Zoo Keeper Strategy

SanTe said:
I remember seeing the game back in the day but don't recall ever playing it back then. My best score was 550k playing on MAME a couple of years ago when I played it for the first time. That was my best score in about two hours of tries and it wasn't even the last attempt; it came about 30 minutes into that two hour session. This game is weird like that. On a lot of other games your best score will progress steadily over time and most of your attempts will be at least in the ballpark of your personal best. Zoo Keeper will kick you in the nuts for hours and just when you're about to throw in the towel you'll double your personal best, and you come back for many more hours of abuse with scores that are half or even way less of your personal best. This can go on for weeks or months. Even badgamer, who is likely the best Zoo Keeper player in the world right now, has admitted to embarrassingly low scores (even below 1M) on a semi-regularly basis. It's feast or famine with this game.

Zoo Keeper is awesome. What genius game play design. And the music and sound effects are some of the most distinctive and mesmerizing in all of classic arcade gaming.
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Very well said, and oh so true.
 
SanTe said:
I remember seeing the game back in the day but don't recall ever playing it back then. My best score was 550k playing on MAME a couple of years ago when I played it for the first time. That was my best score in about two hours of tries and it wasn't even the last attempt; it came about 30 minutes into that two hour session. This game is weird like that. On a lot of other games your best score will progress steadily over time and most of your attempts will be at least in the ballpark of your personal best. Zoo Keeper will kick you in the nuts for hours and just when you're about to throw in the towel you'll double your personal best, and you come back for many more hours of abuse with scores that are half or even way less of your personal best. This can go on for weeks or months. Even badgamer, who is likely the best Zoo Keeper player in the world right now, has admitted to embarrassingly low scores (even below 1M) on a semi-regularly basis. It's feast or famine with this game.

I have not played it much despite owning one for over a year now, but yesterday on a whim I sat down at my Zoo Keeper and played for a couple of hours. On my second game I notched a 1.1M+ and got farther into the game than I ever have before (passed the 4th escalator board on the first try but didn't make it to the invisible coconut board). If memory serves my best jump was a 250k. A short while later I got an 880k game and it was all downhill from there. The vast majority of my games for the next hour and a half landed between 200k and 600k, with a lot of them in the 500k+ range.

Zoo Keeper is awesome. What genius game play design. And the music and sound effects are some of the most distinctive and mesmerizing in all of classic arcade gaming.
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jow said:
Very well said, and oh so true.
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That's probably the best description of the game I've heard.
 
First game of the night, and a new best for me. First time I have seen the 4 level bonus keeper screen. 250K was my best jump...
 

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...and in typical ZK fashion, I can't get over 300K tonight.
 
jow said:
First game of the night, and a new best for me. First time I have seen the 4 level bonus keeper screen. 250K was my best jump...
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Boom baby!

Way to go Jow!

And yeah, go back and look at my 10m post and the game under it. I played 2 games that night, first under 1m, the next 10m. Crazy game and good luck with the 4 level escalator....good times ha ha ha.
 
I was at 1.2M last night, and on the 4 lever bonus keeper stage with 3 guys. I died 3 times in a row on that same bonus keeper stage on the top level. Is there something I am missing? It was the most frustrating thing, ever. I thought I was going to get to 2M no problem. Nope. 3 deaths on the fucking bonus keeper stage :mad:

Is there a strategy for that stage I dont know about?
 
jow said:
I was at 1.2M last night, and on the 4 lever bonus keeper stage with 3 guys. I died 3 times in a row on that same bonus keeper stage on the top level. Is there something I am missing? It was the most frustrating thing, ever. I thought I was going to get to 2M no problem. Nope. 3 deaths on the fucking bonus keeper stage :mad:

Is there a strategy for that stage I dont know about?
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Hard to explain without me showing you in person but I'll try....there may be other methods but here is what I do.

I walk to the left edge and make the long jump as soon as you get up to the floor and I mean as soon as you arrive at the top but before you land right in front of the giant animal onslaught that follows, I do a quick hitch to the right just before landing which sets you back like one step or something. Then proceed to jump over the cage. You miss, you die. Unlike the other floors, no second chance. There may be better ways but I haven't found them. It still gets even the best players sometimes though, no guarantees.

So basically:

Immediately move left then long jump all in one motion, right before landing, a very quick short hitch back to the right and then a left jump to (hopefully) clear the cage.
 
Steve W said:
Hard to explain without me showing you in person but I'll try....there may be other methods but here is what I do.

I walk to the left edge and make the long jump as soon as you get up to the floor and I mean as soon as you arrive at the top but before you land right in front of the giant animal onslaught that follows, I do a quick hitch to the right just before landing which sets you back like one step or something. Then proceed to jump over the cage. You miss, you die. Unlike the other floors, no second chance. There may be better ways but I haven't found them. It still gets even the best players sometimes though, no guarantees.

So basically:

Immediately move left then long jump all in one motion, right before landing, a very quick short hitch back to the right and then a left jump to (hopefully) clear the cage.
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I totally get that, thanks bro. I'll report back once Im at 2M+ :D
 
jow said:
Are you coming out to CAX? I'm buying all your beer.
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Not likely. I'd like to go one day but I usually end up spending my hobby alottment on the Funspot tournament and some other more local tournaments. Looks awesome though and the wife would like to get out to Cali again I'm sure. Maybe in the future.

Free beer is a dangerous term around me though. Just ask Richie :)
 
Made a little progress last night. I was able to get all the animals going the same direction on the first lion board for 1,000,000 and 500,000 point jumps and finally made it over 2 million. Love this game...... - Barry
 

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Nice score. I'm not very good at ZK... must play it more at the show this year.
 
timberterror said:
Made a little progress last night. I was able to get all the animals going the same direction on the first lion board for 1,000,000 and 500,000 point jumps and finally made it over 2 million. Love this game...... - Barry
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Nice. Getting big jumps on first lions I think is tough because you don't have extra grouping nets at your disposal
 
Thats it. Im replacing my PCB battery this weekend. Nice scores!
 
How greedy does everyone get on the coconut levels? I actually find these levels the most fun, but find a lot of randomness with the monkey's coconut throwing that makes it hard to get big scores consistently...
 
kiwasabi said:
How greedy does everyone get on the coconut levels? I actually find these levels the most fun, but find a lot of randomness with the monkey's coconut throwing that makes it hard to get big scores consistently...
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I just get through them as fast as I can. - Barry
 
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