Donkey Kong Question....Difficulty.

Bishopx

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I couldn't find anything on KLOV that addresses this question....

I went to my friend's house and played his Donkey Kong and I'll be damned if that thing isn't way harder than mine. Are there some Donkey Kong boards that are harder than others? I didn't think there was a difficulty setting on the board.

My board plays just like the Mame version. Both board sets are two board setups. What gives?
 
not sure if there is a difficulty setting but I do know the randomness can go on runs that effect difficulty. I know for a fact that my machine went for about a 5 year block where I never saw a random barrel thrown and then one day they started coming like there was no tomorrow. I had games where I would die on the first screen and it had been years since that had happen to me.
 
That's exactly what's going on. We started his game up and I figured I show him a thing or two and I died twice on the first barrel screen due to craziness in the barrels. What in the hell is that about? I've tried it 3 times now and it's unbelievable. That machine is out of control difficult.
 
That's exactly what's going on. We started his game up and I figured I show him a thing or two and I died twice on the first barrel screen due to craziness in the barrels. What in the hell is that about? I've tried it 3 times now and it's unbelievable. That machine is out of control difficult.

I doubt it's anything other than just the potential randomness the machine can throw your way.
 
There's no difficulty settings, but there are a couple different ROM sets out there, official or not. The original one (which only says "Nintendo" on the title screen) has the "ladder cheat" where you can sit at the top of a ladder and the barrels won't come down. These came on the early boardsets, but was fixed at some point and operators could buy an upgrade from Nintendo to fix theirs if they had that one. I've seen at least one aftermarket set which i believe replaces 2 EPROM's, and it makes the game considerably harder to the average person. The fireballs on the rivet and conveyor belt act as if they're high level. Both in speed and how quickly they come out (and you get 5 of them on all conveyor belt levels, even the 2 levels where you normally get 3 or 4). If you have this set, you'll probably have 2 EPROM's that don't have the standard Nintendo labels on them.
 
Theres more Wild Barrels on the First 3 Levels of DK .. The Pros would not point press the first 3 levels of DK Barrel boards becouse of Wild Barrels .

They have recently started point pressing the hole game becouse the high score has been driven soo high by Dean and Hank.
 
I've seen at least one aftermarket set which i believe replaces 2 EPROM's, and it makes the game considerably harder to the average person. The fireballs on the rivet and conveyor belt act as if they're high level. Both in speed and how quickly they come out (and you get 5 of them on all conveyor belt levels, even the 2 levels where you normally get 3 or 4). If you have this set, you'll probably have 2 EPROM's that don't have the standard Nintendo labels on them.

Someone posted the advertisement for this "more challenging DK" enhancement kit awhile back. Yours probably has those ROMS.
 
I can tell you that there is a DEFINiTE difference in the difficulty between the "official" rom set that is used the the Arcadeshop/Arcade SD boards and other DK's that I have played (which are MUCH harder). My old 38-in-1 also appears to be running this "harder" rom set. It is definitely NOT your imagination or "random crazy barrels". There are more barrels sooner on the more difficult rom revisions. I went from doing "well" on the Arcadeshop board to having my ass kicked on the DK machine at DisneyQuest in Orlando and also on my 38-in-1. I still managed to post a high score on the one at DisneyQuest, but with it's larger 25" monitor conversion, the barrels actually SEEMED to move a LOT faster than normal. I considered the possibility that it was because that the barrels travel a longer "visual" distance over the same period of time, but they seemed to move SO MUCH faster that it couldn't just be that alone...
 
I can tell you that my cocktail (4-board set) is much harder than my upright. That damn monkey seems to know where you are going with the barrels. Funny note, when I added the D2K kit to the cocktail, DK is not as hard as it was prior.
 
