Your first introduction to the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game?

[Barrels2007]

My Uncle Mike was a bartender in Michigan City, Indiana back in 1982.  I was in First Grade. 

One Sunday during a family get together, he told my father about a cool new arcade game that was making a lot of money at the tavern where he worked.  Since the nearby tavern was closed on Sundays, we drove over after dinner.  My dad and uncle made cocktails and kindly poured me a Coca-Cola.  Grabbing a handful of quarters from the tip jar, we pulled up a barstool and played Donkey Kong in that darkened tavern. 

I was completely fascinated by the game's colorful graphics - like something out of a Hanna Barbera cartoon - and Kong's loud stomping sounds that reverberated throughout the entire machine. 

All these years later, that moment remains such a sweet memory.   I raise a toast to my Uncle Mike every time I play.

[Sock Master]

I was in elementary school.  I don't quite know why I had to walk to school, but I did.  Maybe we lived just close enough not to qualify for the bus or maybe it was some other reason but it was a bit of a trek.
Between home and school there were not one, but two bowling alleys.  Both had arcade games.  There was also a mall with another arcade inside.
My mom never made me lunch and my school was pretty small and didn't offer any lunch service at all, so... I had to go fend for myself.
Sometimes when I had money I would go a local dive to eat.  Sometimes I'd go to the bowling alley and order some fries with sauce (which was basically like a poor man's Poutine - it was much more affordable for a little kid with only pocket change.)

Way back in the very early days of arcades, the first bowling alley had Space Invaders.  Which I found fascinating.  I never really played it much but the strange pixel creatures were interesting and I started drawing pixel creatures on graph paper in school.

It was the second bowling alley that had really went all out - they had about 10 games but they kept adding new games regularly.  And in retrospect, they had some really cool, rare or unlikely games.

One of the games they got was Donkey Kong.  And in actuality, I think it was the one and only real Donkey Kong I can remember seeing in all of Quebec during the 80s.   Everywhere else that I ever went those days had a Crazy Kong instead.

I was a little kid but I watched older teens and adults playing games in the arcades and a number of them could play for ages on a quarter.  I kinda picked up on their tricks and strategies and eventually got pretty good at a number of games myself.
At this exact time I was still a little kid.  But Donkey Kong was one of the games I kept going back to and eventually got pretty good at it.

When a became a teenager, sometimes I would never make it to school at all.  Sometimes I would go to the arcade for lunch and never make it back to school.  Often I would go to the arcade instead of home after school.  Man, those were different times.

But even now... when I walk up to a Donkey Kong cabinet in the wild... I will subconsciously remember the smell of bowling alley in my head.

[Mario500]

(suggestion of a different name for this topic: Your first meeting with a Donkey Kong (1981) game)

[jammvyy]

Crazy Kong in a Bowling Alley 83 ish never saw a DK cab In Toronto   

[Dk_madness]

My first run in with a Donkey Kong was in a small arcade in a shopping center in Dayton, Ohio. If I remember correctly, it’s was early 1983 or so. I used to sneak the 8 pack of returnable Pepsi bottles my parents had in the garage to the grocery store next to the arcade and get my .75 cents. Then head over and dump it all into DK lol. Needless to say, that .75 went quick.

[Mario500]

(first meeting with a 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game (or an arcade game cabinet in this case): inside a dental facility waiting room)

[homerwannabee]

In a small apartment laundromat in DeKalb.

[80sArcadeKid]

Never played it as a kid of 9 in 1981, unlike my handle. I'm a more mid 80s aracde kid (13'ish) started playing DK after watching Tecchio on Twitch a few years ago.

[Fly]

Maybe 1983ish at a mall arcade. I rarely went to malls BITD. But Crazy Kong was all over my hood for years before I saw DK anywhere. Fkn hack of CK! CK is the OG. Fk DK! 

Fly

[dnickolas]

Around 82-83 we used to go to this Chuck-E-Cheese on whatever day gave you unlimited free play for a couple hours. And there was a game in a cab that said Donkey Kong on it, but as an adult I'm 99% sure it was actually a Crazy Kong board. I distinctly remember the blue and yellow fireballs and how they were different from my Colecovision version.

