Donkey Kong Jr. Math retrospective: Some "edu-", zero "-tainment" | NES Works

[@AndrewPowerSM]

Huh. Just realized the connection between this game's P2, and DK's pink colour palette in Smash Bros. Goin' DEEP.

[@Caztro72]

When I was a freshman in high school (Fall 1986), I remember discussing the NES with some friends in the hallway after school. One guy had already gotten the console because his younger brother asked for it. My friend had said that Donkey Kong Jr Math was the only reason his folks considered this "toy" for his kid brother. And my friend went on to say how DKJ Math was awful and how the console would fail. In retrospect, I realize my friend had the worst possible first impression of Nintendo's iconic console.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

True!

[@tophatgaming1873]

I'd love to hear what he thought of the nes later on

[@Caztro72]

​@@tophatgaming1873Actually I don't think my friend really changed his opinion of the NES once better software appeared. He felt video games in general were quite frivolous. If anything, I think he preferred tabletop games like chess. There were many kids at my school who felt this way about Nintendo. That it was for losers. I went to a prestigious College Prep school in Chicago where everyone was an overachiever (except me😂). I think my friend went on to be a surgeon or something. Boy, I wish I had his copy of Donkey Kong Jr Math now!😂

[@Duater]

I love this series so much. The amount of research and background behind the scenes information is fascinating and compelling. I started at the beginning and I'm going to watch every single one. Even episodes about games I don't really care about, because the overall picture that gets painted is awesome. Great job, man. Thanks, Jeremy Parish. Hmm wait a minute. That name sounds familiar. *googles it* holy crap! About a million years ago I was really sad when this one podcast I loved came to an end. A little thing called Retronauts. Jeremy Parish is back with the thunder!

[@JeremyParish]

Thanks, and I have even better news: Retronauts relaunched in 2013, and you now have 400 podcast episodes to catch up on.

[@dionderksen6521]

Oh man I can't imagine what would drive someone to spend money on this game. I was disappointed enough when I dug this out of the ground in animal crossing.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

That final lesson the most important of all. It legit weirds me out (as a collector of 8-bit computer games) to see titles like this listed for such astronomical amounts. Oh well. At least there's the 'digital' option on this one ;)

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

hellfire64 Crazy Grandma pricing indeed!

[@LeoFan93]

Now that it's out on NSO, it's turned into a shockingly intense multiplayer game

[@JeremyParish]

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

[@RPG_Hacker]

Shoutout to you for all the great documentation work you're doing on your channel! I have been following the channel for quite some time now and am always glad when a new episode pops up in my subscription box which I can (usually) watch on Wednesdays during my launch break at work. Really, when I think about it, it has become kind of a tradition. Your channel is also one of the most informative (if not the most informative) channels I know in this area, so I'm quite surprised that it still hasn't even reached 10.000 subscribers yet. If you ask me, you have more than deserved it! Thanks for all the entertainment so far, keep up the good work! ;)

[@Trainy2]

I love this game because it makes me feel smart and good at video games.

[@Toad64]

"The only winning move is not to play."

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

How about a nice game of chess?

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Around the turn of the millennium, I bought a Famicom and about 50 games on ebay, shipped from Japan. The seller messaged me in broken English that he was going to throw in an extra _free_ game into the lot from his childhood collection. I was excited. What would this game be? Would it be something awesome like Akumajou Densetsu, the Japanese vRC6 ready Castlevania 3? When the package finally arrived, I carefully unpacked everything and discovered to my disappointment that free game was the Famicom version of Donkey Kong Jr. Math. I then tried to sell it myself, perhaps someone else would want it? Ebay listing after ebay listing. Suffice it to say even today I still own that damn blue cart.

[@Skawo]

Should have written him back, in equally broken english and demanded payment for taking out his trash :> *runs*

[@garfieldepicmoments]

on the plus side the nes scene is so ridiculous these days that you could sell that copy of donkey kong jr math for $15 on ebay (check out the sold listings if you don't believe me)

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

That's theoretical. For years I've tried many times to get rid of it without any takers.

[@gabrieleriva651]

Satoshi Matrix there are some Famicom games produced in absolutely ridicolous quantity...

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

That only really applies to certain sports games such as Moero Pro Yakyuu due to how popular baseball is in Japan and that non-gamers would buy it and that would be their only game.

[@sewersidewithLP]

hey Jeremy, I appreciate your research and video editing so much. It's wack that video game content that's just a bunch of morons yelling gets a million views and great content such as this would struggle to break that.

