Donkey Kong Kill-Screener Timeline

[LMDAVE]

OK, so maybe the date I have IS correct...

Though it seems odd that he would get 801K in October and not actually kill screen the game until March. Getting that close would drive me nuts!

When I joined Twin Galaxies in 2007 and started interest in Donkey Kong and reading the forums, I remember Stephen Boyer on there (who went by Ripper), I remember his signature, It was "801K 21-1 (almost there)"
I remember the "almost there" thing and at the time I would always wonder what it would be like for him to get that far in the game and fall short of the KS. Because at the time, there werent many other known killscreens, so it would have been a major accomplishment coming right after the release of KOK. The wierd thing is I never actually remembered him getting one. Not sure how that would have passed me because I was always pretty active with reading the forums, it wasn't until years later that someone informed me that Stephen had got one in the past, just not sure when.

[ripper]

I could swear I took a picture of it after I did it but It's been so long ago and I can't find that pic now.  I just looked through hundreds and it must have been on a older camera.  I remember the first Kill Screen like it was yesterday though because I drank like a 6 pk before playing the game and was just killing time by playing a game of DK while my wife was looking at something on the internet.  The next thing I knew I was on like L=17 and still on my first man.  I was being careful that game and not shooting for a lot of points but rather just trying to stay alive.  I really do believe I could have gotten a kill screen on the 1st man that day but I then began to point press and lost a guy.  LOL  The score I'm not sure about but it was just a top hammer game and no bottom hammers up to that point and it was a good bit under Billy's score from back in the day so probably around 820K or so?  Rather low I know for a kill screen but I just wanted it and didn't care about a huge score.

The date seems about right but I might have to go see what I posted on the forums as maybe it was more accurate than I can remember now.  One thing I know for sure was John Marks, Scott Kessler & myself were all TRYING to get a kill screen back at the same time.  John and Scott got theirs with Scott getting his on his first man.  Possibly the first time that has ever been done? Then I got mine a couple months later.  Yes, the 801K game was a L=21.2.  Here is the kicker though.  I'm not sure how Benjamin Falls got his back on 10/3/2007 unless he streamed it and never sent it in??   I know he got his 903,400 game back in 2009-06-13.  It's very possible I guess and I mean no disrespect.  I do however remember Ross Benziger starting the Million Point March and possibly having a LOT to do with the way DK and the scores have become to this day.  Ross deserves a ton of credit and should be recognized a great deal for helping to come up with a lot of point pressing strategies for DK including the point pressing under DK's feet??

OK, so maybe the date I have IS correct...

Though it seems odd that he would get 801K in October and not actually kill screen the game until March. Getting that close would drive me nuts!

When I joined Twin Galaxies in 2007 and started interest in Donkey Kong and reading the forums, I remember Stephen Boyer on there (who went by Ripper), I remember his signature, It was "801K 21-1 (almost there)"
I remember the "almost there" thing and at the time I would always wonder what it would be like for him to get that far in the game and fall short of the KS. Because at the time, there werent many other known killscreens, so it would have been a major accomplishment coming right after the release of KOK. The wierd thing is I never actually remembered him getting one. Not sure how that would have passed me because I was always pretty active with reading the forums, it wasn't until years later that someone informed me that Stephen had got one in the past, just not sure when.

Here is the thing, Dave.  I went on to have multiple kill screen games but I just quit recording and playing DK as family took all my time pretty much.  My 2nd daughter was born in August 2007 and that was the end of my 2 hour DK games for a short while and I used to record my games during my working hours as I worked from home.  Even my 801K game has me wearing my work shirt.  LOL  Getting paid to record DK was the life. 

However, I can tell you and everybody this much.  I've not only had a game of DK where I got to the very LAST rivet of L=21.6 and couldn't get it to end my game, leaving me ONE rivet shy of a kill screen but this happened to me TWO times!!  Talk about being frustrated!

[syscrusher]

My 10/03/2007 kill screen was done at Barcade, so it wasn't recorded.  I think I was the next one after John Marks.  I remember immediately posting it on that same TG thread back then.  I know Scott had some very close games, but hadn't quite made it yet. 

[ripper]

That was a special time for DK.  It just kind of took off all at once.  I guess Steve Wiebe had a lot to do with it as well and his million pt. game.

[LMDAVE]

Here is the thing, Dave.  I went on to have multiple kill screen games but I just quit recording and playing DK as family took all my time pretty much.  My 2nd daughter was born in August 2007 and that was the end of my 2 hour DK games for a short while and I used to record my games during my working hours as I worked from home.  Even my 801K game has me wearing my work shirt.  LOL  Getting paid to record DK was the life. 

However, I can tell you and everybody this much.  I've not only had a game of DK where I got to the very LAST rivet of L=21.6 and couldn't get it to end my game, leaving me ONE rivet shy of a kill screen but this happened to me TWO times!!  Talk about being frustrated!

Welcome to the board Stephen! Sorry I never caught it when you hit your KS. I know you were one of the first to have almost killscreen post KoK.

Yeah, I  know how other things can take up DK time.

[ripper]

Here is the thing, Dave.  I went on to have multiple kill screen games but I just quit recording and playing DK as family took all my time pretty much.  My 2nd daughter was born in August 2007 and that was the end of my 2 hour DK games for a short while and I used to record my games during my working hours as I worked from home.  Even my 801K game has me wearing my work shirt.  LOL  Getting paid to record DK was the life. 

