Calling all Donkey Kong Masters!

[freon1200]

nice going Jdurg

i wouldnt bother with the barrel control till level 03. it barely works on level 01, and 50/50 on level 02

[Jdurg]

nice going Jdurg

i wouldnt bother with the barrel control till level 03. it barely works on level 01, and 50/50 on level 02

That would explain my issues then.   

[Lutus]

I went back to the top hammer only style of play and scores my second highest score of 320,000 or so.

Only the second time to top 300,000.  For some reason I just feel more comfortable playing this way.


I even jumped a few fireballs and firefoxs that game.

[fatfingers]

There is no question that top-only hammer is much easier.  Lots fewer difficult barrel combinations to deal with.  Of course, with doing that comes fewer possible points.

[freon1200]

There is no question that top-only hammer is much easier.  Lots fewer difficult barrel combinations to deal with.  Of course, with doing that comes fewer possible points.

true, but if you live for 40 more boards, then its worth it in the end

[Paul Olson]

I got 155,700 last night, so I am back in the game now.  The neighbors came over at about 145k and the last 2 lives went really quick after that. I think I really lost my concentration.

To finish the DK story:
I paid $150 for the cab and the boards, and I had to fix the sound on the DK as part of the deal. Now, I am giving back 3 of the boards and my girlfriend is buying the DK3 for $200. I am keeping the DK Jr to either swap, or make a double DK. It has a bad rom, so I am pulling and cleaning the chips to see if it is an easy fix.

It is fun having her playing next to me out in the garage. She seems pretty excited about the purchase also.

[fatfingers]

There is no question that top-only hammer is much easier.  Lots fewer difficult barrel combinations to deal with.  Of course, with doing that comes fewer possible points.

true, but if you live for 40 more boards, then its worth it in the end

Oh, yes, I'm in complete agreement.  Just trying to say that in the long run we/you/they will have to learn how to do it to really score high.  That's all.


Grats pcolson!

[Paul Olson]

I had to stop trying the bottom hammer. I was really frustrated with 30k games. 

[Lutus]

My thinking was that if I can make it to the kill screen, then I will start using the bottom hammer.

I made it to level 11 or so in my 320,000 game.  So if I would have made it to the kill screen I would have been in the 600,000 to 800,000 range.

pcolson, you have GOT to get some white T-molding for the DK!! 

[massive88]

My thinking was that if I can make it to the kill screen, then I will start using the bottom hammer.

I agree.  Right now by far the biggest limiter is what screen I can make it to.  Once I get to a kill screen, just once, then Ill worry about the more dangerous jacking up of my points during the journey.

[freon1200]

hey Lutus, youd be about 800,000 points if you made it to the killscreen. thats the average for people that dont grab the bottom hammer. that 320,000 is with the first 4 levels.
lv01. 2 boards
lv02. 3 boards
lv03. 4 boards
lv04. 5 boards.

thats 14 boards on the first 4 levels to 24 boards on every 4 levels beyoind level 5 and up

so those first boards wouldnt equal the same score that you would have on 4 levels after level 4. plus the fist 2 levels the point for bonus items are 300, and 500, pts. 3 and up are 800. so when you add your score from halfway thru the game. level 11 isnt actually 1/2 way thru because of the first 4 levels. so your score will be higher. so 600,000 would be an impossibility, unless you were purposely trying to get the least amount of points possible.

*edit

[Paul Olson]

Yeah, I know the black t-molding is ugly. I need to try to find a new marquee bulb too. I didn't notice it was out until I took that picture.

[rlehm]

Does Donkey Kong keep a record of your high score in Mame after exiting the game? Sorry for the stupid question. I cannot access my mame cab right now because the room is being re textured, painted etc. My cab is wrapped in plastic to protect it.

[freon1200]

you need the high score save file. i think is highscore.dat or something like that. unless they did away with that? but normaly it runs like the arcade and doesnt save high scores

[Paul Olson]

You will need to compile a version with high score support. Check out this thread.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=64298.0

[rlehm]

oh, I use mame32ui 126 on my main cab right now. I'll have to look into getting it to save Donkey Kong high scores.

[rlehm]

This is nuts:

[Lutus]

hey Lutus, youd be about 800,000 points if you made it to the killscreen. thats the average for people that dont grab the bottom hammer. that 320,000 is with the first 4 levels.
lv01. 2 boards
lv02. 3 boards
lv03. 4 boards
lv04. 5 boards.

thats 14 boards on the first 4 levels to 24 boards on every 4 levels beyoind level 5 and up

so those first boards wouldnt equal the same score that you would have on 4 levels after level 4. plus the fist 2 levels the point for bonus items are 300, and 500, pts. 3 and up are 800. so when you add your score from halfway thru the game. level 11 isnt actually 1/2 way thru because of the first 4 levels. so your score will be higher. so 600,000 would be an impossibility, unless you were purposely trying to get the least amount of points possible.

