weekly contest VGS Weekly Contest - Donkey Kong

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

Just now, mbd39 said:

Oh, it still only shows 100 points but more points are added to your score. That might be why I thought it didn't work. I'll try again.

 

Yeah, it keep adding points as long as you are in the air over the barrel.

[mbd39 | 2,017]

217,400

Edited May 23, 2020 by mbd39

[NESfiend | 1,514]

1 hour ago, mbd39 said:

 

What video? I'd like to see this trick in action because I can't get it to work at all.

 

I'll find it in my history on my pc and post tonight. I never found it in a search. It has like a 100 views. I just kept clicking the next suggested video and it eventually appeared on a list. 

As to dougs point about which ladder, I had read that it needs to be "toward the top of the level." Playing for an hour, it seemed to me like more barells dropped down the broken ladders than the fully intact ones. Probably in my head though

Edited May 22, 2020 by NESfiend

[mbd39 | 2,017]

Just now, NESfiend said:

I'll find it in my history on my pc and post tonight. I never found it in a search. It has like a 100 views. I just kept clicking the next suggested video and it eventually appeared on a list. 

As to dougs point about which ladder, I had read that it needs to be "toward the top of the level." Playing for an hour, it seemed to me like more barbells dropped down the broken ladders than the fully intact ones. Probably in my head though

It's okay. I figured it out.

[NESfiend | 1,514]

5 hours ago, CasualCart said:

Okay, so here's the method I've worked-out to consistently get the ladder-trick to work:

  Reveal hidden contents

Go to the 5th tier of the girders (second from the top) and position Jumpman over the broken-ladder to the far right.

Don't stand directly over the ladder, though - stay slightly to the left (pictures included for exact positioning - I like to line up Jumpman's right toe with the ladder's left rung).

Once you're in position, just wait there for the barrels to come, and jump straight up whenever one rolls at you. If the barrel goes down the broken ladder, you should get a ton of points. If it doesn't work, try finessing your position. 

Good luck!

-CasualCart

 

Ok holy shit. I did it first try and every try on the first level after seeing this. You are the man for posting it in such good detail. I played none of the level otherwise (hammers, etc) and still only got 20k. I'm guessing that's because I don't know how to steer barrels? Damn there's so much to learn for this 

[NESfiend | 1,514]

INot sure if this counts because I clicked through the game over screen. 

114,700

193,000

Edited May 25, 2020 by NESfiend

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

32 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

Ok holy shit. I did it first try and every try on the first level after seeing this. You are the man for posting it in such good detail. I played none of the level otherwise (hammers, etc) and still only got 20k. I'm guessing that's because I don't know how to steer barrels? Damn there's so much to learn for this 

I think you know pretty much everything. The main thing to getting the best score possible is making it to loop 9 and pressing the most points out of your extra lives.

[Jeevan | 8,909]

Not gonna lie, now that I know how to do it it feels pretty good with my new score on page 1, but.......It still kinda feels a little cheaty to me.  Im not judging, and obviously I used it.  I dont know how you all can get to the further levels tho.  lol.  Maybe if i practiced a ton, and it just so happens i have a little time today so maybe.  L5 is as high as i can get thus far.  I feel more accomplished getting further.  

This all being said, for the contest, I couldn't help but find myself being wreckless and climbing the first ladder I came to to get to the top faster to do that trick   

Thanks @CasualCart for giving a detailed breakdown, it really helped.  

Even tho. i know i am gonna get my ass whooped by the guys who can get to A, it at least feels good to get a higher score by doin this.

Edit:  also, thanks @NESfiend for being a good sport for us noobs   Appreciate you helpin us out hehe

Edited May 22, 2020 by Jeevan

[NESfiend | 1,514]

11 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

Edit:  also, thanks @NESfiend for being a good sport for us noobs   Appreciate you helpin us out hehe

 

As far as weekly contests go, I am as much a noob as anyone really. I've played the last 4 weeks up to this one. I was on Nintendo Age for 6 or 7 years, but was always too intimidated by the scores in the contests. I played one week where marble madness was the game because that's a favorite of mine I could beat easily. I scored 172k I believe, which wasn't a ton less than the known record. I finished way down as a bunch of people crushed the previous record to my recollection. I also remember people wondering if the wand appearances were truly random and @BeaIank going into the games code somehow and confirming they were. Way out of my league and my job was too intense to have any time. 

