DKJR 255 lives trick

[stella_blue]

http://www.videoparadise-sanjose.com/tg-rules.htm

From the link supplied by Mark, near the bottom of the page:




A DK high score of 886,000 from 1983?

Whether officially recognized or not, this is the first I've heard of it.

[marky_d]

A DK high score of 886,000 from 1983?

Whether officially recognized or not, this is the first I've heard of it.

Yeah I saw that. Same for the 963k Junior score. Never heard of either of them.

[ChrisP]

Both of those things are very interesting.

I'd never even considered this possibility, but given that the 255 lives trick was apparently publicized, it could have been read about and widely utilized. This would make it a solid alternative explanation (maybe the best yet?) for how the legendary Mr. Frampton could have achieved the puzzlingly high 1,2xx,xxx score that he got, without knowing any point-pressing techniques, or even knowing that the kill screen was coming. Just die like crazy and play lots of boards until L=F...

As for the 886K thing, that's even more interesting, because if true it would be semi-official confirmation of what we all pretty much know - that at the time got the DK "world record" it wasn't actually the world record. That is to say, (not to mention  ) had unofficially gone well beyond 879K long before the year 2000.

[marky_d]

The timelines don't match up, but this article states a claimed score of 886,900 mad by Billy in the summer of 1982. Who knows, it may be related to the 886k score in the tg rules sheet.

http://www.twingalaxies.com/content.php/2548-The-Perfect-Man

"That summer, Day got a call from a teenager named Billy Mitchell, who had read in Joystick magazine that someone had scored 1.4 million points in Donkey Kong. Mitchell told Day that he was sure the record was a fiction. “I said, ‘Bull-sugar,’” Mitchell recalls. “‘This guy is not telling you the truth.’” His reasoning was pure self-assured bravado: That couldn’t be the high score because he had only scored 886,900 at that point. “I thought, there’s no way there’s anybody as good as me, there’s just no way.” "

[timhett]

FWIW they also mention some business about a Millipede bonus at 786k and that not only doesn't exist, but doesn't even fit with the bonus cycle math of every 15k, not even 12k or 20k bonuses.  Some of the information on the document is dubious so I'm salting the document as I read it.

[ChrisP]

I think that had the 886K going into the Time Magazine event where he set the "iconic" 873K score. It's just that the 886K wasn't official.

He did the 873K in one shot, in public. So obviously he was comfortable going deep at that point, which would suggest that he'd probably beaten 873K before in private at least once.