John Kirby, The Man Who Saved Donkey Kong, Passes Away Aged 79

Sad. This guy changed Nintendo forever

Awww This is really sad Im not joking I hope nintendo people are ok..

Though not a video game designer, he deserves respect. His defense of Nintendo may have saved the latter a lot of trouble in America. Rest in Peace.

RIP, it sounds like he did good work and lived a good life.

Remember, this website and Nintendo's game career as a whole would not exist without him.

Rest in peace sir.

Rest in peace. Thank you John for helping Nintendo in their time of need, and for getting their chance to be what they are today.

Your name lives on, Kirby.

RIP Mr. Kirby and my condolences to his loved ones.

RIP Mr Kirby.

Man, this website asking me if that's all I can say is being really crass.

Rest in Peace.

Don’t forget he defended Nintendo so well that he managed to convince the judge that Universal stole Donkey Kong when they made a video game based off King Kong and they ended up having to pay Nintendo money instead of the other way around

Fascinating person...his obituary was worth a read, this bit was very interesting:
"...he was most proud of his time working at the Department of Justice as the special assistant to the head of the Civil Rights Division, John Doar, during the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. At the Department of Justice, where he first worked as a summer intern, he gathered voting records throughout the South that demonstrated evidence of wide-spread discrimination against African-Americans. His discovery of methods such as literacy tests specifically designed to exclude African-Americans from voting helped form the basis of the Voting Rights Act of 1965."

I love donkey Kong and to be Kirby nicknamed by the big m himself is pretty cool.the pink blob has some history wow.

Thank you for everything, Mr. Kirby. May your importance to gaming history and especially your family and loved ones never be understated. Rest in peace.

RIP, our good man.

Without him we probably may never had gotten games like Donkey Kong Country today. R.I.P. thank you for service for Nintendo to the rest of the community.

Thank you.

RIP Mr. Kirby

Thanks for pointing on what he did for Nintendo and how it saved them from an absurd lawsuit instead of going nuts with "OMGTHATSWHERETHENAMEKIRBYKAMEFROM!!!!" like everybody else on the internet.

RIP Mr Kirby
His impact on Nintendo and video games in general is understated and should not be forgotten.

Although i was all Atari back then and hated Nintendo (not no more of course) I can certainly appreciate Mr Kirbys accomplishments for the DK franchise!!

Wait, they tried to sue Nintendo for basing something on public domain characters? That’s a low move!

rip and have fun hanging out and playing unreleased Nintendo games with other great men like Iwata and Etika

I'm not sure what to say other than that I appreciate what he has done for Nintendo. Have a peaceful rest.

Rest in peace. We need more noble souls like him.

Yeah, it was from my understanding when reasing avout this case before that if they hadn't won they would have not been able to have a presence in the west, destroying a lot of progress. Who knows when Zelda and Mario would have been out, or if they would have been as successful as they were? Pretty interesting stuff. I'm sure his family will continue to sail and remember him.

R.I.P. Condolences to his family and friends.

Is thanks to this man that we have Nintendo as great as it is today, he is a legend and shall never be forgotten.

Donkey Kong was the first Nintendo game I ever played and is still one my all-time favorites. Thank you John J Kirby, Jr. for being to Nintendo what Mario was to Pauline.
❤ Rest in Peace ❤

"Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto has also previously revealed that the character Kirby was named in John's honour"

I didn't know. Rest in peace mr Kirby.