Donkey Kong Recreated Using 6,400 Post-it Notes

NickFitz writes "Students at UCSC have recreated the first level of Donkey Kong using 6,400 Post-it notes stuck to the windows of the E2 building. It took a team of about 10 people five hours to complete the work, which will remain in place until May 1. There's a time-lapse video of the construction process."

If MIT students did it

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be playable.

Re:If MIT students did it

[gardyloo]

I doubt they'd go so far as to give the Post-It facsimile an attribute that the original didn't have...

Re:

[Falladir]

+1, snarky.

Re:

[wiredlogic]

I doubt they'd go so far as to give the Post-It facsimile an attribute that the original didn't have...

I disagree. The Atari 2600 version pretty much sucked because Mario was hard to control (and it looked like crap) but the ColecoVision and arcade versions were easy to play and lots of fun.

If Stanford students did it...

[__aaclcg7560]

... the IPO would be done. :P

If German Chaos Computer Club geeks did it...

[jd]

...it would be playable, but only if you had the side of a hotel to play on [blinkenlights.de]...

Re:

[zoogies]

If Caltech students did it, DK would come alive and eat MIT.

Re:

[Garrett Fox]

And MIT would finish him off once and for all with your cannon [boston.com]. 8)

Re:

[SL Baur]

Hey! That's the Fleming House cannon. I helped drag it back to Caltech, long, long ago.
Sigh.

Re:

[Zantetsuken]

yes, complete with motorized window washer carriage with a rail or track at the top of the building to allow side to side movement

Re:

[Oddster]

They would be ripping off Brown students [techhouse.org]. You know, the largest playable Tetris game in the western hemisphere. Oh yeah, and it ran on Linux. :-P

----
Brown is the color of poo. - Chris
Yes, yes it is. - Brian

If Iowa State students did it...

[Assassin bug]

It would be Copyrighted.

I've Never Felt This Way Before.

[MankyD]

While this game's early '80s arcade popularity predates most of today's engineering students...

I suddenly feel so old :(

Re:

[eclectro]

I suddenly feel so old :(

Actually it was like a slap in the face. Donkey Kong is timeless. Today's generation has it way too easy. They don't appreciate what they have. In my day, we had to pay a quarter for each time we played Donkey Kong.

Re:I've Never Felt This Way Before.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, you did not need a quarter to play Donkey Kong (or any Nintendo game using the same cabinet). I had to get my DK fix and paper route money was not cutting it. Remember, back in this time frame, Atari was just about all anyone had for video games and cabinet games were a craze. Anyway, when I was was 12, money was tight but you could get around that. The front Plexiglas panel on the Donkey Kong cabinet could be manipulated so that you could lift it up get your hand in through the bottom of it. With your arm down inside the unit, you could play around for a little bit and find the metal clicker that a quarter would trigger when dropped in. You could simply keep clicking this and get credits up to the 99 max. Every time a credit was given (like from a quarter or you simulating a quarter), the game made a loud "blowwap" noise. To prevent being obvious, you could add one credit, hit the 1 player button to start a new game, then click that metal arm over and over again without that obvious noise. This trick worked better in the pizza shops and smaller venues then the full sized game rooms because the smaller places often did not pay attention or had no one around because the games were often in some side room or in the back somewhere. Full game rooms typically had too many people and employees around. I knew about the generals of how this worked because I had a few full sized video games in my basement, like Clowns, some tank game and a third that I don't remember, all back and white and all played to death. Yes it was wrong but I had to play DK somehow.

Re:I've Never Felt This Way Before.

[ari_j]

Just so we're all clear on this: You couldn't afford to drop a quarter on DK but you could afford to keep three full-size cabinet arcade games in your basement.

Re:

[asninn]

The three full-size cabinet arcade games were probably the reason he didn't even have so much as a quarter left in his pocket...

Re:

[master_p]

Another method was to make a hole in the coin, then use a thin fishing line to insert the coin, then get it back out as soon as the credit is registered.

Re:

[soft_guy]

Another method was to make a hole in the coin, then use a thin fishing line to insert the coin, then get it back out as soon as the credit is registered.

Does this realy work outside of cartoons?

Re:

[djdavetrouble]

what happened to stringing a quarter ? that worked on all the early games. we used to string defender at the 7-11 while one of us distracted the cashier....

