The former “King of Kong”, Billy Mitchell, has fallen from grace. After doubts were raised about the authenticity of his records, his achievements were removed from the leaderboards. Since then, a legal battle has ensued with the organization Twin Galaxies, which manages the leaderboards. New details have now come to light.
When gaming was still in its infancy and the term e-sports did not even exist, players of arcade titles like Space Invaders, Frogger, or Pac-Man were all about the high score. In 1982, American Walter Day came up with the idea of creating a regional leaderboard.
Shortly thereafter, he founded the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard. The establishment of the first professional video game team, the U.S. National Video Game Team, followed soon after. Twin Galaxies gained greater attention as the organizer of an arcade tournament, which was accompanied by a cover story in LIFE magazine.
In this tournament, the best players of various arcade titles competed against each other. Billy Mitchell also made his debut here. In his first appearance on a big stage, he made headlines by defeating many of his competitors in head-to-head matches.
Many old games like Donkey Kong are still actively played today. The same can be said for some old MMORPGs:
Billy Mitchell, the “King of Kong”
Mitchell is the prototype of an eccentric gamer. His trademarks are his look and his extravagant ties. When he is not boasting about one of his records, he tries to promote his own chili sauce. If he can be compared to anyone, it would only be to icons like Tiger Woods or Obi-Wan Kenobi.
After all, he was also the first player to achieve a perfect game in Pac-Man. In 1999, he managed to master all 256 levels and score 3,333,360 points. No easy feat: The kill screen that players see in the last level makes it nearly impossible to successfully complete the game. For this achievement, Twin Galaxies awarded him the title “Gamer of the Century”.
With 933,900 points, he broke the high score in Donkey Kong (twingalaxies.com), only to be surpassed shortly thereafter by a competitor.
But Mitchell returned with a VHS recording that allegedly proves he scored 1,047,200 points in Donkey Kong (via guinnessworldrecords.com). Although he was recognized as a record holder again, his video tapes are now under scrutiny.
If you want to learn more about the controversial figure Billy Mitchell, check out the following YouTube video:
Did the record holder cheat? In 2018, Mitchell was accused of cheating during his record attempts.
Experts accuse him of not having played on the original hardware. It is alleged that Mitchell used the MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) (via mamedev.org). As a result, several of his records were revoked.
Therefore, Billy Mitchell and Twin Galaxies are currently in a legal dispute. A court in California is expected to clarify whether he cheated during his record attempts (via kotaku.com).
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The court documents provide absurd details
Billy Mitchell vehemently denies all allegations against him. He sees himself as a victim of a conspiracy by the current management of Twin Galaxies.
The court documents reveal some curious details:
- For instance, Billy Mitchell’s family doctor allegedly refused to treat him when he found out that Mitchell had cheated in Donkey Kong.
- He claims to have suffered financial losses due to the revocation of his records, among other things, because no one invites him to video game festivals anymore. Mitchell also claims that he has been emotionally traumatized by the media coverage.
- At the same time, Mitchell also refuses to provide additional evidence for the authenticity of his record attempts. He avoids critical questions, and he claims he cannot even remember some details.
The outcome of the trial is still completely open. What do you think of the “King of Kong”? Should records only be valid if they were achieved on the original hardware? Or is the use of emulators generally acceptable? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments.
If you are interested in retro and arcade games, visit here: The first commercially successful game is already 50 years old – do you know it?
