Nintendo‘s classic 1981 release, Donkey Kong, was the first appearance of Mario (and his missus, Pauline – whatever happened to her?) and was also the first ever video game to feature jumping. Yes: jumping.

Donkey Kong is known among gaming enthusiasts for its difficulty. Timing and judgement are required to beat the four screens of action, each of which get incrementally higher in difficulty after you’ve clocked the game. And there is a limit to how far you can play too. Level 22 features a bug in the programming that effectively ends the game, called the “kill screen”, although that hasn’t stopped games-players trying to beat the all-time scoring records. There’s even been a film made about it, and it’s an excellent film too.

If you’ve never played the original arcade Donkey Kong, you should at least try it once to see what all the fuss is about. How high can YOU go?

More: Donkey Kong on Wikipedia