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but how long will it take me to find a six-inch guitar?

Re:

[spineboy]

Just ask the 12 inch guitar player - he'll know where to find it. But he's probably looking for a 1 inch guitar string to play ulta tiny mario brothers.

Re:

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

I know him! He's over there next to the 12 inch pianist. Oh, wait... that's MY 12 inch pianist!

ba-dum-PSSSSH! /try the veal

Re:

[theshowmecanuck]

Just ask the 12 inch guitar player

If you ask him, that would be Gene Simmons... or did you mean?... never mind.

Re:

[ari_j]

That reminds me - I am from the only state to have Broderbund make a special version of Carmen Sandiego for it: Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego. We played that one in elementary school on the Apples a bit, but where we really had fun with it was in 7th and 8th grade science (Earth Science and Biology), where the teacher was ancient (how many of you had the same football coach as your father did?) and had an Apple II stuck in the corner of the room without the sense of hearing to care that we were

Re:

[JazzLad]

...a port that Wikipedia doesn't acknowledge exists...

That darn Wikipedia. I'm sick of closed databases of information. Why can't someone create an open encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to?

(If you didn't grin, that sound you heard was 'whooosh')

Re:

[ari_j]

I try not to edit Wikipedia unless I have specific information. Right now all I remember is that I played Sargon III and that it had both a DOS version and an Apple II version in the same box. I can't even tell you with certainty what year that would have been.

Re:I've Never Felt This Way Before.

[Jeff DeMaagd]

What's worse is that when we played DK, we just accepted the idea that DK threw fire. I don't remember anyone that questioned it.

I think what really happen was that he was supposed to throw feces but the focus group refused to play the game.

Re:

[BasilBrush]

You had me believing you for a moment. But actually DK never throws fire, he throws barrels, some of which hit the oil fire at the bottom of the first screen and turn into fireballs.

Re:

[Heembo]

Like this? http://www.monkeypoopfight.com/smpf2.html [monkeypoopfight.com]

I love monkey poop fight, especially since you can't lose or die! :)

Re:

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Barrels too, but I thought I saw a fireball in some of the pictures.

Re:

[JavaRob]

I remember barrels first (which would roll along the platforms), followed by fireballs a bit later.

Were there flaming barrels as well? It's pretty vague in my memory by now...

Re:I've Never Felt This Way Before.

[Andrew Kismet]

He threw two types of barrel. The blue barrels were filled with oil, and would turn into little fire characters when they hit the fire barrel at the start of the course. The fire would then chase Mario/Jumpman up.

Re:

[Sepper]

I suddenly feel so old :(

I know the feeling. I work at a College, and most of the new students don't remember the Berlin Wall. Some were not even born when it fell.

Loving it

[EvilGoodGuy]

I'd love to take part in something like that. Reminds me of freshman year, we'd have fun by making things out of our crappy food.
My favorites were the Lettuce Luigi, and the Mario Question Block that I made out of a stale bagel, the different colors on different sides made for a fun effect!

Bravo!

[Kid Zero]

Nice to see students remembering the past. :)

Re:

[DanTheManMS]

Nice to see students remembering the past. :)

Or "reviving" as the case may be, as the game came out in 1981, a few years before many of these students were probably born.

Still an awesome effort though.

Monkeys aren't donkeys

[aurb]

Stop messing with my head!

Re:

[EveLibertine]

And gorillas aren't monkeys.

Re:

[LearnToSpell]

Does that mean donkeys are gorillas?

It's pretty friggin cool...

[posterlogo]

I saw it last week -- some great 8-bit action going on over at the engineering building. Ironically, it's the 8-bit stuff that's even remotely feasible to do with post-its, but its so old I wonder how many of those students actually played that game when it first came out...

How about nobody?

[imsabbel]

If they played it when it first came out, they really shouldnt be students anymore.

First level?

[oneiros27]

... recreated the first level of Donkey Kong ...

How can you tell the first one apart from any of the other levels of Donkey Kong? That sure looks like the sixth level to me.

Re:

[Sigma 7]

How can you tell the first one apart from any of the other levels of Donkey Kong?

The "first" level means that it uses the first possible layout - it doesn't mean that it's the sixth one you encounter in the game (although incidently, the first board does appear as the sixth in the rotation.)

