dealing with wild barrels.

[Dustin(tiptop)Myers]

Is it possible to steer wild barrels like the normal barrels?

[JCHarrist]

Mitch can probably answer this better , but the level 3 and 4 wild barrel paths definitely seem to be influenced jumpman's postion and direction of movement.

I believe level 5+ wild barrels follow a predetermined path once they leave Kong's hands.

[marinomitch13]

All wild barrels are dictated to some degree by Jumpman's location. Levels 1-4 all seem to both 1) have more variable random factors contributing to how they redirect when they hit orders above you, and 2) are able to redirect more greatly. Level 1 seems to track you like level 5 wild barrels until they get to the girder directly above you, then they seem to become more random and often over/under-compensate for jump man's location. Level 2 barrels redirect to a greater degree yet but seem to also over/under-compensate for where Jumpman is (this is the type I feel most iffy one, though). Level 3 wild barrels almost perfectly redirect towards jump man with a bit of variance (Hank and I have both run tests and seen a slight element of randomness...i think much of it has to do with the randomness of DK's initial throw of the barrels). Level 4 wild barrels seem to be the same as level 3 wild barrels except they are able to compensate to greater degree (change direction more greatly) than level 3 wild barrels, therefore these one's are harder to avoid overall, since they can zoom almost across the whole screen between just 2 girders!. Level 5 wild barrels target jump man's feet, but have very little ability to redirect -hence, why they are easy to avoid.

Feel free to correct me, anyone, if you think my description is inaccurate. Like I said, I'm most iffy on the nature of level 2 wild barrels -mainly because I just haven't taken the time to really study them and may be misremembering possible 'revealing' encounters with them.

[ChrisP]

The wild barrel I hate most is the "ankle biter" on L3, where you're on the next-to-highest girder and you're running for the final ladder, and he launches it right into your back. That one got me last night, in the dumbest way ever. It may be possible to steer some, but definitely not that one...

[mikegmi2]

From what i've read and experienced, L1 and L2 are both fairly random...dont track Jumpman all that much at all, and are normally not a threat...nor can you really influence them much at all by moving.

L3 and L4 I would say are about the same...but like Mitch said, L4 can bounce at sharper angles resulting in faster moving wild barrels as they bounce from one girder to the next.
L3 and L4 track your current position and will zig zag down towards you, bouncing to your left and to your right, trying to stay above you and keep you within it's path of being able to hit you.  You can kinda control these so to speak.  From what i've experienced, the wild barrels will bounce much sharper to the right, than to the left.  If you're right of a wild barrel as its hitting the girder above you, itll bounce right, so I try to be to the right of the wild barrel as it is hitting the girder above me, which will force the barrel to bounce right of me, as I am then running left.  You can even steer them off the screen by doing this when you're on the far right hand side of the screen.

It seems to be  much more dangerous to be to the left of a L3 or L4 wild barrel as it it bouncing off the girder above you.  If you're to the left, it can bounce left and land right on you, or bounce left, then bounce off of the girder you are currently on, to the right, and hit your leg/foot...so it has essentially 2 chances to kill you.

So stay to the right when it's hitting the girder above you.  The wild barrel hack is a good way to test this out...or develop your own method of avoiding these evil L3/L4 wild barrels.

Level 5 wild barrels track your current position and attempt to cut the distance between you and it by 1/2.  You will notice that if you stand still, the L5 wild barrels will just slowly fall towards you at a fairly even rate...getting closer and closer to you as it bounces off each girder.  You'll also notice that if you stand still and are toward the right hand side of the screen, they can't hit you...because they aren't trying to exactly track Jumpman...but rather are cutting the distance between you and it by 1/2 at each girder bounce.  It's been said that this logic was put into place so that on the girders where you are running left...the L5 wild barrels will land right on you if you aren't paying attention to them...which most novice players might do.  They track you just enough to land on your head if you're running toward them, in certain situations.

[ChrisP]

I say a little prayer of gratitude every time I play Donkey Kong and remember that the designers somehow decided that Type 3 wild barrels were "harder" than Type 1 and 2. I don't know how they could have possibly decided that was true, but I'm glad they were wrong.

Can you imagine how miserable playing this game would be if every barrel screen were like L3-1?

I love how mistakes - like this one, and the kill screen bug - are in many cases what make the game as great as it is. It works totally by accident.

[mikegmi2]

Agreed Chris...or how about how the speed of the barrels and the length of Jumpman's jump is just enough to perform a "backjump".  Did they do that on purpose, or is it conincidence?  Pretty cool coincidence.

Or the Super Jump...did they design it that way as like some sort of secret way to pass up the Elevator screens quickly?  Or was it a screw up?

Wall jumps too...they're quite usefull in getting out of tough situations (unjumpable barrel combinations, dodging a fireball, escaping firefoxes, etc).  I'd guess this was done on purpose...since it would be very easy to just code it so that if you jumped off a platform you just fell to your death, but who knows...?

[up2ng]

Wild barrels are not "steerable" in the way that normal barrels can be steered with user directional input.  You have to use careful positioning with respect to the wild barrel's bounce point in order to influence how it bounces in such a way that is more advantageous to you.

All wild barrels are dictated to some degree by Jumpman's location.

Actually, my understanding is that internal difficulty 1 (and 2) wild barrels are just plain random -- not caring about Jumpman's location at all.  The difficulty 3 (and 4) as well as difficulty 5 wild barrels DO bounce in a manner that is influenced heavily by Jumpman's location (his left/right proximity to the bounce point).

Level 3 wild barrels almost perfectly redirect towards jump man with a bit of variance (Hank and I have both run tests and seen a slight element of randomness...i think much of it has to do with the randomness of DK's initial throw of the barrels).

There is some randomness regarding precisely how or where these wild barrels will bounce, but they are predictable to within a certain range of possible outcomes.  Your explanation that is has to do with the randomness of DK's "initial throw" is flawed.  All wild barrels actually begin the same way -- DK drops them STRAIGHT DOWN onto the girder that he is standing upon.  (This is why there is a such thing as a "bomb" after all...)  How a wild barrel bounces off of this, and all successive girders is based on the internal difficulty -- for internal difficulty 3, it is based heavily on Jumpman's location and yet the exact nature of the bounce is slightly random.

[marinomitch13]

Dean, you are correct about DK dropping them on his own girder. That totally slipped my mind. Then, yeah, the release point makes no difference at all.