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'King of Kong' Billy Mitchell Stripped Of Donkey Kong Record For Emulator Cheating (hothardware.com) 58

MojoKid writes: More drama is unfolding in the ultra-competitive retro arcade gaming scene... Billy Mitchell, the arcade legend who appeared as a central character opposite Steve Wiebe in the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, has been accused of cheating his way into the record books for high scores in Donkey Kong. As a result, he's now been stripped of his 1.062 million score on the Donkey Kong Forums...

The legitimacy of his score was called into question by Donkey Kong high score judge Jeremy "Xelnia" Young laid out a body of evidence that seems to prove Mitchell recorded several of his high scores on the open source arcade emulator MAME, though he claimed his scores were obtained on an original arcade cabinet, and therefore were not subject to same strict authentication requirements. "It's possible they were recorded in one shot," Young says, but "Given the play style in Billy's videos, it's more likely that vanilla MAME's INP recording feature was abused."

Twin Galaxies recently threw out the 35-year-old record for the Atari 2600 game Dragster, and has now said they're "in the process of fully reviewing the compelling evidence provided by Jeremy Young."
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'King of Kong' Billy Mitchell Stripped Of Donkey Kong Record For Emulator Cheating

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  • First Dragster, now Kong... Will Space Invaders be next, or.. or.. even, I dare not say it, yes, even Pong? Will Pong fail too? Now that I think of it, you cannot have a Pong record, can you?

  • Who cares? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Saturday February 03, 2018 @04:32PM (#56063195)

    Do these titles have a lot of marketing value or command some stream of income? I mean, if they ever come to take away my record for being able to piss the farthest, I'm sure I'll still survive.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Chicks are lining up around the block.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Do these titles have a lot of marketing value or command some stream of income?

      Yes. There's Billy Mitchell hot sauce. People pay celebrities for their autograph (not sure if Billy Mitchell charged or not). People get paid for speaking engagements (again, not sure but I presume that's true for Billy Mitchell).

      I mean, if they ever come to take away my record for being able to piss the farthest, I'm sure I'll still survive.

      Do you really have a record? Did you record it? Did you make several hundred attemp

    • by shubus ( 1382007 )
      I agree! Who cares? These guys need to GET A LIFE.
    • Speed running is a fairly big community and there are a lot of people streaming it on services like Twitch. Billy Mitchell made something of a career around hist record I believe, so I suppose it may be possible that other people might be able to. I don't know if it's something that can earn an average person a living if not doing it in conjunction with something else, but Games Done Quick just raised over $2 million for charity in a recent event that features speed running all manner of games over the cour
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        This seems to go deeper than just Billy Mitchell. Looking back now a few of his scores were accepted with only Twin Galaxies staff witnessing them. It really looks like there was corruption at the top of that organization.

    • You'd be surprised. No it's not like being a movie star or famous singer, but they get some notoriety that can be translated into cash (sort of like a youtube celeb). I think mostly it's about ego. You're the best (in the world!) at something and for some people that's all they have going for them.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Imagine finding out that Luke Skywalker used auto-aim to make that shot on the Death Star. Imagine discovering that Columbus used sat nav to reach America.

      Okay, okay, but this is a big deal to people into these old games, because Mitchell has a lot of records. First person to get a perfect score on pacman, for example. But now any of them that were not done in public, which is most, are in doubt. Well, even the public ones... Did he modify the machines somehow?

      • by PPH ( 736903 )

        But now any of them that were not done in public, which is most, are in doubt.

        I enjoy the sports and games that I play. And I might watch people better then me to pick up pointers. Or just because I appreciate the skill that goes into it, having played it myself. But fame based only on a high score? I may watch the Superbowl tomorrow (may, because it's not my favorite sport and I've never played). But I forgot who won last year.

    • by pots ( 5047349 )
      I care, but that's because I've seen the movie and so I enjoy the followup. I'm not sure I like your suggestion that things which don't have an income stream don't matter... My dog doesn't have an income stream, he matters. I can think of a lot of people who make more money than my dog and who matter a whole lot less.
  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Saturday February 03, 2018 @04:54PM (#56063285) Journal

    Twin Galaxies recently threw out the 35-year-old record for the Atari 2600 game Dragster,

    Nothing matters any more. Welcome to 2018.

  • by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Saturday February 03, 2018 @05:06PM (#56063323)

    Twin Galaxies Credibly is shot they need big changes.

    Maybe stuff like refs can't have scores maybe or very least can't review friends and family

    Some things need ref review

    Clear rules about useing game bugs and what is a bug may need per game lists just like per game settings lists.

    each rom ver has it own list both on real hardware and emulators (some of the pinball scores don't list rom / software ver and there are small to big changes for each one)
     

  • by Mister Liberty ( 769145 ) on Saturday February 03, 2018 @05:28PM (#56063405)
    his insubordination. What is this world coming to?
  • I can't see the gov't surviving this.

  • It's not even about Donkey Kong anymore.
  • So if he was the King of Kong,
    who was the Kong of Dong?
    And where does Don King fit into all of this?

  • It's not on like Donkey Kong.

1 1 was a race-horse, 2 2 was 1 2. When 1 1 1 1 race, 2 2 1 1 2.

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