Mario speedrunner Kosmic reaches new Donkey Kong kill screen
Kosmic posted a video explaining the infamous Donkey Kong arcade game’s original kill screen, demonstrating how to reach it, and revealing his long-awaited success in surpassing the level for the first time since its creation 44 years ago. The kill screen, specific to the competitive version of Donkey Kong, occurs due to the game’s calculation of bonus values on each stage. Once this value becomes zero, the character, Jumpman, perishes. However, the game’s mathematical calculations loop around at a certain point, leading to a glitch where it appears as though the player has 4000 steps to complete the level when in reality they only have 400… or four more attempts before Mario meets his demise.