Speedrunner overcomes infamous kill screen in "Donkey Kong" from 1981
For 44 years, a game-over on level 22 in "Donkey Kong" was considered the insurmountable end of the game. But with the help of a glitch and an emulator, player Kosmic managed to take a look behind the legendary kill screen. The run for new high scores has now begun.
Old video games with comparatively simple gameplay do not automatically become obsolete at some point. On the contrary: retro classics such as Tetris or Super Mario 64 are often backed by an active Community that is still set new records or unlocks previously unsolved puzzle. Now there is also news about "Donkey Kong", the first game in the series, which was released in 1981. The retro game speedrunner "Kosmic" has overcome a legendary kill screen 44 years after the game's release.
Before you jump into the air out of unbridled euphoria, I'll temper your expectations: Kosmic has used a tool recognised by the Community, without which success would not be possible. And the explanation behind the killscreen gives a deep insight into the limited possibilities of the hardware performance at the time. You can see his findings in Kosmic's English-language video, which has been viewed more than 1.5 million times:
Climbing under time pressure
"Donkey Kong" is an arcade game that was developed by Nintendo and could be played on arcade machines. The main objective of the game is to rescue Pauline, who has been kidnapped by Donkey Kong, with the character Jumpman. Jumpman later became known as Super Mario.
The game consists of a total of four different ladder stages to complete. They are always structured in the same way: Jumpman starts at the bottom of the screen and has to get to the top via ladders and various levels. There you will find the monkey Donkey Kong and Pauline. Donkey Kong throws barrels, fireballs and other projectiles, which Jumpman has to dodge.
If Jumpman reaches Pauline within the specified bonus time, this counts as a completed round and one of the other three stages appears. Several rounds make a level. The current level is displayed at the top right of the screen. The difficulty of the first five levels increases, but after that the levels always run exactly the same, including the available bonus time. Nintendo therefore did not expect resourceful players to get any further than level five.
Why is there a kill screen?
Theoretically, the gameplay would always continue like this, but the 117th round (stage 1 in level 22) has not yet been overcome: The player suddenly has much less time to reach Pauline. Jumpman is unable to reach his goal and dies - game over for the hard-working climber. To reach the kill screen, the player needs around two and a half hours as well as a lot of practice and skill with Jumpman. Here you can watch the gameplay until you reach the kill screen.
The reason for the killscreen lies in the technical limitations of the early 8-bit systems. This meant that the games could only use numerical values up to 256, which also limited the number of colours used and the resolution of the games, for example. Although the bonus time displayed in "Donkey Kong" is always 8000 from level five, an internal counter increases with each level. And this counter exceeds the magic number 256 in round 117, resulting in an incorrect calculation of the remaining bonus time.
How did Kosmic overcome the kill screen?
Although "Donkey Kong" is actually used as a competition in some gaming circles, the original version is not played on the slot machine. Instead, gamers emulate a specific US version of the game. This is also recognised as such.
This allows small glitches to be exploited. For example, if you press the directional pad in the right combination for the right amount of time in the right directions, Jumpman can use invisible ladders to get to Pauline faster. This idea has only recently emerged and Kosmic was the first to try it out to overcome the kill screen. In order to use the directional pad trick properly, he ran the game much slower - frame by frame - than usual. This is therefore not possible without aids.
Impossible without aids and a lot of luck
Despite this, Kosmic is not considered a cheater by the Community: thanks to the trick, there are now insights into the behaviour of the game that were previously not possible. Kosmic got as far as round 122 before the timer put an end to him again. However, reaching this point again and possibly overcoming it turned out to be almost impossible: despite his trick, Kosmic kept getting stuck in the unfortunate round 117, i.e. the original kill screen.
Together with other users, he then analysed the game code to get to the bottom of the game's inexplicable behaviour. They discovered that players with a probability of only 1:32 in round 117 receive half a second of bonus time. However, this is enough to complete the round. Kosmic states that it is therefore not only necessary to play a flawless game despite using aids, but also to have a good deal of luck in order to progress. However, he himself was later able to overcome the kill screen several more times and continue playing some levels.
In the end, Kosmic is certain that the race for new high scores is now on - and there are sure to be enough hardcore retro gamers who will join the challenge.
Header image: Nintendo/Kosmic
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Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