[Jeevan | 8,909]

4 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

 

As far as weekly contests go, I am as much a noob as anyone really. I've played the last 4 weeks up to this one. I was on Nintendo Age for 6 or 7 years, but was always too intimidated by the scores in the contests. I played one week where marble madness was the game because that's a favorite of mine I could beat easily. I scored 172k I believe, which wasn't a ton less than the known record. I finished way down as a bunch of people crushed the previous record to my recollection. I also remember people wondering if the wand appearances were truly random and @BeaIank going into the games code somehow and confirming they were. Way out of my league and my job was too intense to have any time. 

It's all about fun for me.  This is my first year competing because I didn't find NA until last year.  Ya, I suck and am creeping my way up the leaderboards by just participating, but this honestly has gotten me to play games I never would have.  I usually stick to what I know, but it's been fun thus far!  

[NESfiend | 1,514]

1 minute ago, Jeevan said:

It's all about fun for me.  This is my first year competing because I didn't find NA until last year.  Ya, I suck and am creeping my way up the leaderboards by just participating, but this honestly has gotten me to play games I never would have.  I usually stick to what I know, but it's been fun thus far!  

I will never legitimately compete with doug, bert, skinny, etc. The top handful are just crazy good. But its fun to see how close I can get with them and learn some new stuff. Its also drove me to get way better than I have been at games I have played a long time and see some new content. You can learn a whole lot focusing on one game for a week and the choices have all been good. 

[Jeevan | 8,909]

5 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

I will never legitimately compete with doug, bert, skinny, etc. The top handful are just crazy good. But its fun to see how close I can get with them and learn some new stuff. Its also drove me to get way better than I have been at games I have played a long time and see some new content. You can learn a whole lot focusing on one game for a week and the choices have all been good. 

Much agreed, its really just about playin in the competition for me, interacting with the little community we have here.  @ninjistar and myself talk a little on discord and have pushed each other a bit   Its pretty fun to have someone like that to "compete" with if for nothing else but lulz.

Edit:  and its fun to learn things like the barrel trick, no way would i have thought of that, but with a crowd like this, stuff like that comes to light  

Edited May 22, 2020 by Jeevan

[mbd39 | 2,017]

23 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

 

As far as weekly contests go, I am as much a noob as anyone really. I've played the last 4 weeks up to this one. I was on Nintendo Age for 6 or 7 years, but was always too intimidated by the scores in the contests. I played one week where marble madness was the game because that's a favorite of mine I could beat easily. I scored 172k I believe, which wasn't a ton less than the known record. I finished way down as a bunch of people crushed the previous record to my recollection. I also remember people wondering if the wand appearances were truly random and @BeaIank going into the games code somehow and confirming they were. Way out of my league and my job was too intense to have any time. 

 

You actually got 168k in that contest. I got 171k and still missed the top 8.

(My current pb is 180,880. Too bad I couldn't pull that off at the time.)

http://archive.nes.science/nintendoage-forums/nintendoage.com/forum/messageviewc9d6.html?catid=31&threadid=171432

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by mbd39

[NESfiend | 1,514]

15 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

 

You actually got 168k in that contest. I got 171k and still missed the top 8.

(My current pb is 180,880. Too bad I couldn't pull that off at the time.)

http://archive.nes.science/nintendoage-forums/nintendoage.com/forum/messageviewc9d6.html?catid=31&threadid=171432

 

 

Wow I need to know how you were able to get to an old thread like that so fast. Crazy! 172 was top 8. Maybe that is why I remember that number. I thought the previous record was around 170? 622 thread posts and too many participants to put more than 40 on the board is crazy. Cant control participants, but lets get the posts back. Im doing my best haha

[rdrunner | 422]

*As usual, does not count.

Decided to play around and ended up hitting a clean run.  It's probably beatable with a just a bit more luck (had a couple of lousy barrel stages in terms of ladder drops).

Honestly I'm just happy I didn't blow it and hit an elevator spring at the end.

[mbd39 | 2,017]

2 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

Wow I need to know how you were able to get to an old thread like that so fast. Crazy! 172 was top 8. Maybe that is why I remember that number. I thought the previous record was around 170? 622 thread posts and too many participants to put more than 40 on the board is crazy. Cant control participants, but lets get the posts back. Im doing my best haha

The current world record is around 179k. The previous record was 177k. I've never bothered doing a TG run but I've beaten that "world record" many times.

https://www.twingalaxies.com/game/marble-madness

 

[mbd39 | 2,017]

And here is an archive of old contest threads. Some pages are missing. http://archive.nes.science/nintendoage-forums/nintendoage.com/forum/messageview0d82.html?catid=31&threadid=168510

You can also look up contest threads on the Go Collect board using their horrible search engine. https://connect.gocollect.com/categories/archived-nintendoage-posts

 

[ninjistar | 517]

17 hours ago, Jeevan said:

Much agreed, its really just about playin in the competition for me, interacting with the little community we have here.  @ninjistar and myself talk a little on discord and have pushed each other a bit   Its pretty fun to have someone like that to "compete" with if for nothing else but lulz.

