Billy Mitchell and Twin Galaxies Settle Lawsuits On Donkey Kong World Records

"What happens when a loser who needs to win faces a winner who refuses to lose?"

That was the tagline for the iconic 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, chronicling a middle-school teacher's attempts to take the Donkey Kong record from reigning world champion Billy Mitchell. "Billy Mitchell always has a plan," says Billy Mitchell in the movie (who is also shown answering his phone, "World Record Headquarters. Can I help you?") By 1985, 30-year-old Mitchell was already listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records" for having the world's highest scores for Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong, Jr., Centipede, and Burger Time.

But then, NME reports... In 2018, a number of Mitchell's Donkey Kong high-scores were called into question by a fellow gamer, who supplied a string of evidence on the Twin Galaxies forums suggesting Mitchell had used an emulator to break the records, rather than the official, unmodified hardware that's typically required to keep things fair. [Twin Galaxies is Guiness World Records' official source for videogame scores.] Following "an independent investigation," Mitchell's hi-scores were removed from video game database Twin Galaxies as well as the Guinness Book Of Records, though the latter reversed the decision in 2020. Forensic analysts also accused him of cheating in 2022 but Mitchell has fought the accusations ever since.
This week, 58-year-old Billy Mitchell posted an announcement on X. "Twin Galaxies has reinstated all of my world records from my videogame career... I am relieved and satisfied to reach this resolution after an almost six-year ordeal and look forward to pursuing my unfinished business elsewhere. Never Surrender, Billy Mitchell."

X then wrote below the announcement, "Readers added context they thought people might want to know... Twin Galaxies has only reinstated Michell's scores on an archived leaderboard, where rules were different prior to TG being acquired in 2014. His score remains removed from the current leaderboard where he continues to be ineligible by today's rules."

The statement from Twin Galaxies says they'd originally believed they'd seen "a demonstrated impossibility of original, unmodified Donkey Kong arcade hardware" in a recording of one of Billy's games. As punishment they'd then invalidated every record he'd ever set in his life.

But now an engineer (qualified as an expert in federal courts) says aging components in the game board could've produced the same visual artifacts seen in the videotape of the disputed game. Consistent with Twin Galaxies' dedication to the meticulous documentation and preservation of video game score history, Twin Galaxies shall heretofore reinstate all of Mr. Mitchell's scores as part of the official historical database on Twin Galaxies' website. Additionally, upon closing of the matter, Twin Galaxies shall permanently archive and remove from online display the dispute thread... as well as all related statements and articles.
NME adds: Twin Galaxies' lawyer David Tashroudian told Ars Technica that the company had all its "ducks in a row" for a legal battle with Mitchell but "there were going to be an inordinate amount of costs involved, and both parties were facing a lot of uncertainty at trial, and they wanted to get the matter settled on their own terms."
And the New York Times points out that while Billy scored 1,062,800 in that long-ago game, "The vigorous long-running and sometimes bitter dispute was over marks that have long since been surpassed. The current record, as reported by Twin Galaxies, belongs to Robbie Lakeman. It's 1,272,800."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader UnknowingFool for sharing the news.

His lawsuit against Karl's is still ongoing...

[Briareos]

Karl Jobst also made a video commenting on this [youtube.com] - he's not going to settle...

Re:His lawsuit against Karl's is still ongoing...

[Moryath]

Jobst has no reason to settle. His country's legal system is sane - if Cheating Crap Billy drops the lawsuit he instantly loses and has to reimburse all of Jobst's legal defense expenditures.

Re:

[Joe_Dragon]

well Karl Jobst did go to far at one point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Re:

[quall]

Why would you link to a Billy Mitchel video? He's a compulsive liar and has been trying to act like a victim at every turn. Oh but he's telling the truth here, he swears I bet.

Nobody will really know, and Billy's video may as well just not have been posted. That's how worthless it is.

Re:

[chafporte]

here is a 4 hours video that will convinced he's a cheat https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Re:

[Joce640k]

FWIW I'm MUCH more impressed by (eg.) Super Mario speed runs where players have to play for five minutes to exact 60Hz timing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

It's not 5 minutes of exact timing

[CrappySnackPlane]

There are a limited amount of frame-perfect inputs a player needs to hit. As long as a player has been on point with those, he'll be fine. It's not five continuous minutes of 60Hz timing, it's just five minutes of gameplay with several frame-perfect "timing checks" intermittently thrown in.

An actual exact-timing run would be something like SMB3, where in order to reliably pass the RNG checks on the World 8 Hands you will need to have been continuously frame-perfect up to that point, for RNG manipulation pur

Re:His lawsuit against Karl's is still ongoing...

