My Donkey Kong hates me!!!

NERDtendo

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I have never been good at Donkey Kong but I loved the game anyways. I bought this weird little custom cocktail a few years back and played that thing all the time.

DonkeyKongCocktail.jpg


However, my score never got above 48,000. I decided to sell it in the hopes to acquire an upright in the future. Well, I finally deconverted a Nintendo cab back to it's original Donkey Kong. I thought the big brown guy would smile upon my actions with a small spurt of increased skill....NOPE! Now I can't even break 25,000!!!

DKHS.jpg


I've been playing for a freakin month now and he's still kickin my ass. I have already done the search for strategies and this isn't another one of those threads. I am just wondering...

Anyone got links to the (free)PDF books of How To Win At Donkey Kong and the Video Master's Guide To Donkey Kong???
 
I've got the "How to Win at Donkey Kong" pdf but its a little too big to email.

The best that I can say is figure out how the barrels drop on the first board, learn how to handle the flames on the second board and then learn the bounce of the springs on the elevator board.

I learned the most by watching the Steve Weibe videos (and of course his DK 101 class that DrMrpants helped to put on a few months ago)

edit: This might help http://www.google.com/search?gcx=w&...pw.r_cp.&fp=ae904adedef9dcf5&biw=1366&bih=667
 
Just go on YouTube and watch how other people play. Once you get the general idea of where to stand and what to expect, it will become 2nd nature. It takes time and lots of practice.
 
I've got the "How to Win at Donkey Kong" pdf but its a little too big to email.

I found the How To Win At Donkey Kong PDF. Thanks!

I'm sure that there are PDF versions of the Video Master's Guide To Donkey Kong out there. It's just figuring out who has it.

(psst...if you tell me, I can keep a secrets real good. LOL)
 
I got mine working again a little over a month ago and have been playing a couple of games a night trying to get better. When I started I was at best about a 40,000 player. I want to be able to get around 300k consistently but haven't even come close to 200k yet. If I played more than a couple games a night it would help but I just don't have the time. What really helped me was watching the DK 101 on Youtube and even searching old threads on here for tips.

What took me some time was getting the jump on the spring levels from the second elevators to the floating platform and that greatly helped me once I got it down, to me the spring timing isn't hard it was that jump. My biggest problem is the barrels, this is where I seem to lose my lives, sure I sometimes get caught in a stupid mistake on the other screens because I am still a relative newb to advanced DK but not much anymore. Pretty much anyone will tell you that sometimes a wild barrel just screws you but usually for me on the barrels it is lack of barrel control and stupid mistakes. I need to go and watch DK 101 again.
 
The best tip I got on this game was to not worry about point pressing and grouping barrels when you are just getting good at the game. Just clear levels. The points will add up.

I finally busted my record tonight and made it to level 6. 143,500 points. I hoped to be better by now but this is a tough game.
 
ahhh, so you got that one. i remember when that was on CL, it was on for a while iirc.
someone actually did a similar thing to a crazy climber cocktail, could be the same penis for all i know...

http://denver.craigslist.org/vgm/2570907559.html

Yeah, I got a decent deal on it and sold it for double what I paid for it. However, I would not do it again if the opportunity came. I am glad I finally have an upright...I just got to finish the work on the cab eventually.


I played a few more games tonight and managed 33,700 but I am still nowhere near what I could do with the cocktail. The strange thing is that I am more comfortable while playing the upright but played better on the cocktail. Oh well...I guess I will have to log on some more hours on it.
 
Something else I've read that helped me is the advice to not grab the bottom hammer on the barrel boards when you are just learning the game. You can still wrack up a pretty good score without it. In fact, I think you can get around 800,000 points on a kill screen by just doing the top barrel.

It's just the longer you stay on those barrel boards the more dangerous things become (wild barrels/etc.).
 
I've only gotten past the 3rd elevator board once. High score is currently maxed out at 93,200. Drives me nuts that my neighbor has the high score on my machine, 144,000.

My tips, for what its worth.

Ignore the bottom hammer.
Don't stand under the ladders! (does that need to be said?)
On the conveyor belt level, know that fireballs on the same level as Donkey Kong will never come down the ladders. They will wait for you at the top, but they don't come down.
Also on the conveyor belt level, every time Donkey Kong reaches the left side of the screen the pies switch direction.
On the rivet board sometimes you don't get points for jumping over barrels. If you more the joystick while you're in the air you get points that you might not have gotten.
Use MAME to master the 3rd elevator board (level 4). I still haven't done it!
On the ramps, sometimes
Learn how to control the barrels. I can only do it starting at level 4. And i don't have a strategy yet.
Clear the left side of the rivet board first. The fireballs re-spawn on the opposite side of Mario, so once you start smashing them, they will be trapped on the left.


This post has some good tips:
http://www.coinopspace.com/group/donkeykongfans/forum/topics/become-a-donkey-kong-master

OK, now I want to blow off work and go play some Donkey Kong!
 
This is some solid advice right here, probably better for a beginner than the weibe video (though that is cool).

Don't worry about the springs. That's probably my easiest board now that I've gotten the hang of it. Part of it is to not overthink it.



I've only gotten past the 3rd elevator board once. High score is currently maxed out at 93,200. Drives me nuts that my neighbor has the high score on my machine, 144,000.

My tips, for what its worth.

Ignore the bottom hammer.
Don't stand under the ladders! (does that need to be said?)
On the conveyor belt level, know that fireballs on the same level as Donkey Kong will never come down the ladders. They will wait for you at the top, but they don't come down.
Also on the conveyor belt level, every time Donkey Kong reaches the left side of the screen the pies switch direction.
On the rivet board sometimes you don't get points for jumping over barrels. If you more the joystick while you're in the air you get points that you might not have gotten.
Use MAME to master the 3rd elevator board (level 4). I still haven't done it!
On the ramps, sometimes
Learn how to control the barrels. I can only do it starting at level 4. And i don't have a strategy yet.
Clear the left side of the rivet board first. The fireballs re-spawn on the opposite side of Mario, so once you start smashing them, they will be trapped on the left.


This post has some good tips:
http://www.coinopspace.com/group/donkeykongfans/forum/topics/become-a-donkey-kong-master

OK, now I want to blow off work and go play some Donkey Kong!
 
I've been playing steadily for almost 2 years and my highest is 311,000. Most of my games are like 150-250k.

I actually recorded my 311K game, its long, but you might get some ideas from stuff I have learned by watching other players.


http://youtu.be/oJ3CcqgfYD4
 
My high score is currently in the mid 400,000s. I average in the mid 200,000s. I took a break to play more DKII and DK Jr. I haven't played in at least a month.

Here's the thing about Donkey Kong, I don't think there's any substitute for pure practice.

There are a LOT of little things that I do to keep from dying that you could only really learn by playing. I just don't know how I'd go about explaining all of it. If I don't play for a while I'll "forget" some of that stuff and it takes me a few games to get back to my normal scores.

But I definately agree that there's not much use in point pressing until you can clear the "easy levels" (i.e. levels 1-4) consistently. Some would say there's no reason to point press until you get to the kill screen.
 
Also, I have the Weibe book at home. It's not all that helpful compared to real playing experience. Some of the stuff in there is wrong too. It is interesting to see how scientific they got back in the day though. He'll talk about exactly how many steps you need to take, etc.
 
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