Evidently the landlord reference of Mario was because Nintendo of America was behind on its payments to to the warehouse owner where Radarscope machines were stored. He was lenient enough that he didn't throw them on the street, but made it clear he was unhappy with NoA. They were thankful enough to acknowledge his lenience to the corporate office in Japan.
As many on this board may probably remember, Radarscope was a Nintendo game that was very big in Japan but flopped in the US. So, there were many unsold Radarscope cabinets (red) in storage. NoA was on the verge of collapse, and a "Hail Mary pass" was thrown by introducing another Nintento Japan game which was incorrectly translated from "Stubborn Gorilla" by Miyamoto into English as "Donkey Kong."
The unsold inventory was converted to Donkey Kong, which is why the red Donkey Kong cabinets are considered more valuable than the later blue ones.