Donkey Kong Player High Score Timelines

[corey.chambers]

On 7/29/13 I asked Vince Lemay how many times he had reached 900K before breaking one million points. He laughed and said zero. He had bypassed 900K altogether. I found this interesting and was curious how other players may have progressed to this milestone. By this time I had reached 900K three times so naturally I was curious about other players. I want to know the progression of your high scores, when and what score it was that improved your personal best. List as many as you can remember.

Corey Chambers High Score Timeline

Watched the King of Kong 11/10/11

Started with Donkey Kong for the Nintendo Entertainment System

1,042,000 1/7/12 NES
1,406,400 1/9/12 NES
1,795,500 1/14/12 NES
2,808,400 1/27/12 NES

After this I switched over to MAME:
 
480,700 3/7/12 MAME Japan Set 1
505,600 4/28/12 MAME US Set 1
696,800 4/1/13 MAME US Set 1
714,200 4/8/13 MAME US Set 1
893,800 4/11/13 MAME US Set 1 Killscreen!
915,000 5/24/13 MAME US Set 1
964,500 6/22/13 MAME US Set 1 Killscreen!

After this I switched over to Arcade:

901,200 7/27/13 Arcade
1,008,100 9/24/2013 Arcade
1,019,000 11/15/13 Arcade (Live at the 1up)

[f_symbols]

Here Is my HS timeline; nothing has changed

[Fast Eddie]

probably some PBs missing between 666 and 855...

23 AUG 10 - 666k    L17ish  MAME
15 MAR 11 - 855k    L20-3   MAME
12 APR 11 - 860k    L19-2   MAME
01 JUL 12  - Got my cab
09 SEP 12 - 890k    L19-4   ARCADE
16 MAR 13 - 905k    KILL     ARCADE
07 JUL 13 - 1.025m L21-6  ARCADE

whats interesting here is it looks like i stopped playing mame when i got my cab, but i havnt at all, i actively play both and probably play mame 50-66% of the time...

i have not upped my mame PB since APR 2011  so as a straight up comparison between mame and arcade in the home environment, my experience has not been that mame is easier than arcade...

it feels easier, because its more comfortable and less hassle, but for me at least that doesnt translate to having better games!

 

[Xermon54]

Here's my highscore timeline (approximately).

November 2008: Started playing Donkey Kong
February 2009: Highscore of 296k
May 2009: Highscore of 420k
September 2009: First kill screen of 809k (lol)
October 2010: First 1m of 1,002,700
February 2011: Highscore of 1,050,200
October 2012: Highscore of 1,084m on my Slender Kong machine
January 2013: Highscore of 1,135,900
June 2013: Kill screen of 543k at Funspot!

That's pretty much my highscore timeline. Take into considerationg that I took a lot of break for the last 5 years, and I played a lot of 1-1 during that time.

[TheSunshineFund]

1983-1990:  Random games of DK and other classic games (Arcade)
Summer 1991: 5xx,xxx (Arcade)
1991-2006:  Stopped playing Classic Games Entirely
September 2007:  Watched King of Kong at an indie movie theatre, decided to find the games again
2008-2013:  Playing Random Various Games here and there including DK finding lost time
January 2013:  Kill screen on my machine used by Dean during Kong Off 1 (likely first kill screen ever done on that machine)
2014:  Profit

[lakeman421]

January 2012: Started playing out of a bar bet to get to the top 20
February 2012: High score of 140k
March 2012: High score of 365k
June 2012: High score of 540k
September 2012: High score of 702k
October 2012: First killscreen with 860k
March 2013: Second kill screen and first million with 1,007,600
July 4th 2013: High score of 1,070,200 on MAME
July 11th 2013: High score of 1,021,100 at Funspot (verification pending)

[TheSunshineFund]

2015:  Top 5 DK Shoutbox Leaderboard

[danman123456]

I suck in that I really don't keep track of what I play and how well i do. I know my PB is 768,400k I believe at this time. I started playing back when it first came out and remember getting past the 3rd elevator screen but it was 100% luck (Didnt know about retreating or anything like that) so I think my PB back in that day was around 150k - 200k? We just played in arcades and the stores to play and have fun and I never realllllllly kept a hard track on the scores I made. I always seemed to last longer on the games then most of my friends so when they ran outta money it was either give them my tokens or we just would leave and go enjoy something else outside (Yeah crazy we would go play Bball or handball or just ride our BMX bikes down at the track).

My DK pace is horrid so nothing to post but awful. I've been trying seriously on and off since last mar now for a KS and just suck.
Bunch of 500-700k games thrown in the mix but still waiting for the one....

 

[stella_blue]

This promises to be a very short story:

Platform		High Score		Year Achieved		Depth of Game
Arcade		448,400		1984-1985		Level 12 (estimated)

Platform		High Score		Date Achieved		Final Stage		Pace
MAME		679,600		01/17/2012		Level 16-5		935,400
MAME		757,400		01/19/2012		Level 18-2		937,600

[ChrisP]

Well Scott, if it's any comfort, until the 2000s, you probably had the second highest score of any active member here!

You and Jeff Wolfe were the original Kings of (Donkey) Kong (Forum)!

[Milehighdt]

Started playing DK when it hit the arcades and was finally able to get an approximate date for my scores by finding old Electronic Games magazines on the internet.

