Legendary Arcade Player Loses Records For Cheating Donkey Kong
The well-known arcade game player Billy Mitchell has lost all his records and he is no longer allowed to send new entries. The Twin Galaxies organization has determined this after months of research. Mitchell allegedly cheated on setting Donkey Kong records.
Twin Galaxies, which validates world records in games, came to its decision unanimously. In 1984, Twin Galaxies named Mitchell Video Game Player of the Year after setting a record in 1982 with the game Donkey Kong and being the first to reach the kill screen. His record stood for many years. In the eighties and nineties, Mitchell rose with several records to become one of the most famous gamers of that time.
In 2007 he appeared in the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. The video follows the efforts of newcomer Steve Wiebe, who is eager to compete against Mitchell to capture his Donkey Kong record. Mitchell avoids Wiebe, who realizes his dream at the end of the documentary and sets a new high score on camera.
Still in 2007, on the 25th anniversary of his original record, Mitchell submits a new record to Twin Galaxies, to take back the crown and become the first to reach more than a million points. In the years that followed, several new high scores followed one another, including some by Mitchell.
Meanwhile, there is growing doubt about the validity of three records, with scores of 1,047,200, 1,050,200 and 1,062,800. To settle the matter once and for all, Twin Galaxies member Jeremey Young, aka @xelnia, is officially questioning the scores.
When reviewing Mitchell’s records, Twin Galaxies had to rely on tapes showing the player setting high scores. The use of video is standard with such reviews. The record of 1,062,800 points shows the Donkey Kong PCB being removed from the arcade that Mitchell played on, for verification. The ‘referee’ claims to put another pcb, from Donkey Kong Jr, back so Mitchell can play this game. However, experts claim that the removed sign is the same Donkey Kong Jr. sign, which would be reflected in the yellow instead of white lettering and the presence of an empty socket, among other things.
The cheating records of 1,047,200 and 1,050,200 were discovered by slowing down Mitchell’s images from the screen. It can be seen that the structure of the Donkey Kong display differs from that of the arcade cabinet. The cabinet renders the image in a way that can be compared to opening and closing vertical window slats. Versions of arcade emulator MAME render the image much smoother and that rendering matches Mitchell’s images.
Image construction at an official arcade cabinet
Image construction on Billy Mitchell’s video
Twin Galaxies concludes that it can be said with certainty that scores on the video were not achieved with an original Donkey Kong arcade PCB, as should be according to the rules. The organization does not dare to say with certainty whether MAME has been used instead. This would require much more extensive research, but since it is established that the records are not valid, no further investigation is necessary.
The breaking of the records means that Steve Wiebe is now officially recognized as the first to reach more than a million points at Donkey Kong. The world record currently stands at 1,247,700 points, set at the beginning of this year by Robbie Lakeman.