I need to get a higher score, as the fate of the universe is at stake.

[Realzach2001]

At our local barcade,  I owned the high score honor for many months with a respectable 475k. A bar regular constantly asked how I'd achieved such a reputable score and remarked how he was practicing on Mame at home. I came in one day and noticed he'd finally dethroned me with a seemingly insurmountable  666k. Even the number itself seemed like a taunt.

I've been trying to earn back my score and I've slowly realized that having not practiced has put a horrible hurt on my average. I impressed even myself with a 272k on one man, but have maxed out around the high 300s.

Any advice? I have a lot of trouble still with wild barrels but beyond the first 5 levels I mostly seem to run into bad luck with the pies and rivet boards. Any shortcuts? Should I stall any point pressing activity and just press on "safely"? Do I just need to get lucky or am I not putting enough time in? I have been going at it on average about a game a day but I am struggling still and perhaps just not putting in enough hours.

[krehztim]

I'm no expert, I'm stuck in the 400k's with you, but if your goal is simply to beat 666k, I'd suggest going the safe route.  Not need to grab bottom hammers to get 666k, no need to really point press, either.  I'm having much the same issue - pies and rivets, mostly rivets at this point.  Good luck!

[dnickolas]

If your issue is really just pies and rivets and you want 700k it seems like you should get points on barrels and try to get there before level 15. Then you have to survive fewer of your bad boards.

[Realzach2001]

If I don't point press,  I can rush through more and more of the "easy" boards with barrels as they occupy every other screen from 5 on though...

[hooch66]

As someone who has currently maxed out at 200k-ish, I say go for survival over point pressing. The longer you stay on those barrel boards the more dangerous it gets (which I'm sure you know).

[mrvaya]

There are so much to the rivet and pie screens that I think you should keep practice them. Bad luck/unavoidable deaths are actually rare with optimal play on these screens. Are you familiar with all the quirks mentioned in the DK manual? http://wiki.donkeykonggenius.com/Donkey_Kong_Basic_Manual

[krehztim]

There are so much to the rivet and pie screens that I think you should keep practice them. Bad luck/unavoidable deaths are actually rare with optimal play on these screens. Are you familiar with all the quirks mentioned in the DK manual? http://wiki.donkeykonggenius.com/Donkey_Kong_Basic_Manual

Thanks for the reminder.  I'd forgotten some of the tips about fireball/firefox behavior, especially with respect to ladders and freezers.

[mrvaya]

Yeah knowing when the foxes can take a ladder and when they can not  are important. Same with freezer behavior.

Here are some things to consider on the rivets:
Are you ready to abort the star pattern if the risk of being trapped are increased before getting back to the first hammer? (waiting it out on top or grapping top hammer instead)
When you get the first hammer - do you actively play to avoid the terrible 4-1-combo? (one barricading the left route up and 4 above you)
If you get the 4-1 combo do you take the safer but more time consuming route for the rest of the board? (Imediately get ready to grab top hammer when theres an opening, get the top rivets first, and finish by taking bottom right)
If you get the 5-0 combo - do you convert to the weave pattern and know how to drive the foxes down and away when waiting to get to the upper hammer?
If you are trapped and cant get to the upper hammer in any situation - are you keeping a open mind for finishing by taking the rightmost ladder up and skipping top hammer?

Hope this is useful. At least this is the kind of stuff i am thinking about. Same kind of scenario consideration should be looked into on the pies.

[aarontruitt]

Survive, Survive, Survive... Point pressing won't do you any good until you can Killscreen. Study your deaths. Look over the strategies on this forum. Figure out why you are dying when you died and figure out what you could have done differently and *try* not to repeat your mistakes. Once you are in the 300k range, you are pretty close to having the skills to killscreen. Just a matter of consistency. Let's see Lakeman do that shit...

[dnickolas]

Aaron makes a good point. I can do a lot of things that aren’t automatic for me. Those things are very difficult to do for a whole game, but the automatic things  are easy. Training makes the things you think about automatic.

This is why I never ksed, despite having a 6xxK pb on mame and 322k on my 4th quarter ever in an arcade machine. Clearly I can get past the boards, but it’s not automatic when I try to do the things I want in my first submitted game. That’s why my answer to “could you killscreen it” is “theoretically, with enough attempts.”

This is also why the best players could run boards for over 1.1M and die because they’re going for a wr.

Therefore, keep practicing.