If there is no red under the centre point, the barrel is in the air and must fall downward. If tilted left, the number will be higher on the right, and the barrel must move left. If the platform is tilted right, the number will be higher on the left, and the barrel must move to the right. That tells us how much platform is under the barrel in each position. It samples three pixels and calculates how much red is in those pixels. Once we’ve created a barrel as an Actor, the code does three tests for its platform position on each update: one to the bottom-left of the barrel, one bottom-centre, and one bottom-right. The barrels roll down the platforms and sometimes the ladders. Our Donkey Kong tribute up and running in Pygame Zero. We also have some ladders which the barrels randomly either roll past or sometimes use to descend to the next platform below. It’s a very simple physics simulation using an invisible bitmap to test where the platforms are and which way they’re sloping. We can get a bit of code running with Pygame Zero – and a couple of functions borrowed from Pygame – to make barrels react to the platforms they’re on, roll down in the direction of a slope, and fall off the end onto the next platform. Barrels in Pygame Zeroĭonkey Kong may have been a relentlessly tough game, but we can recreate one of its most recognisable elements with relative ease. Partly because the game was so ferociously difficult from the beginning, Donkey Kong’s first screen is arguably the most recognisable today: Kong lobs an endless stream of barrels, which roll down a network of crooked girders and threaten to knock Jumpman flat.

Donkey Kong featured four screens per level, and the goal in each was to avoid obstacles and guide Mario (sorry, Jumpman) to the top of the screen to rescue the hapless Pauline. Nintendo’s Donkey Kongĭonkey Kong first appeared in arcades in 1981, and starred not only the titular angry ape, but also a bouncing, climbing character called Jumpman – who later went on to star in Nintendo’s little-known series of Super Mario games.

Released in 1981, Donkey Kong was one of the most important games in Nintendo’s history.

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