Huge news coming out of New York today – The Strong Museum aka the museumofplay plans to build the world’s largest playable Donkey Kong arcade cabinet.
Fans of the best Donkey Kong games are absolutely astonished at the scale of this thing. They intend to make this new arcade cabinet nearly twenty feet tall! And playable.
This massive Donkey Kong arcade comes as a part of the Strong Museum’s 90,000 square-foot-expansion dedicated to the history of video games.
The Strong National Museum of Play
The Strong Museum was not named after Donkey Kong and they do not celebrate those who are gifted in the muscle department.
It was actually named after Margaret Woodbury Strong, who grew up with a fascination for collecting toys and trinkets.
She started with nothing but her curiosity and love of play. Oh and a massive amount of family wealth to fund her hobby. Which is always helpful.
In 1968, she began the development of the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum of Fascination, which eventually became The Strong National Museum of Play.
And today, the Strong Museum maintain a large collection of all things related to fun and play.
Luckily for us, that also includes things related to the world of video games!
Donkey Kong Arcade
In their announcement on Twitter, The Strong Museum thanked Nintendo for their help in developing the new XL sized Donkey Kong arcade cabinet. Which lets us know that they had Nintendo’s support and blessing with the project.
And DK will be the centerpiece of the new World Video Game Hall of Fame at the Strong Museum.
Donkey Kong was inducted into that hall of fame back in in 2017. And the play on names makes him a perfect mascot.
The twenty foot cabinet will be “370% bigger than the original”, with a massive screen and a normal sized button board replicating the original arcade cabinets from the early 80s.
The new wing of the Strong Museum is set to open June 30, 2023… which is kind of mind blowing.
Usually we expect to hear news like this and have a three year wait period before anything actually happens.
But no… the Strong Museum knows how to get things done. Just two months from now, guests can play the largest arcade cabinet ever built.
Game fans with poor vision are celebrating all over New York!
No, but seriously, this is an incredible achievement. And obviously all game fans are dying to play the new super sized Donkey Kong arcade.
It makes a trip to New York and The Strong Museum an essential todo for all game enthusiasts worldwide.
Anthony has been a video game lover ever since he can remember. He became a fulltime nomad in 2018, living throughout most of Asia. He focused his passion in retro gaming and began creating a game for the Game Boy Color while living in Nara, Japan during the 2020 pandemic. He is now in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he spends most of his time gaming, going on long walks and meeting as many stray dogs as possible.
