Zoo Keeper Strategy
- Thread starter StrainedSky
- Start date
Steve W
Well-known member
TG doesn't allow going back to the top platform more than 3 times which makes any leeching a moot point since prizes on the platforms are not worth much.
It's random to some degree but if you notice, if you are to the left of the monkey on a moving platform, he throws left, right if you are right. The differing speeds of the coconuts being thrown sometimes makes it appear positionally more random than it actually is but one of the best techniques for the red level is to try and draw the coconuts to one side by riding a slower platform. You can see some of that in my stream.
timberterror
Well-known member
I did manage 3 mil last week. Now after watching this maybe I can improve even more. Thanks Steve - Barry
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Steve W
Well-known member
Awesome. That's a really good score, there isn't much difference between 3m and 10m, just need a few jumps and a couple of cycling of the boards but your skill is there. Also I pulled the clip of the best one from the long ass stream
http://www.justin.tv/steve_wag/b/286224465
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Wtf? It's in the game, they just consider it cheating or what? It's not a bug or exploit. I find that pretty ridiculous.
Steve W
Well-known member
The board doesn't have a timer on it, never forcing you past that point if you so desire. Most leeching mechanisms they allow have some sort of built in mechanism for advancing you at some point (UFOs will shoot asteroids, etc).
I think the coconut boards get tough as hell as soon as that bottom floor is gone and there are 1,000 coconuts everywhere. The 3x touching the top rule is dumb IMHO but whatever.
I'm still sketchy on the rule since if you live for a long time on one of those levels, you deserve it, you aren't exploiting the game. They might as well outlaw million point jumps too.
badgamer
Member
jow said:
The monkey only throws a certain amount of coco's, Say 30? for arguments sake. Once he has thrown the 30 coco's, he will only throw another one, after one of those coco's falls off the bottom of the screen...in other words, there is only ever 30? coco's MAX on the playfield at any one time.
kiwasabi said:
You would have to jump on and off the top platform about 30 times to get a 10M score, It's a lot easier just to play the game through to get that 10M.
I don't think that any of the good players would bother with the coco board, even if it was allowed...It's just not worth the risk.
john
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I had no idea that was the case. I try and finish as fast as I can so I only ever see him constantly throwing them the whole time.
Thanks for that info
Steve W
Well-known member
For awhile the bottom floor on Richie's machine before we replaced the boards was doing this thing where it wouldn't open up so we could play that board forever. I recall after a certain score 100m maybe? It started putting weird characters in the high score table.
I haven't played much Zoo Keeper, but at an arcade get together several months back I met Jack Gale, who was the world record holder back in the day. I watched him play several games and was in awe of the underlying complexity of setting up big point jumps on the later levels. He would spend the vast majority of the time on any given level going around and around, back and forth, setting himself up for single huge jumps for 600K or 700K.
I really like games like this. It seems so simple when you first play it, but there is a huge amount of technique and strategy requried to master it. Very cool game; I'm going to look for some of you guys at the ZK at CAX.
I really like games like this. It seems so simple when you first play it, but there is a huge amount of technique and strategy requried to master it. Very cool game; I'm going to look for some of you guys at the ZK at CAX.
badgamer
Member
JeffC said:
Hey, thats great, I've often wondered if Jack is still about, good to hear he's still playing ZK, he held the record for something like 20 years before Shawn Cram took it off him.
Can you remember what sort of scores he was getting when you watched him play?
john
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timberterror
Well-known member
I got past level 10 for the first time tonight. I made the invisible platform coconut no problem but the 4 escalator levels kill me. I got past the first one no problem, then killed 2 guys on the second. My score could have been better but I screwed up on grouping and it was a mad jumpathon just to stay alive. I need more practice....... - Barry
Gosh, I really don't recall. I hadn't played much so I didn't have a good frame of reference for his scoring. I do recall him saying that he'd been able to occasionally string together 1M point single jumps, and during the games I watched he was getting over 500K. Not sure where he was finishing up, but I know it was way off his glory-days best.
He was one of those very quiet, super modest, and very well-mannered guys, who was crazy good at just about every game he played. He put on a clinic playing missle command too.
SanTe
Well-known member
Jack Gale was world class at Karate Champ too. Held the record from 1987 until it was finally topped in Summer 2010.
Soooo close to 2M. New HS for me though. 
I must really suck at this game! I think my high is around 500k or so. Must. Practice.!
