Donkey Kong gameplay question

More Cowbell

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On the third elevators (and all of the elevators after that), is it possible to make it if two springs go long in a row? I mean, if I go for the ladder on a long spring and another long spring comes after that, can I move fast enough to beat it to the top? The long spring goes higher on the ladder so you have to be further along or it will mess your $41t up. If it isn't possible, how do you know when to go and when not to go? I can't go on a long spring and keep an eye out for what the next spring is doing too. I seem to die once every three or so elevator boards on a second long spring and I can't afford to lose guys like that if I'm going to break Steve Sanders' record of 3 million. ;)
 
On the 3,4,5, you can make it on a long spring and one that is 50/50 if you time it PERFECT.
 
On the 3,4,5, you can make it on a long spring and one that is 50/50 if you time it PERFECT.
I have the hardest time with this. I've been working on timing the second spring and am getting better. As long as a short spring follows a long, you're fine. If not, go back and try it again.
 
I thought once you learned the pattern of what spring to go on, you were golden. Then I found that I still die one out of 3 times due to a second long spring. I know the top players never really die there so there has to be a method. Sounds like you have to time it and then keep an eye on that second spring. If it's short, you're golden. If it's long, go back and try again. The problem is that you only have a split second to decide before you're in no-Mario's land and you get a face full of spring.
 
Trying to do some sort of pattern will always fail you at one point or another and make it really difficult to get past the 200,000s. When I first started I would wait for two long spings in a row to make my run thinking (what's the chance there will be 3 in a row?). Well, the chance is actually pretty good, ha. Then I was trying to wait for 3 in a row and still getting hit (all the while the clock is ticking down). It's much better to learn it the right way.

The right way is that you have to keep an eye to the left side of the screen for the next spring to determine whether to keep charging or to retreat. If it's another long spring you have to retreat. Even if you're a little ways up the ladder you should have just enough time to climb back down get back to the safe spot.

When you make your run on the first long spring and see that the next spring is a 50/50 spring or short spring you should always be able to make it if your timing is right. I actually think it's best when a 50/50 spring follows because the short spring can actually bounce up and hit you on the feet toward the top of the ladder if you're not fast enough.

Once you get used to keeping your eyes on the left side of the screen for the next spring, and runing for the ladder at the same time, you should get this level down without much problem.
 
Another tip is to take your time and always retreat unless you're sure its a 50/50 or short spring. When I get killed on this level, it's usually because I get impatient, loose concentration, and run even though I can't tell whether the next spring is a 50/50 or a long spring. It's better to retreat and know you're right than to risk it.
 
I've just recently (3 weeks ago) finished the restoration and have begun playing my Donkey Kong machine. The videos and info available have been of tremendous value--my scores rose from struggling to get 30,000 to my current high of 274,000. I say this to disqualify myself as any kind of expert, but I've been working on exactly the same issue and now rarely die on the elevators (unless I'm tired or just being lazy).

From what I've learned, you can't really get away (at least consistently) with leaving on a long spring that is followed by a long or med-long one.

A few months ago, I attended the Logan Hardware event in Chicago at which Steve Wiebe attempted to break the world's record which had very recently been taken back by Dr. Hank Chien. Steve conducted a "Donkey Kong 101" training class, but what I found that had greater value was just watching guys like Steve and Hank play.

Steve commented that "you have to know when to retreat" on the elevators. And he did that quite a bit. I've practiced two skills that nearly always get me through the elevators unscathed. Retreating and using your peripheral vision.

You have to crowd the long spring--even overlap it a little as you charge right. That really helps give you a buffer for slight timing/ladder climbing errors.

But to me it's crucial that you use your peripheral vision to detect long and med-long springs. That's when it's time to retreat and there's far more leeway for retreating than is intuitively obvious.

Using your peripheral vision is something that must be practiced, unless you can learn to actually divert your view momentarily and rely on motor timing skills to run Mario.

Unless you're Steve Wiebe. Here's my theory about what helps Wiebe play at such a high level.

If you saw the documentary movie "King of Kong", you'll recall that Steve's wife suggests that he may have some Autistic/OCD - esque tendencies. There was a recent program on the Science Channel about autistic people with savant syndrome. It chronicles a guy in Canada named Robert Gagno who's more severely autistic but who's WICKED great at playing pinball. A doctor demonstrates that part of the reason he's so adept is that characteristically, those with autism only utilize peripheral vision. Their eyes do not move when performing visual recognition tasks of moving things. With non-autistic people, it's nearly impossible NOT to move your eyes when taking in a complex moving scene like a pinball machine--or video game.

If Steve Wiebe has a bit of autism, then he's seeing the "big picture" playing Donkey Kong to a degree the rest of us cannot--or at least can't without a lot of hard work training our visual field.

I'm doing my best to "get the big picture" and it's helping a lot on the elevators and the barrels. I'm sure it can also be useful on the conveyor (pie) levels and rivets.

TMI? Sorry!
 
I was at the DK101 event too. It was awesome and my score went from 107k to 250k pretty quickly based solely on that class. The elevators always ended up taking at least half of my lives over time so I figured I'd start this thread. Thanks all for the input.
 
Seriously? I think sometimes overthinking it gets me in trouble more.

