Mr. Donkey Blog

[ChrisP]

One piece of advice on your game play.  First off, your shooting is much better than your score. 

I would have to agree. I think I have a knack for this game for whatever reason and should be able to get at least 2M.

I think it's because of you shooting the upper top right worm on what you call the "Green board."   It's a bad technique in my opinion.

It probably is. My standard strategy for the level 30+ green boards is to simply avoid the worms and shoot around them. However, I found that my usual strategy wasn't working on Hard because he slips so fast and throws coconuts in such tighter intervals that working around the worms was taking too much time. So freezing that right worm was a quick "patch" to my strategy while I figure out a better, more permanent approach.

I don't like Ben's technique of shooting the worm on the lower platform and standing on him because I get too nervous about the worm unfreezing, me not noticing, and dying. But there are plenty of other ways to play those boards so I'll figure something out.

[homerwannabee]

One piece of advice on your game play.  First off, your shooting is much better than your score. 

I would have to agree. I think I have a knack for this game for whatever reason and should be able to get at least 2M.

I think it's because of you shooting the upper top right worm on what you call the "Green board."   It's a bad technique in my opinion.

It probably is. My standard strategy for the level 30+ green boards is to simply avoid the worms and shoot around them. However, I found that my usual strategy wasn't working on Hard because he slips so fast and throws coconuts in such tighter intervals that working around the worms was taking too much time. So freezing that right worm was a quick "patch" to my strategy while I figure out a better, more permanent approach.

I don't like Ben's technique of shooting the worm on the lower platform and standing on him because I get too nervous about the worm unfreezing, me not noticing, and dying. But there are plenty of other ways to play those boards so I'll figure something out.

Than shoot the worm just to the left of you.  If the worm unfreezes he goes to the left of you, and you'll have time to notice him coming back. 

[ChrisP]

I hear sometimes that you don't die on barrel boards unless you screw up. Personally, I don't think that's anywhere close to true, and a situation came up tonight that I think is a good example.

I'm interested in opinions about whether or not this was avoidable:
http://www.twitch.tv/chrisp_kreme/v/10243740

In my opinion, it was a screwing. It happened on L4, but by the time this situation arose it had been 33 seconds, so this could just as easily have happened on a "regular" barrel.

So, am I right or wrong here??

[f_symbols]

 

I had a similar scenario occur at KO5 while attempting to simply "run boards", wild barrels can almost always delay you to the point where a firey fk-stick comes into play and the screen becomes an impasse.  I am definitely in the camp who believes Kong can end this game at anytime (besides the springs  ), the compounding effect can take things from safe to excessive at a moments notice.

[WCopeland]

I think this could have been avoided. Why would you flee in the direction you know the fireball is going to be coming up anyway?

[Adam_Mon]

I think this could have been avoided. Why would you flee in the direction you know the fireball is going to be coming up anyway?

 

Just kidding Wes 


I would go with screwing, while theoretically every death could be considered our own fault we tend to do what we feel is the right thing in a certain situation.

To be fair he went right because the wild was released before the fireball climbed and its only natural to expect it to be a single wild, at this point the right side is clear of danger whereas the left is occupied with barrels that could be steered unnecessarily, not to mention nobody wants to jump barrels on the 2nd girder under Donkey Kongs bomb zone.. its only when the second wild is released that the fireball decides to come up (at this point he's already committed to the right) and then of course a 3rd consecutive wild is added to the fray.

This is a pretty good example of when DK can trick us into thinking one option is "the best route" and then immediately punishes us for it. I would have done the same, and I'm fairly certain a high percentage of the best players would have too.
 

[Jeffw]

Here are the things that I noticed that you did wrong in that situation:

• At 0:30 you should have steered the barrel down the middle ladder but instead you chose to smash the incoming barrel as soon as possible. You are going to get that smash no matter what so there is no need to rush getting it. Steering the barrel first and then smashing would have made climbing up after the hammer ends much easier.
• You missed an opportunity to climb at 0:37 after the hammer ended.
• After the hammer ended at 0:39 you should have steered the barrel down the short left ladder to reduce the number of individual barrel groups you need to jump. You also had an opportunity to steer the barrel down the middle ladder immediately after that, but you didn't attempt either of these steers. If you would have gotten both of them you would have only had a single barrel group to jump instead of three.
• Like Wes said, you ran towards the fire and could have instead kept much more distance between you and the fire.