[quall]

Just like many cheating chest masters are still actually good at chess.

Does anyone seriously believe that he hasn't lied and cheated? Given the evidence?

I'd hate to be the #2 guy who got snubbed due to a cheated record, and lost out on the commercial appearances and cash that Billy has made instead from his cheating.

Re:

[thegarbz]

I'd hate to be the #2 guy who got snubbed due to a cheated record

Life's not fair. We justify all manner of things in our head based on scenarios where we feel cheated. That's just the way of life. Whether you think someone may have cheated you because they have been seen cheating elsewhere, and yet you can't prove anything, or you hear in a job interview that you came close second, and lost out to a female lesbian and can't shake the feeling you were cheated through a diversity card, and yet you can't prove anything, or when you miss out on the valedictorian to someone w

Re:

[quall]

Huh? What does any of that have to do with this situation? And what exactly is being speculated?

Did you even read any of the article? There exists clear video evidence that Billy did not follow the rules and had not used official hardware in some situations. In another situation, he submitted a high-score video of his gameplay using Mame where save-states are possible. He would have 100% been disqualified regardless of whether he cheated or not, just like he is still disqualified now. He would not have been

Re:

[Travelsonic]

Life's not fair.

It isn't unfair either, it's just a sequence of events from your birth to your death. Some fair, some unfair, some between the extremes, and some having nothing to do with fiarness at all.

What''s your point?

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

It seems to me this fills a hole in their heart that could be better filled with social passions. Join Habitat or something.

I understand being eleven - I once spent most of an evening/night flipping Asteroids.

But that's an "achievement" I rarely bring up. I was proving it to myself, not others. It would be gauche to brag about a video game.

And I was *eleven*.

Re:

[Baron_Yam]

Agreed. I have no idea how difficult it was to do, but I 'beat' Dig-Dug once on a home console. The speed scaled up with each level, but so did the scoring... it was possible to reach a point where it took no effort to score enough to pass the level and earn a spare life before you died. I got there.

This is the first time I've ever mentioned it (at least I think so anyway) and it's been decades. I may have been older than eleven though.

/So FU, Billy, in your face!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

What part of the word "game" is escaping their understanding?

Ask professional baseball, football, football, basketball, hockey, etc. etc. etc.

Re:

[Eunomion]

A lot of those people were trying to escape very bad socioeconomic situations. They have a reason to see the game as more than a game. I don't think most "gamers" qualify.

Re:

[Moryath]

Whose understanding? Twin Galaxies is a record verification and history organization. The current ownership already had been trying to fix the problems caused by Walter Day's corruption when technical evidence and code analysis proved that other members in Day's close circle, such as Todd Rogers (aka Todd Togers), were outright cheating in numerous ways [hothardware.com] up to and including putting in fake, impossible scores into the database for themselves and their friends.

The dispute system was implemented for that reas

you can not tell from just the pic that it is 8-wa

[Joe_Dragon]

you can not tell from just the pic that it is an 8-way joystick.

Re:

[Moryath]

You can tell it's not arcade original, you can tell it's the wrong height to be even an arcade replica. And then there's the under-oath deposition testimony.

"If it wasn't black, I wouldn't have played it... because the other joysticks are not real joysticks, they're not Donkey Kong joystics. [youtube.com]

Hey look a pic of an 8-way, illegal red joystick and Billy identifying that it's the machine he supposedly set a "record" on...

arcade original good luck finding an 100% work one

[Joe_Dragon]

arcade original good luck finding an 100% work one now days that has not had some kind of repair work done to it.

Re:

[Moryath]

"If it wasn't black, I wouldn't have played it... because the other joysticks are not real joysticks, they're not Donkey Kong joystics. [youtube.com] Hey look a pic of an 8-way, illegal red joystick and Billy identifying that it's the machine he supposedly set a "record" on...

Re:

[Joe_Dragon]

what was the rules at the time of the scores not the rules of today.
Now they did change the rules a lot over the years and in court that does not make the case very good.
Also that line was from 2023? talking about an event that happened years ago so maybe he forgot about it.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Billy? Is that you?

Seriously, find better heroes. Mitchell is a liar and a crook. Why are you so hot to simp for him?

Re:

[Moryath]

Yeah, it's pretty clear "Joe Dragon" is one of Cheating Shit Billy's sockpuppet accounts.

Re:

[Can'tNot]

This is not a great criticism. Games are competitive, and people care about them.

