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Hank Chien Reclaims Donkey Kong High Score

Posted by Soulskill on from the barrels-of-fun dept.

An anonymous reader writes "If you can say anything about Hank Chien, it's that he evidently doesn't take defeat very well. Sure, he knew not so deep down that his Donkey Kong World Record score wouldn't last forever, but he couldn't have foreseen that it would have been toppled so quickly. Twice, even. But he also knew that more Kong competition would be coming his way; namely Richie Knucklez Kong-Off in March. So Hank had something to prove, and prove he did. Scoring a massive 1,068,000 points in less than three hours, Hank has officially reclaimed the high score in Nintendo’s 1981 arcade classic."

4 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. The King of Kong 2: Kong Harder by Buggz · · Score: 4, Informative

    I actually feel a bit bad for Steve "The King of Kong" Wiebe. Such a lovely film/documentary. I reckon he'll flex those Kong muscles once again and beat that score before summer.

    1. Re:The King of Kong 2: Kong Harder by lordkuri · · Score: 3, Informative

      He actually already had a big meet and greet along with 3 world record attempts scheduled for this coming Saturday here in Chicago.

      http://www.logan-hardware.com/

  2. Well done!!! by bazmail · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think its a shame that he was omitted from "The King of Kong" movie. Wiebe took Hanks score and there wasn't so much of a mention of Hank. He's a good guy and Im happy for him. Also it there a theoretical maximum score for donkey kong? Just wondering what the asymptote is.

    1. Re:Well done!!! by gazbo · · Score: 3, Informative
      Well there is a theoretical limit because of the time limit per board and the kill screen, but figuring it out would be very hard (and achieving it practically impossible). It would first involve figuring out the optimum strategy assuming that the various enemies behaved in certain ways - e.g. the fireballs on the pie factory all respawning and immediately heading towards you while you have the mallet, the fireballs and blue barrels all being worth 800 points, etc, etc.

      But the odds of this happening are probably on a par with winning the lottery many times over. If the PRNG decides a blue barrel is worth 300 then that's 500 points lost and nothing the player can do about it. And the optimum strategy for a theoretical perfect game is probably very different to the optimum strategy for a typical game.