[up2ng]

While technically survivable as has been pointed out by others, in the context of a normal million point pace two hammer strategy, this is a pretty horrendous spot.  There are plenty of other similar situations that involve the fireball climbing up the middle ladder at exactly the wrong time in the midst of other barrel traffic and wild barrels, etc that can just get super nasty.  There is no doubt that adding the second hammer to one's game after a normal kill screen is achieved adds a significant amount of risk to their game.

[ChrisP]

I think the most "obvious" way would have been to run left through the space between the first and second wild barrels, and hopefully steered the blue down for a double in the process.

But I generally err on the side of letting stuff just clear out rather than make super-aggressive moves unless I know I have to. The fireball hooked onto the ladder at pretty much the exact moment I'd committed to staying to the right to wait out the hail of wild barrels.

As for the suggestion I climb up the middle immediately after the hammer ended, I dunno. I would have begun the climb when the second wild barrel was already hitting the second girder and it seems there wasn't enough time (?), plus there was a barrel coming on the third girder. Again, maybe *possible* to get it done with perfect timing, but very aggressive! I consider that middle ladder off-limits when I see a wild barrel anywhere above me because one of the wild barrel "tracks" goes right through it.

I like Adam's thinking here (and not just because he says "screwing" ) There is risk in the alternative suggestions, and it seems like counting on the fireball NOT climbing exactly when it did was actually the least-risky option.

One of the things that drives me crazy about this game is that you could have lived if you'd done it differently, but the way you did it isn't necessarily wrong either.

[Jeffw]

I wouldn't have tried to run through the space between the two wild barrels, but any of my suggestions would have been good.

Climbing up the ladder was definitely safe without requiring any kind of special timing, the wild barrel would have bounced to the left of you even if you didn't reach the top of the ladder before it arrived. The hit boxes on the wild barrels are very generous. You can play around with this for yourself from a savestate. Position yourself on a L5 barrel screen exactly where the ladder is and wait for kong to throw a wild barrel. If you are at the top of the ladder then even if you don't move at all from your position the wild barrel will miss you, it's only if you climb a little bit down the ladder that the wild barrel will hit you. In your case you were to the left of the ladder when kong released the wild barrel giving you even more time. You could have probably only been halfway up the ladder when the wild barrel arrives and still not get hit from it.

If you consider the middle ladder off-limits when there are wild barrels you are seriously restricting your options. I climb the middle ladder all the time when there are wild barrels and I would definitely recommend doing the same.

[ChrisP]

OK Jeff, I'll mess with that thanks.

Anything I can do to get off of that second girder as quickly as possible when it's necessary, such as times like this, is something to work on. I do a lot of screwing around down there.

[ChrisP]

Cheat: Internal difficulty 30!

(Newer MAMEs only)

- Create a cheat_temp directory in your MAME folder
- Create the following file in a text editor:

Code: [Select]

<mamecheat version="1">

  <cheat desc="Internal Difficulty 30">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mb@0399=00</action>
      <action>maincpu.mb@039D=1E</action>
      <action>maincpu.mb@2D1B=01</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

</mamecheat>

- save that as dkong.xml in your cheat_temp folder
- run MAME from the command line as:

Code: [Select]

mame dkong -cheat -cheatpath cheat_temp
- Hit tab, go to Cheat and turn the cheat on.
- Drop a credit and start.

Good times.

Thanks to Sock Master for posting the memory locations in the shoutbox!

[Sock Master]

Re: internal difficulty cheat

I tried adjusting the barrel rate and found this one to be pretty enjoyable - survival is more manageable and you can still practice all sorts of barrel evasion maneuvers

Code: [Select]

<mamecheat version="1">

  <cheat desc="Internal Difficulty 30">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mb@0399=00</action>
      <action>maincpu.mb@039D=1E</action>
      <action>maincpu.mb@2D1B=05</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

</mamecheat>


[ChrisP]

Honestly, I love the absolute-maximum barrel release speed. 

Utter barrel hell, and as a result, timer hell!

It's hard enough so that you will rarely clear 1-1, but still leaves juuuuust enough wiggle room to be survivable if you are both good and lucky!

Playing this sorta takes an experienced player back to what DK feels like to someone playing for the first time. Uncontrollable chaos that doesn't last a minute and is absolute brutality.

[xelnia]

Love it.