An extremely rare Donkey Kong title that has never seen the light of day (in terms of free mainstream access) is now available for anyone to download, and it's all thanks to the hard work and perseverance of a dedicated group of fans. Thanks to the combined efforts of these gamers, Donkey Kong 3: The Great Counterattack has finally made the transition from Japanese disc-based medium to an emulator-friendly title that is available at no charge.

Near the end of 2017, several Donkey Kong fans got together in order to purchase a rare copy of Donkey Kong 3: The Great Counterattack for the Sharp X1 Japanese home computer. Once the disc was purchased for the hefty price of $415, the data from the 1984-era disc was carefully extracted and put into an easily downloadable game image file that is compatible with Sharp X1 emulators.

The game was a sequel to Donkey Kong 3, which made its way to arcade machines in 1983. In that game, players take on the role of Bugman, who shoots bugs while jumping across several tiered platforms to keep Donkey Kong at bay in the vines above. In The Great Counterattack, Bugman fights from a platform and Donkey Kong inexplicably floats down on a balloon. Instead of fighting within greenhouses, the game spans 20 levels and, somewhat inexplicably, the entire universe.

The game is so rare that many of the 20 levels aren't cataloged online, but this is likely subject to change over the coming weeks given that the game is now available on emulators worldwide. Gamers interested in downloading a copy of the ROM will have to trust this seemingly random Google Drive link here. The speedrun community hasn't descended on the title as of yet, but thanks to modern video recording software the drama that plagued 'King of Kong' Billy Mitchell and dubious World Record holder Todd Rogers can hopefully be avoided.

Donkey Kong 3: The Great Counterattack release in 1984 for the Sharp X1 personal computer, and is now available as a free ROM title.

Source: Medium