[Rev John]

I never played Donkey Kong until approx 2000 when there was a machine in the sandwich shop where my sister had started working.  (I grew up in Australia and not in a major city, although we did have an arcade ~1983 with Asteroids, Pac-Man, Defender, Terra Cresta, Space Invaders...)

I lost my lives quickly on level 1 and would have gotten a very low score.  So it gave me a bad impression and I didn't drop a second coin.  Years later when I read "Game Over, Press Start to Continue: How Nintendo Conquered the World" it mentions some guy who was loving playing DK and had gotten through a few levels and I thought 'wow he must be really skilled!'     Apart from MAME I don't think I played an actual DK arcade machine again until AKO3.  Cheers all!

[Dallas Taylor]

I've told this story in relation to Junior, so apologies if you've heard it before.

We were latchkey kids in the 80s. So, during the summer, when mom left for work, we were to stay indoors until dad got home. Mom left for work at about 9am.

We had two places within about a 10-minute bike ride from the house. There was 7-11 on one corner and a similar family-owned store called Pete's Liquor across the street. They would often send me to fetch milk, bread, candy bars... whatever we wanted/needed at the time. So when these stores started rotating video games through, I started playing them.

At the time, I had a paper route. At that age, I had more money than I knew what to do with (what a problem to have). So during the summer, I would get up around 7 and haul ass down the road to get my daily gaming in. 7-11 brought Donkey Kong in seemingly not long after it became a hit in the arcades. I believe that the first time I played it was at our Skate World skating rink, but I really put time into it when 7-11 had it. Unfortunately, 7-11 rotated their games once or twice a year, so it was relatively short lived. Not long after Donkey Kong left 7-11 though, Pete's got Donkey Kong Junior, and a lifelong sickness was discovered.

[Mario500]

I've told this story in relation to Junior, so apologies if you've heard it before.

We were latchkey kids in the 80s. So, during the summer, when mom left for work, we were to stay indoors until dad got home. Mom left for work at about 9am.

We had two places within about a 10-minute bike ride from the house. There was 7-11 on one corner and a similar family-owned store called Pete's Liquor across the street. They would often send me to fetch milk, bread, candy bars... whatever we wanted/needed at the time. So when these stores started rotating video games through, I started playing them.

At the time, I had a paper route. At that age, I had more money than I knew what to do with (what a problem to have). So during the summer, I would get up around 7 and haul ass down the road to get my daily gaming in. 7-11 brought Donkey Kong in seemingly not long after it became a hit in the arcades. I believe that the first time I played it was at our Skate World skating rink, but I really put time into it when 7-11 had it. Unfortunately, 7-11 rotated their games once or twice a year, so it was relatively short lived. Not long after Donkey Kong left 7-11 though, Pete's got Donkey Kong Junior, and a lifelong sickness was discovered.

(suggestion: never curse thy self (or any other self))

[muscleandfitness]

I first played NES when Mario came out ,then SNES wow what a game, Before this i had a orange dk handheld watch game of dk played it a lot then i lost it down the track somewhere. My son introduced me to a movie kok where 2 men Fourt it out of being the best donkey Kong player in the world. Ever since that movie i was in love with the game and started to build a dk cab of my own. Red as its know today. then i decided to go to America and play in a Kong off in 2012 and again in 2013 where I met people from all over the world especially the dk community and all of my USA mates. And i have never looked back now i own 2 dks and 4 other cabs and 2 on the way. Today my high score is 992900 and i have 12 kill screens. OH and i was the first Ever Australian to ever ks a original dk cab in Australia. thats it for me BYE For now..

[mattbuc16]

Pretty sure the first time I played was at a local convenience store at the edge of the neighborhood I grew up in.  I was with my dad and asked if I could have a quarter to play.  Thankfully people still had change on them back in those days, so he gave me quarter and I ... am fairly certain I didn't make it to the end of 1-1.  It's crazy because I specifically recall being thrilled to be all the way up to the top hammer level ... on the right side of the screen.  It was disappointing and exhilarating all in one.  Sadly, that's been replaced now that I'm "good" with mostly disappointing.  But it's a fond memory of the game and of my dad.

PS. Machine was near the front of the store.  Pretty sure it was just left of the door ... but I might be remembering where the Track & Field was for sure.