Played for the first time in a few months this weekend, I consistantly get to the 3rd elevator stage on my first man, if I wait and "overthink" it I lose 1-2 men, if I don't "overthink" it and just play with a "feeling" I get by it very well, as a matter of fact this past weekend I put up my best recent score of 220K and lost two of my men on the friggen pie factory stages...1 wild barrel and one on the rivets.....now if I could just get better on the pie factory....:p
 
I think even the best players lose men on this stage due to impatience. I saw it a few times at the Kong Off. I agree with the previous caller who said if it's close or you're not sure, just wait for one of those "sure thing springs" ie) those insanely short no doubt about it, you're good springs. The time bonus' will come eventually when you get a real good board with an earlier long/short combo.

FWIW my high is around 500k and I find the rivets when the pattern breaks down to be the toughest part of the game.
 
I think even the best players lose men on this stage due to impatience. I saw it a few times at the Kong Off. I agree with the previous caller who said if it's close or you're not sure, just wait for one of those "sure thing springs" ie) those insanely short no doubt about it, you're good springs. The time bonus' will come eventually when you get a real good board with an earlier long/short combo.

FWIW my high is around 500k and I find the rivets when the pattern breaks down to be the toughest part of the game.

I sometimes wish those of us working on this in our spare time could hook up and share info/offer suggestions in front of a DK. I had a revelation just two days ago about that rivet level "pattern" breakdown issue. It was a moment of "duh" and now I'm losing lives far less frequently. The pies and crazy barrels along with unforced errors are getting me now (mostly the unforced errors).

I'm not sure of the value of this, but I was way too determined to finish the rivets in the "jump on Kong's foot" zone. After getting the bottom hammer, I started getting in trouble on the rivet at the right side of that level. You can get trapped there if the fireballs don't cooperate. So now, when that happens, I just go ahead and clear the rivets on the top right while choosing which area, right side or center, to strand most or all of the fireballs. The time spent up there clearing the upper right rivets to the right of Kong's cage lures those fireballs up and away from that lower right rivet. Then there's usually an easy path down there, making that your final jump.

Sure, you don't get the fun of jumping in Kong's cage, but the bonus time is running down so fast by then, it doesn't make much difference in points. I'm at the early stages of becoming ok at playing DK so I can get many times more points by having that extra life than by jumping on Kong's foot. Live on to keep playing instead of dying to get a couple of hundred points!

Your thoughts?
 
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I sometimes wish those of us working on this in our spare time could hook up and share info/offer suggestions in front of a DK. I had a revelation just two days ago about that rivet level "pattern" breakdown issue. It was a moment of "duh" and now I'm losing lives far less frequently. The pies and crazy barrels along with unforced errors are getting me now (mostly the unforced errors).

I'm not sure of the value of this, but I was way too determined to finish the rivets in the "jump on Kong's foot" zone. After getting the bottom hammer, I started getting in trouble on the rivet at the right side of that level. You can get trapped there if the fireballs don't cooperate. So now, when that happens, I just go ahead and clear the rivets on the top right while choosing which area, right side or center, to strand most or all of the fireballs. The time spent up there clearing the upper right rivets to the right of Kong's cage lures those fireballs up and away from that lower right rivet. Then there's usually an easy path down there, making that your final jump.

Sure, you don't get the fun of jumping in Kong's cage, but the bonus time is running down so fast by then, it doesn't make much difference in points. I'm at the early stages of becoming ok at playing DK so I can get many times more points by having that extra life than by jumping on Kong's foot. Live on to keep playing instead of dying to get a couple of hundred points!

Your thoughts?

I think that's the way to go with the rivets. Those Kong Foot points are nice, but not worth losing a life over. Get busy living, or get busy dying, right?

I still usually get the fireballs trapped, but last night they were more fussy than normal on the rivet board for me. Just have to keep an eye on them and get out of there before you get trapped.
 
Yup, I just freestyle whatever looks like the best path if the star pattern breaks down. I should be getting my machine back soon fresh off Dean using it at the Kong Off so I'll get back into playing it at that point. Hopefully there's a bit of Dean magic on the CP.
 
I think you could prove statistically that it makes no sense to always end in the upper right. Every level except the bottom row has two rivets; there are four up there at Kong's level and the one just below. But they have far more limited access.

In other words, not only is the space more confined, you can't work from above Kong and come down--you have to come up from the bottom. You can't come across Kong from one side to the other at the very top level. And because you trapped some fireballs on the left, you can't come up the left side. So you're down to only two ways to get to those last rivets.

There are twice as many ways to get to the bottom right one and it's not nearly as confined. Unless I'm missing something here. So my moment of "duh" was--why was I always trying to leave the two rivets that have only two ways go get to with less room in which to work? For a few hundred points? Not worth it.
 
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My pattern leaves the bottom right rivet for last.

Makes perfect sense. The lure of foot jumping clouded my judgement for a while.

I'm just starting to figure out how to deal with raining crazy barrels. Last night, I avoided a string of 5 in a row. One of the best tips I got from Wiebe was that there's a "safe zone" on the barrel level... at the row just under Kong and at the top of the 2nd ladder from the left. You cannot be hit there, at least as long as you have the hammer.
 
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I think I learned about the safe zone from somebody here who posted about the Wiebe 101 thing. Might have been you.

On my personal best game, I would've topped 100k but I got greedy on a barrel level and started jumping barrels right near the hammer (under Kong) without grabbing it, waiting for a blue barrel. Well, Kong threw a barrel straight down on my head. End of game!
 
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