The Goddess of Victory Blog

[NWnike]

Hello, so I decided to start a blog to track my journey to getting better at Donkey Kong.

but first an introduction...I am 50 years old and I live in central NC... and yes, I have a serious southern accent. My hearing is atrocious. I had spinal meningitis as a baby and my hearing is a casualty of that. I actually had most of my hearing until I was 14 years old, which is why my speech isn't bad but I do wear a hearing aid in one ear but I am deaf in the other. However, nothing helps my ability to comprehend speech. I rely a lot on reading lips in person and using closed caption for watching TV and such. If I am watching a stream, I will never understand what anyone is saying.

Anyway, I grew up going to the arcades a lot. I love Ms. Pac-man, Galaga, and at one time I was really good at Pac-land but I've been streaming it lately and I wasn't doing so great recently... but it will come. I have always had a special place for Donkey Kong in my heart, I was just never any good at it. I could get to Level 3 elevators as a kid but not much further. I went years without even seeing a DK machine until a barcade called Boxcar opened in my town. They have 80's games galore. I started playing it again in January of this year, probably scoring around 25,000. I stuck with it, getting a little better slowly. When I finally got to the level 4 elevators and couldn't get past them I tried to find information on the internet, that led me to this page. I did get my personal best up to 298k but I can't get that machine verified so I started playing it on MAME. Wow, this was a major setback for me! My number one problem was getting a decent controller. I started out playing with an xbox controller but it was horrible. I bought a fight stick for about $35 hoping it would help. While it was better, it still gave a lot of trouble getting off ladders and trying to do directional jumps from a standstill. I did manage to get better at learning how to get points from the barrel boards, in fact, I got better in general, it was just impossible to put it together in one game.

Where I stand now... my personal best on MAME is 245K, which is my score on the High Score List. It took me forever to break 200k and I only did it once, right before I quit playing for the month of July to participate in Summer YOLO. I did get a new controller last week for the enf of YOLO, an X-Arcade Tankstick. Yolo ended Monday. Yesterday, Tuesday, I played Donkey Kong for the first time with the new joystick. After a few minutes of getting used to it I played one full game. I managed to get 227K on that first game and it felt so much easier. Today I managed another over 200K game with ridiculous deaths. I just feel very optimistic that I can actually start seeing some improvement in my game... at least, that's the dream!

Mainly, I'm playing because I love this game and it is still fun to me. If I never get a Kill Screen, I'm ok with that. Let's just see what I can do.

[hooch66]

Good luck with your quest at playing and getting better. It makes me want to take the time and really work at improving my personal best.

[NWnike]

What is your PB Hooch?

[GILLYKONG]

Stop by next time I'm playing. We have allot in common. You should look into calculator implants.

[hooch66]

What is your PB Hooch?

I need to look this up for sure but I believe I'm at the 220K range.

[NWnike]

Oh yes, please get back into it. We can push each other to new milestones. That would be fun!

[hooch66]

Oh yes, please get back into it. We can push each other to new milestones. That would be fun!

OK I'll give that some thought

[NWnike]

I wanted to post before I forgot. Recently there was a CAG Tournament: Summer YOLO 2019. I decided to enter this feeling I would be against much, much better players. When the list of games was announced I only recognized 5 games: Out Run, Turbo Ms. Pacman, Elevator Action, New RallyX, and Karate Champ. Ms. Pacman was the only one I had played in at least 30 years. Oh, there was a Tetris game. I had never played this particular Tetris but I am familiar with the game. Needless to say my expectation were low. After being drafted higher than I expected, 73rd out of 75 players, I entered the tournament hoping to at least have 1 score be useful for my team. The powers that be decided that 14 scores per instead of six would be used in each teams score, so with an average of 18 players per team I knew I had a chance.

I suck at Tetris, that is just a fact. This particular Tetris the Grand Master is especially hard. I did manage to put up a score a little over 9K which I was pretty happy with.
I had not played Elevator Action or New RallyX in forever. I managed somewhat decent scores in these and it was fun playing them again.
Out Run was a game I had never been good at but this was playing in a sit down cab with pedals, gear shift, and a steering wheel. I did manage to finish the race with a score of 22 million. I believe I placed 15th in this, so that was much better than expected.
In Ms. Pacman, I expected to have my best score because I do play this some at my local arcade. I probably average around 185k on the cabinet. Most of the tournament I could not even try to play because I was using an 8 way joystick, which is unbearable. I got a new joystick 3 days before the end of the tournament. I never did manage a good score, only getting 146,000.
Overall, I had a lot of fun. I would recommend trying a tourney for anyone who loves old games.

[NWnike]

I've been playing since the yolympics ended and averaging more than 200k on games I don't abort early.  Just 1 week ago I  had only hit 200k on MAME once. Sometimes I play too risky on level 1, trying to get a point cushion, then later, mostly just running boards.

Sunday Aug. 4th, I finally managed to beat my previous best score on a cabinet, posting a 305,100. This game I only had 1 death that wasn't purely my ineptness, the last one. I had 2 deaths on the level 5+ springs where I  ran for the ladder on a long, was on the ladder, saw another long spring and tried to return to safety but got hung on the ladder. The other death was after using the top hammer, I was standing to the right of the short ladder on the 5th girder, when a barrel turned down the short ladder and I moved I into it.(bonehead)

That game also improved my best start, even though I wasn't really focused on score. I know if I can keep getting further into the game my scores will continue to increase. So far I am maxing out at level 9 but I'd really love to hit double digits.

New goals: level 11-1 to make it halfway and 500k for score.

[NWnike]

Well, a few weeks ago on 8/28 I did set a new PB with 348,300. It was a good game but my first 3 deaths came on the pie factory, and not with the bonus running out, so that is pretty disappointing. I did make it to level 10 for the first time so that was nice.

I still am looking to hit 500k and level 11 for the halfway point. A super big shout out to Xelnia for the kongtrac info. I was pleasantly surprised to see my pace. I know some people think it makes more sense to just run boards until you get a kill screen but most of my deaths in my good games have nothing to do with trying to get points. They are usually just bad decisions that I know I shouldn't do. I tend to go for points on level 1 and maybe 2 if the chance is there. After that it's just top hammers and surviving the other 3 boards.

I haven't had as much time to stream lately and as you get better you know you have to allow for the game lasting longer. I actually had a great game going last week where I had 1 death on level 4 (where I made a really dumb mistake, of course) but finished level 5 with 165k and 3 men. My wife told me it was time for dinner so I had to walk away but it felt like a great chance for a big game.

So that is where I am at now. Onward and upward!