How a basement hacker transformed Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600

Enlarge / If you're unfamiliar with the name, "Atari 2600," fellow kids, have a gander at this piece of hardware. (It actually worked, promise.) (credit: Wahyu Ichwandardi / Getty Images)

The following excerpt comes from Arcade Perfect: How Pac-Man, Mortal Kombat, and Other Coin-Op Classics Invaded the Living Room by David L. Craddock.

Sickly green light washed over the stubble and pale complexion of the man hunched in front of his computer monitor. Beside it sat a television, black except for five horizontal, crimson-colored bands running from top to bottom like lines on notebook paper.

Garry Kitchen closed his eyes, but the straight red lines were burned into the backs of his eyelids. Behind him came a steady pounding: pound-pound-pound-pound. He didn't rise to the bait. He knew what he'd see. On the arcade cabinet's screen, a giant ape the size of King Kong had just scaled a construction site made of straight red girders. With every stomp, the platforms had twisted and bent until they were slanted like ramps. Standing tall at the top, the ape intoned his grating, mechanical laugh.

Read 50 remaining paragraphs | Comments