Instead of that, maybe criticize the fact that this was settled due the enormous potential cost of the lawsuit. There are a bunch of things wrong with that, from the fact that there was a lawsuit at all to the abusive and exploitable cost of our tort system.

Re:

[registrations_suck]

No kidding. Talk about a case of shit that doesn't fucking matter in the slightest.

Re:

[Eunomion]

For real. What kind of parasite files a lawsuit over Donkey Kong? Like the courts are a playground with unlimited time and money.

Re:

[registrations_suck]

Donkey Kong sucks anyway.

the jury is a wild card some times its better to b

[Joe_Dragon]

the jury is a wild card some times its better to be settling out of court

Who cares

[comrade1]

Biggest retard fight ever.

Re:

[quall]

Well, you have an organization that is funded and would only exist if it has integrity, and then you have Billy who has made a ton of money off his "fame". Might be a retard fight, but you're the one on Slashdot posting retarded comments. SO the world evens out.

Hmm ...

[fahrbot-bot]

"What happens when a loser who needs to win faces a winner who refuses to lose?"

I think I saw this on TV a few years ago. Zero stars, do not recommend -- especially if it reruns in a few months.

Now did they test TKG2, TKG3, and TKG4 boards?

[Joe_Dragon]

Now did they test TKG2, TKG3, and TKG4 boards?
As well the 2 different 'speed-up kits' rom the Nintendo put out?

Or was the real hardware testing done on just TKG4 and one rom set.

So the other hardware doesn't need to be tested?

[Joe_Dragon]

really well then in court that you can clam that they only tested one hardware version and they did not test all official versions.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you're Todd Rogers?

Seriously, what's your deal? It's not like Billy is going to sleep with you just because you defended him on a website he doesn't even know exists. Get a grip.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Joe successfully finds the shift key and can finally use capital letters. Today is a good day!

Donkey Kong / Donkey Kong Jr / Mario Bros (Namco /

[Joe_Dragon]

Does the licensed Donkey Kong / Donkey Kong Jr / Mario Bros (Namco / Nintendo / Cosmodog 2003) board have video the looks like mame?

Re:

[Moryath]

Doesn't matter, as that's not the board Cheating Crap Billy claims to have been using when he got MAME-identical screens on multiple fake attempts over multiple years...

They didn't reinstate his records

[rsilvergun]

He's lying about that. They agreed to put them in a database somewhere as a historic record that they wore once briefly in the scoreboards. The actual scoreboards still don't have his records.

The footage that he sent in has a boot sequence that's only possible if you're playing the game on Mame. My guess is that twin galaxies gave up on the lawsuit because he managed to keep it going for so damned long. Plus he never know what a jury is going to do. I mean how many people on a jury are going to know what Mame is let alone understand the subtle differences in boot sequences caused by running a game underneath it.

Re:

[jacks smirking reven]

Jesus just thinking of being on that jury for weeks is just a recipe to disillusion 12 people to the entire concept of liberal democracy.

Re:They didn't reinstate his records

[ravenshrike]

Nah, TG settled because their lawyer fucked up when contacting the witnesses. So rather than deal with any fallout from that, TG settled to have him in a historical archive.

Re:

[Drahkir]

You wouldn't expect a member of any jury to already know what MAME is, that's why you'd explain it to them. And none of it's hard to understand on a basic level. You don't need to understand how emulation works at a deep level to get that Billy claimed to have played on original hardware when in reality he played "on his computer." And it's proven by the order the visuals load in the game. You don't need to understand how the MAME boot sequence works, just that there's a clear visual difference between

Clarification

[UnknowingFool]

Billy Mitchell is claiming victory as if he has won. Twin Galaxies has not put Billy Mitchell back in their leader boards and he is still banned from further submissions. What Twin Galaxies did is to make a historical database available to the website. Users can view the records as they existed when the current owner bought Twin Galaxies where Billy Mitchell has records. This historical database also has records from other players like Todd Rogers who since been removed for cheating.

As Billy Mitchell's expert witness, this testimony was that it was "possible" that aging boards could have caused the anomalies. However the expert did not address why the anomalies look exactly like a version of MAME. Also the expert did not demonstrate where he could recreate the anomalies.

Re:Clarification

[Moryath]

However the expert did not address why the anomalies look exactly like a version of MAME. Also the expert did not demonstrate where he could recreate the anomalies.

That's because the 'expert' didn't actually do any testing. He was paid to write a load of word salad to support Billy, so that's what he did. 90% of his statements are absolutely impossible if you understand how the hardware works (no "failure" in the world could speed up how the board draws to the CRT screen for instance).

