'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."
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."
What's next? (Score:2)
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?
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The movie was a pile of steaming lies but you are correct, he is not beyond cheating to get the attention
However, he really is that good at playing those games
I watched him play Ms PacMan blindfolded
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This might be a subtle troll, but Ms Pacman was a big deal because it was one of the first video games with a random number generator.
Regular Pacman you could memorize patterns for most of the levels. If you repeat those exact joystick and button movements, the ghosts move in the same way in response every time. When I was I was a kid playing Oregon Trail on the Apple ][, my dad could play Pacman with patterns memorized until past the "apple" level. My dad was using patterns with visual cues, but you could
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Yes you are a troll and no he was not cheating
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However, he really is that good at playing those games
In this instance, all they have proof of is that he used MAME to play the game ROMs, instead of the original hardware. Million plus score on DK in MAME is just as impressive to me as on the original hardware.
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Unless he also abused emulator features to cheat. That's why emulator runs have additional requirements to prove you're not cheating before they count.
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Some are accusing Billy of using the save state feature in MAME on those runs. Still, even then, it's impressive. Just doesn't belong in the high score list for either original hardware or MAME. Even if he didn't abuse MAME features to achieve the score, still doesn't belong in the original hardware high score list.
It was wrong to try to pass it off as an original hardware run, and taints his other records.
Re: I believe it (Score:2)
No. They also have proof that he claimed to have used original arcade hardware for those runs. Why would you like about that?
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which means his scores are invalid. it also means he's a cheat and a liar. why on earth would you defend this piece of shit?
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actually what it proves is that he has LIED for YEARS about how he achieved those scores, and went to an awful lot of trouble to conceal it.
the onus is always on the player to prove they achieved those scores. using an emulator makes it trivially easy to cheat, so it therefore removes any shred of "proof" that a video of him playing would have otherwise provided.
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His score is still rather impressive, and no one disputes that the guy is really good at arcade games, he just doesn't deserve a record when he's breaking the rules.
More on Billy Mitchell (Score:2)
Does it matter??? (Score:2)
Does this really matter? A) the scores they are striking aren't even in the top 10 any more, and B) they are striking him from #20 on the high score list for playing on MAME when it was supposed to have been played on a console, and the current #3, #10, #13, and #15 on the same list were admittedly played on MAME? How does that even make sense?
The man has a publicly viewed score of 933,900. It's not like he doesn't have the talent. It's a tempest in an emulated teapot if you ask me.
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the tagline for this website is literally "news for nerds" you stupid ignorant dipshit.
Who cares? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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Chicks are lining up around the block.
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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).
Do you really have a record? Did you record it? Did you make several hundred attemp
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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.
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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?
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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.
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This is the End (Score:5, Funny)
Nothing matters any more. Welcome to 2018.
Twin Galaxies Credibly is shot they need big (Score:3)
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)
All this on top of ... (Score:3)
News that matters (Score:2)
I can't see the gov't surviving this.
More Quotable Than Lebowski (Score:1)
Kong of Dong? (Score:1)
So if he was the King of Kong,
who was the Kong of Dong?
And where does Don King fit into all of this?
Emulated (Score:2)
It's not on like Donkey Kong.