Allen Staal scores 728,900 on Donkey Kong!

[Milehighdt]

Kongrats Allen, you're right on the doorstep now of that elusive KS. Going to happen soon !!!

[up2ng]

Wht da?

Great job Allen!  It's amazing to see what can happen when you have a passion for something.  Keep it going buddy!

[muscleandfitness]

love it thanks to all the great comments and well wishes , there was a couple very funny comments love it.. thanks to every one ..who wished me well.. love yous all. ALLEN

[hchien]

I'm going to be interviewing Allen on Skype on my twitch channel about his recent achievement at 8pm EST (about 2 hours from now).

[John73]

Congrats Allen.

Looking forward to the interview with Hank, hopefully it's saved on his Twitch channel in case I miss it.

I don't think this has been mentioned, but from what I can ascertain this is the highest ever DK score by an Aussie.   We're one step closer to getting our first official KS'er - God knows it won't be me!

[Adam_Wilmot]

Congrats Allen.

Looking forward to the interview with Hank, hopefully it's saved on his Twitch channel in case I miss it.

I don't think this has been mentioned, but from what I can ascertain this is the highest ever DK score by an Aussie.   We're one step closer to getting our first official KS'er - God knows it won't be me!

Yeah john its good to see another Aussie climbing the ranks. And this does solidify him as the number 1 from down under. Looks like you and I have some work to do, although I think it will be a long time off before im in the "staal range" (dunno about you) but it would be cool if we all got onto the same scoring averages ( or if we all get to a KS level) and could have an aussie kong off over a weekend or one day or something.

[John73]

Congrats Allen.

Looking forward to the interview with Hank, hopefully it's saved on his Twitch channel in case I miss it.

I don't think this has been mentioned, but from what I can ascertain this is the highest ever DK score by an Aussie.   We're one step closer to getting our first official KS'er - God knows it won't be me!

Yeah john its good to see another Aussie climbing the ranks. And this does solidify him as the number 1 from down under. Looks like you and I have some work to do, although I think it will be a long time off before im in the "staal range" (dunno about you) but it would be cool if we all got onto the same scoring averages ( or if we all get to a KS level) and could have an aussie kong off over a weekend or one day or something.

Hey Adam.  Didn't know if you were playing much DK these days.  You should join in the Wildcard event this weekend if you have time.   We might nearly have enough people to form "Team Australia" with Allen as captain 

Wonder if this score will spur Kane (who isn't a member of this forum) to try and up his 660k score - don't think he is playing much DK these days.  Wish we had arcades here in Australia so we could have our own Kong Off  

[Adam_Wilmot]

Congrats Allen.

Looking forward to the interview with Hank, hopefully it's saved on his Twitch channel in case I miss it.

I don't think this has been mentioned, but from what I can ascertain this is the highest ever DK score by an Aussie.   We're one step closer to getting our first official KS'er - God knows it won't be me!

Yeah john its good to see another Aussie climbing the ranks. And this does solidify him as the number 1 from down under. Looks like you and I have some work to do, although I think it will be a long time off before im in the "staal range" (dunno about you) but it would be cool if we all got onto the same scoring averages ( or if we all get to a KS level) and could have an aussie kong off over a weekend or one day or something.

Hey Adam.  Didn't know if you were playing much DK these days.  You should join in the Wildcard event this weekend if you have time.   We might nearly have enough people to form "Team Australia" with Allen as captain 

Wonder if this score will spur Kane (who isn't a member of this forum) to try and up his 660k score - don't think he is playing much DK these days.  Wish we had arcades here in Australia so we could have our own Kong Off

Yeah i still play the occasional game but I have gone backwards in averages because I haven't played consistently I was at 200k average when I was playing regularly now im at like 130k LOL. Ill be spectating this weekend and probably playing a bit on my 60 in 1, but no stream or anything just for a bit of fun. Hopefully we can get an australian team in the future that would be pretty cool, but I'll have to up the ante and get more consistant.

[alumbrada]

the number 1 from down under.

Definitely beats being the number 2 from down under! If you get my drift 

Way to go Allen! It was the perfect storm of Allen finally following the advice he'd been given, pie free passes, no Skype, and the good ol' rng on his side.

[Mary McManus]

I felt this deserved it's own thread given the hard work Alan has put into this game.  728,900 is definitely a great score!  Congrats big time on that Allen!

 Point pressing or not Yes, this is a very good score. What level did it end on?

I'd like to hear some stories of Aussie arcades from years ago.

An artical of his experience with DK from another country and if there were cab differences between an Aussie DK and "AmeriKan" DK would be interesting.

How hard is it to find a DK down under?

[stella_blue]

Point pressing or not Yes, this is a very good score. What level did it end on?

I haven't had a chance to watch the video in its entirety, but I did see the last few minutes.

The game ended on the Level 19-2 conveyor stage.

[hchien]

Point pressing or not Yes, this is a very good score. What level did it end on?

I'd like to hear some stories of Aussie arcades from years ago.

An artical of his experience with DK from another country and if there were cab differences between an Aussie DK and "AmeriKan" DK would be interesting.

How hard is it to find a DK down under?