*edit

Aha, I see your point, forgot about those first 4 boards being so short and not having as long a bonus timer.

I am noticing that almost ALL of my smashes with the hammer (firefoxs and barrels) I am only getting 300 points.  Is there any way to up your chances of getting a 500 or an 800 smash?

[rlehm]

hey Lutus, youd be about 800,000 points if you made it to the killscreen. thats the average for people that dont grab the bottom hammer. that 320,000 is with the first 4 levels.
lv01. 2 boards
lv02. 3 boards
lv03. 4 boards
lv04. 5 boards.

thats 14 boards on the first 4 levels to 24 boards on every 4 levels beyoind level 5 and up

so those first boards wouldnt equal the same score that you would have on 4 levels after level 4. plus the fist 2 levels the point for bonus items are 300, and 500, pts. 3 and up are 800. so when you add your score from halfway thru the game. level 11 isnt actually 1/2 way thru because of the first 4 levels. so your score will be higher. so 600,000 would be an impossibility, unless you were purposely trying to get the least amount of points possible.

*edit

Aha, I see your point, forgot about those first 4 boards being so short and not having as long a bonus timer.

I am noticing that almost ALL of my smashes with the hammer (firefoxs and barrels) I am only getting 300 points.  Is there any way to up your chances of getting a 500 or an 800 smash?

watch the video inserted right above your post, it will show you how to increase points.

[freon1200]

I am noticing that almost ALL of my smashes with the hammer (firefoxs and barrels) I am only getting 300 points.  Is there any way to up your chances of getting a 500 or an 800 smash?

Lutus, what i do about 99% of the time is push the jump button and hold it while smashing things. and push backwards( like the next to DK on the rivets) it often does nothing. but sometimes i find myself getting a LOT of 800's. also ive noticed it more often when the bonus timer is ending in the 700_900 seconds range. im thinking it may work kinda like the fireworks in super mario bros according to the clock. try pushing different directions and pushing and holding the button different lengths of time. and if you see 500 or 800 pts. try and replicate it.
i heard an interview with Billy saying he played a perfect game of 800 point smashes. (probably smashed the first barrel and killed off all his guys  )

rlehm
THANK YOU sooooo much for that video. i wasnt sure how to set up for those 800 pointers to keep walking down ladders. im sure i wont perfect it. but im going to try. that is friggin awsome.

[TheShanMan]

Glad to see people making progress while I've been away on vacation (and jealous of that DK purchase!).

For those of you who are putting your scores in your sig: I suggest mentioning that they're DK scores. Otherwise your posts in other threads will make people think "what the heck do those numbers mean?"

[fatfingers]

Well, 144,700 is now my high.  I could have done so much better too as I had 3 guys left on the last level and for some reason just choked it away on a barrel stage.  *sigh*

Oh well, still my best score.

 

[freon1200]

ive been trying that 3 barrel jump trick. its really hard with the minimal barrel control on 1-1. i pulled it on the cade 2-3 times in about 20 min of attempts. and on mame about 4 times in about 45 min of attempts. given itd be a LOT easier to pull off on the later barrel stages as far as control. tho youd have a LOT more wild barrels too. plus im sure trying this is a whoile lot hard that goin for the bottom hammer. lol. tho maybe ill savestate on 5-1 or something and work on that for a while.

[extendedplayarcade]

I got 155,700 last night, so I am back in the game now.  The neighbors came over at about 145k and the last 2 lives went really quick after that. I think I really lost my concentration.

To finish the DK story:
I paid $150 for the cab and the boards, and I had to fix the sound on the DK as part of the deal. Now, I am giving back 3 of the boards and my girlfriend is buying the DK3 for $200. I am keeping the DK Jr to either swap, or make a double DK. It has a bad rom, so I am pulling and cleaning the chips to see if it is an easy fix.

It is fun having her playing next to me out in the garage. She seems pretty excited about the purchase also.

Nice kong machines.  I wish to have one of those or both of them one day. 

Great score too.  I just scored the other nite 78,200.  On mame version one of DK.

My best score to date.  Not great but I am stoked about it.

Brent
www.extendedplayarcade.com

[djruden]

I've been in a major rut lately on DK.  I've experimented a bit with new tricks and I plan to maybe start point pressing a bit more now.  There's no particular spot that seems to be killing me but just bad luck on any board.  Sometimes its the springs on the elevator (the 3rd one and beyond always makes me nervous) or sometimes it's a wild fire in the pie factory -- those things move so quick it's hard to maneuver away when on the conveyor belts.  Sometimes it's even the barrel board that gets me which most of the time I can fly thru without problem. 

Anyway, I posted my second best score ever the other night so I think I'm finally getting back in the zone and hopefully can pull into the 300k range. 

My top 5
200,200
190,900
178,500
170,200
165,800

All scores were placed on a standard DK machine with original joystick and only modification being the high score save kit.  3 guys to start and free guy at 7000 pts.

