What Does Donkey Kong Have to Do with Donkeys?

(AND OTHER GAMING TRIVIA)

1. What does Donkey Kong have to do with donkeys?

2. Name the one video game that is made up of five video games. What are they?

3. In 1976, a video game called Death Race hit the scene. Why was it so controversial?

4. How many dots are there on the Pac-Man board?

5. On its first day of existence, the original Pong game broke down. Why?

6. The control panel on Defender and Stargate are identical except for one thing. What?

7. What is RAM and what is ROM?

8. In which video game is the player represented by a paintbrush?

9. What do the following terms mean in video game jargon?

10. What is the name of the man you represent in Donkey Kong?

11. Name two popular arcade games that were designed by the same person.

12. In Defender, how many points do you receive for the following?

13. What does the word “ATARI” mean in Japanese?

14. Odyssey’s Conquest of the World assigns each country a “power base value” which is based on a formula created by a former deputy director of intelligence for the CIA. What is the formula?

15. How do you pronounce QIX?

16. Name the arcade game that has the designer’s signature right on the cabinet.

17. Name the Atari cartridge that has the designer’s name right in the program.

18. What companies own the trademarks to these games?

19. What two video games have the same names as plays by William Shakespeare?

20. What is the biggest selling Atari cartridge of them all?

21. What happened on October 1, 1979 that influenced the history of video games?

22. How do you join the Activision “Bucket Brigade” and “Save the Chicken Foundation ?”

23. Name the video game companies you’ll find in these cities…

24. What do Craig Kubey, Michael Blanchet, Tom Hirschfeld and Ken Uston have in common?

25. What is the minimum number of Space Invaders on the screen for a Mother Ship to appear?

26. Name the most popular video game designed by a woman.

27. What does it mean to “turn a machine over?”

28. Who said, “My idea of retirement is to sit all day in a big, dark room playing Space Invaders?”

29. What is the heart of the nation’s microcomputer chip center called?

30. Fill in the blank. Space Invaders is to Atari what            is to Intellivision and            is to Odyssey.

31. How many variations of Space Invaders can you play on your TV set?

32. What gave David Crane the inspiration to have a chicken cross the road in Freeway?

33. Name ten arcade games that have become home games.

34. Name four Atari cartridges that are no longer being made.

35. After the world is destroyed in arcade Missile Command, what does it say on the screen?

Answers

1. Not much. The Japanese word for donkey can also mean crazy or stupid.

2. GORF. It’s made up of Astro Battle, Laser Attack, Galaxians, Space Warp and Flagships.

3. In Death Race, you drove a car and tried to run over little human-like figures. When you hit one, it would squeal and a cross would replace it on the screen. A lot of people were not amused.

4. 240

5. Its coin box was overstuffed with quarters.

6. Stargate has an “lnviso Anti-Matter Cloaking Device,” which makes your ship invisible and indestructable.

7. RAM stands for Random Access Memory and ROM stands for Read Only Memory. ROM is the game’s program, which should never alter. RAM is temporary information, such as your score and number of ships you have left. Thanks for the memories!

8. Make Trax

9. a. A player who spends a lot of time at one machine. b. an area created by an anti-arcade zoning law. c. Eating all four Pac-Man ghosts on one energy pellet. d. Reserve a machine by putting a quarter (George Washington) on it. e. A pizza parlor with Pac-Man machines.

10. Mario

11. Dave Theurer of Atari designed both Missile Command and Tempest.

12. a. 150 b. 250 c. 150 d. 1000 e. 200

13. PREPARE TO BE ATTACKED!

14. Pp = (C + E + M) times (S + W) or Perceived power equals (critical mass plus economic capability plus military capability) times (strategic purpose plus national will)

15. KICKS!

16. Berzerk, designed by Alan McNeil of Stern.

17. Adventure, designed by Warren Robinette.

18. a. Midway b. Williams c. Atari d. Taite e. Stern

19. Tempest and Othello

20. Combat—it comes with every system sold.

21. Activision was formed, the first company established to make video game software exclusively.

22. Send Activision a photo of your TV screen showing 3,000 or more points in Kaboom! and one that proves you guided your chicken through traffic 20 times in Freeway.

23. a. Atari b. Odyssey c. Mattel d. Astrocade

24. They have all written books on how to beat the video games.

25. Eight is enough

26. Centipede, which was designed by Dona Bailey of Atari.

27. To run up so many points that the counter goes back to zero.

28. Walter Cronkite

29. Silicon Valley

30. Space Armada, Alien Invaders—Plus

31. 112

32. He saw “some maniac” trying to jay-walk across Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive during rush hour.

33. Space Invaders, Asteroids, Frogger, Missile Command, Breakout, Circus, Pac-Man, Defender, Night Driver, Warlords and more.

34. Star Ship, Slot Machine, Miniature Golf, Surround.

35. THE END!