King of Kong

Oh man!! I can't wait to see this!

Billy Mitchell is the perfect cocky videogame master archetype.

That looks AWESOME

they showed it at the film festival here but the time kinda sucked so i missed it :(

Iron Man Contest

The goal of the Iron Man competition was simple: you had to carry your game for as long as you could. If anyone passed 100 hours, they would be awarded a $10,000 prize from the Sports Achievement Association. The contest started at 11:00 AM. One player, a Japanese teenager, resigned his game at the seven-hour mark after being confronted by his weeping family.

The games continued unbroken until the 24-hour barrier, in which Tom Asaki lost his Nibbler game due to a glitch in the game. In Nibbler, each statistic was allotted 256 bits of data. Each extra life accumulated would add two bits to the load on the Extra Lives data. If it were to go over 256 bits (128 lives), all the lives in reserve would be reset to zero. Asaki did not even know of this bug until warned by Billy Mitchell that he was accumulating lives too fast. Tom's game ended with a score of 300 million points.

Mitchell himself was the next to go, after 39 hours. The trackball broke down due to the body oils from his hands. By the time the machine could be repaired, Mitchell was already in a deep sleep, effectively eliminating him from the competition. His game ended with an impressive 10,774,191 points.

Mark Bersabe lost his final man on Asteroids after 45 hours, with a score of 18,552,590 points (far from Scott Safran's record of 41,336,440 points). Jeff Peters, who played Q*Bert while sitting in a recliner (with the control panel in his lap) lasted until the fifty-hour mark until collapsing from exhaustion, with 19,498,150 points.

The winner of the contest was 18-year-old James Vollandt, who carried his Joust game for 67½ hours. After being the only one remaining in competition (after Peters' elimination), he resorted to dangerous techniques to keep himself awake, including blasting his face with freon, starting at the sixty-hour mark. The game malfunctioned at around 58 hours, wiping out all of his 210 extra lives. However, he earned back forty of them. He left the game voluntarily, with a record-breaking score of 107,216,700 points, a record that still stands to this day. However, Vollandt did not receive the prize money because he did not pass the 100-hour mark.

THE FUCK

Vollandt = pussy.

Freon in the face? 80s nerds are way fucking scarier than today's nerds. Ten Red Bulls to play an all-nighter of Halo is fucking nothing compared to that shit.

I just saw this tonight at the Nuart and it is the best movie I've seen all year. No joke.

Is this getting any sort of distribution?

I'm going to the SF screening tonight!

Yeah, it's really great.

seen it! wonderfullll! billy mitchell is the lamest person possible. he gets the high score for lameness. you cant even say he's an asshole really cause he's so lame.

incidentally they kept using some footage of him from another documentary (on mtv i think?) where he's shelving hot sauce. but what they dont tell you in king of kong is he's MOVING HIS COMPETITORS SAUCE OUT OF THE WAY TO MAKE MORE ROOM FOR HIS OWN LOL AND THE WHOLE TIME HES SAYING SHIT UNDER HIS BREATH LIKE ITS THE LITTLE THINGS THAT GET YOU AHEAD IM A COMPETITOR NEVER SURRENDER ETC

no wai! i was wondering if that was what he was doing, & then thinking nah they'd have mentioned it - he truly is the king of lameness.

I loved that bit in the MTV documentary. I mean, Billy Mitchell is kinda lame I guess but I think he's great in a Mark Borchardt sorta way.

mark borchardt is totally likable and charming. billy is just an over the top pitiful douche. A CAPTIVATING HILARIOUSLY MEGALOMANIACAL OVER THE TOP PITIFUL DOUCHE. but still.

i love all his sycophants too.

Now that this movie is kind of a hit, I wonder if Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade will finally come out? It seems like it goes over in more detail the history parts from this one - with lots of the same people. I want to see it...

http://chasingghoststhemovie.com/

yah that looks awesome

fuck i really wonder if this is gonna open here

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1317769/7245531/

slox it was at fantasia :(

god, billy mitchell is such a fucking CUNT

I LOVE YOU STEVE WIEBE!!!!

I actually just feel a little sad for billy mitchell tbh

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1565744/20070727/id_0.jhtml

yah im sure billy mitchell has some long nites. you dont get to be a psycho narcissist like that w/o harboring some bleak darkness.

blasting his face with freon

http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&pi=2&gi=3852&vi=22

BILLY MITCHELL RECLAIMED THE WORLD RECORD!
SORRY ABOUT THE ALL CAPS BUT IT'S THAT KIND OF MOMENT.
IF YOU GO TO THE ABOVE LINK, IT SHOWS BILLY MITCHELL AS THE NEW TOP SCORE RECORD HOLDER AT 1,050,200 POINTS, VERIFIED BY REFEREE ON 6/26/2007, THREE MONTHS AFTER THE HIGH SCORE BY STEVE WIEBE THAT WAS REFERENCED AT THE END OF THE MOVIE!

phew.

