Anybody who calls themselves a gamer surely has heard of Donkey Kong, the arcade game that put Nintendo on the map, and introduced Mario and DK to the world. I played the NES port when I was a kid, and I also played a special version of Donkey Kong when I was young.
I played Donkey Kong in the real world.
Well, you see, my older brother was also familiar with Donkey Kong, and one day during vacation from school, I got this idea; we play Donkey Kong, I would be the role of Mario, my brother would be DK, and instead of throwing barrels, he would throw pillows, 'cause, you know, I don't anyone to get hurt. The 'stage' was my bedroom. My brother, as DK, would be on my bed. I had to get to his level to win. (Sorry, but Pauline doesn't exist in my version of DK.) To simulate climbing up the ladders, I would go in a direction that wasn't towards the bed, and when I got to the end, I wold move up towards "DK" like I was climbing a ladder, then I would move laterally again, then go up again, and I would keep going until I was on the same lateral level as the bed. I jump on the bed, I win. I get hit by a pillow, I die.
My brother enjoyed this, because I made it a lot harder on myself, and ridiculously easy for him. I had the 'stage' visualized on my mind. There was one problem though, I was applying 2D mechanics to a 3D world. Therefore, my brother didn't roll barrels at me, no, He threw them directly at me 100 percent of the time! And not only that, he knew that when I went up a "ladder", I was dead meat. And you know why else my brother enjoyed this? Because, when I played, I tried to imitate the sound effects with my mouth as I played, as to give an authentic DK experience. Observe.
"Doot doo doo doo doo doo doo, doo doodoodoodoodoo." And every step I took, I went, "doot doo doot doot doot doot doot doot." And when I climbed a ladder, I went, "Doot doot doot doo doo." And when I "died" which was quite frequent, I would spin around, and fall on my back, and as I did, I went, "A wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee, doo doo doo doooooo." Then I would start from the beginning, because I am a masochist.
However, I did have two tricks up my sleeve. One, I could dodge the pillows however I wanted. So long as I didn't go up or down on the "Stage", I could dodge pillows however I wanted. I juked left and right. I ducked under pillows. And I even jumped over pillows aimed for my legs. And I had one other trick. You see, I had a cartoon mallet toy. It was inflatable, and therefore, practically harmless, but it would serve as my Super Hammer! Yes, after the first "ladder", and after several defeats and several days of humiliating defeat, I added a hammer on the second part of the "stage." And when I had it, I did the hammer theme in a capella, and since that mallet toy was fairly large, (well, for a 9 year old child,) I could smash those pillows to kingdom come. Of course, because of my self-imposed rules, I couldn't climb the next "ladder" until I got rid of the hammer, but it made things do-able.
Now then, you're probably asking, "Did you ever actually win?" Yes. One time, I did. To my brother's astonishment, I got up to DK's level, jumped onto the bed, and won. However, there were more times when I got up to DK's level, and all I had to do was jump on the bed, but I was so close to him, that he could nail me mid-flight. Oh yes, this was a version of Donkey Kong where the closer you get to DK, the more dangerous he became.
It was fun, my brother was a good DK, and I did my best as Mario, despite my limitations. But it goes to show, with a little imagination, you can play anything, including videogames in the real world.