[@JeremyParish]

My plight is a symbol of all that's wrong with the world!

[@RetroPowerUp]

I've definitely noticed lots of discrepancies with release dates on older games. I guess that makes sense why, most people are only going to think of when games had big releases, not when they first released smaller batches. Was a different era of production than how games are released nowadays.

[@Garmichael1]

You're pretty awesome, Jeremy.

[@jlc992]

This game is so unremarkable that you couldn't even start with a math equations that adds to 17.

[@SEGAClownboss]

I think this game is wildly misunderstood, and that most people judge it on the case of a single-player game makes me sick. Of course it sucks at player 1, but I think everything around the game is designed with a two-player play in mind, and when you really do play in two players, the matches would really get intense and hilarious, as you both prove against the other you're not a neanderthal in elementary knowledge and try to climb vines figuring out the fastest way(through multiplications or additions) to get your desired number. Not even DK or DKJr had this kind of SIMULTANEOUS multiplay.

[@PandaXs1]

yeah idk doing this game in multiplayer seems like it could get pretty heated

[@jexthegamer]

Exactly. The 1-player mode is for kids just learning the game mechanics and practicing basic math skills...you know, how an edutainment game is supposed to be for young kids. But the head-to-head mode is where it's at! This is actually a pretty cool edutainment game and can still be enjoyed by adults, which separates the great edutainment games from the "just okay" ones.

[@ChrisGorski]

The best series on KZbin is back!

[@jorymil]

These days when I think of mathematical operators, I think of stuff like integral transforms, "del," differential equations, and matrices. Good old +-/* :-) Though I'd like to see the music tutoring game, I question how good it'd have been given DKJM's quality.

[@vealchop2490]

I think a lot of the discrepancy in regard to release dates stems from the rollout of the NES itself. I was lucky enough to live in NYC during xmas '85 and my mom picked up the deluxe set from Toys R Us that year. Throughout the 90s and even into the early 00s people swore the NES released in 1986 packed in with SMB, but I always swore I bought SMB as a stand alone game at Toys R Us in spring of '86. I believe Donkey Kong Jr Math was pictured on the back of the Deluxe Set box as well.

[@yuberus]

I can personally attest to checking out the Computer Entertainer newsletter scans Cifaldi has put forth on archive.org (easily findable with google). It was pretty on the ball with game releases - at least by month - for pretty much every console release between 82 and 89 (the 1990 issues haven't been scanned). Any mysteries on NES release dates can probably be sussed out a bit with their monthly release listings. Edit: According to it, Mach Rider shipped out August 1986, and DK Jr. Math in June (alongside Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong 3, Mario Bros, Popeye and Donkey Kong Jr.)

[@JeremyParish]

Kevin Bunch Yes, that was one of the "reliable sources" that threw Nintendo's dates into question!

[@yuberus]

I suspected, but figured I'd throw it out there just in case. Good episode!

[@davemarx7856]

"Good Nintentions 1986" sounds like an obscure, never-released-anywhere, untranslated game... like HongKong97

[@LorenHelgeson]

2:26 - I actually got one of those. It was the second NES game I ever owned, and I remember my dad and I had to drive 200+ miles, round-trip, to San Luis Obispo, CA, to snag a copy. All in the midst of that chip shortage.

[@AlexRN]

Loren Helgeson oh man I feel sorry for you. No one should’ve gone through that for DKjr Math! Super Mario Bros 2 was also suffering shortages. You could’ve gone through that ordeal for that game instead!

[@LorenHelgeson]

@@AlexRN oh, it wasn't for DK Jr Math. It was a copy of Zelda 2. I asked my dad about it recently, and he confirmed there was indeed a shortage, and we got the game after a significant backlog of cartridges being manufactured.

[@gabrieleriva651]

Those adorable and righteous scanlines...

[@vectorbeam]

I remember some of these early basic titles only being about $15 to $18 at Target in 1987. Super Mario Bros. (which wasn't always a pack-in game) was more like $25 to $30.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Still, if a primary school ever got a copy, that would be pretty cool. I guess.

[@larrydallas7385]

love this series

[@BigMacOpossum]

The famicom version of DKJrMath (Donkey Kong Jr no Sansu asobi) is so much cheaper than the NES rendition, as well as with Stack-Up (Robot Block), if anyone feels the need to have a physical cart then go that route

[@jonathonfreeman9233]

funny thing is, I think our family owned the off-market variant of this game for either the Atari 800 or the Intellivision (we had both I forget which, it was 30 years ago). And I remember it being garbage as well as a kid.