The boards are as follows (although I think the order is a bit different):
- Ladders - a series of bent floors.
- Conveyors - some floors push you left and right
- Elevators - has to elevators on the left hand side.
- Roof -

This makes me happy

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Hooray for geeks with way too much time on their hands.

Re:

[Achromatic1978]

And no desire to do their bit not to needlessly waste resources for something that'll be amusing for a good fifteen minutes.

Re:

[Chief Wongoller]

Hooray for geeks with way too much time on their hands. .... Obviously way too much time. 6400 notes, 10 people, 5 hours equates to only one note posted every 28 seconds, or around two a minute. Anybody want to offerr these guys a job??

Re:

[steveo777]

The article didn't say if they were using all 5 hours to just stick the post-it's up there, but I'm sure it required some set up on site. I imagine the easiest would be a painter's laser level and a few other gadgets, but it isn't just walk up and start.

Re:This makes me happy

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"Hooray for geeks with way too much time on their hands."

Said the guy posting on Slashdot.

ObStyx Lyrics

[Randolpho]

Hooray for geeks with way too much time on their hands.

Styx said it all:

Sitting on this barstool talking like a damn fool
Got the twelve oclock news blues
And Ive given up hope on the afternoon soaps
And a bottle of cold brew
Is it any wonder Im not crazy? is it any wonder Im sane at all
Well Im so tired of losing- I got nothing to do and all day to do it
I go out cruisin but Ive no place to go and all night to get there
Is it any wonder Im not a criminal?
Is it any wonder Im not in jail?
Is it any wond

Re:

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

And how are you so certain that they didn't do this during spring break?

Re:

[Worthless_Comments]

Because obviously every minute of every day for 4+ years you are going to do nothing but attend class and do work for those courses. Besides, it's not like these kids did it at night or anything. Oh, wait... Stop trying to act like some self-rightous ass - it's not very becoming.

Did they do this before?

[MMaestro]

Not with Donkey Kong but with Super Mario Bros (1)? I thought it got taken down cause they didn't get permission beforehand. Hopefully they have permission this time.

Re:Did they do this before?

[mikesd81]

You mean this? [yikes.com]

Re:

[gsn]

They did I think in '03 or '04. I had a friend from high school who was part of that endeavor. Those were individual characters not a full scene though, but still pretty impressive. I read this time its supposed to stay up till May 1 so I guess they got permission. They weren't the first [kotaku.com] either though. Not sure if I'd call it art but definitely fun to come across if you aren't expecting it. It will be interesting to see how the subject matter changes as we get older.

Re:

[Amigori]

Here [slashdot.org] is the thread from last time they did it, Super Mario Bros. style.

Re:

[coaxial]

Actually, only the killjoys in the econ department on the 4th floor destroyed the mural. The CS, EE, CompE, and School of Engineering offices departments on the 2nd, 3rd and 5th floors didn't have with it. They later got "revenge" by putting the game over scene on 4th floor after removing the notes from the other floors.

This time there's a sign on the back of the 4th floor (the bottom floor in the video and pics is actually the 2nd floor) barrel indicating that this artwork was actually comissioned by Jim [ucsc.edu]

Quick question

[johncadengo]

What does UCSC think of this? How long will it stay up?

I'd like to do something like this on my UC campus... See you on the front page of slashdot in a week!

Re:

[NickFitz]

That's a different work. As this one was done last week, it would have been difficult to take it down a year ago...

6400 of them?

[holywarrior21c]

seriously any slashdotter could do that with only 640 postits!

--

Re:

[justthinkit]

And Bill Gates could do it in 655,360 or less.

Nice!

[vertigoCiel]

Good thing they didn't have any, you know, work to do.

Re:

[xenotrout]

It's pretty much the beginning of the spring quarter (most UCs have Fall, Winter, Spring and optional Summer quarters rather than Fall and Spring semesters with a shorter Summer "semester") so they don't yet have the really hard work to do. This might have even been put up during spring break. Maybe it was done by Freshmen...could have even been some Winter quarter grads...

Wasted time!

[ProfessionalCookie]

If they're going to make it so big the least those billy goats could do is use 2xSaI [tudelft.nl]. *sigh*

Must've used quality post-it notes...