There's no difficulty settings, but there are a couple different ROM sets out there, official or not. The original one (which only says "Nintendo" on the title screen) has the "ladder cheat" where you can sit at the top of a ladder and the barrels won't come down. These came on the early boardsets, but was fixed at some point and operators could buy an upgrade from Nintendo to fix theirs if they had that one. I've seen at least one aftermarket set which i believe replaces 2 EPROM's, and it makes the game considerably harder to the average person. The fireballs on the rivet and conveyor belt act as if they're high level. Both in speed and how quickly they come out (and you get 5 of them on all conveyor belt levels, even the 2 levels where you normally get 3 or 4). If you have this set, you'll probably have 2 EPROM's that don't have the standard Nintendo labels on them.

That is the first I have heard about that, so I am really glad I saw this thread. I played DK at the Pinball Hall of Fame a while back, and it had all five fireballs on the early levels. I had never seen that before and had no idea what would cause it. Thanks for the explanation! Now I know I wasn't crazy. :)
 
You know....

I just stopped by his house and checked it out again. This is exactly the case....

The fireballs are nuts! There were a ton of random barrels in the first level but in the rivet level and the conveyor levels, the fireballs were acting like it was a higher level.

...or I just really suck except on my own machine.....oh bummer.
 
First place I really noticed it (actually my brother pointed it out to me because I hadn't played it) was on the DK machine the infamous Babs brought to the Louisville show last year. I've since found a few more people who had a board with that ROM set, including the one at Galloping Ghost in Chicago. You can tell at the start of the first rivet board, because the fireballs are all zooming around like you're on level 8 or something, when they should be barely moving.
 
Somebody post a file of these "hard" DK roms in action. I've played mucho different DKs. I'm familiar with both the 4-board ladder cheat set and the 2-board set, dedicated. I've played plenty of MAME, and plenty of multi-cades too. Having played lots of standard DK on dedicated machines at home makes changes in gameplay stick out pretty easily. I've never noticed anything but the fact in some games you get more wild barrels, etc.

Also, just for clarity

Level 1-1 is really hard if you dawdle around or grab the bottom hammer. You have less control over barrels and there may be more random fireballs.

There are always 5 fireballs on level 1-2.

It's entirely possible they're out there, I'd just want to see it pinned down before I bought into the rumour.
 
Somebody post a file of these "hard" DK roms in action. I've played mucho different DKs. I'm familiar with both the 4-board ladder cheat set and the 2-board set, dedicated. I've played plenty of MAME, and plenty of multi-cades too. Having played lots of standard DK on dedicated machines at home makes changes in gameplay stick out pretty easily. I've never noticed anything but the fact in some games you get more wild barrels, etc.

Also, just for clarity

Level 1-1 is really hard if you dawdle around or grab the bottom hammer. You have less control over barrels and there may be more random fireballs.

There are always 5 fireballs on level 1-2.

It's entirely possible they're out there, I'd just want to see it pinned down before I bought into the rumour.

I tried looking for the advertisement pic I saw awhile back but I forget where. Maybe CKFan knows where it was posted and can link to it. It was a vintage ad for this "more difficult DK enhancement kit".
 
I tried looking for the advertisement pic I saw awhile back but I forget where. Maybe CKFan knows where it was posted and can link to it. It was a vintage ad for this "more difficult DK enhancement kit".

I know exactly what you're talking about. It's the ladder cheat memo. All it does is remove the ladder cheat though. Other than that the difficulty stays the same.

picture.php
 
I know exactly what you're talking about. It's the ladder cheat memo. All it does is remove the ladder cheat though. Other than that the difficulty stays the same.

picture.php

Nope, different one. This one promotes making all boards more difficult.
 
Yeah. It's definitely much more difficult. The fireballs are very aggressive and they barrels are much more wild. Which two eproms need to be changed?
 
Try this video:
http://www.twitch.tv/voodoo_chilly/b/258681726
I'm on dialup right now, I can't really watch it. It's supposed to be a video thru level 3 with the hard ROM's I described.

Grease my shins and call me Gertrude. The fireballs come out really fast on level 1-2. It was hard to see any difference on level 1-1 but it did look easier to control barrels and the clock seemed to run faster. I think that's directly related to the clock moving faster after level 2 (in normal DK).
 
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