After a long-running investigation into the “King of Kong” Billy Mitchell’s competitive Donkey Kong scores, scorekeeper Twin Galaxies has banned the player from the organization now andforever. His titles have also been stripped from him, meaning that Steve Wiebe, as seen in the King of Kong documentary, is now considered the first million-point record holder in Donkey Kong.
After some players alleged that Mitchell had obtained his scores while utilizing an emulated version of the game, an investigation was launched into the case by Twin Galaxies. The company commented on the matter as such, stating that the duspute was “meticulously tested and investigated” and the “veracity” of video performances exmained as well. Ultimately, all parties came to the same conclusion as Twin Galaxies: that Mitchell’s scores should indeed be called into question.
One of the third parties named Carlos Pinerio had actually worked directly with Billy Mitchell himself to investigate the situation and would utilize “whatever original equipment Billy could provide.” However, this didn’t come to fruition, according to Twin Galaxies, as Mitchell declined to do so.
In the end, Twin Galaxies decided that Mitchell’s scores weren’t indeed from an original Donkey Kong arcade cabinet, and while it doesn’t matter if he ended up using the MAME emulator he was charged with, he was proven to have been using an “unsanctioned” machine to achieve his scores.
Twin Galaxies has been in contact with the Guinness Book of World Records to confirm its decision, so we’ll be seeing a shift in the previous records going forward.
