Billy Mitchell, the notorious gamer who proved a perfect antagonist in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, is back at the top of the leaderboard after years of dispute that his Donkey Kong gaming may have been through emulators.
Twin Galaxies – the organization that officially bestows world records on gamers – has again confirmed that Billy Mitchell holds the following Donkey Kong records: 1,047,200 (the King of Kong Score), 1,050,200 (the Mortgage Brokers score) and 1,062,800 (the Boomers score). And while it’s not in the record books, we have yet to see another professional gamer with such a gorgeous head of hair.
Twin Galaxies launched their official investigation into the legitimacy of Billy Mitchell’s records back in 2018 after there was a dispute that his achievements “were not generated by unmodified original Donkey Kong arcade hardware as required by the leaderboard rules”, with some pointing to Mitchell’s video “proof” as having too poor of quality to be legitimate. In short, he may have cheated, thus resulting in his accomplishments being removed from the books. Nearly six years later, Twin Galaxies and expert Dr. Michael Zyda determined that Mitchell did in fact not cheat and the quality is likely a result of years of wear and duplication.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters documented the battle between reigning champ Billy Mitchell and newcomer Steve Wiebe, who purchases a Donkey Kong cabinet of his own in hopes of setting the world record. If you haven’t seen the doc – which, at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes is one of the best-reviewed ever (although it failed to nab an Oscar nomination) – we highly recommend it, as it’s not only incredible but shows the intensity, rivalry and surprising nuances of gaming like no other.
Billy Mitchell’s other gaming feats include a perfect score in Pac-Man, a score of 703,560 in Ms. Pac-Man (which stood for more than 15 years) and a 20+-year record in BurgerTime. He was also alluded to in 2015’s Pixels.
Have you checked out The King of Kong? What do you make of Billy Mitchell? Let us know below!