Nintendo was in trouble. It was 1980, and they’d just poured a ton of money into an arcade game they’d hoped would be a hit. They called it Radar Scope. It was a massive flop. In a panic, the company rushed to create a new game that they hoped would make good use out of all their unsold Radar Scope arcade cabinets. That game – Donkey Kong – took the world by storm.

Nintendo basked in the success of their new game. They had no idea that a massive lawsuit was headed their way.

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:

Audureau, William. The History of Mario. Pix’n Love, 2014.

Internet Archive. “Universal v. Nintendo Court Documents.” 2026. https://archive.org/details/universal-v-nintendo-court-documents.

Sheff, David. Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children. Random House, Inc., 1993.

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