Edit:  and its fun to learn things like the barrel trick, no way would i have thought of that, but with a crowd like this, stuff like that comes to light  

I've been meaning to come yak with you about the contests some more, but have been keeping fairly busy lately. @NESfiend I'm pretty sure I know the short clip you're talking about that shows this trick. It's 11 seconds long and the person seemed to have done it almost by accident. I used this short video to give me an idea of where to start and how it works. I really don't think that there's a video out there that captures the details on how to best do this. After some trial and error earlier this week, I was able to get this trick down pat on a few specific ladders.

Spoiler

 

As @CasualCart has said, it's all about precise positioning. I find it much easier to use some ladders than others because of the ability to easily determine if you're in the right spot. One of my next strategies is to determine which ladder seems to get a higher percentage of barrels rolling down it. I did find it pretty gratifying to figure out the positioning on my own  Now that the cat is out of the bag, I expect to see a lot of 100k + scores! Here's a screenshot of how I position myself (note the protruding hair pixel that covers the ladder, used as a marker):

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by ninjistar
made it a spoiler

[Jeevan | 8,909]

2 minutes ago, ninjistar said:

I've been meaning to come yak with you about the contests some more, but have been keeping fairly busy lately. 

No worries, i have been busy playing vgs survivor myself  I found that 11 second video and tried it and got it once on the ladder to the top.  I was like wow, no way that can boost my score too much, just get ya a little kuz of the bonus but ya, it is really interesting to see stuff like this.

[NESfiend | 1,514]

13 minutes ago, ninjistar said:

I've been meaning to come yak with you about the contests some more, but have been keeping fairly busy lately. 

@NESfiend I'm pretty sure I know the short clip you're talking about that shows this trick. It's 11 seconds long and the person seemed to have done it almost by accident. I used this short video to give me an idea of where to start and how it works. 

 

 

I have seen the 11 second one, but the video I was talking about is linked below. Not sure what to make of this image? I stand above the ladder? Knowing you I am sure you have found some even crazier below the ladder glitch that gets the glitch points times 3. And the score will come Sunday with three minutes to go to knock me down to ninth LOL. Joking aside, the videos got me nowhere. @CasualCarts guide took me from clueless to spot on pretty quick. I have been up and down with it since though. Hopefully that is just the product of a few bud lights

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by NESfiend

[Jeevan | 8,909]

@NESfiend  I've actually gotten a little better after 3 crown and cokes

[ninjistar | 517]

16 hours ago, NESfiend said:

I have seen the 11 second one, but the video I was talking about is linked below. Not sure what to make of this image? I stand above the ladder? Knowing you I am sure you have found some even crazier below the ladder glitch that gets the glitch points times 3. And the score will come Sunday with three minutes to go to knock me down to ninth LOL. Joking aside, the videos got me nowhere. @CasualCarts guide took me from clueless to spot on pretty quick. I have been up and down with it since though. Hopefully that is just the product of a few bud lights

 

Spoiler

I am using an object nearby that lets me easily identify if I'm in that sweet spot. In this case, it's an adjacent ladder. I'll add a zoomed out photo to my post above so that it's more clear. 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by ninjistar
made it a spoiler

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

7 hours ago, rdrunner said:

*As usual, does not count.

Decided to play around and ended up hitting a clean run.  It's probably beatable with a just a bit more luck (had a couple of lousy barrel stages in terms of ladder drops).

Honestly I'm just happy I didn't blow it and hit an elevator spring at the end.

Looks like I need to work on my score! It's great to see you playing!

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

I had a sure 550k run going, but I lost a life on loop 8 by walking right into the spring on the elevator level. Hopefully I'll get it before Sunday if I get enough attempts in.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

Score update! Got a great run in. I've been getting up to 45k+ on the barrel levels and I tried point pressing the fireballs as much as possible on the rivet stages. I'll try a few more runs, but I don't know if I can top that score.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Bearcat-Doug