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

If they used the ones I have at work they'd still be trying to get the first one to stick for more than 3 seconds right about now.

Quit messing with our minds!

[suv4x4]

Quit messing with our minds! [ytmnd.com]

May I be the first to say...

[Lazbien]

NNNNNeeeeerrrrrrrrddddddsssssssssssss!!!!!!

post it

[Turn-X Alphonse]

I wonder how feasable it would be to do this on walls in bedrooms and such. Maybe a simple Mario or mushroom could at least be done.

I just hope they branch out a bit more from Mario, stuff like Zelda and Metroid need love too

6,400

[Disharmony2012]

6,400 post-it notes ought to be enough to re-create any level.

Re:

[robo.cowp]

I can't believe the mods missed that one... I appreciated it!

Re:

[OECD]

I guess all the mods today are as young as the students putting up the sticky notes...

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Watch out for lawyers!

[Hao Wu]

Are they "infringing" on copyrights?

Is this legitimate, licensed use of Post-It notes -- or will 3M send a cease and desist notice?

Oh heck.

[Cliff Jolly]

I just walked right by this building on Friday but didn't have the presence of mind to look up.

Woops. I'll have to check it out tomorrow.

Meh...

[mattmacf]

640 post-its should be enough for anybody

*ducks*

about 10 people?

[Ruvim]

a team of about 10 people

What, was like 9.5 people?

Re:about 10 people?

[evanbd]

Unfortunately, one of the original 10 team members died in a freak accident involving a rolling barrel during construction.

Reminds me of Freshman Year

[Nyeerrmm]

Reminds me of my freshman year in the dorms. We never did anything this impressive or visible, but we did spend most of one weekend making a movie, and designed a 'shack' for a Habitat for Humanity fundraiser that was two stories with running water (kind of). Now I'm a senior with more practical projects, drinking, and living in an apartment getting in the way... I suppose I did learn video editing along the way though.

Is it bad that I'm not even graduated and already reminiscing?

game vs. art resolution

[xPsi]

I believe the orginal Donkey Kong had a screen resolution of 224 x 256 pixels. I don't think the art quite matches that resolution (with a 3" x 3" post-it covering 4 floors, you would need 16-foot floors to obtain the same effective vertical resolution). To be fair, they condensed the first level a bit on the top (the girl used to be on a raised platform, no?), so they are looking at fewer vertical pixels in the game -- and those do look like pretty tall floors...

[sigh] I'm saddened that I even bothered to think about this...

Re:

[aurelian]

Maybe they were recreating one of the handheld 'game and watch' [ggdb.com] versions. To be honest, that's what I think of when soemone mentions Donkey Kong. My friends and I rarely had spare cash to spend at amusement arcades, but we could get the handheld games for christmas etc.

Snopes: Donkey Wrong

[tepples]

Can anyone tell me where the F&*@ are the donkeys?

Dick Wolf, the man behind TV's Law & Order, is neither a penis nor a lupine. Likewise, Donkey Kong is not a donkey. The name "Donkey", which could be a derivative of Duncan, carries a connotation of stubbornness. See also Snopes: Donkey Wrong [snopes.com].

For donkeys, see Kicking Ass: The Democratic Party's Blog [democrats.org] and History of the Democratic Party [democrats.org].

They were going to do Duck Hunt....

[rubberbando]

but someone kept shooting at the window....

Re:

[6Yankee]

but someone kept shooting at the window....

...Du ckHunt!

The E2 Building??

[Mark4ST]

The E2 "building" is right here [everything2.com]. Dang kids; get off of my lawn.

I wonder..

[n1hilist]

Who got first post(it) ? :)

Free post-it ad on slashdot

[jopet]

respect - nice scheme to have a free post-it ad presented to a crowd the size of the /. audience.

The irony of it

[ciaran.mchale]

Years ago, people predicted that computer technology would result in the "paperless office". Now, people are using paper to create the "computerless video game".

Pokemon

[tepples]

Now, people are using paper to create the "computerless video game".

This has been the case since the Pokémon trading card game if not earlier.