The other 10% of his statements are similar nonsense. For instance, he claims that a "lack" of frame alignment is an issue, but Twin Galaxies' current owner Jace Hall went to the trouble of purchasing a tape deck that could roll through the tapes in analog, and where you can clearly scroll forward to see the scan transition from frame to frame - sadly this video is in the now "removed from public view" (per the settlement) dispute thread.

Basically speaking, Twin Galaxies settled to the minimum they could do, just to stop wasting money on Cheating Crap Billy. Cheating Crap Billy is still a disgusting cheater.

"Expert" they say...

[Moryath]

But now an engineer (qualified as an expert in federal courts) says aging components in the game board could've produced the same visual artifacts seen in the videotape of the disputed game.

An "expert" who has done zero analysis, and who repeats already debunked claims. As well as failing to explain how Cheating Crap Billy got MAME-identical screens on three different attempts 5+ years separated... In other words, "paid to say shit he doesn't believe."

Re:

[Moryath]

You mean he lied his ass off, like you neonazis and dishonest lying ass fucks always do.

Re:

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

Neonazis? Uh ok, dude, whatever, get therapy and grow up.

No I mean he did what is expected of him in a court room as an expert witness. This is an adult situation and everyone in the court understands his role.

Jfc... eye roll.

Billy, this tube is empty, dude

[byronivs]

Throw it out and get a new one.

1985 records

[Dan East]

Is there any possibility that he was somehow cheating in 1985, which of course is way, way before emulation was possible? For Donkey Kong specifically that would have required some hardware-level cheating. Like either a custom ROM, or perhaps a hacked RNG. I think that is the main way of cheating in Donkey Kong, because the randomization is what makes things very difficult. You can't just follow patterns or keep playing infinitely to max out a score (because of the "kill screen" at which gameplay stops). So

Re:

[ac22]

Mitchell was legitimately extremely good at playing arcade games back in the 80s. He sometimes drew large crowds when he made his attempts. IMO his 1982 DK score of 886,900 was probably genuine, along with a lot of his other records, although of course video evidence from back then is scarce. The current WR score is 1,272,800 by Robbie Lakeman in 2021, so Mitchell's 1982 record doesn't need to be explained by any form of cheating.

His 1,000,000+ scores were set 20+ years later.

For those in the know...

[rabbirta]

The dude cheated. Blatantly. Watch any long-form investigation of the "artifacts" that were produced and you'll find that they are mathematically identical to the frames produced by an emulator.

Real hardware cannot, will not produce those exact specific artifacts, especially not dozens of times over the course of every single recording of every single supposed DK record on dozens of recorded frames.

Of course, real fans know this because it's easy to prove. I'm sure the jury just got sick of it and let him have his 'win', even if we all know better

Re:

[loonycyborg]

MAME is a red herring. It's significant technical effort to make an arcade machine with software powered by MAME just to play it in public place while being recorded. Many people were involved in setting up his events, requiring lot of accomplices. All for darn "record" for some old game that doesn't even result in award payout. Most definitely not economically efficient. It's lot easier to assume that the tape was doctored long after the event.

ok billy

[Anonymous Coward]

"Significant technical effort"? People have been setting up MAME boxes for decades now. All you'd need would be a DK cabinet to stuff the MAME hardware in. It's not exactly turnkey but even twenty years ago it wasn't uncharted waters either. You wouldn't need lots of accomplices, unless you have reason to believe they're going to disassemble the cabinet during the event.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

what the fuck? no it is not a significant technical effort, it has been common place for decades and requires very little effort.

Twin Galaxies' flexible dedication to preservation

[ZipK]

Consistent with Twin Galaxies' dedication to the meticulous documentation and preservation of video game score history, Twin Galaxies shall heretofore reinstate all of Mr. Mitchell's scores as part of the official historical database on Twin Galaxies' website. Additionally, upon closing of the matter, Twin Galaxies shall permanently archive and remove from online display the dispute thread... as well as all related statements and articles.

So they're dedicated to preserving video game score history, but they're removing the discussion and documentation of this episode in video game score history?

What I understand about record holders

[Slashythenkilly]

In no forum can one self report any kind of achievement because no one knows the circumstances under which it occurred. Just because someone said its possible he didnt cheat doesnt mean something didnt happen. If someone actually cares enough to set a record then it needs to be done on a standardized machine with witnesses that anyone can use. Otherwise, he is no better than so many self proclaimed masters of martial arts who can do little more than get their ass handed to them in the ring.