Father hacks Donkey Kong ROM so daughter can play as Pauline

The father of a three-year-old has hacked Donkey Kong ROM so that his daughter can play as Pauline instead of Mario.

Mike Mika and his daughter play a lot of old games together, and recently she asked him if she could play as the female character to save Mario.

“I told her we couldn’t in that particular Mario game, she seemed really bummed out by that. So what else am I supposed to do? Now I’m up at midnight hacking the ROM, replacing Mario with Pauline. I’m using the 2010 NES Donkey Kong ROM. I’ve redrawn Mario’s frames and I swapped the palettes in the ROM. I replaced the M at the top with a P for Pauline. Thanks to Kevin Wilson for giving me the lead on the tools and advice,” explains Mika, who is creative director at Other Ocean Interactive, in a YouTube video.

See Mika’s video of his Donkey Kong hack below:

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Mike has also made his Donkey Kong: Pauline Edition hack available to download as a patch.

At Christmas, another father managed the herculean effort of creating a game using UDK in less than month for his son’s present.

What do you think of home projects like this?

Image: Mike Mika