Billy Mitchell Sets Donkey Kong Highscore That Makes Me Think

Billy Mitchell Sets Donkey Kong Highscore

If you are not aware of who Billy Mitchell is, let me first start by making it clear that this isn’t a story about the character from Eastenders. Billy Mitchell is, perhaps, one of the best-known names in terms of gaming high scores. He initially shot to some notoriety in the ’80s for setting various high-score records for a number of classic arcade games. For example, he was the first person to complete a ‘perfect’ game of Pac Man. That’s collecting everything and achieving the maximum score, triggering a ‘kill screen’ (where the game crashes) and all on 1 single life.

He did, however, perhaps become far more notably famous when he appeared in the semi-documentary ‘The King Of Kong’. The film (which you really should watch), showed Steve Weibe attempting to break Billy Mitchells long standard World Record in Donkey Kong. Earlier this year though, although he no longer held the World Record, many of his Donkey Kong scores were brought into question.

To MAME Or Not To MAME?

The issue of contention was whether he used MAME (an arcade simulator) or an actual verified machine. Billy Mitchell always stated he used the latter while nearly all the evidence pointed towards him using MAME. Twin Galaxies was sufficiently satisfied to declare that he did use MAME and as such, while they did not call him a cheater, they removed all of his records and banned him from appearing on their charts again.

Since then, he has been on something of a mission to redeem his name and reputation. As such, he has posted various videos on Twitch showing him working to prove that he is legitimately a top player. More specifically, that he doesn’t cheat!

Having A Re-Think

In the video above, you can see Billy Mitchell posting a video with the score of 1,050,100. This is a (near enough) a score of his that was previously removed from the records. While it doesn’t necessarily prove that he didn’t use MAME, it does at least confirm that he is capable of producing million plus scores legitimately.

Now, Twin Galaxies are almost certainly not going to overturn their decision. As far as they see it, they don’t think he cheated. In fact, very few do. What they do believe, however, is that he was dishonest about how he achieved the score. For anyone who knows the speedrunning or high score community, the format in which you achieve it is highly important. For example, a Resident Evil 2 speedrun will be proven down into the category of a format in which it was achieved. Be it, PC, PS1, Gamecube, emulator etc.

While Billy Mitchell might have been dishonest about this, these videos are making me reconsider my opinion on him. While he might have told a lie, he clearly has the skill to achieve these scores legitimately. It might be a small step, but he is actually redeeming his reputation with me just a little. Not, I’m sure, that he gives a crap what I think about him.

What do you think? Impressed with the score? Has he redeemed a little in your eyes?- Let us know in the comments!