Arcade    383,200       10/82          (submitted this one to the magazine since it topped their high score)
Arcade    421,xxx        11/82 
Arcade    54x,xxx         1/83           (steve sanders was the top in EG at 863K)
                                    2/83           (got first car,    car>video games  )
                                    4/83           (some nut got credit for 11.8 million, latter another claimed 14.271 million, scoreboard dicontinued 11/83)
Mame      740,200        8/01           (discovered mame and put top scores up on all DK and CK tracks at MARP)
                                   11/01          (Ben Jos beats DK score)
Mame      8xx,xxx       12/01- 4/03  ( occasionally tried to be first to million point game, never got close, two hammer running boards, knew almost nothing of point pressing)
                                  summer 11   (saw KOK, heard about Kong Off, thought I can compete in that  , found out it already happened  )
Arcade     949,xxx       10/12          (found out about KO2  , in Denver  ,bought cab went for million died level 20 )
Arcade     973,100        3/13          ( WCR #2)
Arcade     997,800        5/13          ( WCR #3)
Arcade   1,054,900       9/22/13
Arcade   1,103,700       10/30/13

[Donkey Kong Genius]

I had to re-post in order to edit it.

On 7/29/13 I asked Vince Lemay how many times he had reached 900K before breaking one million points. He laughed and said zero. He had bypassed 900K altogether. I found this interesting and was curious how other players may have progressed to this milestone. By this time I had reached 900K three times so naturally I was curious about other players. I want to know the progression of your high scores, when and what score it was that improved your personal best. List as many as you can remember.

Corey Chambers High Score Timeline

Watched the King of Kong 11/10/11

Started with Donkey Kong for the Nintendo Entertainment System

1,042,000 1/7/12 NES
1,406,400 1/9/12 NES
1,795,500 1/14/12 NES
2,808,400 1/27/12 NES

After this I switched over to MAME:
 
480,700 3/7/12 MAME Japan Set 1
505,600 4/28/12 MAME US Set 1
696,800 4/1/13 MAME US Set 1
714,200 4/8/13 MAME US Set 1
893,800 4/11/13 MAME US Set 1 Killscreen!
915,000 5/24/13 MAME US Set 1
964,500 6/22/13 MAME US Set 1 Killscreen!

After this I switched over to Arcade:

901,200 7/27/13 Arcade
1,008,100 9/24/13 Arcade
1,019,000 11/15/13 Arcade (Live at the 1up - Kong Off 3)
1,019,500 2/21/14 Arcade Killscreen!
1,049,600 6/29/14 Arcade Killscreen!

[stella_blue]

Whoops!  I forgot that I had posted earlier in this thread (on 08/02/2013).  I should revise my own timeline, having surpassed my personal best 4 times since then.

Ok, so here we go:

Platform		High Score		Year Achieved		Depth of Game
Arcade		448,400		1984-1985		Level 12 (estimated)

Platform		High Score		Date Achieved		Final Stage		Pace
MAME		679,600		01/17/2012		Level 16-5		935,400
MAME		757,400		01/19/2012		Level 18-2		937,600
MAME		782,900		08/18/2013		Level 19-1		926,400
MAME		822,900		09/23/2013		Level 19-5		933,700
MAME		879,100		12/29/2013		Level 18-6		1,045,300
MAME		942,100		05/21/2014		Level 21-3		972,000

Still no killscreen.  Yeah, I know you're all tired of hearing that.

[stella_blue]

One more item appended to the timeline:

Platform		High Score		Year Achieved		Depth of Game
Arcade		448,400		1984-1985		Level 12 (estimated)

Platform		High Score		Date Achieved		Final Stage		Pace
MAME		679,600		01/17/2012		Level 16-5		935,400
MAME		757,400		01/19/2012		Level 18-2		937,600
MAME		782,900		08/18/2013		Level 19-1		926,400
MAME		822,900		09/23/2013		Level 19-5		933,700
MAME		879,100		12/29/2013		Level 18-6		1,045,300
MAME		942,100		05/21/2014		Level 21-3		972,000
MAME		952,100		07/23/2014		Level 22-1		952,100

Going forward, I'll edit this post (instead of creating a new one) to document any additional changes.

EDIT:  Hey Ross, sorry for including the Pace column.  I hope we can still be friends.   

[Fliplismc]

Started playing DK in September/November 2009 on 60-in-1 cabinets on backbackers hostels on a trip to Australia
Watched King of Kong early 2010
Bought a 60-in-1 Arcade Tabletop a litlle year later
Build my own MAME in Marts 2011

03/25-2011 - 124,600 -   5-4 – Arcade
                          +5,400
05/21-2012 - 130,000 -   5-4 – Arcade
                        +43,700
10/16-2012 - 173,700 -   6-4 – Arcade
                        +38,800
11/19-2012 - 212,500 -   7-? – MAME
                        +17,900
04/30-2013 - 230,400 -   7-5 – MAME
                        +18,400
05/21-2013 - 248,800 -   8-1 – MAME
                        +15,800
06/04-2013 - 264,600 -   8-4 – MAME
                        +26,400
01/18-2014 - 291,000 -   9-2 – MAME
                       +211,300
01/19-2014 - 502,300 - 13-4 - MAME

Top 4

1.  502,300
2.  463,700
3.  435,700
4.  417,500