barrels: sloped girders, rolling barrels, the oil drum that turns a blue barrel into a fireball, two hammers. Conveyors: the pie factory, with belts that change direction and pies riding them. Elevators: lifts and fireballs. Rivets: a flat structure held up by eight rivets — cross every one and it collapses under Donkey Kong.
Controls
The game reads exactly these keys — no alternate bindings and no touch controls, so on a phone the title screen appears but Mario will not move. Use a device with a keyboard.
| Action | Keyboard | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Run left / right | ← → | Also steers a jump |
| Climb up / down | ↑ ↓ | Only when standing at a ladder |
| Jump | Space | Hold a direction to jump sideways |
| Pause / resume | P | Shows PAUSED over the stage |
| Menu select / start | Enter | Title menu, Controls, Credits, game over |
| Menu cursor | ↑ ↓ | Moves the Mario marker |
| Fullscreen | button under the game | — |
Tips and strategy
- Jump barrels late, not early. A barrel that reaches a ladder may roll down it, and jumping early puts you exactly where it lands.
- The hammer is a commitment. It clears everything in front of you for a few seconds but locks you out of ladders and jumps, so only take it when the girder ahead is flat and busy.
- Points live in the bonus timer. Whatever is left when you reach Pauline is added to your score, so a fast clean climb beats a slow one that smashed everything. Run the timer to zero and you lose the life.
- On the rivet stage, work one side at a time. Crossing back and forth across the structure is what burns the timer and walks you into fireballs.
- Learn the broken ladders. They are shortcuts you cannot use; stop climbing into dead ends with a barrel behind you.
- Watch the blue barrel. When it drops into the oil drum it becomes a fireball, and fireballs use ladders — they will follow you up.
- Pause with P, not by clicking away. Clicking outside the game takes keyboard focus with it while the barrels keep coming.
A short history
Nintendo released Donkey Kong to arcades in 1981, designed by Shigeru Miyamoto with Gunpei Yokoi supervising, and it became the company's first international hit. The carpenter was called Jumpman on the cabinet and renamed Mario for Donkey Kong Junior in 1982; Pauline predates Princess Peach by four years. The arcade machine has a famous kill screen on level 22, where the bonus timer starts so low that Mario dies seconds in.
About this version
This is the Flash remake of Donkey Kong, not the arcade ROM. The single .swf
file is loaded by Ruffle, a Flash Player emulator compiled to WebAssembly,
so the game runs on a plain HTTPS page with nothing to install and no plugin to block.
Included: all four stages in the American order, rising rounds, the hammer, the oil drum
and blue barrels, Pauline's bonus items, an in-game high score with a "New High Score!"
banner, a pause key, and a menu with Controls and Credits screens. Not included: gamepad or
touch input, save states, and the online leaderboard the Flash-era High Scores screen was
built for, which may not load. The sprites and music are the remake's own rather than the
cabinet's. For Mario a few years on, Super Mario is
next door, and Retro Games has more of the arcade era.
Frequently asked questions
Is Donkey Kong free to play here?
Yes. The game runs on this page in your browser — no download, no install, no account. Press play, click once inside the game area so it has keyboard focus, and press Enter to start.
How do I start the game?
Click on the game area first, otherwise your key presses go to the page instead of the game. The title menu is driven by the keyboard: move the Mario cursor with the Up and Down arrows and confirm with Enter. The menu also has High Scores, Controls and Credits entries.
What are the controls?
Left and Right arrows run, Up and Down climb ladders, and the Space bar jumps. P pauses the game and P again resumes it, Enter confirms in menus. There are no alternative keys — this Flash build reads exactly those six.
Does Donkey Kong work on a phone?
Not really. This is a keyboard-only Flash game and it draws no on-screen buttons, so on a phone or tablet you can see the title screen but you cannot run or jump. Play it on a laptop, desktop or Chromebook with a physical keyboard.
How many stages does Donkey Kong have?
Four, in the American arcade order: the barrel stage, the conveyor stage (the pie factory), the elevator stage and the rivet stage. Clearing the rivet stage sends you back to the barrels at a higher round with faster enemies, and the round counter is shown during play.
What does the hammer do, and why can't I climb?
Jump into a hammer and Mario swings it for a few seconds, smashing barrels, pies and fireballs that come at him for bonus points. While he holds it he cannot jump or use ladders, so only grab a hammer when the girder ahead is flat and worth clearing.
How does scoring work in this version?
Jumping over a barrel is worth 100 points, and every hammer hit and item pickup pops its own value on screen. The bonus timer starts at the top of each stage and counts down; whatever is left when you reach Pauline or pull the last rivet is added to your score. Run it to zero and you lose a life.
Is this the original arcade ROM?
No. It is a Flash remake of the arcade game, built as a .swf file and now running in Ruffle, a Flash Player emulator written in WebAssembly, so it works without the Flash plugin. The four stages, the hammer, the bonus timer and the How High Can You Get? screen are all here; the music and sprites are the remake's own.
