Donkey Kong was one of my favorite video games growing up and so when we decided that this year’s theme would be Video Games, I had really wanted to make a life-sized/mechanical working Donkey Kong mechanism.

I used Photoshop to superimpose the Donkey Kong game board over the structure of the house to determine the measurements of the video game components.

Then, I began by building ‘barrels’ to match the new, large size of the ‘game.’ These, I built out of wooden clock faces (purchasable at Michaels) plus some circular pieces cut out with a door-knob hole cutter.

I built a track for the barrels (which will later be decorated as the red girders) out of 1″X3″ and 1″X4″ boards.

I made the barrels so that they would roll down the track without tipping over.

During one of our painting days, we painted long pieces of cardboard red, and then went back over them, filling in the triangular interior shapes with black marker. These will be cut out and later affixed to the tracks to make it look like the barrels are rolling on top of the red girders.

Before bringing the tracks out front, I built a temporary stand for the tracks (my ‘test track’) in my backyard to refine the design.

Here is a look at one of the first tests on the track.

Stay tuned for more blog posts with updates about the Donkey Kong build and other projects.