Before Mario Was Old School, Real OGs Were Jumping Barrels

On July 9, 1981, Nintendo released the original Donkey Kong arcade game in Japan, introducing the world to Donkey Kong and a carpenter originally known as Jumpman—the character who would later become Mario. Forty-five years later, Mario is a gaming legend, but real OGs remember when his biggest problem was a gorilla throwing barrels at his head.

In the 1980s, gaming happened at the mall arcade, pizza shop, bowling alley, or wherever someone could fit a cabinet and a change machine. Friends crowded around the glowing pixel screen while quarters stacked along the edge marked who was playing next.

You watched every move. You learned when to climb, when to jump, and how your friend avoided the barrel that ended your last run. Then it was your turn to step up, use what you learned, and try to knock their initials off the high-score board.

There were no save points, walkthrough videos, online guides, or unlimited retries. When your lives were gone, you either walked away or reached into your pocket for another quarter.

That was a real try hard.

Long before gamers talked about sweats, dubs, rage quits, noobs, and grinding, players were already studying patterns, chasing high scores, and refusing to quit. The words changed, but the competitive spirit never did.

The pixels became sharper and the gaming slang became louder, but real try hards have always been the players willing to put in one more quarter and try again.

Our Try Hard gamer-slang word-cloud shirts celebrate gaming language across generations and make great gifts for OG gamers, retro gamers, arcade fans, gamer dads, and modern try hards who know the grind started long before online leaderboards.