>claiming ownership of a four-letter name
I know /v/ is really pissy towards Nintendo right now, but Universal can fuck off with this shit.

this is like when the resident evil guys claimed they had never even heard of Alone In The Dark for like a decade until they finally admitted it was the real main inspiration and not fucking sweet home

>>712745029
>this game about a big ape with the last name kong who climbs a tall building while carrying a blonde woman in distress?
>why, merely a funny coincidence, your honor
You really think Miyamoto had never seen King Kong? It's not like it's an unknown indie film

>>712746179
>You really think Miyamoto had never seen King Kong
That's not what that guy is talking about you retard. Universal lost that court case because they don't actually own the word 'kong' nor hold any legal claim to being able to use 'kong' in reference to a primate or simian.

>>712746709
It's clearly what the thread is about you retard, so at best "that guy" (who totally isn't you!) completely ignored the premise of the thread to nitpick a specific detail (universal doesn't own kong) rather than the argument OP is presenting (Miyamoto pretends the word came to him in a dream and not like the game is very obviously derived from the film)

>>712745029
Miyamoto wanted to patent jumping. As far as I am concerned, both parties involved are retards and deserve death.

what kind of shitty dictionary has king kong in it when you look up gorilla?

>>712745029
It's clearly based off of king kong itself, not just the name but the concept of a gorilla stealing a girl and climbing up a high eise building. Saying he had no idea is absurd. He even claims it was an inspiration later on

>>712747731
It was the early 80s without the internet. Also King Kong has a woman kidnapped but King Kong is supposed to be giant. Donkey Kong is just a regular gorilla. Also King Kong would have been like 50 years old by then at a time with no home movie rentals?

>>712744793 (OP)
Wait till you see how many songs they straight up plagiarized

>>712748510
Well, if there was dictionary out there where gorilla translated to kong, it'd be up to Miyamoto to produce it, cause apparently it doesn't exist.

>>712745029
both companies deserve a corporate death sentence but i hope nintendo loses just on principle of having opened the flood gates to this anti-creativity garbage.

>>712748510
>Also King Kong would have been like 50 years old
it was very well known, there were 5 movies by the time donkey kong was made, including a successful remake just 5 years prior

>>712749719
>hihi
i'm curious about the etymology now because jisho lists a different word, and describes it as a rare term. the kanji are literally interpreted as "big orangutan." that's because japan doesn't have gorillas. every other interpretation of what a "gorilla" is i'm finding instead is referencing mythological creatures from chinese folklore. so i guess their actual best historical reference of what a "real" gorilla is, is going to be all that japanese people know, the pop culture icon that is king kong.

i also looked up the origin of the term and the director made it up.

>>712744793 (OP)
It doesn't matter, Nintendo could have come out and directly said they copied it from King Kong and still won that lawsuit because it was shown that Universal did not own the rights to King Kong.

>>712746179
He never said he hadn't seen it he has even cited it as an influence on the game. He only said he didn't mean to steal King Kong outright. Even if he had it wouldn't have mattered though.

>>712747859
The game was originally Bluto stealing Olive Oyl. They changed Bluto into a gorilla when they couldn't get the Popeye license.

The story of how Miyamoto came up with the name "Donkey Kong" varies. A false urban myth says that the name was originally meant to be "Monkey Kong", but was misspelled or misinterpreted due to a blurred fax or bad telephone connection.[34] A more credible story claims Miyamoto looked in a Japanese-English dictionary for something that would mean "stubborn gorilla",[26]:158 or that "Donkey" was meant to convey "silly" or "stubborn"; "Kong" was common Japanese slang for "gorilla".[20]:238 A rival claim is that he worked with Nintendo's export manager to come up with the title, and that "Donkey" was meant to represent "stupid and goofy".[25]:48–49 In 2001, Miyamoto stated that he thought the name would convey the thought of a "stupid ape".[35]

>>712749941
>but i hope nintendo loses just on principle of having opened the flood gates to this anti-creativity garbage
This lawsuit was forty years ago retard. Nintendo World is literally a part of Universal Studios.

>>712747453
>the game is very obviously derived from the film
but it was a Popeye game first.
Bluto was going to be throwing barrels, not some ape that kidnapped a woman and climbed up some scaffolding.

the original cabinet art even gives Mario a Popeye-esque squint.

>>712757001
So donkey kong was never an original idea. It was a popeye game. But when licensing fell through, they totally didn’t decide to steal inspiration from a different set of characters and donkey kong was a totally original idea. Right, ok, they totally didn’t rip of king kong, no sir.

>>712758760
the name is certainly influenced by King Kong, for sure.
are we going to pretend like this doesn't happen literally all the time?