[@jacobharvey2946]

Speaking of getting game releases being fluid back then... I got the original Final Fantasy as soon as it arrived at my local store (I called every day to check). Meanwhile Wikipedia says May, but I’ve also seen as late as July. Regardless I definitely got it before it was supposed to be put on shelves. And my only regret was telling my best friend the next day and he finished it a few days before me because I went on vacation. 😄

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Reminded Konami had "Monkey Academy" I played on the ColecoVision.

[@TVsMrNeil]

Was this the only official Education Series game? As I recall, Nintendo Power put out that Pak Source booklet (sort of a light version of Pat Contri's book) that tried to shoehorn everything released up to 1990 into their launch-era category system. And if I remember correctly, Donkey Kong Jr. Math was still the lone entry for Education Series. I suppose we can count Mario Is Missing as a late entry, but I don't think Nintendo even cared by that point. 3:03 Heh. Look who it is.

[@JeremyParish]

DK Jr. Math was the only Education Series game in the sense that it was the only game officially designated as such within the black box lineup. There were other education games on NES, but by the time they arrived Nintendo had dropped its early branding. I threw in John Stossel's segment as a nod to Bob's longstanding affection for the man!

[@TVsMrNeil]

Hehehe, I figured.

[@papagodzilla5465]

i had ninja turtles 2 at my birthday in october. no way it was officially out in december

[@dianafridabtmfrid923]

found out about your channel from kyde and eric!!

[@kamiboy]

Collectors don't care about the quality of the games, only their rarity. They collect collectibles, not games.

[@michaelsegal3558]

I have DK Jr. math

[@MissAshley42]

Geez, Jeremy, what did math ever do to you? :P

[@davemarx7856]

$5?! I know it might sound cheap and ungrateful but... it should be 99 cents or free. I lean more towards free.

[@robevans7062]

Available in Animal Crossing GameCube, for what it's worth.

[@NineteenEightyFive]

nice intro!

[@mudkipmadness7072]

Life hack: buy animal crossing and get the game as part of its nes series. You can even play it on a gba!

[@adamking6645]

You might run into this problem with Metroid. Nintendo keeps insisting Metriod made its U.S. debut in August 1986, the same month as the original Japanese FDS release, but Issue 5 of Nintendo Power (Mar/Apr 1989) included a directory of official U.S. Nintendo releases up to that point and it specifically listed Metriod's release date as August 1987, meaning it would have debuted alongside it's fellow Adventure Series paks Legend of Zelda and Kid Icarus, which makes a ton more sense. I tend to feel that's ore accurate since the directory was only two years removed from it. I hope you wait until you reach 1987 before covering Metroid.

[@Cubehead666]

Is that you at 3:30? I think that's you!!

[@JeremyParish]

Wearing a baseball cap? Naw, fam

[@michaelsegal3558]

On the title screen of DK jr. math it says it came out in 1983

[@JeremyParish]

It did, in Japan. That info is in the video you're commenting on....

[@cliffjumper1984]

I guess I kind of care about donkey Kong jr. Math. I dont have it yet, and that's 1 of 3 black box games I dont have yet. Other being mario bros and stacker :p but I dont want to pay the dam price haha

[@brahmse9409]

Idiot sighting at 3:03

[@JeremyParish]

You say idiot, I say butthead. Who's to say which is the truth?

[@brahmse9409]

Jeremy Parish Hi, Jeremy! Just wanted to say thanks for your rigorous research into early GB, NES, and SNES games. Your videos are awesome and bingeable. Keep it up!

[@user-a5Bw9de]

I bet this game was created only to appease PTA. We've seen this kind of game on any console or early day PCs in any region for the exact same reason.

[@SanjayMerchant]

"Who cares about Donkey Kong, Jr. Math?" I do, actually. Though that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I was four years old when it came out rather than its own quality (or lack thereof).

[@wakkowarner9522]

still better than E.T. The Extraterrestrial (Atari) 🤣

[@larrydallas7385]

nes works not donkey kong jr math

[@jamesmoss3424]

This education game sucks.

[@JeremyParish]

That's the most important lesson of all

[@jamesmoss3424]

@@JeremyParish I agree it is a important lesson.