Donkey Kong Jr. (NES), all stages, by Kate Glasheen.

My brother got this and Super Mario Bros. with his NES (which became our NES much to his chagrin).  It’s ridiculous how many hours a kid can play a game that’s only four screens long.  Just recently, my friends and I stumbled across a beach side arcade in York Beach, ME which had the cabinet of DK Jr. in its collection, into which I promptly dumped many quarters.

[Josh says: one time when I was a kid, I went to a family wedding in Montana, and the hotel we were staying at had a few arcade machines in a cubby down the hall from our room.  And Donkey Kong Jr. was not the best game of the bunch, but it was, importantly, the only game that was apparently in free-play mode.  I don’t know if I’d ever even seen the game before that, but as a bored kid who wasn’t all that into socializing with extended family and friends or dancing at a wedding reception, that DK Jr. machine pretty much kept me sane.]

Donkey Kong Country, level 1, by dsfan.

This is the first level of Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. This game gave out extra lives at an incredible rate—I might have forgotten about one on this level. My brother and I beat it one long weekend in December (I think school was closed because of snow), and like an idiot I told my mother that I probably wouldn’t play it again since it was too easy. Of course she had gotten it for us for Christmas that year. In the 17 or so years since we got it, I would guess we played it at least 300 hours, since it turns out that very easiness made it a great way to lazily kill a half hour waiting for dinner or something, just pick it up and go to the fun levels without worrying about lives or anything. 

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, world map, by iknowwhy.

I started trying to draw the level map of the first level, but despite my muscle memory knowing that inside out, my visual memory failed me. So instead I went with the overworld map. DKC2 is my favourite side scrolling platformer, I’ve played it so many times. It has just the right level of difficulty, with some hugely tricky, but rewarding jumps at the end of the game, and a nice learning curve. It is also hugely characterful and atmospheric, with the world map teeming with promise when you first load it up.

I know I’ve got some of the placings wrong, but I was pretty pleased with this anyway.