Donkey Kong Jr. Strategy help

khabbi

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While I'm a DK fan and have played that like crazy since I was a kid (scored 200K on it when I was 13 back in 1983) I never played DKjr that much nor did I learn how to master it.. A few months I bought a very nice dedicated DKjr and I must say I love this game! It had probably been 20 years since I had played it last before I bought the machine :) And on top of that, my wife loves the game, which is a big bonus..

That being said, I've search high and low for strategy help for this game, my high score with max men (6) (yeah, cheating I know, but I'm still learning) is right at 60K, I get stuck on the 3rd or 4th spring level with the birds that poop down.. There must be a pattern to these birds but I haven't figured it out, can someone help out on this screen? Basically getting over on the vines safely, then timing the jumps to get to the key are my main issues.

Also, the electrical pipes level is somewhat difficult to me and I really don't get enough time on the board before I either get killed or clear it to figure out the easy way to do it..

And of course the keys that slide up to the locks stage, any help or advice you can give on that would be appreciated..

Thanks in advance! I want to be chasing the world record by the end of the year.. ;)
 
That video has really helped me !! My high Score Sits at 194400 with 3 lives.

There is a patteren too the birds I'm still trying too figure it out for sure.

Mario Hideout gives me problems allso. Most of the times i can get too the 4th level without dying.
 
The patterns for the birds and sparks never change. It's the snapjaws on the lock/key boards that can throw your strategy a bit depending on what they decide to do.

There's 2 sets of bird patterns on the spring board, one set I've found, come down when you are at a certain point on the left platform waiting to make your move and the other set comes out when you are on your way up it seems. I prefer to make my move on one of the set bird patterns and find that it will only come out when I'm positioned in a certain area.

That being said, aside from the blue sparks at the top of the level everything should be the same during Mario's Hideout. If you aren't point pressing at the top of the level, just go to the middle of the platform and wait there till the blue sparks pass as you can jump any combination from the safe spot in the middle not underneath the drippy parts. Then make your way when there's a break in the blue sparks.

If you are point pressing at the top of Mario's Hideout, then you probably aren't looking for help. :)
 
The pattern for the birds on the spring level are 6 evenly spaced birds followed by a little larger gap between birds. In the video when I get to that board the first time you hear me start counting(I don't normally do that out loud btw :))... watch the bird spacing as I'm counting and you'll see they are all space the same and after the sixth bird there is a larger space.

Also, after this larger space, there is usually a couple birds followed by two "very close" birds followed by a larger space. You can hear me say something about that the second time through the spring board in the video.

Good luck! :beerchug:
 
I have a real problem with the springboard level the second time around. I can't pass it.

What's the secret to consistently get the super jump to the platform off of the spring?
 
I have a real problem with the springboard level the second time around. I can't pass it.

What's the secret to consistently get the super jump to the platform off of the spring?

Hit the crap out of the jump button repeatedly while in mid air.
 
Yep. As soon as you make your initial jump pretend you're playing some Track and Field on the jump button. :)

Jeff,

Have you tried pressing for max points in your games, you run pretty quick patterns on the springs and Mario's Hideout (pre-top level pressing) so you'd probably score higher than me en route to the kill screen. I'm at about 850-900k or so. Long way to go for me.
 
Great stuff guys, thanks! This is becoming one of my favorite games, so I can't wait to start getting higher scores and seeing how far I can go with it...
 
Jeff,

Have you tried pressing for max points in your games, you run pretty quick patterns on the springs and Mario's Hideout (pre-top level pressing) so you'd probably score higher than me en route to the kill screen. I'm at about 850-900k or so. Long way to go for me.

Nah. My DKjr heyday was years ago. I started off going for score originally and then I heard about the kill screen so that's where my ASAP game play style came from. I just wanted to get to it at least once in my life to say I did it. :)

Unfortunately it never happened. I think I got to within 3 or 4 screens once but never to "the" screen.

Who knows... maybe someday.
 
There is some sound advice posted here. It is important to note on the Hideout that it is very important to smash the red spark circling clockwise on the third platform with the apple. This will make clearing the level much easier, and open up the opportunity for "spark-hopping" point-pressing at the top, which can be very lucrative. Also, as seen on Jeff F's video, remember to do a directional in mid air when killing this spark with the apple. If this jump is timed right, there is a glitch that will not only award you 800 and 1200 for smashing the two red sparks, but will also award 1200 for the jump itself.

Hit the crap out of the jump button repeatedly while in mid air.

Exactly. I can't remember who figured it out, but someone discovered that there are 6 "frames" that Jr is on the springboard during the jump, and the game will check for a button push on every other frame, so it would be wise to mash the button as fast as possible during this time. What helps with the timing of actually hitting the little island successfully is to do a vertical jump as soon as Jr appears on the screen, then push right for the jump attempt. As Steve mentioned, the nitpickers on the springboard level seem to follow patterns based on where Jr is positioned at specific times. For instance, on L=4 springboards and beyond when making my way up to the chains area there seem to be 3 different patterns the birds will follow afterwards and the player will have to recognize this and adjust accordingly.

I do have a video highlight that plays "up to" the end of L=4 that is not perfect, but may help you in some ways. The address is below, and scroll down a bit:

http://www.justin.tv/marky_d/videos
 
Doesn't get much better than asking for help and getting the WR holder to chime in. Good stuff Mark!
 
Indeed. Great to see more good folk joining KLOV as well! Welcome Mark.

Ha ha, no problem. I always love talking gameplay strategy. Actually, I was in the same boat as khabbi when I started playing again. There are virtually no resources out there for Donkey Kong Jr. strategy. Although the majority of point-pressing aspects were discovered over time, the first place I turned to was a trusty (and crusty) old JoyStik magazine that had some decent strategies in it. There is verbatim copy of the article online, although I don't believe JoyStik recieves any credit for it. I have a pretty good hunch as to who the contributor of this article is, but who would know for sure. It is located here:

http://donkeykongfans.piczo.com/donkeykongjr.?cr=7

I have lurked here from time to time, but the DKJr thread caught my eye. I'm lucky that I saw it since the threads move fast around here.

Khabbi, or anyone else for that matter, if you have any questions feel free to ask or shoot a PM or whatever.

Steve, good luck at Funspot!

-Marky
 
Great stuff guys, thank you very much for your help! I feel like a kid again trying to now tackle DKjr like I have DK! I really did google for DKJR strategy help and didn't come up with much, so this thread has been a tremendous help.

Way cool to have the WRH chiming in also, thanks and welcome Marky :)
 
HEY mark welcome also. NOW THE QUESTION HOW MANY QUARTERS DO YOU THINK IT TOOK TO ACQUIRE THE INFO YOU GOT HERE FOR FREE. :)

That's the reason I bought the machine :) I sometimes try to justify my personal collection by telling myself the machines have paid for themselves in the quarters I would have had to feed into them :)
 
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