Tim those are some good questions.  I live streamed an interview with Allen about his game the next day.  It's too bad you weren't there-- you could have asked him directly.  Here's a link: http://www.twitch.tv/hankchien/b/468833776.  Only the first 1/2 hour was serious.  The remaining 1.5 hours was either hilarious or ridiculous depending on your sense of humor.   I only thought to ask him your first question (which Scott already answered).

[Adam_Wilmot]

I felt this deserved it's own thread given the hard work Alan has put into this game.  728,900 is definitely a great score!  Congrats big time on that Allen!

 Point pressing or not Yes, this is a very good score. What level did it end on?

I'd like to hear some stories of Aussie arcades from years ago.

An artical of his experience with DK from another country and if there were cab differences between an Aussie DK and "AmeriKan" DK would be interesting.

How hard is it to find a DK down under?

Finding any cab let alone a DK is super hard here in Australia. The only realistic chance of getting a cab is to either have one shipped over from the states ($$$) or to try and find a seller who is no longer enjoying their cab and is looking to sell, but because they are so hard to come by most people hold onto them forever. If you were to have a look on ebay (US) for lets say a centipede cab you would find at least a few in decent condition or at least in working order, now try on ebay australia...nothing the best that would come up (and is the most frequent) are rip-off MAME cabs or cocktail machines with multi-boards. There is also a lot of Street fighter machines in australia aswell, its a decent game but not the same as a classic 80's game.

As far as cab designs go, because of the shipping most Australian cabs are lowboy LAI cabs because back in the day arcade owners were to stingy to purchase the full cab (because of $$$) and so they just had the board shipped over and chucked the games into a default LAI cab, so it makes it even harder to find and original in Australia. Again you may find an original PCB in a lowboy but it has none of the artwork and barely ever has the original marquee.

[John73]

Finding any cab let alone a DK is super hard here in Australia. The only realistic chance of getting a cab is to either have one shipped over from the states ($$$) or to try and find a seller who is no longer enjoying their cab and is looking to sell, but because they are so hard to come by most people hold onto them forever. If you were to have a look on ebay (US) for lets say a centipede cab you would find at least a few in decent condition or at least in working order, now try on ebay australia...nothing the best that would come up (and is the most frequent) are rip-off MAME cabs or cocktail machines with multi-boards. There is also a lot of Street fighter machines in australia aswell, its a decent game but not the same as a classic 80's game.

As far as cab designs go, because of the shipping most Australian cabs are lowboy LAI cabs because back in the day arcade owners were to stingy to purchase the full cab (because of $$$) and so they just had the board shipped over and chucked the games into a default LAI cab, so it makes it even harder to find and original in Australia. Again you may find an original PCB in a lowboy but it has none of the artwork and barely ever has the original marquee.

And as much as I'd love an original PCB, this is why I'm hesitant about buying one - the stringent rules mean that if I could get my hands on one, then the scores would not be TG recognized due to unoriginal parts.  I had a quick look on eBay yesterday and saw a board going for just over US $100 but registered international shipping was in excess of $60.  Factor in dollar conversion, and you are getting towards the price of a complete machine (not DK obviously).

I think a guy who moved from the States to work in Nth Qld last year was selling some of his machines, I think a DK was among the games but he wanted top dollar (A$800-$1000+) from memory, but his machine was in very good shape.  If I had the money I would have grabbed it.

I don't know too much about how business runs/gets taxed in the USA, but here in Australia the government gets their grubby little hands into your pocket anyway they can, and rent on retail premises in capital cities is extremely expensive - so unfortunately I doubt we may never see a real "retro" arcade again the likes of The 1UP or FunSpot

[Mary McManus]

I felt this deserved it's own thread given the hard work Alan has put into this game.  728,900 is definitely a great score!  Congrats big time on that Allen!

 Point pressing or not Yes, this is a very good score. What level did it end on?

I'd like to hear some stories of Aussie arcades from years ago.

An artical of his experience with DK from another country and if there were cab differences between an Aussie DK and "AmeriKan" DK would be interesting.

How hard is it to find a DK down under?

Finding any cab let alone a DK is super hard here in Australia. The only realistic chance of getting a cab is to either have one shipped over from the states ($$$) or to try and find a seller who is no longer enjoying their cab and is looking to sell, but because they are so hard to come by most people hold onto them forever. If you were to have a look on ebay (US) for lets say a centipede cab you would find at least a few in decent condition or at least in working order, now try on ebay australia...nothing the best that would come up (and is the most frequent) are rip-off MAME cabs or cocktail machines with multi-boards. There is also a lot of Street fighter machines in australia aswell, its a decent game but not the same as a classic 80's game.

As far as cab designs go, because of the shipping most Australian cabs are lowboy LAI cabs because back in the day arcade owners were to stingy to purchase the full cab (because of $$$) and so they just had the board shipped over and chucked the games into a default LAI cab, so it makes it even harder to find and original in Australia. Again you may find an original PCB in a lowboy but it has none of the artwork and barely ever has the original marquee.

This is interesting......here in the states back in the early 80's  the cabinets were as unique as the games.....sometimes the game cabinet and artwork was better to look at than to play the actual game itself......the late 80's and the generic dynamo cabs changed that