WHAT AN ASSHOLEEEEEEEEE!

Does the 100% mean the record is unbeatable?

Billy really needs to work on his Zaxxon score now:
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=22&p=28206

I think 100% just means he completed the game - getting to the dead screen (or whatever it is called)...

Yeah, but like a perfect game of Pac-Man is 3,333,360. He was the first to do that, and you can't beat that score, so now it's "fastest perfect game," which it looks like he's ranked 5th in. I'm wondering if 1,050,200 is as high as you can go, or if there even is such a thing as a perfect game of Donkey Kong.

Pretty sure he ended his game after beating Wiebe and could've continued if he wanted to set the score even higher.

see brian kuh is still only 6th in the world. what a loser.

Maybe on the DVD they could include one of the high score gettin' game play videos - because just from watching the doc, I don't really understand what/how the high scores are accomplished - i mean, is there just tons of hiding in a corner and jumping over barrels? Is there a time limit of how long the game lets you hang out on each screen?

This movie was unbelievably good.
I really didn't want to know that Mitchell regained the lead.

Maybe on the DVD they could include one of the high score gettin' game play videos

The video of Billy Mitchell's new record score (apologies if this doesn't work; I am at work and so can't try it)

didn't work :(

it "worked" but that didn't seem to have jack shit to do with a high score, I mean that game was about 1/25th of the way to the high score when the vidoe ended - is that The Advantage playing, though?

So they're (New Line) are remaking this as a feature film

I'm not sure it needs to be, it's already utterly theatrical as it stands. Great though, and I'm hardly surprised Mitchell has come back since to regain the crown. It's his way.

Maybe they should make a sequel?

This actually reminds me of my youth when I was king of 'Outzone' at our local rec arcade centre. And then some kid called 'Adi' arrived and started becoming my nemesis by topping my scores. Whenever either of us stepped up there'd be a fair crowd gathering.

I set the records, Adi beat them, I'd set a new one, and so it went on.

I think I managed to stay the champ before the game was removed, with a glorious 400% clocking of the game (and some very very sweaty hands)

And now I play the flippin thing on Mame I can't even get 100%!!

I'd like to see Billy Mitchell play Pac-Man C.E. because that game is so good.

I think I will go see this this weekend.

"gnarly poontang"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3gW_91bjkg

This was just so good i may have to watch it again tonight.

LOL at the moment where Billys's colleague (the one he confronted about the fake hiscore) is talking to the camera about what a great guy Steve Wiebe is, and Billy's reaction is priceless.

Just watched this last night, and it's so good. Mitchell is such a cock! I'm sure they've done the film in a way to deliberately make Wiebe look like a great guy, which I'm sure he is but he's obviously every bit as competetive as Mitchell, just not as much of a bell end.

BTW, I checked Twin Galaxies and I actually have a pretty competetive high score on the Gameboy Tetris. Is it lame to be tempted to submit something? :(

Do it!

Totally not lame, i'm tempted to get my Outzone up there, because the current champ is nowhere near my best!

I've beaten the NES Marble Madness Top Score a few different times. I suppose I should tape it. But, there's not much competition for that score. I haven't scored below 100,000 points in a game of Marble Madness since the 1990s, which would automatically put me up on the list.

OH MY GOD

this makes a great double-feature with "chasing ghosts", both involve roughly the same characters, except "ghosts" is a lot creepier and more depressing; it doesn't really do these guys any favors. some rough words for our DK champ - "FUCK Billy Mitchell" and "we used to call him Silly Bitchell"...loved it. Yeah Mitchell is kind of a dick but he's kind of a badass which makes this world so much more endearing

King of Kong is a lot more fun (even my mom liked it!) and arguably a "better" movie, but I've probably watched Chasing Ghosts twice as many times by this point; there are just so many more details to soak up. also it has the scene with Robert Mruczek's "art" collection, i.e. the best scene in either one.

yeah I totally called that one as he was opening it..."it's gotta be porn, right?"

They're both great movies but King of Kong loses a few points since parts of it have kind of been exposed as fabrications; if you read the interviews with Billy Mitchell he seems to be a lot more of a complex person than he appears in the film, and they do intentionally omit several things to make it tell a better story; whereas Chasing Ghosts has the aura of "you really couldn't make this up"

aww, 'chasing ghosts' not available on netflix

btw: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/03/11/hank-chien-destroyed-his-own-donkey-kong-record.aspx

yeah I totally called that one as he was opening it..."it's gotta be porn, right?"

thanks a lot for this, now I don't have to wonder how the scene develops when I get to see the movie

enjoy, it's amazing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iteB7wQckh4

that's Barcade in the first part iirc.

