Donkey Kong Jr. USA Release Date?

[ColecoFan1981]

While I know that Donkey Kong Jr. was released in Japanese arcades on June 30, 1982, I am wondering if it was actually on July 20, 1982 that the American arcades first got this?

 

Previously, Wikipedia had September 16, 1982 as the US release date in arcades.

 

~Ben

Edited December 20, 2022 by ColecoFan1981

[DavidD]

On 12/19/2022 at 8:57 PM, ColecoFan1981 said:

While I know that Donkey Kong Jr. was released in Japanese arcades on June 30, 1982, I am wondering if it was actually on July 20, 1982 that the American arcades first got this?

 

Previously, Wikipedia had September 16, 1982 as the US release date in arcades.

 

~Ben

The problem is that I don't think we have any hard dates for the USA releases of Nintendo cabinets.  The first few were shipped to New York and put out as they arrived -- I mean, there SHOULD be a delivery form somewhere in NOA's archives, but I don't think the date has ever been common knowledge.

 

I mean, we still don't know when the US version of the Super Mario Bros. cart was officially released.

[ColecoFan1981]

On 1/6/2023 at 2:27 AM, DavidD said:

The problem is that I don't think we have any hard dates for the USA releases of Nintendo cabinets.  The first few were shipped to New York and put out as they arrived -- I mean, there SHOULD be a delivery form somewhere in NOA's archives, but I don't think the date has ever been common knowledge.

 

I mean, we still don't know when the US version of the Super Mario Bros. cart was officially released.

Actually, Nintendo of America's new base of operations was in Seattle, Washington -- they moved here before the first Donkey Kong was released here on July 31, 1981.

 

~Ben

[DavidD]

32 minutes ago, ColecoFan1981 said:

Actually, Nintendo of America's new base of operations was in Seattle, Washington -- they moved here before the first Donkey Kong was released here on July 31, 1981.

 

~Ben

I don't think that is correct. Everything I've ever read stated that NoA moved to Washington after the arcade release of Donkey Kong.

 

Not that you can always trust modern corporate websites to be correct, but NoA's own company history page has them moving to Washington in 1982.

 

https://press.nintendo.com/CompanyHistory

[ColecoFan1981]

1 hour ago, DavidD said:

I don't think that is correct. Everything I've ever read stated that NoA moved to Washington after the arcade release of Donkey Kong.

 

Not that you can always trust modern corporate websites to be correct, but NoA's own company history page has them moving to Washington in 1982.

 

https://press.nintendo.com/CompanyHistory

My information comes from this flyer.

 

I also make this claim based on the fact that when Radar Scope failed to sell more than 1,000 units here, was when NOA felt it time to move out of New York City and into Seattle, to cut back on shipping time from Kyoto.

 

~Ben

Edited January 20 by ColecoFan1981

[DavidD]

1 hour ago, ColecoFan1981 said:

My information comes from this flyer.

 

I also make this claim based on the fact that when Radar Scope failed to sell more than 1,000 units here, was when NOA felt it time to move out of New York City and into Seattle, to cut back on shipping time from Kyoto.

 

~Ben

While this could be correct, it would seem to run counter to everything I've ever read...

 

I'm also tempted to believe that that flyer is from a later promotion.  Yes, it has a 1981 copyright date for Donkey Kong... but it also refers to Mario as Mario and not Jumpman, which (I believe) wasn't the case for the initial release of the game.

 

Nintendo Co's own company website, which tends to be more accurate than NOA, gives the same year for the move to Seattle (https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/en/history/index.html)   While I don't have the other data in front of me, I know that many, MANY sources all say that NOA started in New York, was there for the release of Donkey Kong, and then moved to Washington.