However, I can tell you and everybody this much.  I've not only had a game of DK where I got to the very LAST rivet of L=21.6 and couldn't get it to end my game, leaving me ONE rivet shy of a kill screen but this happened to me TWO times!!  Talk about being frustrated!

Welcome to the board Stephen! Sorry I never caught it when you hit your KS. I know you were one of the first to have almost killscreen post KoK.

Yeah, I  know how other things can take up DK time.

No problem Dave.  I remember you were in on the conversations back then as well.  You were just starting out as I remember and now look at your scores!   

[hchien]

Ben's killscreen score/date at Barcade:

http://www.classicarcadegaming.com/contests/CAGDCT2009/images/mda/128.htm

[ripper]

Awesome!  Love the chalk board.  It brings back memories from back in the day when I beat the DK high score at a local arcade @ 254K  LOL  Back then that was a LOT.  LOL

[stella_blue]

Wow, you guys are making me wish I had been aware of the DK community in 2007.

Back when I first discovered DK, a few local bars had arcade machines, so I played several times each week for about 18 months, between 1983 and 1985.  After achieving a personal high score that I was happy with, I stopped playing and turned my attention to other interests.  At some point during 2005-2007, after having not touched the game in 20 years, I searched for a free online version to play; I don't recall what prompted me to do so.  It involved a bit of trial and error, but I was able to find a website that hosted the game and seemed to emulate it accurately.  I played occasionally, competing only against myself, trying to top my personal best from the arcade days.  I had no idea there was a killscreen or a world record, or that anyone might be actively pursuing either one.

It wasn't until the spring of 2010 that I somehow stumbled upon "The King of Kong", Twin Galaxies, MAME, etc.

Better late than never.

[corey.chambers]

Nice job on those killscreen's Stephen. I had assumed that your 801K game was a killscreen because this is the score that was on Hank's list. I made the adjustment on the High Score List. https://donkeykongforum.net/index.php?topic=246.0 Great to have you as a member!

[ripper]

Nice job on those killscreen's Stephen. I had assumed that your 801K game was a killscreen because this is the score that was on Hank's list. I made the adjustment on the High Score List. https://donkeykongforum.net/index.php?topic=246.0 Great to have you as a member!

Thanks and it's good to be here!   

I also seen Chris Ayra on the top of the list and I think it's the first time I ever heard about him getting a DK kill screen or even playing DK.  I thought he was a Ms. Pac-Man person but never knew he played DK as well.  He's also not on the TG DK arcade list either.

[ChrisP]

I was trusting the word of Chris Mansfield in that case, who told me in no uncertain terms that Chris Ayra had done it back in the 80s. Considering Ayra's close collaborative ties to Billy Mitchell during the era when he first kill-screened DK, I would say it's worth the benefit of the doubt.

There are definitely a few iffy spots on this list. It isn't quite as ironclad as the high score list. It's also (probably) not as important, so I'm not gonna subject it to the same rigor.

It's probably safe to assume that there are at least two or three "classic era" killscreeners that we don't even know about. Or 10. Or 20. Who knows? I'm confident that we've got just about everything 21st century, but 1981-1984 or so is a total black box as far as I'm concerned.

If the last few years have taught us anything it's that it's really not THAT hard to do, and back when this game was being played by a number of people several orders of magnitude larger than are playing it now, and when amazing feats were being performed on other games, it seems fair to suspect that there were other DK killscreeners. (We're talking about an era where two preteens killscreened Pac Man in front of TV cameras during an investigative "special report" news segment, and that in itself wasn't even remarkable enough to be anything more than incidental to the segment.)

So, one of the reasons I'm putting Chris Ayra on there is as a reminder/representative of those unknown players.

[ripper]

That's cool I guess.  I have just never heard anything about him playing DK at all.  He has no scores for DK at all, to this day, I don't think.   

I can tell you this much, as I did play DK a LOT back in the early 80's and just getting a 250K score was considered really, really good.  With no internet, youtube or MAME besides the forums to share secrets or put out videos, it was VERY difficult to get a kill screen in those days.  I didn't even know it existed. That alone is probably the biggest thing Billy Mitchell has ever done IMO.  Getting that kill screen was indeed a major deal as early on as he did it.   Sorry, just my 2 cents.   

[ChrisP]

Actually, I can very easily go either way on this.

It may indeed only have been Billy and one or two others, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. It was literally a different world.

DK is special among classic games in how long and full of subtlety the learning curve is, and it's hard to imagine anyone doing all of that learning without (1) access to a machine and (2) a whole lot of determination.

But you just never know. I'm not comfortable ruling anything out.

It's a numbers game... out of the 60K-100K machines and all the millions of people who at least dropped in a quarter or two, who knows? Maybe a small handful grabbed the ball and ran with it.

[hchien]

I was meaning to ask Billy about this at KO2 but somehow I forgot with all the chaos of the weekend.  Billy and Chris collaborated on Ms. Pacman, so there's no reason to believe that they wouldn't have collaborated on other games such as DK.  Indeed it would have been very hard to killscreen DK bitd in isolation.  If Billy says he killscreened bitd, I'd believe it.  He is not on my unofficial list because I don't have a score or even a rumored score for him.

There was also a youtube video where he alluded to the fact that he was going to take up DK.  Other than that I don't think I've ever heard of Chris playing DK.

Chris Ayra pacman champ speaks of his plans for a world record attempt on donkey kong