Case study

Donkey Kong: reconstructing arcade gameplay from descriptions and video

The Donkey Kong arcade remake recreates the 1981 game's four stages in C++ with Allegro5, using published descriptions of original mechanics and observations from play videos. The author reports that rolling barrels are close to the original while other behaviors and movement timing differ; the repository contains the game logic without its assets.

Targets: Game
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-06
Evidence class: C2 code & docs, no demo or download

Stars: 14
Last commit: 2021-10-14
Language: C++

GitHub data as of 2026-11-10

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Evidence

Observed: Code, documentation and a demo observed; no download method found.
Checked: 2026-11-09

How evidence classes are assigned

Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Allegro5 and a C++20 build environment with CMake for Windows or Linux.
Scope: Game assets have been removed from the repository.
Limits: The author reports imperfect behavior for wild barrels and player movement, plus remaining high-score bugs.
License: No licence file in the repository.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{donkey-kong-arcade-remake-case,
  title = {{Donkey Kong: reconstructing arcade gameplay from descriptions and video}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/ianmurfinxyz/donkey_kong_arcade}},
  url = {https://github.com/ianmurfinxyz/donkey_kong_arcade},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/donkey-kong-arcade-remake-case/}}
}

Plain text

Donkey Kong: reconstructing arcade gameplay from descriptions and video. https://github.com/ianmurfinxyz/donkey_kong_arcade (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/donkey-kong-arcade-remake-case/

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About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · ianmurfinxyz/donkey_kong_arcade · Revision cb8510a
CMakeLists.txt GitHub · ianmurfinxyz/donkey_kong_arcade · Revision cb8510a