[Paul Olson]

Hey guys,
I was looking for a repro instruction card for my DK, and I could not find one that looked right (due to copyright info or whatever). I did some copying and pasting to put one together.
Please check out http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83305.0 and let me know what you think. Is it accurate?

Thanks,
Paul

Thanks, I am having a great time with the DK. Does any one know where I can find buttons that are the right color? I am waiting to do a full resto, but the CP needs to be redone now. The wrong buttons are driving me nuts. 

[Paul Olson]

I'm in the 200k club now. I just scored 207,500. It is weird what goes through your mind when you are having a good game. When I passed 170k, I wasn't thinking, "cool, new high score", or even " I'm going to break 200". I was thinking "I'm goin over 3!". Which, of course, broke my concentration and I started making stupid mistakes. Every time I died, I could have made it if I would have made a better decision. It sucks when you realize you screwed up, but there is nothing you can do but watch the outcome.

That was a fun game!

[fatfingers]

I'm in the 200k club now. I just scored 207,500.

Grats, pcolson!  A great achievement.  Hopefully I'll be there before too long as well.  Not long ago it was not thinkable, but now it is definitely within reach (with some luck).

[TheShanMan]

It's fun to see everyone getting so much better over time. Congrats on the score! It may not be long before you'll be disappointed to get that score.

BTW, since another thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83345.0) was started for people who aren't as hardcore as some of us, I thought I'd state for the record that people who are addicted but have much lower high scores are welcome here too! Hey, my high score was around 90k when I started this thread, so don't feel intimidated by our scores. It's great to see people improving at DK whether you're over 100k or under! And feel free to post what you're having difficulty with - maybe we can help out and get you into the 100k club!

[TheShanMan]

This is nuts:

I missed this until today. AWESOME video. Never would have thought you could get 11k on the first screen! I've gotten over 10k on lvl1 50m (1st rivets) though.

[Lutus]

I would NEVER play that risky past the first level. 

But that is a FANTASTIC score.  I don't know how he controlled the barrels that well, maybe a fluke?  Or a modified ROM set where you could control barrels on the first screen.

I know over on the twingalaxies forum they were having a little competition to see who could get the hightest score on the first level.  If this is from that competition then it IS a legit ROM. 

Still impressive.

[freon1200]

hey Lutus
i dont think he had super good control over the barrels. he probably hit record, died, cancel (repeat about 20 times) till he got it right. and sometimes you DO get barrel ctrl on the first screen. i try out of habbit even tho i know it usually wont work.
   we should have a first guy, first board high score challenge here too. =] tho you gotta spend about 15-30 min --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- you have a chance (learnin the pattern) also i tried it on higher levels. doesnt usually work. because sometimes the barrels are far apart when DK throws them, and sometimes theyre close. if i spent time studying it i might be able to figure when it'd work. but im not going to sice i dont even bother with the hammer. =]

[freon1200]

i died on the first mudpies the other day, so i was mad and just left it running. came back a minute later and there was still 1 guy left. i started counting. there about 6.5 seconds (on the bonus timer) between each switch in direction of the conveyer belts. im thinking of seeing if it falls on the same seconds every time. if soo  we could write them down and obviously we'd need to do up to level 5 mudpies. but that would improve the mudpies 10fold i think.

[Bender]

the conveyers switch every other time donkey kong hits the left side of the screen
I would have mentioned it before but assumed that that was common knowledge
hope that helps

[freon1200]

the conveyers switch every other time donkey kong hits the left side of the screen
I would have mentioned it before but assumed that that was common knowledge
hope that helps

never knew that. im sure itll help me a lot!

thx Bender =]

[TheShanMan]

Yeah, I've never paid a whole lot of attention to the pattern myself. It will certainly help with not getting caught off-guard!

[djruden]

I guess while we are talking about the pie factory -- does anyone know if there's any rhyme or reason to which sides the pies come out? 

Obviously the flames come out of the fire on the same side jumpman is standing but the pies have been a mystery to me.

[djruden]

Since this thread is one of the best for DK info I figured I would add something I found over on the KLOV msg board:

http://forums.klov.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=861522&page=2&fpart=1&vc=1&nt=7

Mikes Arcade website is now selling repro DK joysticks incase anyone is in need and can't find an original or doesn't want to go with a Wico or whatever.  Looks to be pretty similar.

Check em out and order here:
https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=TKG-23-50

[fatfingers]

I've been on a cold streak lately -- not sure why.  And while I'm still not a master I did just break my high score by 2,100 -- which makes my current high score 165,000.

[Bender]

Since this thread is one of the best for DK info I figured I would add something I found over on the KLOV msg board:

http://forums.klov.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=861522&page=2&fpart=1&vc=1&nt=7

Mikes Arcade website is now selling repro DK joysticks incase anyone is in need and can't find an original or doesn't want to go with a Wico or whatever.  Looks to be pretty similar.

Check em out and order here:
https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=TKG-23-50

I ordered one yesterday
I'll let you all know how it handles after i try it out for a few days