Part 3/8:
The Infamous Kill Screen Explained
Kill screens in games like Donkey Kong arise from limited programming capabilities of older arcade systems. In the case of Donkey Kong, a crucial overflow bug occurs when the game attempts to calculate the bonus timer at level 22. As players climb through the levels, one element—the bonus timer—plays a vital role in determining how much time they have to complete a stage.
The timer resets to an extremely low value due to an overflow condition that occurs when the calculations exceed the maximum (256), causing players to fail almost immediately. This phenomenon leads many to believe they had reached the end of the game, but the reality was different.