10 Ways Nintendo Were Almost COMPLETELY Different

3. Donkey Kong Was Nearly A Popeye Game

Jumpman Carpenter
Nintendo

In 1979, Nintendo released a Space Invaders-like shooter in Japan called Radar Scope. The game was a success in Japan but tanked in North America, leaving Nintendo with 2,000 arcade cabinets that no one was playing. Instead of letting them go to waste, Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, assigned Shigeru Miyamoto to remake the game with new features. Instead, Miyamoto repurposed the game's engine, turning it into a platformer revolving around Popeye the Sailor Man.

Popeye was supposed to traverse through the levels to rescue Olive Oyl while the dastardly Bluto hurled barrels at him. When Nintendo failed to obtain the rights for the property, they could have given up on the project then and there. However, Nintendo couldn't let all their time, effort, and money go to waste. Instead, the developers released the game after they redesigned the characters; Popeye became a Mario prototype called Jumpman, Olive became Pauline, and Bluto became Donkey Kong.

Radar Scope mightn't be well-known but it should be recognised since it indirectly created the company's most defining character, Super Mario.

In this post: 
Nintendo
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows