Donkey Kong Forum

Blogs => Player Blogs => Topic started by: VON on February 12, 2013, 06:29:36 pm

Title: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 12, 2013, 06:29:36 pm
I made a promise to several people that 2013 would be the year I would finally get serious about getting serious about getting a serious score on Donkey Kong.  School is winding down for me and my love for classic arcade gaming has taken a back seat long enough.  Coincidentally, not long after I had made this pledge to myself and others, Vincent "Man Nipples" Lemay added further motivation with his offer of a friendly wager. 

The bet: the first player to eclipse 1.17 million on Donkey Kong will buy a pretty dress to be worn by the loser upon their entrance to the Kong Off 3.
 
In attempt to win this bet and reach my ultimate goal of 1.2 million, I will play a minimum of one session of Donkey Kong per week, and all sessions will be streamed. 

If I'm fortunate enough to reach my Donkey Kong goals in MAME, I will then task myself with gaining the Donkey Kong Arcade record; and if somehow I obtain both these lofty goals, I will seek total victory and the unification of the belt, with a win at the Kong Off 3.

This blog will be a place for me to post scores, videos, and any interesting details of my attempts.  Furthermore, this blog will serve as a contract to keep me playing and focused on the goal at hand. 
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on February 12, 2013, 06:48:22 pm
Awesome! I completely missed out on the 'Days of Ross' that Vincent and others always talk about. I'll make sure to keep an eye out for when you stream. Good Luck!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on February 12, 2013, 06:56:39 pm
I don't know if you remember, but I kinda went a little speculative when I was talking about you  on my blog, theorizing that you weren't going to go after the world record because you just don't seem to approach Donkey Kong that "technically."

Ie, you don't strike me as someone who would think too much, if at all, about your pace, how many points you would need to get on the next screen in order to make up a deficit in points, back off to a more conservative pace in order to complete the game, etc.  You seem to just sort of say "wheee!!!!" and do whatever and let the final score figure itself out.

Is that accurate, or have I totally misread your approach?

Actually, I guess your first post answers my question.

So I guess what I'm saying is, "I appear to have misread your approach."

1.2, that's cool.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 12, 2013, 07:44:54 pm
Quote from: ChrisP on February 12, 2013, 06:56:39 pm
Ie, you don't strike me as someone who would think too much, if at all, about your pace, how many points you would need to get on the next screen in order to make up a deficit in points, back off to a more conservative pace in order to complete the game, etc.  You seem to just sort of say "wheee!!!!" and do whatever and let the final score figure itself out.

Is that accurate, or have I totally misread your approach?

No that's pretty accurate.  I think the vast majority of players concern themselves way too much with pace.  The fact is, pace can not be determined by "start" (a term that may need explanation in the terms thread), nor is it determined over the course of a few better than average or worse than average levels.  Pace is only dictated by the averages put forth from a player's normal gameplay.  To elaborate: levels more cooperative than is normal will allow me to rack up big points without actually deviating from my normal gameplay, levels less cooperative than is normal will cause me to score fewer than 60K because I won't take unnecessary risks to make up the lost points, but in the absence of outliers I will score level averages a little over 60K.  I try not to let a bad level or a good level affect me because, with respect to pace, what has just transpired has no bearing on what is to come, so long as I continue to play my normal gameplay.  Of course 17 levels is not a huge sample size, and thereby, normalization by game's end to the mean I've established over 1000s of levels is not guaranteed.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on February 12, 2013, 08:58:18 pm
I repeat once again: I don't remember officially agreeing that the loser will wear a dress! haha. But Youmee Told me she had a nice dress to offer me if I lose, so why not! lol.

1.17m pace is a "conservative" pace without taking extra risk when you point press at a high level. Someone very good should be able to get that pace on every game (theorically, if time they reach a kill screen, it should be 1.17m+ while playing without taking stupid risks, and playing very good).

But good luck on that quest, Ross ;-). I will also be playing (maybe on MAME, or arcade. I might not have my arcade machine to play on for the following months, I'll see!).

GAME ON!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on February 13, 2013, 07:14:25 am
Quote from: VON on February 12, 2013, 06:29:36 pm
The bet: the first player to eclipse 1.17 million on Donkey Kong will buy a pretty dress to be worn by the loser upon their entrance to the Kong Off 3.
Might I be one of the first to submit a guess as to the outcome of this wager?

My prediction is in the form of an image, since a picture is worth 1000 words.


(http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/b610/mars_hotel/bet_loser_zps4182bf36.jpg)

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on February 13, 2013, 10:36:25 am
Vincent, what's your bra size? 

And I thought you made a pledge to stop making bets about DK.  You know you always lose these bets.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on February 13, 2013, 01:53:27 pm
I don't really know my bra size. It changes when I'm pumped or not!  8).

But maybe, for the contest, we should do:"Who has the highest score by the end of October 2013 wins the contest". Or maybe 2 contests: Who beats Dean's score the first, and who has the highest score by the end of October 2013.

Let's make a Deal: If I have a lowest score by the end of October 2013 than Ross/Hank, I'm putting a dress for my entrance. But if my score is higher than Hank and Ross, both must do a shirtless entrance.

I would be willing to agree on that bet (yeah Hank, once again, I might make a bet I'll regret! lol). But even if I lose, I will find a way to make a cool entrance with my dress (no homo).

But this would be a serious bet (unlike the kick in my nuts I made with Hank, haha). Just tell me what you think about it!

So, Hank and Ross: You better start hit the gym soon!  ;)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 13, 2013, 03:43:28 pm
It's all good Vincent.  It's all for fun.  But yes, if I do lose, I will have to stop with my all chicken skin and beer diet and start doing a serious amount of sit-ups.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: up2ng on February 13, 2013, 03:56:31 pm
Quote from: VON on February 12, 2013, 07:44:54 pm
I try not to let a bad level or a good level affect me because, with respect to pace, what has just transpired has no bearing on what is to come, so long as I continue to play my normal gameplay.

Yeah, I don't completely agree with this because ...

Quote
  Of course 17 levels is not a huge sample size, and thereby, normalization by game's end to the mean I've established over 1000s of levels is not guaranteed.

Meaning, if you find yourself getting 10s of thousands of points "behind pace", it becomes significantly more unlikely that you'll hit your target score by the end of the game vs. another game where you got a great start and had above average luck in the early levels and have gotten "ahead of pace".  The reason is once a screen is completed, those points are gone.  There is no such thing as "making up for it later" since upcoming screens have no memory -- they have an expectation of being exactly average and so once you're in too big a hole, there is no way out except for having unusually good luck for an unusually long period of time.

Can't wait to watch some of your screens again Ross.  It's going to be a blast.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 28, 2013, 06:32:20 pm
Alright Vincent, it's go time!  Official start date of mission "Unify the Belt": 02/28/13.

Prepare to launch.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on February 28, 2013, 10:17:24 pm
Looks like I still don't need to buy a dress? haha.

I'm starting streaming in a few days (probably always on MAME), 1.17m or bust! (But since I'm always unlucky, I'll end up 2,700 points short of Dean's record... lol).
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 28, 2013, 10:34:50 pm
2/28/13: Abysmal session.  I managed only one start in 4 hours which I promptly threw in the toilet losing two lives on the same elevator.  I basically just let Donkey Kong rub his junk all over my face while I repeatedly bashed my head against levels 1-4.  I wasn't even playing risky, I just ate an unfair amount of wild barrels and made a lot of dumb mistakes.

Whatevs, it was to be expected my fist session would be an ugly one.  I'll chalk it up to rust and a bit of crap luck, and pick myself right back up for more. 
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on February 28, 2013, 11:58:49 pm
Donkey Kong rubbed his junk all over your face in your ugly fist session after you threw it in the toilet??

This blog is heating up!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 03, 2013, 01:22:08 am
03/02/13:  Better, but again, not so fresh.  I just phoned in a couple sub 130K starts (130K is plenty to get me 1.17+ and I'm just not going to play the numbers game with the early boards or allow them to prevent me from getting the most out of each session), but still haven't made it half way so no scores or pace to report.  I need to relax more and just play my game.  I felt tense and was second guessing my instincts.  I made a lot of execution errors that will go away with practice.  I was also having trouble seeing the springs correctly, but that too will disappear with just a few more plays. 

My last game of the night ended before I felt I had gained enough from the session, so I practiced 4 or 5 levels from a save-state.  By the end of those boards my confidence on the elevators had improved and my barrel screens were nearly where I want them.  63K+ levels are a regularity so I'm not at all concerned about my final score, just getting to the end alive.  With a few more sessions I believe I will see some marked improvement, after I've resolved my issues with springs and retrained my fingers a bit.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 03, 2013, 06:15:19 pm
03/03/13:  No improvement.  Still can't see the springs properly and lost two lives on the elevators during my only game for the day.  Sigh...I realize this hang-up is temporary, but man is it annoying.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on March 03, 2013, 06:25:25 pm
I am curious to know more specifically about the problem you are having with the springs.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 03, 2013, 06:56:04 pm
It has to do with recognizing the different spring trajectories with peripheral vision.  When I'm playing the game regularly I don't really have to look at the springs at all to know how to maneuver through the screen.  Presently I have to focus too much on which spring is which and I'm second guessing myself.  This is a problem that has also come up every time I transition from MAME to a cab.  There is a change in perspective when switching from MAME to a cab that disrupts my ability to see the springs.

I can't think how to explain it much more - it's a strange familiarity issue that has always and only applied to the springs.  Have any other players had this experience?   
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on March 03, 2013, 07:02:10 pm
Quote
I can't think how to explain it much more - it's a strange familiarity issue that has always and only applied to the springs.  Have any other players had this experience?   

This also happens to me. Before the Kong Off 1, I was playing very well on the spring, but when I started playing on an actual machine at the Kong Off, I had difficulties, but pretty much only on the elevator screen. I had a lot of pain to finish this screen and wasted a lot of points due to waiting, again and again.

This might be because of the size of the screen compared to MAME (perspective also).

And also, I've played on a machine for a long time, but recently, I went back on MAME, and at the beginning, I had some trouble with the Elevator, once again, for the same reason (the change in perspective/size of the screen). It only affect the spring level.

But right now, I'm okay with this screen on MAME. I don't exactly know what's happening to us, Ross.... I'm scared  :'(.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on March 03, 2013, 07:37:36 pm
Oh, I didn't realize you (Ross) had switched to a cab. In that case, say no more! I definitely get it.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on March 03, 2013, 08:17:08 pm
I think he means he switched to a cab during the KO2. Recently, Ross hasn't been playing much, so (other than the first Wildcard rematch) the KO2 was probably his last time really playing DK. Now he has been playing on mame.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on March 03, 2013, 08:20:21 pm
Aha! OK. And come to think of it, I seem to remember him dying on a spring during the wildcard rematch.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 04, 2013, 10:36:57 pm
Actually I just meant that I have not played DK seriously on any platform in a very long time.  I was not able to practice for either Kong-Off because of a seriously busy school schedule. 

While I have certainly had enough 5-6 hour stretches of free-time to play over the past 3 years, that free-time has been delivered sporadically.  Additionally, "free-time" does not always mean "Donkey Kong time", and "Donkey Kong time" does not always mean "relaxing time".  In the past, after one of the miserable, stressful, and sleep-deprived weeks that have come with going back to school, I did not run home to get doughnut-holed by Kong.  Budat shibout 2change!

Tonight, in fact, I blew off homework to play DK.  I have an enormous amount of work to get done by week's end, and not doing it is stupid.  It is not going to disappear, and I will probably have to pull an all-nighter, but fuck it.  I want to play Donkey Kong.  I am tired of not playing.  School is almost over, I am crushing my classes this term, I am going to get a good internship, and a job, and be able to support the people in my life who need my support - things are going to be OK, and now it is time to take care of myself.

03/04/13:  Things are feeling better with each day.  Unfortunately the DK gods did not see fit to let me get a big one going today, but such is life.  The world keeps on spinning, and unless everyone in China and India decides to jump up and down at the same time, it will still be spinning at week's end when I can realistically play again.

In the meantime, enjoy the nuances of the "juice box" rivet pattern, as named so by Scooterjay.  The "Juice Box": guaranteed 9 times out of 10 to squirt all over your face when you try to open it.  Do not show Allen this video.

"juice Box" (http://www.justin.tv/vondummpenstein/b/374015696)

P.S. I tried to embed the actual video, but could not get it figured.  I then switched to just providing the link, yet still my stream is embedded?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on March 05, 2013, 01:29:01 am
Very nice, Ross.  I'll take 10,500 on a Level 3 rivet screen whenever it gets tossed my way.

I had to visit your channel to play the video; the embedded version wouldn't work for me.

I'm using Google Chrome.  I'm curious to see if other members have success with a different browser.

EDIT:  Using Internet Explorer 9, I get "treated" to a 30 second ad, but that's about it.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: JCHarrist on March 05, 2013, 09:28:49 am
Nice Ross! :D

One of the forum modifications I'm using is an auto-imbedder and it tries to imbed any Justin.tv link but for some reason it doesn't handle archived videos properly. I disabled the plug-in for Justin.tv and at least the link works now.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on March 05, 2013, 10:09:27 am
Yeah buddy, it's the return of Ross! It's ON!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on March 05, 2013, 04:12:42 pm
Who coined the terms "weave" and "star" pattern?  The first time I heard it used was by Ross.  Can someone confirm or deny this?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 05, 2013, 04:56:46 pm
I first heard the term "star" pattern from Dwayne Richard, but it was over a phone conversation and I'm not entirely sure I heard him right.  I couldn't quite figure why it would be called such, as it certainly didn't draw out a star shape, but perhaps he only meant it was THE pattern, the one everyone and their momma used, the "star" pattern.  Thing was, I didn't play that way.  I taught myself to play the rivets as I mostly do now, with the "weave", and to this day I stand by it as the superior approach for the majority of rivet screen fireball spawning scenarios.  Later on, when I was writing a bunch of junk in the "DK Million Point March" thread over at old TG, I needed a way to easily communicate about the various rivet approaches whilst avoiding any ambiguity.  The "star" pattern could simply be called the "two hammer approach", and the "weave" the "single hammer approach", but readers of the million point march thread specifically asked me to illustrate clearly what I had tried to describe in words.  And so, I threw together some diagrams on Microsoft Paint, named the two primary patterns so there would no longer be any confusion, and the rest is the rest. 

Some time after officially giving a name to each of the primary patterns, I put together a youtube video showcasing 5 or 6 different approaches, including a no hammer approach and in fact, the "reverse weave" pattern demonstrated in the "juice box" video.  The "juice box" name and video is just for yucks.  I was just a bit shocked by how well that rivet came together, despite having junked it up right from the get go.  I said the next person to say something in the chat could name the pattern, and that person was Scooterjay, with his rather catchy, albeit silly name.  Obviously the pattern is just a "reverse weave" and obviously it is not in any way reliable.     

Actually, now that I think about it, wouldn't it make more sense that Dwayne said "start" pattern.  This was back in 2007 when I was a total rookie on the scene and I guess I just assumed "star" was what the pros called it.  I suppose when drawing a star most people start at the bottom left, go up, down, and then back through the middle, but that is a stretch.  It wasn't until the "DK Million Point March" thread that I realized I was the only ding-dong using the term "star". 

If indeed I just misheard Dwayne I guess that makes a decent origin story.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on March 06, 2013, 01:48:08 pm
Cool story Ross! I think, if I remember correctly, it is called the Ziggurat Pattern in Steve Sander's DK manual and also in 'How to Win at Donkey Kong' (which would be good sources from players bitd) -which actually makes a lot of sense.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Bliss1083 on March 24, 2013, 12:34:54 pm
the transition from mame to cab on donkey kong was rough for that. You can adjust the monitor size Von have you tried that at all?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 26, 2013, 05:07:30 pm
03/26/13:  Grabbed a few easy 130K starts, but couldn't get anything going.  Game feels easy for me, to the point now that I just expect to get a big score every time I play, so long as I can maintain focus.  With exception given to levels 1-4, I just don't feel like the game can kill me anymore.  My deaths are all really stupid and avoidable.  For instance, I actually ran into Kong on the rivets today - boneheaded!  Also, still not feeling super awesome on the elevators, though I'm past concern over whatever points I'm losing there (over the course of a full game they might add up to 5K = I don't care).

I feel good and am not deterred in the slightest by my lack of deep games.  I just need to keep playing and I got this thing for sure.  This game is my bitch. 
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on March 26, 2013, 06:39:16 pm

Hey Ross,

For the past 2-4 weeks, I've missed most of your online sessions.  I haven't boycotted your channel; I just haven't been receiving the standard email alerts.  I verified my account notification settings, and even tried "unfollowing" and then "following" you again.  None of the troubleshooting steps have had any effect.

I managed to catch the last few levels of your Wildcard Rematch #2 final game, but only because I suspected that, sooner or later, you'd be playing that evening.   :)

I'm not sure exactly when the alerts dropped off, but the problem seems to have coincided with the appearance of the following article:

http://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/943898-twitch-tv-and-justin-tv-are-now-separate-sites (http://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/943898-twitch-tv-and-justin-tv-are-now-separate-sites)

I wonder if others are also experiencing this issue?

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on March 26, 2013, 07:37:41 pm
I think it's because it has a justin.tv url as opposed to a twitch one.  I think it doesn't show up in aurcade streams also?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 27, 2013, 06:02:15 pm
Quote from: stella_blue on March 26, 2013, 06:39:16 pm

Hey Ross,

For the past 2-4 weeks, I've missed most of your online sessions.  I haven't boycotted your channel; I just haven't been receiving the standard email alerts.  I verified my account notification settings, and even tried "unfollowing" and then "following" you again.  None of the troubleshooting steps have had any effect.

I managed to catch the last few levels of your Wildcard Rematch #2 final game, but only because I suspected that, sooner or later, you'd be playing that evening.   :)

I'm not sure exactly when the alerts dropped off, but the problem seems to have coincided with the appearance of the following article:

http://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/943898-twitch-tv-and-justin-tv-are-now-separate-sites (http://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/943898-twitch-tv-and-justin-tv-are-now-separate-sites)

I wonder if others are also experiencing this issue?

Ah ha!  Thank you Scott.  That notice you linked describes exactly the problem I encountered when trying to switch my stream back to Twitch.  I'm not sure how to resolve the issues with notifications and Aurcade.  Perhaps it's time I opened a new Twitch account.


UPDATE:  I created a new Twitch account: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp)  I switched some things around and now this new stream will be featured on Aurcade.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 02, 2013, 10:11:18 pm
04/02/13:  Just one of those nights.  The good news is, it can't get any worse.  I think in order to pull this thing off I'll need to take my first man through a lot more boards than I am now.  Next session I'm going to try and really focus on getting an early start.  I lose way too much focus and momentum when I waste a bunch of time dicking around on the early levels.  In all my sessions so far I haven't once been able to dial a game up early.  As I've stated before, I become more relaxed as the game progresses.  Relaxation helps keep me from making execution errors or second guessing my fireball reads.  Every time I lose an early man to some stupid mistake my chances of taking one deep drop dramatically.   
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on April 03, 2013, 09:07:45 am
Quote from: VON on March 27, 2013, 06:02:15 pm

UPDATE:  I created a new Twitch account: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp)  I switched some things around and now this new stream will be featured on Aurcade.

Nice.  I look forward to getting the streaming notifications once again.

Just curious, is "DWWNP" an acronym?  If so, do I even have a prayer of guessing it correctly?

My first thought was, "Debauchery?  Wild Women?  No Problem!"  (quickly dismissed)

Since then, the best I've come up with is, "Deranged Wildcard Winner Needs Points".

Any hints, before I fill a series of notebooks with other guesses?   :)

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 19, 2013, 02:52:24 am
Sorry Scott,  I missed your last post.

Here's your hint: the new handle is spelled dwwnp, not DWWNP.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on April 19, 2013, 05:58:08 am
Quote from: VON on April 19, 2013, 02:52:24 am
Sorry Scott,  I missed your last post.

Here's your hint: the new handle is spelled dwwnp, not DWWNP.

Great hint.  I think I got it.

The lower case version, read upside down and backwards, is a partial representation of your Justin TV channel, while its "all caps" counterpart is not.

d w w n p  <=>  d u m m p

Thanks Ross.  It's not yet 9:00 AM here on the east coast, and I already feel as though I've accomplished something today.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 28, 2013, 12:18:06 am
04/27/13:  Played on a cab tonight.

The Bad: 
1.) I struggled again to get out of the gates and eventually became so frustrated I just warped to level 5. 
2.) I still find playing on the cabinet frustrating and lost my last two lives at the hands of the controls.  The first, entirely my fault, when my hand just slipped off the controller and I got eaten by a fireball.  The second, out of my control, when I hit jump, didn't jump, and got steamrolled by a barrel.

To say I prefer playing Donkey Kong on MAME is a major understatement.  I liken Arcade Donkey Kong to playing ice hockey on roller skates.       

The Good:
1.) My climb finished at 620K on level 13 with almost enough pace to summit the mountain, despite having helicoptered into base camp. 
2.) If I keep at it, I might have a real chance at becoming the world's best roller skating ice hockey player.  Well, at least for a minute.   
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on April 28, 2013, 01:14:49 am
Quote from: VON on April 28, 2013, 12:18:06 am
To say I prefer playing Donkey Kong on MAME is a major understatement.  I liken Arcade Donkey Kong to playing ice hockey on roller skates.       

I feel the same way about Junior, but the opposite. I find myself feeling well in control on a cab, but am a butterfingered fool in MAME.

As for papa DK, arcade vs. MAME controls is a dead heat for me. No clear winner...
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on May 03, 2013, 05:34:42 pm
05/02/13:  Round two on the cab over at the Kencade.

Tonight didn't go as well as the session from 04/27/13.  In fact, tonight's session was pretty trashy.

It was fun playing next to Mike though.  Hopefully we can start getting together more regularly and help keep each other motivated to qualify for the Kong Off 3.

I also picked up the footage from the 04/27/13 game because Ethan had told me there was a miraculous fireball escape on one of the barrel boards.  I made Ken dig up the footage not just because I wanted to masturbate while watching myself play, but also because I've been seriously considering assembling a new video - a fireball jumping video.

I'd love to assemble a sort of tribute video to all my fellow Kongers here at the DKForums.  I want to compile a video featuring the play of as many different Kong gamers as possible.  I think I can pull clips together by screen-capturing twitch archives, but if anyone has a more elegant solution I'm all ears.  If anyone just wants to send me flash recordings that would be great as well.
   
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: danman123456 on May 04, 2013, 01:04:02 pm
Sounds cool Ross. My stuck together firefox jump comes to mind :D
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on May 18, 2013, 12:54:21 am
05/17/13:  Session #3 at the Kencade did not go well score wise, yet I may have made the biggest breakthrough in my Donkey Kong playing career...

Notes to Self:

Your lack of success in chasing down the Donkey Kong world records is 100% mental.  Stop getting bent out of shape after a stupid death you big pussy face; the game can hardly ever kill you anymore, so either you won't die, or you'll die stupidly.  Accept your deaths and move on - don't let one death turn into a meltdown.

Don't play if you aren't sufficiently rested.

You're good for maybe two starts, after which your spring vision becomes pretty shitty and you start to get cranky and impatient.  This also applies when you're going for 130K+ starts: if you can't get the ball rolling after a few restarts, just stop and come back to the game later.

Start exercising again.  You'll be mentally more well and your shoulders and neck won't bother you so much when you're playing on the cab.

Ken is a really good friend.  When you do get the DK score you're after, make sure he knows you could not have done it without his support.  In fact, be sure to thank the community as a whole, as you would have long ago lost interest and motivation without them.  At the end of the day, a world record on a video game doesn't mean anything, but the friends you've made along the way, they matter a great deal.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: homerwannabee on May 18, 2013, 04:46:09 am
I know you have the world record or nothing approach, but have you thought about toning your game down just a bit?  For instance in the wildcard matches you easily got close to 1 million on your first games to boot!

Perhaps you should try a 1.1 million pace.  I'll make a skating analogy.  I feel you are the skater who is trying to pull off a quadruple Lutz(1.2 million pace), but hasn't even really practiced the triple Lutz (1.1 million pace). 

I really don't think it would take much for you to get a 1.1 million game.  You probably could do it within a week.  But once you get the foundation in place for a 1.1 million game, you probably will be able to have a much higher shot at the record.

One last thought.  The best golf players are not the ones who hit the ball the longest.  The best tennis players are not the ones who hit it the hardest.  If so Andy Roddick would have won at least 10 majors.  And finally the best MMA athletes are not the ones with the best physique.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on May 18, 2013, 06:06:04 am
Quote from: VON on May 18, 2013, 12:54:21 am
Ken is a really good friend.  When you do get the DK score you're after, make sure he knows you could not have done it without his support.  In fact, be sure to thank the community as a whole, as you would have long ago lost interest and motivation without them.  At the end of the day, a world record on a video game doesn't mean anything, but the friends you've made along the way, they matter a great deal.

A fitting punctuation to your 100th post.  I don't remember what I had to say when I hit the century mark, but I'm certain it was something far less meaningful.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on June 02, 2013, 04:58:25 pm
06/01/13:  Another ho hum cab session at the Kencade.  Nothing worthwhile to report, though my confidence is rising.  And with a small break from school in my near future, I may be able to play a whole lot more soon.

Let's see how close I have been staying to my one-session-per-week vow...

Official start date of mission "Unify the Belt": 02/28/13. 
Weeks since 02/28/13: 14.
Sessions since 02/28/13: 10.

So it looks like I have some ground to make up.  Look for me to start jamming hard around the middle weeks of June.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on July 09, 2013, 02:18:06 am
07/09/14:  This blog post was sent from the future!!  The future where my blog posts don't suck quite as hard.

It's difficult finding motivation to write about every shitty Donkey Kong session I have, and even more difficult to try and make a shitty session of Donkey Kong worth reading about.  And so, in an effort to make my blog entries more fun, I am giving this blog a makeover – it's a blogover.

This
EPIC
FUCKING
BLOG
POST
starts now!
___________________________________________________________________________________

Personal
My Donkey Kong play can sometimes be a reflection of my life. 

If my schedule is super hectic and all I want to do at the end of a day is relax, Donkey Kong too can become tedious, and as a result my play will be lackluster.  If I'm on vacation and have a lot of free time – some of which I will spend playing Donkey Kong and some of which I will spend drinking and sleeping – than I will be more relaxed and as a result play looser/better.  Thus, if I'm in limbo, somewhere between work and vacation, then it follows my Donkey Kong play will be somewhere between lackluster and first-rate.   

With school coming to an end (I'm wrapping up my last 2 classes this Summer) I am obviously in many ways excited and relieved, yet the stresses of homework and exams are now being replaced with the stresses of the real world.  I feel like I've earned the opportunity to just chill out for awhile, but surely any prospective employers will look down upon downtime.  Therefore, as a sort of compromise, I have decided to enroll in grad school, but not begin my graduate studies until Winter.  This break, from September through December, will give me the necessary time to decompress, however, it also has the potential to create great financial instability if I cannot find career-related work in the meantime.  I need to find a job or an internship that is relevant to my degree so I can begin building a resume that features impressions beyond a former Donkey Kong world record.  I need to get out there and market myself, and I fucking hate marketing myself.  A whole lot of phony smiles and cover letters await me, and as a result, despite being more or less on vacation, I am not relaxed – I am in limbo.

In line with my personal state, my Donkey Kong play is also in limbo.  It started with the Donkey Kong Open tournament, when I played for hours at roughly 1.1 million pace and got absolutely nowhere.  I had thought all my max point-pressing attempts would make 1.1 tries significantly easier, and they did, or, it WAS easier, yet not over-pressing the barrels didn't keep me from getting my ass melted off on every pie factory. 

“Fuck it!” I finally thought, “If I'm still subject to the whims of the pie factories then I really need to scale things back until I at least get a score on the board and secure my spot at the Kong Off.”

For now, my long-term Donkey Kong scoring goals have been put on hold.   

Since this decision my sessions have greatly improved.  Precisely, I've had two sessions each consisting of two games, with scores 2x500k and 2x800k.  Yes, I've still to get a score on the board, but my head is in a much better place now.  It used to be that playing at anything less than full bore felt like a waste of my time and ability.  I wasn't interested in scoring 1.1 million or whatever, I wanted the big one.  Now, in this state of limbo, I'm content to just play through a game at a medium pace and see what happens. 

Just like I need to find a job to provide some financial support for my family and help build a future within my chosen career, I need to put up a score and secure my spot in the Kong Off 3.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Educational
Recently I was asked why I often position myself to the right of the bottom hammer when setting up for the grab.  Here's the answer:

http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2541621 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2541621)

The name of the video is “Fireballs are Scared of Me”, but in reality, fireballs are not scared of me, nor am I a magician or a practitioner of voodoo witchcraft.  The video features a very particular circumstance wherein I have recognized and exploited a specific fireball “sub-routine”. 

“Sub-routine my dick!” you say.  “Lexmark science!” you say. 

Well, you are entitled to think (wrongly ;) ) whatever you want.  I will present you with evidence to support my claim, and you can decide for yourself what makes up reality.  Furthermore, I do not want this video to incite willy-nilly fireball jumping.  I do not want Allen to start thinking he can jump fireballs whenever he pleases.  Read and watch carefully, and judge for yourself whether it's worth further exploring this tactic and integrating it with your existing play.

Here's another video showing exploitation of essentially the same sub-routine.

http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2541491 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2541491)

Questions I can imagine people are having: one, How does this generate advantage? and two, Is the risk worth it?   

One: advantage is gained by delaying the hammer grab.  I believe these videos demonstrate clearly, that by delaying the hammer grab by just an extra half-second I am given the opportunity for an extra smash.  Even if I miss the steer to claim the extra barrel, the opportunity was there.  Had I been standing to the left of the hammer in either scenario I would have been too uncomfortable not to grab the hammer from the left – grab the hammer a half-second earlier – and missed out on the potential for an extra barrel as a result.

Two: the only risk associated with this tactic is in misreading the sub-routine; the sub-routine shown in these first two videos can be exploited 100% of the time.  Look now at how I respond when I recognize the fireball as not fitting to the sub-routine shown in the first two videos.

http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2541570 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2541570)

Can you spot the fireball “tell” that made me adjust my positioning?  Can you spot the “tell” that made me confident to jump towards the fireball in the first two videos?   

I didn't know precisely how the fireball was going to behave after it deviated from the sub-routine shown in the first two videos.  All I knew was that the fireball had become a potential threat, and that if I did not adjust my position and the fireball came charging back at me, I would stand a good chance of dying.  In this case, everything worked out swimmingly and the extra delay before the hammer grab netted me extra smashes.

When discussing some of this on Twitch the other day, I was asked why I wouldn't just stand to the left except when I recognized the safe sub-routine.  Here's the answer (but please keep in mind that this is an answer to why I play this way and not necessarily a response to why playing like this is best):

I want as much of my movement as possible to be focused towards the left, and specifically, towards Kong's ladder where I can intercept barrels and drastically reduce their time on the higher girders.  This means I want to prevent the fireball from dictating my movement as much as possible.  I don't want to put myself in a position where I have to react to the fireball when it may be unnecessary to do so.  I want to give the fireballs as much time as possible to tell me their intentions.  Watch here as I expertly :) maximize a bottom hammer by standing my ground.

http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2542134 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2542134)

And here again, an example wherein I react to the fireball only after it has made its intentions clear (don't mind the anti-Pac-Man rant). 

http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2541546 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/2541546)

Guessing at fireball behavior can get you killed and preempting a possible fireball threat can lose you points. Don't do either, if you can help it.

These videos were all from one playing session – two games – hence I am not talking about corner case scenarios here.  These situations come up, and if you can remain calm in the face of fire, your scores will rise.  Additionally, jumping fireballs shows everyone just how large a bulge you're sporting.  In the CAG world the importance of style points is often overlooked.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Professional
When the rules governing how the Wild Card tournaments would feed the Kong Off Wild Card division were initially announced, I was less than pleased.  As it was initially drawn up, the structure of the Wild Card tournaments had the potential to actually hurt players who were near the bottom of the top 12.  I withdrew from the third Wild Card Tournament for exactly this reason.  The way I saw it, the Wild Card division was getting out of control and taking away way too many of the privileges afforded to the top 12 players.  I don't support affirmative action. 

In the end though, Eric and John responded to feedback from the community and got it right (in my opinion) with the Donkey Kong Open tournament structure.

I never meant to be condescending to the efforts of Eric or John, they are a gift to the Donkey Kong community. 

Thank you Eric and John.  Thank you.
___________________________________________________________________________________

Alright that's all I have for now, except for this one last feature of my blogover,...

The Tip of the Day/Month/Whatever (imagine a booming echo): The moment you start believing the game is against you, the game will turn against you.  As much as you possibly can, stop believing in randomness and blaming it for your deaths.  Take ownership of your play and ask first, “How can I stop that from happening again?” and not “What the fuck was that bullshit!?”

Disclaimer: this particular Tip of the Day does not apply to levels 1 through 4; levels 1 through 4 ARE, in fact, total bullshit.


Until next time, may your largeness be huge.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: xelnia on July 09, 2013, 02:25:49 am
Quite epic indeed!

I'm a firm believer in taking responsibility for your own play. But I agree, Levels 1-4 are bullshit.  ;D
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: tudose on July 09, 2013, 02:29:46 am
haha levels 1-4 are bullshit and i love them. great stuff, ross
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 02:56:00 am
Splendid!!!

This was some tasty readin'.

Now I'll proceed to disagree with you, but with the utmost hugs...

Quote from: VON on July 09, 2013, 02:18:06 am
As it was initially drawn up, the structure of the Wild Card tournaments had the potential to actually hurt players who were near the bottom of the top 12.  I withdrew from the third Wild Card Tournament for exactly this reason.  The way I saw it, the Wild Card division was getting out of control and taking away way too many of the privileges afforded to the top 12 players.  I don't support affirmative action.

Well, I'll be interested to see how you feel about this if/when Richie and Jourdan make it official that MAME scores won't qualify players for a dedicated machine...

One of the reasons I DO support "affirmative action" in the case of the KO is because more wildcard time helps to mitigate what I see as a problematic "top 12 in the world" system, which is really a "top 12 in the world who also have an arcade machine and want to cough up 60 bucks" system.

As it stands, Phil T. and Robbie are already out if they go arcade-only, and/or if they insist on verification (since Robbie's game is ineligible for official submission regardless).

If you get your 1.1, but don't get a headline spot because of these politics, then you should at least have your own cab on Sunday. The wildcard format makes that possible.

I support the new TG, and in fact I would love it if everybody submitted, and our Top 12 here mirrored theirs, but that's never gonna be the case, so the qualification requirement to be a headliner isn't my favorite.

Remember KO1, when everyone just kinda played it by ear and the community essentially voted in the participants after hashing it out on CAG? Perhaps that was the right idea.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on July 09, 2013, 03:18:59 am
Quote from: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 02:56:00 am
Well, I'll be interested to see how you feel about this if/when Richie and Jourdan make it official that MAME scores won't qualify players for a dedicated machine...

Indeed, I have already planned to write about this situation in a future blog entry.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: mikegmi2 on July 09, 2013, 06:39:53 am
Great post Ross, I will have to watch the vids when I get home from work...some very interesting stuff!

The MAME vs Arcade thing is pretty tough...and I can already tell the whole KO3 top 12 thing is going to be really tough.  There are valid arguments on both sides for/against letting MAME scores be mixed in with arcade, or at least letting them qualify you for the KOs.  All of this is stuff I remember reading on CAG/TG and other forums:

The for side can say that it is the exact same game.  There are really no differences at all.  The KO2 showed that MAME players are perfectly capable of beating all the Arcade players (Dean and Jeff coming in 1st and 2nd).  And although Dean practiced with an arcade stick for quite a bit before the event, Jeff reportedly never touched an arcade stick or machine before, and still beat everyone.

The against will bring in all the small details between playing on MAME and Arcade.
- Playing on a slanted Sanyo EZ-20 is different than playing on a brand new LED computer monitor.
- Playing on a joystick is harder because it takes longer to move between left/right/up/down, and takes longer to push an arcade button compared to pressing a keyboard key to jump.
- Time between restarts is longer on arcade because you have to kill off your men before you can restart a new game.
- Standing, or sitting on a stool at a specific height, can wear you out or be more uncomfortable than sititng in a computer chair, at any height you like.
- Recording an arcade performance takes more steps and is a more thorough verification process than MAME.  You have to show yourself, speak into the camera, record the inside of your machine, power the machine on and off, etc, none of which you have to do during a MAME performance.

There are points for and against grouping all the scores together, but it does make it tough to combine 2 things when you are able to list even 1 difference between these 2 things...and those against grouping them all together would probably come up with a long list of reasons why to keep things seperate.

As for what's right...I don't have all the answers...so I have to be careful how I share my opinions.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Milehighdt on July 09, 2013, 07:06:49 am
Way to go Ross, You may of convinced me to play from the right when the fire climbs the broken ladder. I don't know how many times I jump away from the fire the moment it stops coming at me and climbs to the third girder GRRRRRR. >:(

 I need to get myself going and finish a video on exploiting another fireball weakness and save some wasted jumpman lives.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on July 09, 2013, 08:34:29 am
Kudos.  Very nice post Ross.

Quote from: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 02:56:00 am
Remember KO1, when everyone just kinda played it by ear and the community essentially voted in the participants after hashing it out on CAG? Perhaps that was the right idea.

Highly controversial, but perhaps a better/more accurate way of doing it.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: LMDAVE on July 09, 2013, 10:20:23 am
I would never like to see it turn into a voting system.

KO1 had sort of a qualification, it wasn't really voting in.

900K "live" was the qualification, which ended up being expanded to streaming also (which is how I got in) and there weren't many streaming back then.

So the field ended up being:

Previous record holders:
Hank
Billy
Steve
Tim S.

Dean & Vince (for their MAME 1M+ accomplishments)

Eric Howard (957K on TG)
Ben (900K+ live)
Dave M (900K+ streamed)
Ross (900k+ MAME accomplishments and overall recognition amongst all DK players, probably the only 'vote' in)

There was the original 10, Tim S dropped out and was replaced by Mark K who has a 922K score but wasn't streamed I believe).

Last second entry was Kyle Goewart who shocked the field with a late TG submitted 980K+ game (which was #4 on the TG list at the time) , had to be included.

So the field became 11.

Anyway, not to derail Ross' awesome blog, just wanted to clarify the KO1 qualification.


Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 12:29:49 pm
I don't have the clearest memory of how the KO1 qualification discussion went down, and I think some of it happened off of the forum, which I wouldn't have seen. I do remember the criteria being discussed at one point and it seemed somewhat informal. But you'd definitely know more about that. I know Scott Kessler was annoyed at not being invited. At any rate, it didn't require a TG verification, it was more what the community acknowledged as legit scores.

With a couple of exceptions (like Scott) things were also a lot more cut and dry back then in terms of who deserved a spot. It was you guys, and then a pretty significant drop-off in scores. Nowadays it's a fight over inches.

I actually don't much like the idea of some kind of vote system either, the more I think about it. It's one thing to be mad at TG, we don't all want to be mad at each other.  ;D
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: LMDAVE on July 09, 2013, 01:07:02 pm
Not sure what happened With Scott Kessler. He was away from the scene for a while at the time of KO1. I heard Richie tried to reach out for his contact info. And he didn't resurface into the scene after KO1. Yeah, that was the cool thing about KO1, not many had advanced to where it is now, and KoK was still pretty fresh....it was fun being a star for the weekend and attending my first event and meeting everyone.

Now in 2013, it's a real competition. I'm surprised where it is now. I'm disappointed in hearing RTM's comment that maybe the game isn't as hard as he originally thought. Even though all tricks are streamed for everyone to see "what to do", but the game is still extremely hard to pull off the pressing techniques for 21 levels. But, it's still the perfect game for competition setting, especially for all-year open qualifications.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 01:44:39 pm
Honestly, I think it was a lot more meaningful to get a million up until 2012. Not just because so few had done it, but because there wasn't an army of people available to help with strategy and motivation. Now we have that, the Kong Offs to incentivize competition, training videos, a manual coming, etc. etc. Of course, having said that, most of the people who recently got a million were already working on it prior to that stuff. But it might start to get crazy over the next year or two. The million list might start looking like the kill screen list does now!

As for what Robert said, my feeling is that if you subjected all of these classic games to the same degree of competition and analysis that DK has been subjected to, then the perception of difficulty would go down for those games. It's easy to say that a game is hard when only 3 or 4 people are really pushing at it, and most CAG games are that way. I don't think Abdner Ashman would have the Ms. Pac Man record, for example, if there was a community of over a hundred people playing, literally around the clock, to beat it!

DK IS hard. It's incredibly hard! Can anybody say that they've played another video game that took this much time and dedication to master?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: up2ng on July 09, 2013, 01:52:13 pm
Quote from: VON on July 09, 2013, 02:18:06 am
Recently I was asked why I often position myself to the right of the bottom hammer when setting up for the grab.
...

The video features a very particular circumstance wherein I have recognized and exploited a specific fireball “sub-routine”. 

“Sub-routine my dick!” you say.  “Lexmark science!” you say. 

Indeed.   ;)

Quote
Two: the only risk associated with this tactic is in misreading the sub-routine; the sub-routine shown in these first two videos can be exploited 100% of the time.

Hmm...

Quote
Additionally, jumping fireballs shows everyone just how large a bulge you're sporting.  In the CAG world the importance of style points is often overlooked.

Aha!!   8)   

Quote
The moment you start believing the game is against you, the game will turn against you.

This is very true.  This game is very mentally challenging.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: homerwannabee on July 09, 2013, 03:02:29 pm
Quote from: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 01:44:39 pm
It's easy to say that a game is hard when only 3 or 4 people are really pushing at it, and most CAG games are that way. I don't think Abdner Ashman would have the Ms. Pac Man record, for example, if there was a community of over a hundred people playing, literally around the clock, to beat it!



One thing though.  Never underestimate the heart of a champion.  Would Abdner Ashman's current score be the world record score?  No, most likely not.  But I do think he would make a run at it, and I wouldn't write him off at getting a much higher score.

A good example of this is Mark Kiehl.  The man has had his battles with Steve Wiebe, and won, and then Billy Mitchell came at him, and he still came out on top, than I came at him on the MAME side, and he still came out on top, and than finally Mike Kasper came at him, and he crushed that score as well.

If you give a man a title, that man will on occasion do everything possible to keep that title.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 03:05:36 pm
Abdner is the man, but yeah, I'm just saying.

You're right though, if he didn't have the title with his current score, it would be him with a HIGHER score!

And after watching Ben on DK3, I don't think anyone will ever beat you on that game regardless of competition, your scores are psycho.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: gstrain on July 09, 2013, 05:02:55 pm
Quote from: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 03:05:36 pm
Abdner is the man, but yeah, I'm just saying.

You're right though, if he didn't have the title with his current score, it would be him with a HIGHER score!
You guys realize Ms-Pac scores are just luck for the top players?  They are getting perfect eats, so the only difference in scores is getting lucky with the fruit and getting lucky to get extra boards at the end.  Donkey Kong has a lot of randomness, but with Ms-Pac the final score of the top players is mostly randomness, which saps the incentive to keep trying to improve your score.

I'm also still convinced that a Ms-Pac Kill Screen is significantly harder than a DK Kill Screen.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 05:25:06 pm
Actually George, you're right, I picked an exceedingly poor example.  ;D

Still though, if you had enough players putting in enough hours at enough Ms. Pac Man games, you'd eventually get a few who'd run into a neverending banana parade. The top 10 (or 20, or 30, or whatever) would be full of perfect eats with good fruit, and the perception of the game's difficulty would go down, even though it's no easier than it's ever been.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: homerwannabee on July 09, 2013, 06:13:56 pm
Quote from: ChrisP on July 09, 2013, 03:05:36 pm

And after watching Ben on DK3, I don't think anyone will ever beat you on that game regardless of competition, your scores are psycho.

Thanks, that is probably one of the greatest complements I have ever received.  Being the exception to someone's rule is pretty cool! 8) 

Truth be told, it's talk like this that will eventually bring down my record.  The unbeatable records are always the ones that seem to be beaten i.e. Joust, Missile Command, and Q*bert as examples.

Now if I can keep the talk at "Yeah, your records are beatable, but it's not worth all that effort.", than I will be able to have this record for decades to come until people will erroneously think that my DK3 records are unbeatable since it has been so long. ;D 
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on September 27, 2013, 12:13:38 am
Speech, speech!

I will, of course, have to blog about this at some point soon. (And it's a good thing I learned my lesson from "Falls Fails!" or else I might have titled it "VonDummpenstein Takes A Huge #2" ;D )
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on September 27, 2013, 02:19:50 am
Hahah.  Best blog post title ever Chris! and thank you.  However, I hope this is just the first of many good games to come, and so please allow me to save the speech until I do something truly special.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on October 17, 2013, 02:34:24 am
If any of you guys is ever feeling particularly masochistic, go ahead and give Donkey Kong speed 2 a try.

You'll need a version of MAME that supports the speed up feature, as using frame advance will produce varying results depending on your processor speed.  Using the speed up option in newer version of MAME should allow everyone to play at the exact same speed, in theory.

Here's a clip of my best: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3097277 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3097277)

I used MAME version 126 or 127.  I can't be exactly sure because I deleted everything related to this miserable DK variant immediately after recording the above game.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on November 11, 2013, 01:30:18 am
Luck in Donkey Kong

I think "luck" in DK looks something like this:

          [ZERO]-[2]-----[5]-----[8]-[10]

A spectrum of sorts that scales out logarithmically from 5(in this crude example), wherein 5 represents "average luck", 0 represents "shit luck", 10 represents "miraculous luck", and the range between 2 and 8 is meant to stand as “survivable”.

I feel that DK demonstrates behavior in the “survivable” range, between 2 and 8, with greater frequency than it demonstrates behavior in the 0 to 2 or 8 to 10 ranges (the “extreme” ranges), and I chose a logarithmic scale to express this idea.  Also, it's relevant that the “extremes” have a smaller range than the “survivable” range – i.e the variety of ways in which things go “survivable” well, far exceed the variety of ways in which things go either fantastically super or disastrously poor.

Many players, myself included, get bent out of shape rather easily when, for example, a series of barrels won't steer, or a rivet board doesn't “make it easy” on them, when, in fact, the problem board at hand may only be exhibiting type 3 or type 4 behavior on the spectrum of “luck”.  Point being, “average luck” is the best  any player can hope for over the course of an entire game, and while it may seem at times like all you're getting is 2's and 3's, those 7's and 8's might be just a round the corner. 

But there are games when that “luck” just never levels out to 5, or never has a chance to because the first 30 boards were 1's and Jumpman is dead.  There are games pinned at 7 the whole time, only to be botched by the player.  And there are many games cursed for “if only that pie factory hadn't been a 1!”, which had, in actuality, provided greater than 5 “luck” up to that critical point.

The same scale can be applied to “pace”, only the “pace” range is separate from the “survivable” range, with the actual range of  “pace” dependent on the “pace” itself, obviously.  A JRTFBDN game has a “pace” range equal to that of the “survivable” range.  Whereas a 1.2 million game has a “pace” range considerably smaller than the “survivable” range.  As “pace” increases, so do the variety of ways in which boards can be corrupting of the goal, thus, the range of “extremes” increases.  However,  the frequency of  type 5 boards is the same regardless of “pace”.

So, this is all nonsense, of course, because there's no one way to quantify what constitutes a 0 and what constitutes a 10.  Yet, just for fun, I'll throw out a few benchmarks.

Barrel Board

Pie Factory

Elevators

Rivets
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: mikegmi2 on November 11, 2013, 08:52:42 am
Enjoyed the write up Ross.  This is something I have been contemplating a lot lately. 

This randomness, or luck factor, is what keeps the game interesting...but also makes you throw your arms up in the air shouting WTF.

It would be hard, maybe impossible, to quantify the luck factor...but I believe this to be the most significant 'stat' out there.  After all, the randomness/luck factor is what allows a player to make it to the end.  Whether you get a game full of free passes, no screwings on rivets...or make it to the end even though you did get screwed...but jumped fireball after fireball, and "got out" of seemingly impassable situations (got lucky)...the game itself dictates whether or not you will make it to the end.

Speaking from personal experience...I have played for a stretch of weeks, where I can't pass L8-L9, due to screwings where I would have either had to forsee fireball movements and avoided paths (used my future-sight powers), jumped fireballs/firefoxes successfully...or had that barrel steer down the broken ladder for me when the fireball that was climbing as my hammer expired eventually ran me down.

On the other side there are games where I have blown it big time, making it to L11 or 12 with all my men, only to make human errors, killing off all my men in the 800-900k range.

The game is night and day.  The degree of difficulty goes from easy to impossible in the blink of an eye.  This is probably the crux of 'competing' in a Donkey Kong 'competition'.  Everyone will experience a completely different DK experience this weekend.  Some will no doubt get games in the 0-2 range, while others will be blessed with games in the 8-9 range.

It's probably impossible, but I think the only way to have as close to a 'fair' competition as we could hope for, would be some sort of modified ROM version that presented each player with the exact same degree of difficulty throughout the game.  The same number of non-steerable barrels L5+, same number of non-Free Pass PFs, same number of rivet screens where the player is forced to 'freestyle', same number of spring stages where you are forced to retreat multiple times in a row, etc.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on November 11, 2013, 09:57:02 am
Luck is definitely a big factor in DK... however, when you see Dean pull Houdini-like escapes time after time do you really think it's all luck?  "If I have all this good fortune, if everything’s rolling my way, if all these balls have bounced in my favor, there is some poor bastard out there who is getting the screws put to him."  If the pie factory always gave free passes and the star pattern always worked, there'd be thousands of killscreeners.  Knowing what to do when you get dealt a bad hand is what separates the good from the better.   Now don't get me wrong, there are times where you get completely screwed over and seemingly die no matter what you do.

When I got my first killscreen, I thought it was the luckiest game ever.  In fact one of my first posts to the old TG forums was about how much luck was necessary to get to the killscreen.  Fast forward 4 1/2 years and I can tell you that I (running boards and assuming an L5 start) can reach the killscreen >50% of the time.  I'm sure the same is true for almost every 1M point player. 

I don't want to understate the luck factor.  That is a big part of the game especially in a live/limited time competition but I would compare it to poker-- obviously there is luck involved, but the same people seem to win/make the final table in the WSOP every year which means there is more to it than luck.  3 of the top 4 players in KO1 and KO2 were the same.  If Jeff Willms played at KO1 it probably would have been 4 out of the top 5.  (That statement will probably not hold up this year as so many players have improved their game, but I think you get my point.)

As you say, luck is what makes this game so interesting and frustrating. 
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on November 11, 2013, 10:23:49 am
You don't need luck when you have swag.

-- drops mic --
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: mikegmi2 on November 11, 2013, 11:19:17 am
Yea I compare it to poker a lot too...but actually it is pretty rare for anyone that has made the final table, or won the main event, to make it back again the next year...or ever, for that matter.

I don't think Moneymaker has come close since he won it in 2003...starting the poker boom.  Raymer did make it deep once or twice, but hasn't ever made it back to the final table.  Most/all of poker's "top players" rarely go deep in the main event.  Phil Helmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey...etc...they're almost always gone after the first 2-3 days.  There's usually 1 or 2 "stars" that will make it deep each year...but it usually works out in a sensible ratio of stars:regulars.  Many say Dan Harrington has had the most impressive main event career out of all top players...as he did in fact win the main event...and years later make back to back final tables in large fields of players.  Truly impressive.

I guess to be fair, if you look at the 9 final table contestants this year...I believe they are all technically "professional poker players"...which would lean toward an argument that the true pros always make it to the final table...but at the same time, most of the field that have the $10k to enter the main event are in fact "professional poker players"...so odds are the final table will be full of "poker professionals"...regardless of whether they played good or sucked out all tournament to get to the final table.

Most of the WSOP winners as of late have been young twenty somethings.  Ryan Riess, this year's winner, lived a handful of miles from me and used to deal in a charity poker room I've been to a few times.  Joe Cada, the 2009 winner, lives in my city (Shelby Township) just a few miles away I believe.  23 and 21 years old when they won the main event...going up against Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, and all the other greats with many more hours and years worth of tournament poker experience.

I don't believe this to be true about Donkey Kong, but I am a believer that, for poker tournaments like the main event...the people that make the final table are carried there by the cards dealt to them.  They aren't there by making better plays than the other players.  If it is deep in a poker tournament, and the flop brings top set against middle set, its all getting in the middle. The cards basically play the players...not the other way around.

There is some of this "cards playing the players" going on within DK.  To what degree, I am not sure.  But it is there. 

If you go back and watch a lot of the big DK games out there, there is no doubt tons of skill and discipline involved...but I think you would be surprised at how fortunate most of those games were as well...if you took a close look at them.  Paying attention to things like "hey if that barrel woulda rolled down on its own right there you woulda been dead", "that firefox ran to the right for a split second, otherwise you were toast", "if Kong dropped a bomb there you were dead", "good thing he didn't throw a wild barrel right there or you were a gonner", "that hammer lasted just long enough to smash that climbing fireball, otherwise it was game over on L19". 

Get a pen and paper, tally them up.  It's possible you might find out many games Mario had 9 lives (or at least 5 or 6), rather than 4.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on November 11, 2013, 12:01:41 pm
My bad, I was under the impression that the same group of players were always making it to the final table.  But I bet there is a disproportionately large # of pro players at the final table.

Quote from: mikegmi2 on November 11, 2013, 11:19:17 am
If you go back and watch a lot of the big DK games out there, there is no doubt tons of skill and discipline involved...but I think you would be surprised at how fortunate most of those games were as well...if you took a close look at them.

You have to keep in mind that the big games are 1 of 100's or 1000's.  Obviously they're going to be lucky games.  They are not the best games to learn competition style/safe play from and they are definitely not representative of average luck.  Sometimes I will risk getting 1/16th (or even 1/4th) if I'm going for a WR... especially early in the game or if I get myself into a situation where a fireball is trolling me.  In a lucky game you could risk it 50 times and never die.

These people aren't really any "luckier" than anyone else.  They've just played out enough games to get that one lucky one.  You can't compare your average luck game with their luckiest game otherwise you'll think you're the bastard who's getting the screws put to them.

Quote from: Xermon54 on November 11, 2013, 10:23:49 am
You don't need luck when you have swag.

From the only person to have ever gotten 800x5 blue smashes on 1-1, I think you mean "You don't need swag when you have luck."  Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: mikegmi2 on November 11, 2013, 12:37:42 pm
Quote from: hchien on November 11, 2013, 12:01:41 pm

They've just played out enough games to get that one lucky one. 

Agreed.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on November 11, 2013, 02:22:59 pm
I like Ross's scheme here a lot.

I agree with Hank. My experience is that as I've become a better player, I've also become a "luckier" player (if you know what I mean...)

And to me, the luck of being in the right physiological/psychological "state" when playing is at least as much of a factor as whatever the game is dishing out.

I consider player state to be luck because a lot of it is out of the player's control, and I have found no way to guarantee or definitively identify what factors put me in (or not in) the zone, and there seem to be few definite correlations. Sometimes I play well while tired. Sometimes I play well while naturally awake, but not when awake from a caffeine rush. I NEVER play well while angry (which is one of very few correlations that I am now pretty much satisfied with), etc.

But again, you can't necessarily control what state you're in when you play, and to me, that's part of the luck.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 03, 2014, 04:10:44 am
Thinking I was clever, I was going to update my signature with "First person to climb Mt. Everest naked", but then I found this article: http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/climbing/nude-sherpa-news.htm (http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/climbing/nude-sherpa-news.htm)

Damn it.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on February 03, 2014, 07:15:51 am
I don't think anyone has ever killscreened DK in the nude.  Here's your chance.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: homerwannabee on February 03, 2014, 10:51:35 am
Quote from: hchien on February 03, 2014, 07:15:51 am
I don't think anyone has ever killscreened DK in the nude.  Here's your chance.


I don't know how you could forget about Vincent Lemay! LOL
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 07, 2014, 08:24:05 pm
If I Had A Quarter...

Unfortunately, I have no way to calculate an accurate Donkey Kong MAME playcount because I've reinstalled several times over the years.  Yet, with so many 5-minute savestate sessions during commercials, it's safe to assume my total playcount is over 10K!!  Add to that another 500 or so games played on an actual cabinet, and I have "spent"  $2,625 playing Donkey Kong.

I have won two Wildcard Rematches, and finished second in one Kong Off, netting me a prize total around $1,650.

Thus, even discounting travel expenses, I'm still a $1000 loser.  FailFish

Oh, but wait... Every friend I've made through this game is worth at least $1,000,000, so nevermind, I'm fucking rich as hell!!

P.S.  I finally registered for the upcoming DK Open, though I haven't dropped a single credit since the Kong Off 3 and am not sure I can even play that weekend.  Good luck to all.   
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 08, 2014, 09:47:10 pm
Quote from: MDARULZ from CAGDC
Enjoy the other places out there, the majority of which don't care about their members anywhere near as much as staff here does...

Raw delusion.

Quote from: MDARULZ from CAGDC
unreasonable people don't change their colors...

As evidenced by the behavior of  <Pigger>.

It's too bad  <Pigger> ran CAGDC into the toilet.  It was once a vibrant place for CAG discussion and community building.

 <Pigger> is an odd mix of control-freak and laziness, so he prefers to spend his free hours making forum posts or having phone conversations to excuse his laziness, rather than actually fix any of the problems members bring up.

I do give  <Pigger> credit for at least addressing the concerns of CAGDC members, however, as alluded to above, his addressing of members' concerns is primarily to convince himself what a good job he is doing.

I'm going to join BBH and jump ship at CAGDC, but I want it to be known that I'm leaving not because the forums are dead, but because they're dead on account of the forum admin himself,  <Pigger>.

 <Pigger> is a behind-the-times, stubborn, close-minded, and ultimately delusional person.  I just can't support CAGDC in any capacity any longer (not that I really have over the past few years, but I'm now making my intentions clear).

 <Pigger>, if you ever read this, it's you, not me.  It's 100% you, and no one else.  It's you  <Pigger>.  Hey  <Pigger>, it's your fault, not the fault of your members.  You keep crying to get credit for all your hard work, but I've seen exactly zero evidence of any hard work.  You're lazy, and CAGDC is dead because of you.  You repeatedly blame its members for not posting enough whilst giving little recognition to your own failings, beyond accepting that you are behind on the scoreboard and new member approvals - but again, this is just stuff you say, and never do anything about.

R.I.P. CAGDC, and long live DKF.     
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: tudose on February 09, 2014, 07:55:01 am
best post. all hail dkf. jc all day Kreygasm
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: dave88 on February 11, 2014, 04:54:12 am
Tell us how you really feel Mr. VonPimpenstein
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: dave88 on February 11, 2014, 05:04:28 am
Quote from: VON on February 07, 2014, 08:24:05 pm
I haven't dropped a single credit since the Kong Off 3 and am not sure I can even play that weekend.

Resting on your laurels are ye?
Not that they aren't mighty fine laurels to be resting on  ;D
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on February 11, 2014, 06:36:45 am
Quote
Thus, even discounting travel expenses, I'm still a $1000 loser.

I spent 1,5k only for the last Kong Off 3! (I paid for me and Alexandra). And I never got any money from playing DK (probably because I suck at DK (no homo)).

But it doesn't matter. Because money will go... money will always go. But the Donkey Kong title, will stay!

Fk that I don't even have any Donkey Kong title, I'm broke as fk! Fk this abuse im outta here!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: SanTe on February 11, 2014, 09:27:28 am
Quote from: VON on February 08, 2014, 09:47:10 pm
Quote from: MDARULZ from CAGDC
Enjoy the other places out there, the majority of which don't care about their members anywhere near as much as staff here does...

Raw delusion.

Quote from: MDARULZ from CAGDC
unreasonable people don't change their colors...

As evidenced by the behavior of  <Pigger>.

It's too bad  <Pigger> ran CAGDC into the toilet.  It was once a vibrant place for CAG discussion and community building.

 <Pigger> is an odd mix of control-freak and laziness, so he prefers to spend his free hours making forum posts or having phone conversations to excuse his laziness, rather than actually fix any of the problems members bring up.

I do give  <Pigger> credit for at least addressing the concerns of CAGDC members, however, as alluded to above, his addressing of members' concerns is primarily to convince himself what a good job he is doing.

I'm going to join BBH and jump ship at CAGDC, but I want it to be known that I'm leaving not because the forums are dead, but because they're dead on account of the forum admin himself,  <Pigger>.

 <Pigger> is a behind-the-times, stubborn, close-minded, and ultimately delusional person.  I just can't support CAGDC in any capacity any longer (not that I really have over the past few years, but I'm now making my intentions clear).

 <Pigger>, if you ever read this, it's you, not me.  It's 100% you, and no one else.  It's you  <Pigger>.  Hey  <Pigger>, it's your fault, not the fault of your members.  You keep crying to get credit for all your hard work, but I've seen exactly zero evidence of any hard work.  You're lazy, and CAGDC is dead because of you.  You repeatedly blame its members for not posting enough whilst giving little recognition to your own failings, beyond accepting that you are behind on the scoreboard and new member approvals - but again, this is just stuff you say, and never do anything about.

R.I.P. CAGDC, and long live DKF.   

Nail.  Head.

I have nothing to add to the above...  Actually, that's not true.  As a former two-time CAGDC moderator, including its first ever global moderator, I have lots I could add, but I've already wasted too much of my life energy on that guy, time I can never get back.  But I can definitively say this: "Where the players come first" is the biggest insult in this hobby there is, and the only mystery to me is why it took so long for so many others to begin to see that for themselves.

That is all.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Scoundrl on February 11, 2014, 10:42:06 am
As one of the '6' banned members I am glad to see the demise of CAGDC.  <Pigger> Ross is right, its not us its YOU. You can control your little corner of the internet and hang onto the last two or three members you have that post but your days of 'relevance' are long since over.

I know people are saying that the site has promise but I assure everyone, there is no future for this hobby in people like <Pigger>. Lets all move on, lets get something new going. We can data mine the relevant data from the site before it goes dark and we can again start moving in a positive direction.

-Ken
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: JNugent on February 11, 2014, 11:21:30 am
Ken used an emoticon.  The world will now end.   ;)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: BBH on February 12, 2014, 01:21:02 am
no guys you don't get it, over-moderation and posting by approval is a good thing and actually HELPS forums out in the long run because


Edit: actually I should clarify. I didn't leave CAGDC solely because of the posting by approval thing, although it was the main reason for my infrequent posting there in the last year. Rather it was the straw that broke the camel's back, seeing that he has no intention of changing what he firmly believes to be correct. Existing members are getting driven away, new members are never approved (and nobody is going to want to pay money to register for an overly moderated forum where all their posts have to be manually approved)... that's not a good look for a community.

In retrospect, I should have seen the warning signs two years ago when he banned all discussion of Battle of the Arcades on the forum because he felt like the weekend for that event was chosen to purposely coincide with his own tournament. "Where the players come first", indeed! Good god.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: johnbart on February 12, 2014, 01:50:03 am
Two new member posts in the same thread!  Welcome Chris and Matt.  PNW representing!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on February 12, 2014, 04:48:18 am
Quote from: BBH on February 12, 2014, 01:21:02 am
"Where the players come first"

"Where the players can manipulate the tourney system by paying for imaginary players in order to choose games you prefer, encouraged by the tourney organizer".  Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hooch66 on February 12, 2014, 10:03:36 am
Cags forum policies are just bizarre. Why would anyone new even bother to attempt to join there?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: D.B. Cooper on February 12, 2014, 03:06:17 pm
Make it three.

I had one of my posts at CAGDC not posted after a moderator decided it wasn't positive enough.  At that time I told myself I would never post there again but because I'm often bored at work and weak minded, I didn't follow through.  Now that I've found this forum, I think I can avoid the other place.  It seems I'll have to practice up some on my DK game to hang out here but that can be done.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: QAOP Spaceman on February 12, 2014, 03:32:50 pm

Four now...

Long time lurker over there at Fortress Alpiger because there's a tremendous amount of old game-realted material and *gulp* I´m the kind of weirdo who loves the games i played a quarter of a century ago...

But *gulp**gulp* I've no highscores, and no friends in the clique (
both requirements to join the  <Pigger> party...)

Lurking here too because so much great comradeship and innarestin' activity ( <Tim> ) on the forums and I do love playing DK inbetween my favs.

Time to stop lurking, join in, and get practicing like D.B.!!!

And maybe even some ZK  :o
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on February 12, 2014, 03:39:32 pm

A robust welcome to all you guys!

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on February 12, 2014, 04:07:03 pm
Quote from: D.B. Cooper
I had one of my posts at CAGDC not posted after a moderator decided it wasn't positive enough.

(http://www.angelanoelle.com/.a/6a00d83453dc2969e2017ee97da352970d-800wi)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: danman123456 on February 12, 2014, 05:31:01 pm
Welcome everyone!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: tudose on February 12, 2014, 05:34:02 pm
welcome to all. love it <YSG> <YSG> <YSG> <YSG> <YSG>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Weehawk on February 12, 2014, 07:27:04 pm
(http://www.slither-gdi.net/alipiger.jpg)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: syscrusher on February 12, 2014, 07:32:37 pm
Weehawk memes!  Yes!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marky_d on February 13, 2014, 12:10:17 am
Quote from: syscrusher on February 12, 2014, 07:32:37 pm
Weehawk memes!  Yes!

Indeed. Now, if we can get some Distinct Blurs going on, we'd be set :).
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: johnbart on February 13, 2014, 01:24:17 am
This is the best welcome thread ever!!  Viva la revolucion and welcome all!

Absolutely love the Baghdad bob :)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 13, 2014, 03:31:39 am
Though most of you probably didn't notice, I must apologize for missing all my scheduled streams this week.  I have no good excuse, and I hate that I couldn't stick to the schedule this week.  Basically, my sleep schedule is ridiculously jacked, which wouldn't normally prevent me from streaming during my scheduled times (Tues., Wed., and Thurs. 8pm - Midnight), but I had appointments during the afternoon every day this week and as a result had to pull two 24-hour shifts which just further porked my already absurd sleep schedule.  Tonight, for instance, I woke up around 10:30pm (after finally getting to fall asleep about 4pm) and I have an appointment today that will keep me on my feet from 10am til roughly 10pm.  This next 24 hour stretch without sleep will be the third this week, which is stupidly exhausting and disorienting, but luckily it will finally right my sleeping schedule.

I'm sure there are some of you reading this who have no idea what I'm talking about, and you're thinking 'just go to sleep dumb ass'; but I know there are others who know exactly what I'm going through.  For people like me that have always struggled with insomnia and the rest of the world operating on a "morning schedule", this is pretty routine stuff.  I simply cannot 'just go to sleep' unless I'm pretty well exhausted.

Anyways,... Sorry again, and I promise to make every one of my scheduled streams next week, and hopefully, every one of my scheduled streams for the end of time.  But you know, sometime shit gets in the way... blah blah blah blah blah
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 13, 2014, 04:01:04 am
On a more interesting note... Check out all the new members!!  Welcome everyone.

What's new SanTe?

Yo BBH!

Where's the money, D.B. Cooper?

What's the deal with Pluto, QAOP Spaceman?  (Yes I know I'm lame  <YSG>)

And holy shit it's Weehawk!  Long time no see, sir, welcome.

To D.B. and QAOP: you are not obligated to play Donkey Kong to hang out here.  I think you should try it, but that's just because it's a good game in my opinion.  In fact, there has been some talk recently about opening up a general CAG section of the forums, though this is entirely up to JCHarrist (the site admin), and I know he doesn't want a million bajillion subforums ala CAGDC (seriously, I just counted 52 subforums at CAGDC, and that doesn't even include the ones that can only be seen by members).  But, in the meantime, I encourage both of you to start your own blogs, where you can rant and rave about whatever the hell you feel like.

The majority of members here are still actively playing DK, but many of us, myself included, are on hiatus and are currently concentrating on other games.  Jump on the streams, you never know what people might be playing/talking about.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on February 13, 2014, 08:11:05 am
Quote from: VON on February 13, 2014, 04:01:04 am
In fact, there has been some talk recently about opening up a general CAG section of the forums,

I personally think this is a good idea.  With TG down and people jumping ship on CAGDC, it's a golden window.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: LMDAVE on February 13, 2014, 08:29:55 am
Its weird, I didn't leave CAGDC for any particular reason, just DKF was the area of interest for me, and the next thing I noticed it has been almost a year since I posted at CAGDC. We all know why DKF was created, and I'm all for a CAG section, of course I hope to never see the complaint: "There's too much DK talk going on here." :)

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on February 13, 2014, 09:08:13 am
I'm the same way.  I didn't really leave CAGDC.  My primary interest in CAG is DK related and people on CAGDC were complaining that there was too much DK talk.  Now there's no DK talk and people are complaining that everyone's going to DKF.

Also it was incredibly hard do anything over there.  My "Official Unofficial list" was over there.  I was able to self-edit the list for a while and everything was great... then the forums were changed to no edits on posts > 24 hours.  OK, so Mark said to just message a mod whenever you want to change the list, but then the list became a mess.  Then they made me a fake mod just for the list.  That worked for a while and then they un-modded me (trust issues?).

Then I forgot my password because I kept having to change it due to the countless times that site has been hacked.  And to make matters worse I couldn't get back in, because the "forgot password" link was taken down.  So I could either call Mark, or just not post.  I still occasionally lurk over there.  It's a shame-- it was once a great place.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: SanTe on February 13, 2014, 09:49:38 am
Quote from: VON on February 13, 2014, 04:01:04 am
In fact, there has been some talk recently about opening up a general CAG section of the forums, though this is entirely up to JCHarrist (the site admin), and I know he doesn't want a million bajillion subforums ala CAGDC

Just make one Non-DK subforum for all other CAG discussion that isn't DK-related.  I'd be hanging out there the most.

Quote from: hchien on February 13, 2014, 09:08:13 am
I'm the same way.  I didn't really leave CAGDC.  My primary interest in CAG is DK related and people on CAGDC were complaining that there was too much DK talk.  Now there's no DK talk and people are complaining that everyone's going to DKF.

I kinda tuned out of the usual forums for us "high score" types when the discussion began (IMO) to skew way too heavily toward DK at the expense of the several hundred other great games from the era.  And this was starting to bug me long before DKF came into existence.  It was my hope that after the first Kong Off people would get DK out of their system and we could get some balance back.  Well, I was definitely wrong about that.

In fact, it actually annoyed me that a DK-specific forum got created while so many in the hobby ignored all of the other classics, and I kinda ignored this place for the longest time because of that.  I also became a truck driver about a year ago, and while I do regional heavy haul and get home far more frequently than a typical long hauler ever does I still have way less personal time than I used to.  Getting any free time for CAG is tough, so when I do get free time I don't want it to be all-DK-all-the-time.

Then one day I noticed that most of my friends in the CAG scene hadn't actually disappeared; they'd just migrated elsewhere, many of them here.  Ross' blog post about CAGDC was what finally got me to register so I could acknowledge that someone else was finally voicing what I've been telling others for years now.  Now I'd just rather forget about that place and get on with it.

So... I understand not wanting dozens of subforums on DKF and I'd be in favor of a Non-DK subforum for all other CAG discussion that isn't DK-related.  Or, maybe the answer is for me to just create my own blog and talk about whatever I want there.  Maybe I'll do that when I can get the time to get it started.  I play lots of games that are not DK-related and I also collect, with a home arcade that's bursting at the seams with 29 uprights.  I'd like to share photos of my game room and random other stuff too, but I'm not gonna want to talk about the DK games much.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: johnbart on February 13, 2014, 10:18:25 am
I will say that the DK talk wasn't a turn off for me on CAGDC but the BA/DKJr/DK3 spew was too much for me.  I can only read so many threads about the same thing.  I ended up coming over here mainly because of the people.  It ended up getting me playing DK and now I really like the game.  I still like to play a bunch of games and appreciate that there is now a sub section for non-DK games.  It will not change the fact that I'm currently playing DK and will continue playing it until I crush Ken's score. :)  <thefinger>

More than anything what I really like is the shoutbox.  I don't say a tonne in there but it's just nice to shoot the shit on a daily basis about everything and nothing.  In the end that socializing is more fun than figuring out if 30M jumps in ZK have any luck involved.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on February 26, 2014, 12:30:51 am
This will never happen again... http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3790043 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3790043)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: tudose on February 26, 2014, 01:04:13 am
lol wow! love it
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on February 26, 2014, 03:16:41 am
Good lord! Buahahaha! That was saaaaweeet!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on February 26, 2014, 04:23:38 am
Holy sheit, that was awesome! Fking hell, lovit!  Kreygasm  <Allen>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on February 26, 2014, 04:51:29 am
 Kreygasm
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on February 26, 2014, 04:54:31 am
The randomness went against the way it usually does  <Kuh>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: danman123456 on February 26, 2014, 09:47:48 am
 <Tim> - Juiced Roms there buddy.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on February 26, 2014, 01:50:16 pm
I was watching that live, but somehow it's actually MORE impressive on replay.  Kreygasm

The great thing about no hammer is that super-entertaining stuff like that happens more often, because it has to! YOLO city.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on February 27, 2014, 10:36:45 am

Wizardry!

That's one of the differences between you and me, Ross.  You deftly mingle with a swarm of fire beings, while I plummet through an open rivet hole with no other enemy within 1/4 mile.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 14, 2014, 01:36:33 am
You tell me: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3883324 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3883324)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on March 14, 2014, 05:26:36 am
Quote from: VON on March 14, 2014, 01:36:33 am
You tell me: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3883324 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3883324)

Agreed.  That situation was neither fair nor acceptable.

What would I have done?

No idea.  For this explorer, Level 17 in a DK No-Hammer run is uncharted territory.   :o

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: LMDAVE on March 14, 2014, 06:25:29 am
Quote from: VON on March 14, 2014, 01:36:33 am
You tell me: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3883324 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/3883324)

Wow, I really haven't been studying NH but Ive been hearing about "luck" being needed to do a killscreen. I guess I can buy that based on this video.

As for what you could have done there, you actually did it, just didn't get that last jump off in time. If you cleared that fireball without it turning under you, I believe you would have cleared that board, and that would have been an awesome highlight.

I was more impressed that the video started with you at 600K on your second man. Killscreen has to come soon.

Other than rumors of the past, do you believe there has been a NH killscreen before or not?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on March 14, 2014, 06:51:49 am
Quote from: LMDAVE on March 14, 2014, 06:25:29 am
I was more impressed that the video started with you at 600K on your second man.

And it could (should) have been with all lives still intact.

I haven't yet watched, but I'll assume the first spring death on Level 12-4 was avoidable.   ;)

The man is clearly playing a game with which I am unfamiliar.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 14, 2014, 05:20:05 pm
Quote from: LMDAVE on March 14, 2014, 06:25:29 am
Other than rumors of the past, do you believe there has been a NH killscreen before or not?

No; though there hasn't always been a lot of interest/competition in NH.  With Jeff Wolfe handing out sweet NH T-Shirts at KO3 and organizing the annual NH Tourney, I expect more players will be gunning for that NH KS in the future.  And, obviously, John and Jeff's recent big games kind of opened the door for a NH KS being a real possibility.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: tudose on March 14, 2014, 05:29:47 pm
years ago robert mruczek mentioned that one of the cram brothers(mightve been jason) had reached a nh ks using the 6-man settings. this was brought up around 2010/2011 on cagdc forums but i have no clue about the actual date of the game. still a fantastic accomplishment imo

edit: looks like it was shawn cram that got the ks, not jason
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on April 11, 2014, 06:02:32 am
Allen just posted this picture of Ross on Facebook, and I thought it was worth putting it here (since Ross doesn't have a Facebook account and I don't know if he has ever seen this picture). Lovit  <Allen>  Kreygasm

Facepalm hype!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 13, 2014, 07:20:05 pm
I love that pic! - the result of playing and feeling like crap.  DK can be such a painful game when you're not 100% geared up to play.
____________________________

Thought I'd post some gaming goals I'll be working on over the year:

*Donkey Kong - 1.2, maybe?  We'll see how big those bounties get ;)

*Mario Bros. - At least 2 million

*Zoo Keeper - ughhhh!  Such hate for this piece of garbage right now, yet obsessed enough that 50 million could still happen.

*Frogger - 300K

*Moon Patrol - 500K

*Joust - 1 million

*Bubbles/Tutankham - buy an XArcade

*Streaming - miss fewer streams, buy better gear (i.e microphone and webcam), make more highlights

Classic Arcade Gaming is fun.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on April 14, 2014, 04:39:38 am
Ross, I officially restarted streaming yesterday, and I will most likely stream a lot for the following months.

We need to bet for the first one to succeed at taking his revenge on Hank (I know I know I always lose every bet and I never respect my bets, haha).

Keep in mind that DK online open is in less than 3 weeks, and the pot for a new DK record on arcade is 500$.

Remember that you can have a shitty start, a shitty average, and shitty death, and still manage to beat Hank easily  <Allen>  Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on May 02, 2014, 12:06:07 am
Quote from: VON on April 13, 2014, 07:20:05 pm
Thought I'd post some gaming goals I'll be working on over the year:

*Joust - 1 million

Done: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/4172909 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/4172909)

Next!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on May 02, 2014, 04:42:44 am
Congrats Ross love it mate  <Allen>

 <Sanders> <Sanders>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on May 02, 2014, 04:55:30 am
Yer! Love it! You utilize some strategies that are different from my own, so I'm gonna have to incorporate them into my own game.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on May 02, 2014, 07:51:00 am
Congrats maaaaate!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: DiggingInNY on May 02, 2014, 09:04:45 am
Welcome to the million point club. I reached the milestone myself a few weeks ago. This past Saturday I had a 1.3 million point game and I will continue to improve on that.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on August 26, 2014, 03:44:27 am
The Donkey Kong Arcade World Record will go down before the end of the next DKOpen tournament. 

Of that I am certain.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Xermon54 on August 26, 2014, 06:06:44 am
Why? Do you plan on playing a lot of DK arcade since then? If so, ultra lovit hype  <Allen>  <Allen>  <Allen>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on August 26, 2014, 10:28:58 am
That would be very  Kreygasm
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: homerwannabee on August 27, 2014, 07:27:20 am
Quote from: VON on August 26, 2014, 03:44:27 am
The Donkey Kong Arcade World Record will go down before the end of the next DKOpen tournament. 

Of that I am certain.

I have to say the fact the Donkey Kong record has not been broken this year is the biggest surprise of the year in regards to the Donkey Kong forums.  Have no idea how it hasn't been broken yet.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ripper on August 27, 2014, 08:04:35 am
Hank Chien practices Voodoo and he put a spell on everyone trying to break this record.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: danman123456 on August 27, 2014, 08:04:42 am
Yeah there are several people who have the ability to do this now and it really should go down before the next KO4. There are people actively trying for it now where before it wasn't really a driving goal. We have probably 8 - 10 or so people who actually have a real legit shot at getting the record I believe George. Even if it takes some crazy luck its possible now because these people are also actively playing.

I've decided a goal of mine is to try and get at least one start a night in going forward as often as I can and see where it takes me. I got to lvl 9-1 averaging 61k a level last night which is a new high for me (and then blew up on 9-1  FailFish FailFish FailFish) so my focus now is not getting the points because I am confident I can do that. Now my focus is all about getting rid of the stupid mistakes that cost me staying focused on each board. I keep trying to tell myself just play the game one board at a time. The back-to-back deaths still are an issue because when I die due to something stupid I did, I let it get to me and tend to die again because or something else stupid. GRrrrrr

Dan

Quote from: homerwannabee on August 27, 2014, 07:27:20 am
Quote from: VON on August 26, 2014, 03:44:27 am
The Donkey Kong Arcade World Record will go down before the end of the next DKOpen tournament. 

Of that I am certain.

I have to say the fact the Donkey Kong record has not been broken this year is the biggest surprise of the year in regards to the Donkey Kong forums.  Have no idea how it hasn't been broken yet.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on August 27, 2014, 09:08:29 am
Quote from: ripper on August 27, 2014, 08:04:35 am
Hank Chien practices Voodoo and he put a spell on everyone trying to break this record.

I suspected as much.  Given that there is obviously some funny stuff going on, I have taken the liberty of updating Hank's record on the Top 12 Arcade High Score List.  An executive decision, as it were.

[noembed]
Rank
   
Score
   
KS
   
Player
   
Date
   
Platform
   
Source
1
1,138,600
Y
"Hanky Panky" Chien (http://www.twitch.tv/hankchien)
11/01/2012
ArcadeVoodoo, Sorcery
2
1,137,100
Y
Robbie Lakeman (http://www.twitch.tv/lakeman421)
07/29/2014
ArcadeTwitch (http://www.twitch.tv/lakeman421/c/4772026)
3
1,136,500
Y
Ross Benziger (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp)
09/26/2013
ArcadeTG, Twitch (http://www.twitch.tv/donkey_kong_forum/c/4560046)
4
1,135,900
Y
Vincent Lemay (http://www.twitch.tv/xermon54)
01/11/2013
ArcadeTG, Twitch (http://www.twitch.tv/xermon54/c/1852894)
5
1,105,400
Y
Jeff Willms (http://www.twitch.tv/jeffw356)
11/18/2012
ArcadeTG - KO2
6
1,103,700
Y
Jeff Wolfe (http://www.twitch.tv/milehightdt)
10/30/2013
ArcadeTwitch (http://www.twitch.tv/milehighdt/c/3181602)
7
1,094,100
Y
Steve Wiltshire (http://www.twitch.tv/konghusker)
01/19/2014
ArcadeYouTube (Part 1 (http://youtu.be/L3j9Zup1ar4), 2 (http://youtu.be/ipT3JnJx0xY), 3 (http://youtu.be/R5hPx3nlyS0))
8
1,091,400
Y
Dave McCrary (http://www.twitch.tv/lmdave)
02/23/2014
ArcadeTwitch (http://www.twitch.tv/lmdave/c/3777680)
9
1,079,400
Dean Saglio (http://www.twitch.tv/up2ng)
11/18/2012
ArcadeTG - KO2
10
1,076,000
Y
Mike Groesbeck (http://www.twitch.tv/mikegmi2)
05/17/2014
ArcadeTwitch (Part 1 (http://www.twitch.tv/mikegmi2/c/4275275), 2 (http://www.twitch.tv/mikegmi2/c/4270994), 3 (http://www.twitch.tv/mikegmi2/c/4271001))
11
1,072,200
Y
Corey Chambers (http://www.twitch.tv/clchambers00)
08/26/2014
ArcadeTwitch (Part 1 (http://www.twitch.tv/clchambers00/c/4996900), 2 (http://www.twitch.tv/clchambers00/c/4996919))
12
1,064,500
Y
Steve Wiebe
08/30/2010
ArcadeTG
[/noembed]
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on August 27, 2014, 09:21:56 am
No link to the Voodoo video = DQ  <Pigger>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: LMDAVE on August 27, 2014, 09:35:25 am
For us math nerds, Hank should change his name to Asymptote  :D
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on August 27, 2014, 10:30:47 am
Quote from: VON on August 26, 2014, 03:44:27 am
The Donkey Kong Arcade World Record will go down before the end of the next DKOpen tournament. 

Of that I am certain.

I wouldn't be so sure.

People have been confident that the record was about to be broken ever since KO3. At that event and every tourney since then, everybody says "someone's gonna do it," but we're still here!


Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ripper on August 27, 2014, 10:31:34 am
I remember when Hank sent in one of his other DK scores and it was like binary code.  Something like 1,110,100.  He has a way with math.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: danman123456 on August 27, 2014, 11:13:35 am
Well part of the point on this is even Hank is starting to play again. Robbie is so close I feel he can literally get it any time he gets a game going now. Dean/Jeff W's/Steve W/Dave M/Corey/Ross all have a real chance I believe as well. Plus Vince and them are playing in what October or Nov? I know its got this voodoo curse on it but with all these people giving it a run its got a better than average chance of going down even if its Hank doing it  Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: lakeman421 on August 27, 2014, 11:27:27 am
The only way the record will be broken is if someone beats me by 600 points and then another player beats them by 600 points, so who will be the lucky third guy?  Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ripper on August 27, 2014, 11:56:59 am
I would rather see the top score have a 3 way tie. 
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: LMDAVE on August 27, 2014, 01:27:12 pm
Here's an interesting thought. The 3 players jumbled below Hank (Vincent, Ross,  &  Robbie), Robbie has one strong differential there. Points from death.

If you look at final score as, actual completetion of levels + points from deaths:

Vincent got 25,200 points from death, Ross got 26,800, and Robbie only got 7,600. So, technically, if Hank had more than 9200 pts from deaths (there's no stella break down on that game), Robbie would have the record on actual completion from levels.

But, thats just a silly comparison, because even my top 10 PB had a serious cash in at the end that I wouldn't want overlooked. That's the bonus you get for taking the extra men there.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on August 27, 2014, 01:57:32 pm
Guys, settle down. We all know Hank is just gonna beat whoever breaks his record within like the week after he gets beaten.  Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on August 27, 2014, 02:10:46 pm
I'm not sure how much this metric means (though I might actually make the argument that it means MORE than the PB standings), but just for fun, I just took the cumulative of the top players' best 3 scores. If you do that, it goes in this order (the number at the end of the row is the lead that the player has over the one below):

1 Dean: 1,206,800 + 1,186,700 + 1,167,400 = 3,560,900 --- 178,900
2 Robbie: 1,137,100 + 1,131,500 + 1,113,400  = 3,382,000 --- 5,600
3 Hank: 1,138,600 + 1,127,700 + 1,110,100 = 3,376,400 --- 67,200
4 Willms: 1,107,600 + 1,105,400 + 1,096,200 = 3,309,200 --- 37,900
5 Ross: 1,136,500 + 1,067,700 + 1,067,100 = 3,271,300 --- 700
6 Vincent: 1,135,900 + 1,084,500 + 1,050,200 = 3,270,600

So Robbie actually has the "best of 3 scores" arcade record already.

(Look at the gap between Ross and Vincent, LOL, poor Vincent...)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: hchien on August 27, 2014, 04:58:19 pm
Dean Saglio at Richie Knucklez 8/23/14 (900K+ at ~1.15M pace with a spare)

http://youtu.be/9RbC05fsQk8 (http://youtu.be/9RbC05fsQk8)

May the forcefield be with me.

Quote from: ChrisP on August 27, 2014, 02:10:46 pm
So Robbie actually has the "best of 3 scores" arcade record already.

Yes, I told Robbie he had the world record for highest 2nd PB (Arcade).

Quote from: marinomitch13 on August 27, 2014, 01:57:32 pm
Guys, settle down. We all know Hank is just gonna beat whoever breaks his record within like the week after he gets beaten.  Kappa

I told Vincent to beat Robbie after Robbie beats me.  It'd take months for me to beat Robbie, but I'd get it back from Vincent within a week.

Quote from: LMDAVE on August 27, 2014, 01:27:12 pm
Vincent got 25,200 points from death, Ross got 26,800, and Robbie only got 7,600. So, technically, if Hank had more than 9200 pts from deaths (there's no stella break down on that game), Robbie would have the record on actual completion from levels.

In Ross' case, the points from deaths were deserved as I believe 2 were sacs.  I feel if you make it to 21-5 with spare guys, you deserve those points.  Points from accidental deaths you can argue are just dumb luck as in Vince's game.  In my current 1.138M game, I had 8,x00 deaths, 128,x00 start, ~59K/levels.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: lakeman421 on August 27, 2014, 05:46:13 pm
Omg new world wreckerrrd <Allen> Wheres my badge?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: xelnia on August 27, 2014, 06:00:27 pm
Quote from: hchien on August 27, 2014, 04:58:19 pm
Dean Saglio at Richie Knucklez 8/23/14 (900K+ at ~1.15M pace with a spare)

http://youtu.be/9RbC05fsQk8 (http://youtu.be/9RbC05fsQk8)

May the forcefield be with me.

Wow. Hank force field too stronk. It causes electrical interference in nearby DK machines.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on August 28, 2014, 04:41:06 am
Quote from: xelnia on August 27, 2014, 06:00:27 pm
Quote from: hchien on August 27, 2014, 04:58:19 pm
Dean Saglio at Richie Knucklez 8/23/14 (900K+ at ~1.15M pace with a spare)

http://youtu.be/9RbC05fsQk8 (http://youtu.be/9RbC05fsQk8)

May the forcefield be with me.

Wow. Hank force field too stronk. It causes electrical interference in nearby DK machines.

Hammer grab too strong obv.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on January 26, 2015, 12:24:04 am
Rally X is a stupid stupid stupid game!!

There's a reason New Rally X was made, and it's because the original Rally X was a broken piece of shit.  New Rally X is great, but the original cheats so hard that getting a high score is almost entirely luck based and is never a fun experience.

See for yourself: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Donkey Kong Genius on January 26, 2015, 02:29:33 am
Thanks for posting that, puts a smile on my face... "all time low" :D
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on January 26, 2015, 04:38:40 am
Quote from: VON on January 26, 2015, 12:24:04 am
Rally X is a stupid stupid stupid game!!

There's a reason New Rally X was made, and it's because the original Rally X was a broken piece of shit.  New Rally X is great, but the original cheats so hard that getting a high score is almost entirely luck based and is never a fun experience.

See for yourself: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404)

WDA.  Never seen that.

In any event, if you think Rally-X cheats hard, I await the day you play in a tourney that features Crazy Climber :D
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on January 26, 2015, 05:10:35 am
ROFL

Ross you sound so disappointed in Rally-x
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on January 26, 2015, 05:53:06 am
That was bogus. I would have probably raged.  <mad>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: f_symbols on January 26, 2015, 05:59:34 am
such rock, wow
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: timhett on January 26, 2015, 06:36:17 am
Such BS. 
Chit game! <Mruczek>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: danman123456 on January 26, 2015, 10:39:15 am
True highscores seem to me are more luck based with how the flags spawn then anything else. Total megacheats!  FailFish
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: lakeman421 on January 27, 2015, 02:35:01 am
Quote from: VON on January 26, 2015, 12:24:04 am
Rally X is a stupid stupid stupid game!!

There's a reason New Rally X was made, and it's because the original Rally X was a broken piece of shit.  New Rally X is great, but the original cheats so hard that getting a high score is almost entirely luck based and is never a fun experience.

See for yourself: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404)

http://www.twitch.tv/lakeman421/c/5976294 (http://www.twitch.tv/lakeman421/c/5976294) Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on January 27, 2015, 06:53:24 am
Quote from: lakeman421 on January 27, 2015, 02:35:01 am
Quote from: VON on January 26, 2015, 12:24:04 am
Rally X is a stupid stupid stupid game!!

There's a reason New Rally X was made, and it's because the original Rally X was a broken piece of shit.  New Rally X is great, but the original cheats so hard that getting a high score is almost entirely luck based and is never a fun experience.

See for yourself: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404)

http://www.twitch.tv/lakeman421/c/5976294 (http://www.twitch.tv/lakeman421/c/5976294) Kappa

LOL.  Probably because you crashed the exact moment you got the flag, oh Rally-X.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: danman123456 on January 27, 2015, 07:41:58 am
Quote from: pwnasaurus on January 27, 2015, 06:53:24 am
Quote from: lakeman421 on January 27, 2015, 02:35:01 am
Quote from: VON on January 26, 2015, 12:24:04 am
Rally X is a stupid stupid stupid game!!

There's a reason New Rally X was made, and it's because the original Rally X was a broken piece of shit.  New Rally X is great, but the original cheats so hard that getting a high score is almost entirely luck based and is never a fun experience.

See for yourself: http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404 (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/5967404)

gotta be it some reason it didn't regsiter you picked that flag up. It may have still "been" there even tho it didn't show. Would have been interesting if you went there again. MegaCHEATS!

http://www.twitch.tv/lakeman421/c/5976294 (http://www.twitch.tv/lakeman421/c/5976294) Kappa

LOL.  Probably because you crashed the exact moment you got the flag, oh Rally-X.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: timhett on January 27, 2015, 07:47:30 am
Cool glitch Lakeman.   <popcorn>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Donkey Kong Genius on January 27, 2015, 11:31:33 am
Lakeman finds the Rally-X Final Destination Edition.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 10, 2015, 07:50:45 am
Quote from: VON on April 13, 2014, 07:20:05 pm
Thought I'd post some gaming goals I'll be working on over the year:

*Donkey Kong - 1.2, maybe?  We'll see how big those bounties get ;)

*Mario Bros. - At least 2 million

*Zoo Keeper - ughhhh!  Such hate for this piece of garbage right now, yet obsessed enough that 50 million could still happen.

*Frogger - 300K

*Moon Patrol - 500K

*Joust - 1 million

*Bubbles/Tutankham - buy an XArcade

*Streaming - miss fewer streams, buy better gear (i.e microphone and webcam), make more highlights

Classic Arcade Gaming is fun.

Closing in on a year since I posted the above goals, so let's see how I did...

Quote
*Donkey Kong - 1.2, maybe?  We'll see how big those bounties get ;)
Ummm, yeah, the bounties got hugenormous and I still couldn't find the proper motivation.  I'll never say never, but it's looking like things are headed in that direction.

Quote
*Mario Bros. - At least 2 million
Donezo (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/4257554)

Quote
*Zoo Keeper - ughhhh!  Such hate for this piece of garbage right now, yet obsessed enough that 50 million could still happen.
Close enough to donezo (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/4394647) that I should set a new goal.  I'll say 75 million by this time next year.

Quote
*Frogger - 300K
Meh.  Hardly played Frogger at all and it's not a fun game to stream, so this one may sit on the bench for a while still.

Quote
*Moon Patrol - 500K
Fun game, no excuses here. The moon should be a nice place to take the family for vacation, and it's my job to ensure its safety.

Quote
*Joust - 1 million
Donezo (http://www.twitch.tv/dwwnp/c/4172909)

I loved this game when I was a kid, but unfortunately after spending a little time learning it properly I discovered the game sucks pretty hard.  Still though, I might one day have an interest in pursuing a million on Tournament settings, but the game is just soooo slow.  Shelved for now.

Quote
*Bubbles/Tutankham - buy an XArcade
XArcade acquired and both Bubbles and Tutankham played.  Of the two, Tutankham is most definitely going to be my new jam.  Bubbles is awesome as well, but I'm terrible, so it'll be sidelined for the moment.

For Tutankham, I'll set a goal of clearing the first loop by this time next year.

Quote
*Streaming - miss fewer streams, buy better gear (i.e microphone and webcam), make more highlights
With school and work and everything I had to suspend my streaming efforts, but hopefully I will have some free time this summer to make up for it.  I did upgrade all my gear, so eventually you'll see a better stream quality.

Quote
Classic Arcade Gaming is fun.
Check.  No changes here.


And finally, I must add one new goal: 3 million+ and a T-shirt on Toobin'.

I did gather the T-shirt once already, but it took me roughly $5 in quarters :D The goal, of course, is to get it done on one credit.
(http://i1329.photobucket.com/albums/w548/vondummpenstein/BIF_zpsrufdf3ag.jpg)

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 16, 2015, 07:10:30 pm
Drunken blog post I'll soon regret, but add the following to the list of goals...

Burger Time: 1 million

Pig Newton: 1.5 million

 
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: lakeman421 on March 16, 2015, 11:23:43 pm
Quote from: VON on March 16, 2015, 07:10:30 pm

Burger Time: 1 million

That takes 2 days of practice Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on March 17, 2015, 01:36:05 am
Quote from: VON on March 16, 2015, 07:10:30 pm
Pig Newton: 1.5 million
Kreygasm Kreygasm

Quote from: VON on March 16, 2015, 07:10:30 pm
Burger Time: 1 million
Not so much
Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on March 17, 2015, 01:48:57 am
Quote from: lakeman421 on March 16, 2015, 11:23:43 pm
Quote from: VON on March 16, 2015, 07:10:30 pm

Burger Time: 1 million

That takes 2 days of practice Kappa

Robbie loves it, I reckon.  Kappa
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 30, 2015, 09:21:12 pm
CRAP INPs
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 30, 2015, 10:46:02 pm
More CRAP
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 30, 2015, 11:20:33 pm
More CRAP
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: f_symbols on May 07, 2015, 08:23:02 pm
This post is simply a post where I am saying hi to my friend Ross,  It has nothing to do with forum statistics or the Wildcard rematch 2 scoreboard, please move along  <mad>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on May 07, 2015, 08:46:01 pm
Quote from: f_symbols on May 07, 2015, 08:23:02 pm
This post is simply a post where I am saying hi to my friend Ross,  It has nothing to do with forum statistics or the Wildcard rematch 2 scoreboard, please move along  <mad>

What in the...

Hi Ethan! <HandWavingEmote>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ebinsugewa on May 09, 2015, 03:27:43 pm
<HeyGuys>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: xelnia on May 09, 2015, 03:29:32 pm
(http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/emoticons/v1/30259/1.0)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on July 05, 2015, 11:42:47 pm
IGBY 2 INPs
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on July 08, 2015, 07:02:26 pm
IGBY 2 INPs
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on July 15, 2015, 08:30:40 pm
IGBY 2 INPs
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on July 23, 2015, 11:12:04 pm
IGBY 2 INPs
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on July 24, 2015, 12:57:55 am
Oh my god, Ross played D2K! I'm so proud!  BibleThump

That right there is called "taking one for the team!"
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on July 24, 2015, 02:40:31 am
Quote from: ChrisP on July 24, 2015, 12:57:55 am
Oh my god, Ross played D2K! I'm so proud!  BibleThump

That right there is called "taking one for the team!"

Fk!  And I'll have to come back and up my shit score at some point because I know I can at least crack 120K.  BibleThump  What's worse is I bumped Phil out of the top 5, so now he's playing this garbage again too.

IMO, the creator of D2K should be punished in some way for creating this abomination.  You can tell he never played the original much because he literally fucked up everything he could possibly fuck up.  From the altered fireball behavior to the rising point sprites, it's all terrible!   
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ripper on July 24, 2015, 04:02:13 am
Quote from: VON on July 24, 2015, 02:40:31 am
Quote from: ChrisP on July 24, 2015, 12:57:55 am
Oh my god, Ross played D2K! I'm so proud!  BibleThump

That right there is called "taking one for the team!"

Fk!  And I'll have to come back and up my shit score at some point because I know I can at least crack 120K.  BibleThump  What's worse is I bumped Phil out of the top 5, so now he's playing this garbage again too.

IMO, the creator of D2K should be punished in some way for creating this abomination.  You can tell he never played the original much because he literally fucked up everything he could possibly fuck up.  From the altered fireball behavior to the rising point sprites, it's all terrible! 

I don't think he really messed things up but rather upgraded things.  I think it's cool to see the rising point sprites.  Just different like a NEW version should be.  The fireball behavior is probably this way because if not then people would never get past some levels in the game.  Like on the later rounds of barrels where the barrel explodes and three fireballs pop out.  Well, one goes to the top and you know this can be a death sentence on the original DK but here you know it will go all the way left and then all the way right.  I guess it is what it is and just different.  It's not one of my favorite titles to play but I still give it the thumbs up for effort. It's a mega challenge indeed.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on July 24, 2015, 05:39:40 am
Quote from: ripper on July 24, 2015, 04:02:13 am
I don't think he really messed things up but rather upgraded things.

I strongly disagree.  In fact, I don't think Jeff Kulczycki should ever be allowed to make another video game.  All he did with D2K was try and capitalize on a renewed interest in DK.  He didn't know DK or understand what made it fun, hence why all the fun elements were removed in the making of D2K.

D2K is slow, it's highly linear, it's challenges are uncreative, and there's lots of wasted space in most of the new level designs.  Furthermore, he clearly never tested the game much as there's at least one prize that is irretrievable, and he created a millions digit that is impossible to use because he also inadvertently created a killscreen on level 14 springs.

When asked if he would fix the killscreen and release an updated rom, his response was something like, "No one will ever make it that far."  Why would anyone support this guy?  He couldn't even be bothered to make an attract screen. 

I give him an 'F' for effort and an 'F-' on execution.  D2K will forever be one of the worst games I've ever played, but hey, your mileage may vary.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: f_symbols on March 24, 2016, 03:51:31 pm
(http://orig15.deviantart.net/1c1c/f/2015/109/3/4/twitch_emoticon___heyguys_by_centaurman_plz-d8qd92j.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/5SW48fe.png)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 04, 2016, 04:05:01 am
Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand!

My flight to San Francisco left Portland around 6:45 am on March 28th.  I had scheduled my domestic flights and international flights separately to save money -- because for whatever reason San Francisco is a significantly cheaper departure point than Portland -- but of course I was immediately met with unforeseen charges when Virgin Airlines taxed me 25 bucks for checking my luggage.  Virgin Airlines: you're dead to me.  Furthermore, upon reaching SFO I had to first claim my checked baggage from the domestic flight then recheck it with my international flight -- not a huge pain in the ass, but in the future I'll just pay extra to sidestep these annoyances and book my trip entirely through one airline. 

Met up with Spencer in SFO and we boarded our flight to Beijing around 3 pm (why I booked such an early flight to SFO I cannot tell you).  The flight from San Fran to Beijing was supposed to take 12 hours, which, had it arrived on time, would have allowed us barely enough time to catch our connecting flight to Bangkok.  Unfortunately it did not arrive on time.  Apparently a volcano had erupted somewhere in Alaska and forced a rerouting of our plane which added two hours to our flight.  To make matters worse, Spencer was seated next to a woman with the plague...  She was wearing one of those surgical masks and was hacking up a lung throughout the flight.  When I periodically left my seat I would see this poor woman stretched out across Spencer's entire row, sometimes with her feet in Spencer's lap, sometimes with her head in Spencer's lap.  Spencer, stoic as ever, took it like a champ, and has so far shown no signs of contracting whatever awful disease that woman was carrying -- those surgical masks, after all, are primarily worn by the sick, to prevent the spread of their disease, as opposed to worn by germaphobes trying to mitigate risk.  In the end, we arrived too late to board our Bangkok bound flight and were forced to spend the night in China.  China Air took care of everything and the accommodations were wholly adequate.  The next afternoon we were shuttled back to the Biejing airport and we boarded our flight for Bangkok around 2 pm Beijing time.  About 5 hours later we finally landed in Bangkok (about 6:30 pm Bangkok time), nearly 48 hours after departure.

The Bangkok airport was a completely painless experience. We flew through customs and were soon on our way to the hotel.  Our cab ride from the airport to our hotel on Khao San Road took around an hour, but only cost us $15.  First impression: Thailand is cheap.

We checked in to our hotel, Dang Derm, settled in a bit, then went for an exploratory walk.

Our rooftop view: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010068_zpsox5okpeg.jpg.html?sort=2&o=45 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010068_zpsox5okpeg.jpg.html?sort=2&o=45)

Me on Khao San representing Blazer Nation: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010101_zpschdebftw.jpg.html?sort=2&o=56 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010101_zpschdebftw.jpg.html?sort=2&o=56)

And a Where's Waldo picture if you're bored (I'm wearing the same red shirt pictured above): http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/1b11667c-e9f8-4094-91d5-177da2daac68_zpsxcotqrgu.jpg.html?sort=2&o=58 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/1b11667c-e9f8-4094-91d5-177da2daac68_zpsxcotqrgu.jpg.html?sort=2&o=58)

As you can see, Khao San Road is a bit of a shit show.  It's a very touristy area dominated by "overpriced" bars and scam artists.  The food here is only OK, and the windows of our hotel room directly faced the loudest bar on all of Khao San.  That isn't to say Khao San wasn't anything but a phenomenal experience, but it was far from a cultural Mecca.

Spencer and I grabbed a bite to eat, had a few beers, chatted up some Portuguese girls, then called it an early night.  We were bushed from the journey and had 10 weeks of traveling ahead of us, so no sense in killing ourselves on night one.

We had made it to Bangkok, and our adventure had began.

Day two saw us wandering around Old Town, snapping a few pictures of random stuff, and simply trying to get our bearings.

Bangkok is hugenormous!  Khao San and the surrounding area is considered Old Town, where temples are everywhere and every street is populated with Mom n Pops selling food/Buddha statues/whatever out of shops they undoubtedly live in.  Across the canal the complexion of the city completely changes, with skyscrapers and massive shopping centers replacing the rustic charms of Old Town.

Stuff like this: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160331_1212541_zpsodwdaghm.jpg.html?sort=2&o=31 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160331_1212541_zpsodwdaghm.jpg.html?sort=2&o=31)

this:
http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160331_1213061_zpspyrz6uvx.jpg.html?sort=2&o=32 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160331_1213061_zpspyrz6uvx.jpg.html?sort=2&o=32)

this: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160331_1251001_zpsiiziqllg.jpg.html?sort=2&o=33 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160331_1251001_zpsiiziqllg.jpg.html?sort=2&o=33)

this: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160331_1325491_zpsedm8h55m.jpg.html?sort=2&o=34 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160331_1325491_zpsedm8h55m.jpg.html?sort=2&o=34)

and this: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160401_1030371_zpshzjakuaw.jpg.html?sort=2&o=35. (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160401_1030371_zpshzjakuaw.jpg.html?sort=2&o=35.)

is everywhere in Old Town.  Every corner, every intersection, everywhere.

After several hours of walking Spencer and I had begun to learn some of Bangkok's tricks.  For instance, very few legitimate Tuk Tuk and Taxi drivers hang around Old Town.  Or, more accurately, very few Tuk Tuk and Taxi drivers around Old Town will give Westerners the same price they give locals.  A common scam we encountered was drivers telling us certain things were closed, but that they could take us to all the spots which were open for one low price.  One guy gave us such a long spiel about how much he could help us that when we walked away with a polite "khob khun krap" (thank you) we only received a "fuck you" in return.  I guess he's used to people buying his bullshit.  I don't blame them, of course.  We're grateful to be in their country and our middle class is significantly more well off than theirs.  One USD equates to about 35 Baht and it's extremely common to find meals for around 40 Baht, to give you an idea.  Still, the constant heckling gets tiresome, so when we met "Crazy Red" at the end of our walkabout we really were lucky that our character judgement hadn't been sabotaged by the day's barrage.  It would have been all too easy to blow him off as another person trying to take advantage of us, but somehow, some way, we knew Crazy Red was different.

Crazy Red, as he told us was the most literal translation of his name, Dang Titong, is a school teacher in Chiang Mai who was down in Bangkok only to purchase school uniforms for his pupils, as he doesn't particularly like the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.  In line with his aversion to the chaos of Bangkok, Crazy Red escorted us to a very quiet back alley where he promised we would find "real" Thai food.  Here Spencer and I would taste the best Thai food we'd ever had.  Prepared in the garage kitchen of a sweet old Thai woman and served on the humblest of dining wear, we knew we had struck gold.  We devoured our papaya salad and pork dish like we'd only eaten dog food up to that point in our lives.  With juices running down our arms we needed napkins, which somehow aren't really a thing in Thailand, so we had to settle for a roll of toilet paper.  It was messy, and it was fucking incredible.

For the next three hours we drank beers and chatted with Crazy Red, who genuinely only wanted to practice his English and learn more about America so he could share some knowledge with his students.  And he shared plenty with us as well.  By the end of our conversation we had pages of notes for useful Thai phrases, which have served us well.

In the end we had made a new friend, and Crazy Red even offered to have his mom cook for us when we visit Chiang Mai.  We got his number and will definitely be looking him up in the near future.

After the extended afternoon drinking session with Red, and perhaps still feeling some jet lag effects, Spencer and I were cooked.  No matter.  We'd accomplished more in our half-day than we usually accomplish in a week back home.  And besides, we were holding off on visiting the more must-see attractions until Jake arrived that night.  We passed out early and the next thing I remember it was 1 am and Jake came through our hotel room door.

Jake had arrived, the crew was complete, and shit was about to get weird.

With the group fully assembled we were finally ready to do some damage, and on day three we truly pushed our limits.  One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble, as the song goes.

We began our day at the Grand Palace, which was crowded, expensive, and even hotter than usual as we had to wear long pants for what I assume were religious regions.  We left after only a few minutes without even seeing the main temple.  It was just too much.

We continued onto Wat Pho, the sight of the world famous reclining Buddha.

Wat Pho was much less crowded and I think we all enjoyed this piece of sight seeing.

This guy was cool: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010077_zps5tt5ktx0.jpg.html?sort=2&o=47 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010077_zps5tt5ktx0.jpg.html?sort=2&o=47)

This guy was just a dick: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010078_zps4co6d1mh.jpg.html?sort=2&o=48 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010078_zps4co6d1mh.jpg.html?sort=2&o=48)

Many rooms like this: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/00800f66-bb15-42ca-a721-a62c505089b0_zpslbr1qtar.jpg.html?sort=2&o=50 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/00800f66-bb15-42ca-a721-a62c505089b0_zpslbr1qtar.jpg.html?sort=2&o=50)

and this: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010080_zpsvtt9eyxi.jpg.html?sort=2&o=51 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010080_zpsvtt9eyxi.jpg.html?sort=2&o=51)

Some more spectacular rooms like this: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010091_zps4vabahlh.jpg.html?sort=2&o=52 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010091_zps4vabahlh.jpg.html?sort=2&o=52)

Some weird stuff like this: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010094_zpsilr5eiqu.jpg.html?sort=2&o=54 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010094_zpsilr5eiqu.jpg.html?sort=2&o=54)

And of course, the main man himself: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010099_zps5g3fjysm.jpg.html?sort=2&o=55 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010099_zps5g3fjysm.jpg.html?sort=2&o=55)

I also banged a gong:
http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010073_zps0ej9ygfm.jpg.html?sort=2&o=46 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/P1010073_zps0ej9ygfm.jpg.html?sort=2&o=46)

From Wat Pho we walked back to the hotel through a much less touristed part of Old Town in hopes of finding another hole in the wall where we could again enjoy real Thai food.  When we passed a joint populated solely with locals we knew we had found our spot.  The menu was entirely in Thai so we had to point to the pictures on the wall.  Even then I don't think we got what we ordered, but it didn't matter, it was all good.  BBQ chicken, more papaya salad (which we were able to order by name thanks to Red) and whatever the hell this was: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160401_1318271_zpskurrhckd.jpg.html?sort=2&o=36. (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160401_1318271_zpskurrhckd.jpg.html?sort=2&o=36.)  Again, it was incredible.  This Thai food was the best I've ever had, by miles, and it only cost me $3.

After a dip in the hotel pool and a shower we were rejuvenated and ready to tackle the Bangkok nightlife.

First up, Chinatown, where some of the best street food in the world lines the road for miles.  We ate strange meats and dipped them in unidentifiable sauces, and it was delicious.  We wandered down some dark back alleys where we got strange looks from the locals, but we managed to make it out before being attacked by one of the bad guys from Big Trouble in Little China. 

We carried on to one of the three or four red light districts of Bangkok.  We found the red light strip easily enough, but not without first accidentally stumbling through the gay red light district.

Greeted with, "You're not gay," we were confused until we saw all the Chip n Dale like guys hanging about.  Whoops.  Oh well.

Just a block away we found the red light district proper, where bars like Super Pussy advertise things like "Ping Pong" shows.

At this point I'm going to skip some stuff...

Our behavior was fine, but some stuff, as we learned, is best left to the imagination.

...later that same evening, back at Khao San Road, we continued to drink and be merry.  For whatever reason we decided it was a good idea to drink literal buckets of alcohol, I guess because they were two-for-one, but they were strong, and the night became a blur shortly after.

Day four brought us to the world's largest open air market: Jatujak.  This place was massive.  Too massive to capture in pictures, though her ya go: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1359471_zpsolm5imvq.jpg.html?sort=2&o=39, (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1359471_zpsolm5imvq.jpg.html?sort=2&o=39,) http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1330051_zpsjhsrdans.jpg.html?sort=2&o=38, (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1330051_zpsjhsrdans.jpg.html?sort=2&o=38,) and http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1328251_zpscpjp3bzy.jpg.html?sort=2&o=37. (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1328251_zpscpjp3bzy.jpg.html?sort=2&o=37.)

Endless alleys selling everything under the sun.  Perhaps the best way to describe the scope of this place is to share that Jake got lost.  We set up a meeting point and gave ourselves an hour and a half to peruse the market before reuniting.  It took me over an hour just to walk perimeter and Jake was at least a half hour late returning to the meeting point, even with text exchanges trying to guide him.  Massive, massive market.  Sometimes things claim to be the biggest this or that, but then you see them in person and are underwhelmed.  I have zero doubt Jatujak is, in fact, the biggest open air market in the world.

After a 40 Baht soup lunch: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1427221_zpsawb3bqtb.jpg.html?sort=2&o=40, (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1427221_zpsawb3bqtb.jpg.html?sort=2&o=40,) we rode the air train (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1510571_zpssxwpyqbv.jpg.html?sort=2&o=41 (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1510571_zpssxwpyqbv.jpg.html?sort=2&o=41)) to victory monument: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1541031_zpstq0ngcoo.jpg.html?sort=2&o=42, (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1541031_zpstq0ngcoo.jpg.html?sort=2&o=42,) and onwards from there to Siam Place in the market district: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1630221_zpsfgocp4ih.jpg.html?sort=2&o=43. (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160402_1630221_zpsfgocp4ih.jpg.html?sort=2&o=43.)

Sometime in the early evening we arrived back at our hotel where Jake and Spencer more or less shut things down.  I was tired as well, but I ventured out to reconnect with a local bartender I had befriended the night before.

Nang is a sweetheart and although most all we could do was smile at each other -- due to the language barrier -- it was well worth my time to spend time with another local (and talk to a woman).

Day five was travel day.  We were burnt out on the big city and wanted to switch things up.  We were booked on a 10 pm sleeper train which unfortunately didn't leave us enough time to see the night's Muay Thai fights.  No matter, we'll get that done when we return to Bangkok at the end of our loop.

We boarded our second class sleeper car: https://goo.gl/photos/ryTeXAFSwqGJA8LD6 (https://goo.gl/photos/ryTeXAFSwqGJA8LD6) b and headed north to Chiang Mai.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: xelnia on April 04, 2016, 04:29:44 am
Looks like an amazing trip so far! Love it.

Quote from: VON on April 04, 2016, 04:05:01 am
and whatever the hell this was: http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160401_1318271_zpskurrhckd.jpg.html?sort=2&o=36. (http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/vondummpenstein/media/IMG_20160401_1318271_zpskurrhckd.jpg.html?sort=2&o=36.)  Again, it was incredible.  This Thai food was the best I've ever had, by miles, and it only cost me $3.
This looks like tom yum goong...spicy sour soup with shrimp. Tom yum is easily one of my favorite soups, if not #1.  Kreygasm Katie and I actually had tom yum khai (chicken instead of shrimp) for dinner tonight.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: stella_blue on April 04, 2016, 06:11:25 am
Quote from: VON on April 04, 2016, 04:05:01 am
I also banged a gong

I propose a minor change to the official T. Rex song lyrics:

Get It On
Bang A Gong
Do It VON


EDIT:  I just watched a pair of YouTube videos on the preparation of Spicy Thai Green Papaya Salad.

Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: alumbrada on April 04, 2016, 07:44:00 am
A comprehensive guide to Som Tam (green papaya salad) on my favorite Thai food website, shesimmers.com:
http://shesimmers.com/2010/06/som-tam-tutorial-how-to-make-thai-green.html (http://shesimmers.com/2010/06/som-tam-tutorial-how-to-make-thai-green.html)

Blasfamee: It's also good with cucumbers if you can't find green papaya.

------

And how to make Tom Yam Kung (spicy shrimp soup):
http://shesimmers.com/2011/10/tom-yam-kung-ต้มยำกุ้ง-with-video.html (http://shesimmers.com/2011/10/tom-yam-kung-ต้มยำกุ้ง-with-video.html)

This is the recipe I made for dinner tonight, but with rotisserie chicken (sometimes convenience outweighs blasfamee).
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: homerwannabee on April 04, 2016, 10:49:44 am
Time to be cliche and show the "One night in Bangkok" video
Is the chess playing pretty good there?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgc_LRjlbTU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgc_LRjlbTU)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: SanTe on April 04, 2016, 01:11:17 pm
Don't cross the Ross...

Quote from: VON on April 04, 2016, 04:05:01 am
Virgin Airlines: you're dead to me.
5 hours after Ross posted this story broke:

Alaska Air to acquire Virgin America in $4bn deal
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35960128 (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35960128)

P.S.  I was in Thailand in 2002 and spent some time in Bangkok.  It was cool.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on April 04, 2016, 06:22:07 pm
Super Pussy hype.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: marinomitch13 on April 05, 2016, 08:18:16 am
Looks like you're having a sweet trip, Ross! I've been to Europe a couple times, but it would be awesome to see Asia as well.

Be safe, and continue to keep us updated! You won't regret putting in the effort to journal about specific events/days, even though it takes some work.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 08, 2016, 09:03:01 am
Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand.

After a 14 hour train ride we arrived in Chiang Mai around noon on the 4th.  The sleeper trains aren't the most efficient means of travel but they are inexpensive and they afford more viewing of the countryside than flying.  I also have no trouble sleeping on the trains, though Spencer and Jake didn't seem to grab as much rest.

At my urging, we had booked ourselves in a hostel to both save money and meet other travelers.  I have no problem staying in hostels.  For the most part they are clean, cheap, and filled with interesting people.  Unfortunately only the latter two descriptors were true of our hostel.  There was a bathroom in the lobby that had an unflushed dump in it throughout the entirety of our stay, for example.  The toilets here can get clogged pretty easily if you're not careful as the plumbing is not up to Western standards and as such there are signs everywhere not to flush your paper but instead use the "bum gun", which is nothing more than a sink sprayer.  Disgusting.  Our bathroom/shower combo was also pretty gross and its door had a window so we inadvertantly saw each other naked once or twice -- less than optimal but after the ping pong show in Bangkok nothing can affect me through the scar tissue on my soul.

Anyways, by happenstance the hostel was throwing a BBQ the night we arrived and we had the chance to meet a bunch of other fun people.

We met people from all over the world and exchanged stories and tips for must-dos.  The party went late and we didn't venture far from the hostel that first night.  Even so, I managed to mess myself up pretty good...

Walking back from the pool bar just down the street from our hostel I somehow cut the underside of my big toe.  Bleeding all over myself, I wobbled awkwardly upstairs toward our room to treat my wound, but in trying to prevent getting blood all over the floor I lost my balance on the stairs and fell down the entire flight.  At the time I didn't realize how bad a fall I had taken but the next morning my left ankle was swollen to twice the size of my right and I could put zero weight on it.  I had endured a pretty nasty eversion sprain and my heart sank when I thought about the implications for our trip.  I genuinely thought it may have been broken -- it was that bad.

Spencer and Jake looked after me for the remainder of the day.  I kept off it, iced it, and Jake found a pharmacy where he was able to grab me an ankle compression sleeve.

In the end, it wasn't broken.  Thank goodness!  Nonetheless the injury forced me to cancel nearly every day plan I had for Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai has been dubbed the adventure sport capital of SE Asia, offering activities like jungle trekking, mountain biking, zip lining, and more.  I had planned on doing most all of these things, so when I suddenly couldn't walk I was pretty bummed out.  Still, I managed to get out a bit in the days immediately following my fall: doing some very minor gimpy sightseeing close to the hostel, and even going clubbing with two lovely ladies Spencer and I had met on the flight to Bangkok.

Hilary and Erin from Las Vegas had flown to Chiang Mai after seeing the beaches offered in Thailand's South. They had many stories of adventure to share and we listened intently to gain knowledge for that portion of our trip.  Very sweet women, but unfortunately for them I think our group's energy levels were overall very low that night...

In just a few days in Chiang Mai I had: nearly broken my ankle; suffered dozens of random cuts and scrapes which must be given attentive care because the risk of infection is so high; a rock fly off the street and into my eye while we were taking a tuk tuk ride; and a bird try and brain me after it bounced off a window just a foot from my head.  My back was also acting up despite being bent in half by a Thai masseuse in Bangkok.  You can't make this stuff up.  Chiang Mai was trying to kill me.

Spencer wasn't feeling well either.  He had picked up a stomach bug and was going through the worst of it.  Not keen on ever being far from a toilet, Spencer shut things down for a few days as well.  And so, partly in quest for cleaner/private facilities and maybe partly not feeling the hostel scene, Spencer relocated during this time to a hotel up the street.  Can't say I blame him, though his room at the hotel cost him six times what I was paying at the hostel -- just not an expense I can justify.

The way I figure it, if you're doing it right, you only need a bed to sleep in and all other time should be spent out doing stuff.  Of course those weren't the circumstances for either of us, because they couldn't be.

Jake, on the other hand, was able to go adventuring during the day, and went on what sounded like a pretty epic mountain bike ride.  It was something like 105 degrees that day and he looked absolutely bushed when he returned to the hostel.  Beat down from the excursion Jake was not his normal exuberant self when we met Hilary and Erin for dinner that night.

So after three nights in Chiang Mai we really didn't have much to show for it.  Unfortunate, but this stuff happens when traveling.  The ride will go up and down, and all you can hope for during the lows is to find perspective which will make the highs higher.  It's part of what makes long term traveling great.

Finally, after several days on the mend, each of us was approaching recuperation.  I still couldn't walk very well and Spencer was still avoiding food, but on night four we crewed up with some folks we had met at the hostel and did a little exploring.

After some delicious street food from the Night Bazaar our night's group of seven took in the Muay Thai fights.

The fights were a lot of fun but also most definitely rigged.  After a few of us had won money on a couple of the preliminary fights, we collectively placed our largest wager on one of the headliners.  Our guy was clearly winning the fight, when the bookie who took our bet paid a visit to his corner.  WTF!?  Our guy then collapsed for no discernible reason in the following round.  Lame.  We stopped betting after that nonsense.  Still, amazing experience.

The following day we taxied a half hour from town to see the world famous Grand Canyon.  Err, the locally famous Grand Canyon.

This place was cool.  Some sort of old pit mine or something, I'm really not sure.  Check out the pictures.

And now it's now, I'm writing this message.  Taking it easy because we're going to spend the next three days bussing and boating our way to Laos where we will take in the Buddhist New Year water festival, Songkran.

I survived Chiang Mai, but this guy was not so lucky: https://goo.gl/photos/6WCgv1KwcGyfrAnS9

Untsa untsa: https://goo.gl/photos/TfLRp85BNEdWpuFn7

Had to arm wrestle this chump so he'd reduce the cost of his wares: https://goo.gl/photos/mRwsdS3x7kmwndBJ8

RIP CITY BABY: https://goo.gl/photos/ycgKyPUPnx1gQu5H9

World's best smoothie (passion fruit): https://goo.gl/photos/WtQz1N1pTB5HFtnR7

Blood cube soup (not as good as it sounds): https://goo.gl/photos/q6igxjLrFrtWadTN8

Banana pancakes (exactly as good as it sounds): https://goo.gl/photos/QLYRh2qocNjfcVLJ9

Intermission at the fights where they put five or six guys in the ring with blindfolds on.  It was a bloodbath, and it was hilarious: https://goo.gl/photos/VRNsSE5pnPCzZsLu8

That's dried pork shavings on top: https://goo.gl/photos/VUHRpFuMcj5gyqRw8

The little Grand Canyon was still pretty grand: https://goo.gl/photos/RJk967MyynjPcH417

https://goo.gl/photos/Vx5fmNypczt5RXHH7

Jake jumped off the Grand Canyon: https://goo.gl/photos/TtRDRFKX8c1jbQGC7

Mmmmm hotpot: https://goo.gl/photos/FSA2igKPvy8Tph4J8

https://goo.gl/photos/cayuxQjbY8uMdgyM8

Until next time...
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 08, 2016, 12:14:38 pm
Also I should apologize for the numerous misspellings and strange word combinations which are a product of typing these up on my phone and its annoying autocorrect.  Hopefully you can get the gist from context.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: alumbrada on April 10, 2016, 05:26:22 pm
This appeared in my facebook feed today: Thailand's Songkran festival shortened due to drought: http://www.westernpacificweather.com/2016/04/10/thailands-songkran-festival-shortened-due-to-drought/ (http://www.westernpacificweather.com/2016/04/10/thailands-songkran-festival-shortened-due-to-drought/)

Hopefully it was still a good time in Laos!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on April 19, 2016, 12:37:59 am
Laos was an epic good time, and the following is a highly abridged version of events.

Check out the photos here: https://goo.gl/photos/Wyay82WEzGgqQnya8

Got on a boat and floated down the Mekong for two days.  Stopped in Luang Prabang.

Celebrated the Laos New Year (called Pi Mai, not Songkran) for a week straight.

Tubed down the Song River in Vang Vieng.  Not that cool.  Super dirty.

Ended up in Vientiane where we are catching a flight to Hanoi.  Vientiane completely destroyed by the week long celebrations.  Very dirty.  Very stinky.

I'll post a more complete summary at some point.  Last 10 days have been crazy.

Having a blast!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on April 19, 2016, 01:56:17 am
Kreygasm

#ripcity
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: tudose on April 19, 2016, 01:42:29 pm
awesome! keep the pics coming <3
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Dk_madness on April 19, 2016, 02:42:07 pm
lit sir.... Looks amazing Kreygasm
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on May 01, 2016, 02:13:22 am

Greetings from Northern Vietnam.

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/Ms7qXDMg7b1AE8mo7

Hanoi is not for me.  Too many people, all driving scooters, with no sense of pedestrian right-of-way.  They drive the wrong way down one-way streets.  They drive on the sidewalks.  There are no rules.  Crossing the street here is a battle every time.  There's also some pretty serious pollution: air, litter, and noise from all the traffic horns.

The pollution thing in SE Asia is very real.  I haven't seen the sun since I've been here.  Contributing to the air pollution is, I think, that parts of Asia have recently gone through an accelerated period of industrial revolution.  The most prominent cause, however, is large scale burning of land for agricultural purposes.  I haven't seen a lot of burnings yet in Vietnam, but there were many in Laos.  It's very common to see people wearing facemasks -- though we've been told they wear them for protection against the sun as much as protection from the smog.  As for the litter, there doesn't seem to be any infrastructure or education in place to allow the people here to make more responsible decisions.  There's no trash cans, so people just throw their garbage on the ground, or in the river.  It's a shame.  There's some real natural beauty in this part of the world that isn't being cared for.

Many Hanoi locals are rude as well.  Maybe they don't like Westerners?  I don't know.  It'll be interesting to see if there's a change in character as we head south.  A lot of the locals in Old Town are out to scam anything they can off tourists.  I paid about six times the going rate for a haircut, for example, by not asking for the price up front...  It was a sweet looking older lady, and I let my guard down.

The currency here is also bonkers.  $1 equals just over 22,000 Vietnamese Dong.  So much Dong.  Although sometimes there's not enough Dong.  Sometimes shopkeepers simply won't have the correct change, so they'll give you back what they can then supplement with small hard candies.  It's a trip, but a practice we should consider adopting back home, because pennies are useless and candy is yummy.

And they eat dog, that's not a myth.  While I haven't encountered it personally (as far as I know), I've seen the pictures of spit-roasted dogs taken by other travelers.

It's different here.

So after only two nights in Hanoi I was burnt out on the chaos of it all.  The most fun I had in Hanoi was drinking "bia hoi" on the streets with Jake and Spencer.  Bia hoi, as I understand it, is kinda like home brewed beer, but it's sold on the street out of kegerators, and at 30 cents a beer it's all too easy to drink it by the gallon.  So that was a lot of fun, but you can't have too many intensive bia hoi sessions before needing a change of pace.

In hopes of finding some quality chill out time -- and maybe seeing the sun -- I left Hanoi and traveled a few hours east to Halong Bay.  Jake and Spencer also left for the bay but they took it a step further and boated out to Cat Ba Island, where they had a much better Ha Long experience than I.  I didn't join them on Cat Ba because my plan was to cut time in Halong Bay so I could visit Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park before reaching Hoi An.  This plan radically backfired and I ended up wasting two nights stuck in Halong city with nothing to do.

Halong Bay was nice-ish.  I stayed in more the resort side of town, where countless unfinished construction projects block view of the bay.  Developers have big plans for this place.  I think maybe in 5 years Halong Bay will look more like Disneyland.

There's also the problem of the nearby port of Hai Phong dumping loads of human waste and trash into the bay.  Again, a real shame.  So naturally I ate a bunch of delicious seafood.

Before actually visiting Halong Bay, my impression was that I'd very simply be able to rent a kayak and paddle around.  This was not the case.  Accessibility to the bay from Halong City proper is in fact quite limited: there's one man-made beach with a roped off swimming area.  I saw this beach of imported white sand on the night I arrived, but thunderstorms prevented me from visiting it the next day.

The weather cleared on day three and I took an overnight boat tour of the bay where I got to swim amongst the beautiful karst formations.  The tour also included visit to an unimpressive cave on Cat Ba island, a "cooking class" which was nothing more than the rolling of an egg roll, and was supposed to have included kayaking the next morning, but thunderstorms once again messed with the plan.  My enjoyment of the tour was further mitigated by the fact I got upsold the "deluxe" package, which turned out to be identical to the "basic" package.  100% identical.

In all, Halong Bay was fine, I am happy to have seen it, but it was not what I had envisioned for a relaxing beach getaway. No matter though, as my highest of hopes for seclusion still lied with Phong Nha-Ke Bang, a national park home to the world's largest cave.  I like caves.

An overnight sleeper bus -- where essentially everyone gets their own Lazy Boy -- delivered me to Phong Nha on the 25th, the same day Jake and Spencer were flying to Hoi An.  I had originally planned to take a multi-day caving expedition, but because of the wasted time in Halong and because busses heading south only leave Phong Nha at 4am, I had to mix things up -- I couldn't keep the guys waiting for me forever.  Instead I rented a motorbike and took a do-it-myself make-it-up-as-I-went tour of as much of the area I could see in a day, and it was easily one of the best things I've done all trip.  Phong Nha is gorgeous and rural and I had some really zenned out moments riding the mountain roads.  This place was the antithesis of Hanoi.  All I had to dodge here were cows in the roads.

I ziplined into a cave.  I took a mud bath in a cave.  I kayaked a bit on a sleepy river.  And I found a bar in the middle of nowhere called "The Pub With Cold Beer", where the proprietors let you slaughter your own chicken.  Phong Nha was incredible!  Bookmark it.

From Phong Nha I continued south to Hoi An, where I reunited with Jake and Spencer. The guys were good and I was super jealous of the good time they had in Halong, though they definitely missed out on Phong Nha.

In Hoi An we stayed on An Hoi island.  We visited An Bang Beach and the Marble Mountains outside Da Nang.  We played ping pong in Ding Dang.  And we even found a very high quality Mexican food joint run by an ex-pat from California.  Also, I had a suit made, because eventually I have to go to work.