Very disappointing

[Flying pig]

When I read the headline I thought it meant that they had reproduced the first level programming as a flow chart using Post-it notes. Modern programmers won't remember this, but once upon a time you diagrammed the program logic before coding, rather than coding first and then using tools to produce the diagrams. Post-it note programming isn't a bad idea. You can create all the major code points on post-its, then join them up on a board, then rearrange the sequences for optimisation.

I just made myself feel s

Re:how long ago was this?

[__aaclcg7560]

So paper cuts don't count as bleeding edge?

Re:

[Ambidisastrous]

This being UCSC, they probably used both in equal amounts. It's like Night of the Living Dead over there.

Re:Wow.

[The_Wilschon]

AFAIK, the paper industry actually plants new forest for the purpose of cutting it down 20 years later, rather than cutting any more old forest. So, because of the paper industry, we actually have more forest than we would otherwise. I know hating paper waste is "eco-aware", but really, it is more like "eco-sheeple"... FYI, recycling produces a lot of very nasty pollutants, too. Not that those necessarily outweigh the benefits of not just filling up landfills, but you've got to be aware of these things or you'll end up harming your cause rather than helping it.

Re:Wow.

[The Anarchist Avenge]

Do you actually have any idea what an old-growth forest looks like and how an an old-growth forest ecosystem works? Because if you did, you'd know that old growth forests have ecosystems that are far more diverse than monocultures. Also, monocultures require far more energy to keep healthy(gasoline + foresters time + spraying) than mixed vegitation(none).

MOD PARENT UP

[Deef]

There is a huge difference between an old-growth forest and the ones that the forest industry plants to replace them. Basically, the forest industry removes almost all of the plants and wildlife that are not the single tree species that they are trying to harvest, not to mention the many species that rely on living in or around dead and rotting trees (which are, of course, unprofitable to keep around since they make logging more difficult). What they forest industry leaves behind when it clearcuts an area is more like a park -- as close to antiseptic as a forest can be, with uniform trees of the same species, relatively evenly spaced, and with nearly all of the underbrush cleared out. The "normal" ecosystem of most of these areas has been effectively destroyed and replaced with a monoculture.

As a result, one disease, predator species or parasite that targets that single species of tree can wreak amazing amount of havoc. I vividly remember the Pine Bark Beetle infestation of lodgepole pines in central Oregon about twenty years ago -- there were dead and dying trees as far as the eye could see, and in many areas, about one tree in ten survived. You can imagine how much of a fire risk all of those dead pines were, in the middle of a high, dry desert that was somewhat known for frequent thunderstorms. Even today, there are still huge areas that were formerly heavily forested where there is now approximately one tree left standing every hundred feet as a result of this massive infestation.

The grandparent post seems to be implying that the forests maintained by the forest industry are in some way an equivalent replacement for the ones that grow naturally. This is very much not the case.

Re:Wow.

[The_Wilschon]

That actually wasn't the point. The point is that the paper industry is planting new forest for the purpose of later cutting them down to make paper, instead of cutting more old forest. The secondary point is that not only do we keep the remaining old forest this way, but we also have a larger number of living trees on the earth at any given time than we would otherwise. True, the excess trees are not in a wonderful diverse ecosystem (I love forests), but at least they are trees.

Re:

[LearnToSpell]

Uhh, no. What they do is cut old-growth, and then plant fast-growing trees instead. Close though.

Re:

[leoboiko]

I was born in a paper industrial area in southern Brazil. The native ecosystem is being invaded by the imported pinus trees, which spread without control in our climate and ruin the soil, overwhelming everything in its way.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[AdonaiElohim]

Er... I hate to get personal here, but what the heck is wrong with you?

They used a few dozen packets of post-its. A single copy of the Sunday New York Times probably has five times as much paper in it.

And it's art. Your opinion of how much material they used for their art project, compared with your recollections of how much paper you used to get your oh-so-valuable degree, means precisely bubkis. Are you livid with rage that Shakespeare messed up all of that parchment? Carrying a grudge against van Gog

Re:

[Kizor]

Before someone calls an only-in-America terrorist threat on an obvious video game recreation? Last year [wfmynews2.com], complete with the bomb squad you requested and a police chief telling the press [straight.com] how he's incredulous at the way instructions for making cardboard boxes are publicly available online.

Aren't you sorry you asked?

(Don't start fuming over this - instead, make some yourself. They're awesome.)