"basically the guy experienced hallucinations. So right now this is just icing on the cake right now. I've done it before so it's no challenge to me.

aw, i got turned off when he got into dumbfuck fantasy artporn

Saw Chasing Ghosts last night - loved it. Dude spending £300k on fantasy porn was the most WTF of many WTF moments. What was the score (pun!) withe the guy with the xmas stockings up all year round? Was he for real mentally ill? (as opposed to the others, but you know . . . )

Got King of Kong to watch tonight.

thanks a lot for this, now I don't have to wonder how the scene develops when I get to see the movie

you probably shouldn't be reading threads about a movie if spoilers like "this guy has a porn collection" bother you that much, plus this is a documentary so wtf

Watched King of Kong - less good than chasing ghosts, imo. But maybe that's more CG being awesome, than KoK being poor.

Poking around the Twin Galaxies website, I found this lengthy set of posts going into great detail just how much KoK omitted from the documentary to make a good story. The big one was how Billy Mitchell's taped high million-point score was only a high score for two days after fantasy porn dude decided that allowing it in wasn't quite playing by the game. This was one of the big dramatic turns in the doc, and if it turns out that the story wasn't quite how it appeared then it kinda undermines the fun of the whole film, imo. Course, it's one word against another, but it gets past my bullshit filter.

In related news, poking around the scoreboard, it turns out there's no world record been posted for Civilization II on PS! I'm not even very good at Civ but I fancy being a world record holder. I might book a long weekend off work and tape myself setting a world record. How cool would that be!

What the hell show is that?

― Buff Orpington (Abbbottt), Saturday, March 12, 2011 8:09 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

Abbott you should totally watch Regular Show!

I should probably see this King of Kong movie.

ha you should

Oh yeh, and thanks to this thread for introducing em to the Regular Show, that thing's awesome. 'Ello Gov'nor!

yah ade, you will love k of k

good luck with the civ 2 run. sounds dangerous

If you all lived here I would take you to Funspot. It's, well, really fun. Also = amazing people watching possibilities.

All the champions have their pictures on the wall like a hall of fame type thing and they have the oldest arcade game ever there.

you live near Funspot??!? so jealous

It's about a two hour drive but doable for a day excursion. One of my friends does a big trip every year for his birthday.

AND there's a place down the road from it that has an all you can eat ice cream sundae bar! :-O

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Funspotsign.JPG/450px-Funspotsign.JPG

!!!

Civ 2 run shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure I can bomb through a playthrough in around 12 hours, and you're allowed 15 minutes break every 3 hours, none of this freon-spraying nonsense.

... not sure if i should google 'freon-spraying' ...

the freon spraying thing was a myth; I had to research it for work a couple of months ago and someone tracked down Vollandt and asked him and he said no (and the baby looked at me). I still choose to believe it's true and he's just trying to cover up his shameful nerdy past.

Just founf the Billy Mitchell fan club on facebook, it has six members and Steve Sanders does the admin! Major Lols.

founf = found

soon it will have 7 members.

nah i can't find it so i just joined one with a few thousand members. lots of milquetoast losers praising Weeb.

I joined! Just type in the Billy Mitchell fan club in search and it should send you to the right page.

Billy Mitchell fan club on facebook is up to 7 members now. Is there anyone else I wonder in the public eye who is disliked so much that they don't attract attention. Perhaps this is a question for a new thread hmmmm?

Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong video footage turned out to have been played on MAME with several splices.

http://donkeykongforum.com/index.php?topic=2055.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=234Y76_3YPE

As DKF's (currently) sole high score moderator, I've taken my responsibilities very seriously.

I love his Walker Texas Ranger as Jedi Master sartorial vibe

o shit!

fuck billy mitchell!

Yes following this has been gratifying

lol, that son of a bitch

holy shitballs

After over 35 years of competitive gaming fame, Billy Mitchell has been banned from Twin Galaxies and had his scores struck from the record books, as two 2010 Donkey Kong scores were ruled not to have come from real arcade hardware: https://t.co/hpLPpbuYoT

— Retro Gamer (@RetroGamer_Mag) April 12, 2018

Pretty messed up. I've met Mitchell a couple times at retro gaming conventions, seemed nice and happy to be there and meet people. More than anything, I admired him for his wing business and sartorial eccentricities. It's sad that it was all built on lies.

so why didn't he just submit these as emulated ?

Well there’s chances of save states and game hacks that subtley produce more favorable results when using an emulator.

That is to say people trust original hardware submissions more. Emulator submissions will always be looked down upon as not being equivalent to the real thing so most people just avoid them.

plus I thought the tape was suspected of being spliced together from (presumably) dozens of runs. idk if they've proved it yet though

of course, that's not really the way life works in general

his gameplay footage gets way too "lucky". when there are random points awarded, he never gets the lowest ones. (the stuff about audio breaks is not true -- savestates make splices invisible.)

Omnigamer's Power Point Slides

The luck slide #14 is interesting but I don't suspect his scores were really that far off from normal. Omnigamer also didn't call it a smoking gun or anything in the presentaion video.

Also in slide #22 he states Myths going around. The idea that video splicing occurred is one of them since no credible evidence has ever been found.

but yeah.. save state splicing can be a thing etc...