Hoi An is a neat city.  There's a lot to see and do but without the frantic pace of Hanoi.  And the people here are super nice.  Jake and I spent a few nights in a homestay, living upstairs from a family who waited on our every need.  It was actually too much niceness and consideration for my tastes...  For instance, the young boy of the family insisted on rubbing tiger balm on my hurt ankle.  That was weird, but kind, and another nice contrast to Hanoi.

Of course, we can't stay any one place too long...  We still have much ground to cover, and tomorrow we leave for Nha Trang, then Da Lat, then who knows where.

In more broad scope updates: my ankle is slowly returning to 100%; I can't stop eating soup; and I might be pregnant.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Adam_Mon on May 01, 2016, 10:13:42 am
Looks great! thanks for providing pics,

its on like Động Huyền Không  Kreygasm
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on May 08, 2016, 05:32:24 am
Greetings from Southern Vietnam.

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/yjYrgJwrBvkLhpr59

From Hoi An, Jake and I took an overnight sleeper bus to Nha Trang.

The word on Nha Trang was that it was more like "Little Moscow" than a Vietnamese city -- a major Russian trading port, apparently -- and accordingly we only scheduled a 7 hour layover en route to Da Lat (not that there's anything wrong with Russians, it's just that we didn't come to Vietnam to eat borscht).  We arrived around 5 am and headed immediately to the beach, where, much to our surprise, we saw everyone in Nha Trang already swimming in the ocean.  The beach was gorgeous, but way too crowded.  Jake and I couldn't figure it out: do they do this every day; or is this a holiday only ritual (between April 30th and May 2nd the Vietnamese celebrate the reunification of North and South); and in any case, why the hell are they getting started at five in the morning?

We continued walking around the city for several hours until our overnight bus trip caught up with us.  Neither of us had slept very well and the nuclear sun was sapping what little energy we had left.  Exhausted, we gave up on seeing more of Nha Trang and returned to the family-run travel agency where we were to catch our onward bus.  Here we made ourselves at home and fell asleep in the backroom kitchen.  I curled up on the backpacks and Jake made a bed from some inner tubes he found stacked in the corner.  Believe it or not the family didn't seem to care and they even offered to feed us some of the gross-looking mystery fish they were having for lunch.  We declined.

Finally the connecting bus arrived and by 5pm we were checking into our Da Lat hostel.  Spencer, who had flown directly from Hoi An to Da Lat, arrived shortly after.

Da Lat is a mountain city close in elevation to Denver which was originally built by the French as a vacation spot.  It's beautiful here, and on average about 20 degrees cooler than any previous place we'd visited -- a nice reprieve from the heat we all enjoyed.

Our first night in Da Lat we ate a nice family style dinner with everyone else staying at the hostel, then marched with a small group across town to watch an English soccer match at a sports pub.  After the match we found a bar called "100 Roofs", which was essentially a five-story labyrinth filled with dead ends and disorienting architecture made by a dedicated artist who might be described as a mix between Escher and Dali -- it was super cool.

The roads in Da Lat were considerably busier than those of Phong-Nha or Hoi An and they're laid out in a most nonsensical and maze-like fashion, putting the scootering skills of Jake and myself to the test.  Spencer refuses to ride his own scooter, but he was brave enough to jump on the back of mine, and together we visited the "Crazy House" (made by the same guy responsible for the 100 Roofs Bar) and rode a gondola over the city.  Later the same day I checked out one of the numerous local waterfall attractions where I rode a manual-style rollercoaster around the park.  Jake, meanwhile, had hitched himself to an impromptu motorbike tour to visit some sites on the outskirts of town.  I can't remember what all he did (though drinking *poop coffee was one activity), but he liked it so much he decided to stay an extra day in Da Lat to do more of the same.  Spencer and I, however, continued south to Mui Ne.

[Rant]
Simply described: Mui Ne is a beach town near the southern tip of Vietnam known for its expansive dunes.  Honestly described:  Mui Ne is a shit hole, covered in trash.  There's two sides to Mui Ne: the city where the locals live, aka the shittiest part of town; and the resort city, aka the less shitty part of town.

The hotel where Spencer and I had reservations was overbooked, and we both received free upgrades to bigger, better rooms.  Unfortunately these rooms were far and away the nicest thing we saw in Mui Ne.  I took a long motorbike ride all around the city and to every major attraction, and although I saw many different beaches, lakes and dunes, my most prominent memory of Mui Ne will always be the trash.  Of course there's trash everywhere across SE Asia -- it's a problem in the developing world -- I just found the trash in Mui Ne particularly disturbing because it is destroying what should be a truly beautiful place.

So much trash.  Burning trash.  Trash on the street.  Trash on the beaches.  Trash in the dunes.  And super trashy locals being way too aggressive with their hustles.

Mui Ne epitomizes what happens when a heavily tourist-driven economy meets a people too poor and too uneducated to give a fuck about the squalor in which they live.  Now obviously, the situation is complex, but I can promise you it's not the tourists directly who have ruined this place; it's the local behaviour mixed with the lack of infrastructure and organization necessary to accommodate everything that tourism brings with it.  I've spoken with several locals who like to imply that Westerners are the litterbugs, but that's a complete lie.  Maybe they've been brainwashed by communist propaganda, I don't know, but they don't seem in touch with the reality of the situation.  The non-touristed areas aren't clean either (you get to see a lot traveling by bus) and in many cases they're worse.
[End Rant]

We spent our last few nights in Vietnam in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City).  Saigon is every bit as crazy as Hanoi, but overall much nicer, in my opinion.  For one, there's trash cans on nearly every street.  There's more people, but also more space, and things operate more smoothly.  We stayed in the heart of the madness, yet I didn't feel the same sense of claustrophobia I felt in Hanoi.  There's also the Viet Cong tunnel network and war mesuems to see.

I kinda liked Saigon and I was ready to leave Vietnam on a high note, but then, on our very last night, my debit card was eaten by a faulty ATM.  The clerks at the store were not helpful in any way and were actually laughing about the situation.  I could have stuck around through the weekend and tried to visit the affiliate branch once it opened on Monday, but that would waste too much time and I had zero confidence I could find someone to help me.  As a result, I left Vietnam with no money and a sour taste in my mouth.  Vietnam and I will not keep in touch.

Onto Cambodia where hopefully the banks will work with me to withdraw some money.  I canceled my card, of course, so I'm not exactly sure how to work this out, but thank goodness I have Jake and Spencer to lean on until I find a solution.

*poop coffee is coffee made from the undigested beans found in the poop of a particular type of weasel
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on May 18, 2016, 01:22:03 pm
I am enjoying these Mr. Ross. :)

(PS - you probably know this, but Crap is being handled. A trip like this might be once in a lifetime, but the Crap can go on and on.)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: tudose on May 18, 2016, 01:25:30 pm
crap stream from vietnam pls
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on May 19, 2016, 03:26:06 am
Cambodia photo album: https://goo.gl/photos/i3wknkMkrkjEBoaNA
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: ChrisP on May 19, 2016, 01:34:20 pm
Ross tiddy.  Kreygasm
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: tudose on May 19, 2016, 01:48:52 pm
 Kreygasm
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on June 08, 2016, 05:34:49 am
Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/rFGaWPuQx2b7eVEn6
The trip was a blast and we all made it home alive.

Southern Thailand wasn't as awesome as it could have been, as the rainy season had started in full and many anticipated island/beach activities were stricken from the agenda.  Most disappointing was the total lack of diving -- we could have still gone diving, but visibility was greatly affected by rain and the full moon tides present during our stay.  Still, we made our own fun whenever possible, and the beaches of southern Thailand remained beautiful despite the poor weather conditions.

We used a 9 hour layover in Beijing to visit the Great Wall, which was indeed great, but exhausting, and by the time we finally landed on US shores we were dead to the world.  The trip had been a great success but we were happy to be home, happy to see our families and ecstatic to eat American food.  In our last few weeks we had spent considerable time fantasizing over which delicious meals we would enjoy first... we had grown sick of SE Asian cuisine, and to cap things off I got food poisoning just days before we left.  So in all, the trip was incredible, but we had reached a point where the new and different was no longer new and different, but tedious, and in reaching this point during any long-term traveling it should be taken as a clear indicator it's either time to move on or return home.                                           

-----

Props and Slops

*Best Cities: Bangkok, Luang Prabang, Dalat, Siem Reap.

*Worst Cities: Vientiane, Hanoi, Mui Ne.

*Best Food: Bangkok.

*Worst Food: Laos (yes, the whole country).

*Best Tourist Attraction: Angkor Wat.

*Best Activities: Pi Mai (#1, not close), motorbiking anywhere, bioluminescence on Koh Rong Samloem, caving in Phong Nha.

*Friendliest People: Cambodia.

*Least Friendly People: Vietnam.

-----

Random Stuff

Asian people cut in line.

Spencer misplaced his passport at least three times, and his phone at least once, but always recovered each without incident.

Jake proposed to at least three different women.

There's no good wifi in SE Asia.

When in doubt, assume she's a he.

-----

Now it's time to eat a proper cheeseburger and marathon Game of Thrones, but I'm already planning my next big trip...  It'd been way too long before my last long-term traveling adventure and this trip reminded me why I love it so much.  I can't wait another decade before traveling again.  The world is a big wonderful place, and I want to see it all.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Adam_Mon on June 08, 2016, 09:30:03 am
Looks like a great time, thanks for sharing the pics.
line cutters  <mad>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on August 29, 2016, 04:47:39 am
I have more than a few posts suffering from link rot -- specifically Twitch link rot.

Is there an elegant solution?
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: xelnia on August 29, 2016, 07:47:32 am
Quote from: VON on August 29, 2016, 04:47:39 am
I have more than a few posts suffering from link rot -- specifically Twitch link rot.

Is there an elegant solution?

AFAIK, no. I don't think Twitch has even officially acknowledged the mess they made. When they "updated" all the links (back in February-ish), Scott and I had to go to every single channel for every score on all the high score lists, track down the new link for the original clip, and manually update every link. So...that's about all I can recommend. :(  <mad> FailFish <Pigger>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on October 25, 2016, 10:04:23 pm
Grinkfest

The drive from Portland to Eagle, Idaho takes around 7 hours.  It’s pretty much a straight shot down I-84 so for the most part the traveling isn’t bad… with the pass through the Blue Mountains being a major exception.  The last time I drove over the Blue Mountains I got stuck in a white-out snow storm with no 4-wheel drive.  This time didn’t go quite as poorly, but it was still extremely dark and pissing rain the whole time.  I couldn’t see shit and every time I had to pass a semi it was like going through a car wash.  I was nervous because I had precious cargo on board -- the one and only LordBBH – but I took it slow and eventually we made it without dying too hard.

Grinkers was easy enough to find, though at first take it was not what I expected.  With a name like Grinkers Grand Palace I was expecting some over-the-top Vegas-casino-like façade, but instead this legendary arcade sits unassumingly in the corner of a strip mall.  From the outside you’d never guess to the gloriousness within and at first glance I remember BBH commenting, “How big is this place again?”  Welp, turns out it’s plenty big, it’s just built like Snoopy’s dog house.

We walked through the doors and suddenly a huge space grew before us.  BBH and I were immediately taken aback by the sheer volume of games, and we proceeded to run around the place like kids in a candy store.  The games list (http://www.grinkers.com/GamesList.aspx) isn’t up-to-date because Grinkers recently expanded their floor to house a whopping 250 games.  It may have been the biggest collection I’ve seen outside a convention.  Rare games too.  Grinkers had both an EDOT and an environmental Missile Command, the latter being something I didn’t even know existed.

I played a bunch of games, drank some dollar beer, shot the breeze with some caggots, and after closing the place down I joined nine of my fellow Portlandians at our Airbnb house just down the road.

Yep.  We crammed ten of us into one house.  It wasn’t perfect of course, but I’m no princess (despite what you may have heard) and I have no qualms sleeping on the floor.  My only problem was that I forgot my ear buds so I had to listen to a lot of snoring.  I didn’t sleep much but oh-fucking-well, I didn’t come to Eagle, Idaho for a spa resort, I came to party hard and crush games.

The tournament started the next day around 1 or 2.  I think I woke up around 10, so with time to kill I ate a leisurely breakfast and tried to guess at the tournament games list.  The night before there had been certain cabinets with John’s Arcade stickers on them scattered throughout the arcade.  John from John’s Arcade was running the tournament, so it seemed reasonable to conclude those stickers were marking tournament games.  The list I came up with for the main tournament would have been pretty good for me – some freebies and some obscure titles I could have grinded as well as anyone – but when Aurcade released the official list just before kickoff, I learned the lineup I had surmised was entirely incorrect.

The tournament game lists and standings can be viewed here (http://aurcade.com/events/view.aspx?&id=189).

I still don’t know why certain games had been stickered.  Maybe they were supposed to be in at some point, but things got changed at the last second?  Maybe John did it to mess with people?  I don’t know, but the last second “change” did alter my interest in the main tournament.  Still plenty of good stuff in the final lineup, of course, but I’m not talented or grindy enough that I could afford to play in more than one tournament.  I had to choose…

Main tournament pros: several games with which I was already familiar.
Main tournament cons: more games and presumably more competitors which would lead to more queuing and more scurrying around (the tournament games were not isolated to any one part of the arcade, they were spread throughout).

Taito challenge pros: Zoo Keeper.
Taito challenge cons: Elevator Action; and I’d have to spend at least an entire day learning Rastan to put up any sort of worthwhile score.

Black n White cons: I’d literally never played any of the games.
Black n White pros: wait, I’ve literally never played any of these games!

Once I realized the only con for the BnW tournament was actually a pro, I got to work.

Turned out the BnW challenge was actually heavily contested.  With only five games in the tournament every title was under continuous use and queues were unavoidable.  Mostly these queues were not a nuisance, and in fact proved a great way to chat up and share strats with my competitors.  However, there’s always those few who never read the arcade etiquette handbook…

[rant] When you are done with your credit, TURN THE FUCK AROUND and make sure no one is waiting for next game.  DO NOT pop another quarter and hog the machine, ESPECIALLY in a tournament setting.[end rant]

Though in the end I had more than my fill of the BnW titles so what little extra time I had to wait on credit feeders was no big deal.  I lead day one wire to wire, and lead most of day two until I quit playing with three or four hours left of tournament time.  I would have continued playing and tried to finish strong were it not for two major complications: one, FlyHec and his wonderful wife gave me some whiskey, at which point I became more interested in setting the highscore for drinking; and two, Boothill is crap.  I tried grinding on Boothill but to no avail, and because of the percentage-based scoring system Aurcade uses I was getting merc’d on that game.  Some dude scored a 14, which is probably near perfect, and I simply couldn’t figure out the game’s system, relegating me to a score of 9 and tournament percentage of 64.  Not good.

The other BnW titles were cool.  Sea Wolf is fun except it doesn’t save anything but the high score, making it a rather strange tournament pick as competitors had to take pictures of their scores before they disappeared.  Seems legit.  Frogs is a pile, but it’s a fun pile and a good tournament game – I only wish I had figured out the end of game scoring bonus during the actual tournament (someone had to tell me later), but hey that’s how it goes sometimes when you’re playing a game for the first time.  Skydiver is a really neat cab (http://tf3dm.com/imgd/l57361-skydiver-upright-arcade-machine-20655.jpg) where you get to pull a ripcord.  The game’s scoring system is somewhat random, with players needing to trigger a bonus that is dictated by things beyond their control, yet better players will always survive longer and so Skydiver remains a passable tournament game.  And Blue Shark was the cream of the crop.  Good tournament game, fun, and I got to laugh at some guy claiming to be the world record holder who was complaining about the controls the whole time.  The controls were off, but…

[rant #2] DON’T blame the controls for your shortcomings when everyone beating your scores is playing on the same cab.  And DON’T presume your Aurcade high score from a previous tournament is somehow the world record nor that it gives you a free pass to be cocky and condescending.  NO ONE is impressed!  Your “world record” score was tied during the tournament and has long been bested by multiple MARPers.  SUCK IT![end rant #2]

So when it was all said and done, I got third, or did I…

[rant #3] Just kidding Kappa Kappa DannyS [end rant #3]

I totally didn’t deserve third place.  The standings got screwed up and a couple dudes who should’ve finished ahead of me got hosed.  I recognized this as soon as final standings were posted but at that point the certificates had already been made and the award ceremonies were underway.  There was nothing I could do other than give away my prize to the person I believed should have received third, which I did, though because said prize was a Burgertime t-shirt which is likely cursed, I fear I may have unfairly won again.  But here’s the thing: I’m not going to be critical of a free tournament.  I had an absolute blast as did the two fellas who got bumped down.  We all drank beers together after the tournament and no one had any hard feelings.

Job well done Grinkers!  Job well done John’s Arcade and crew!  Job well done Aurcade!

Grinkfest was the shit and I highly recommend everyone save the date for next year.  I know I will, despite the drive home being even shittier than the drive out…

For no good reason Scoundrl and I decided staying up all night boozing was the best way to prepare for the long trip home.  I was fucking wrecked on Sunday and I had to make multiple stops to rest my eyes and suck down caffeine.  BBH, if you read this, thanks again for your patience, sir – you’re a champ, both as a gamer and a friend.

When I finally got home Sunday night I hit the sack almost immediately and proceeded to sleep 14 hours without so much as a blink.  I woke up rested and eager for more.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on October 26, 2016, 01:19:04 am
Sounds like a whole fuckin' boatload of fun.

Congrats on a good tournament mate.

I've never heard of any of the BnW games either. Any to keep in mind for the Crap tourney next year? Might be worthwhile keeping an eye on

Great write up, appreciate you taking the time to fill us less-fortunate folk in! :)
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: TheSunshineFund on October 26, 2016, 04:54:12 am
Great write up Ross.  I'm planning to attend next year for sure, especially if Brofest is no longer, though hopefully they still do both events.  $1 craft beers, my lord......
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 13, 2018, 07:26:39 am
Shit got weird in Vegas last night.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: VON on March 22, 2018, 04:03:40 pm
Here's some stuff: https://photos.app.goo.gl/A8GCnnC2cLtVWVoH2

Hopefully Barra and DaLar will upload more pictures from their continuing adventures.

Also I dominated at Slug Bug.
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on December 12, 2018, 05:13:17 pm
Quote from: VON on March 22, 2018, 04:03:40 pm
Here's some stuff: https://photos.app.goo.gl/A8GCnnC2cLtVWVoH2
Hopefully Barra and DaLar will upload more pictures from their continuing adventures.

Well it only took 9 months but I've uploaded a few photos
Enjoy!
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: QAOP Spaceman on December 12, 2018, 06:44:13 pm
No pictures of a successfully lit roaring log fire, I can't help but notice  <mad>
Title: Re: VonBlogenstein
Post by: Barra on December 12, 2018, 06:45:06 pm
Quote from: QAOP Spaceman on December 12, 2018, 06:44:13 pm
No pictures of a successfully lit roaring log fire, I can't help but notice  <mad>

Was too busy trying to turn the smoke alarms off ROFL