Billy Mitchell has certainly had an interesting year. As one of the biggest names in gaming high-scores, following on from the Todd Rodger’s scandal, he became arguably the highest-profile person to ever get the ban hammer from Twin Galaxies.
If you’re not aware of the backstory, put simply, a lot of his Donkey Kong record scores were brought into question. Specifically, whether he did it on an actual machine or via emulation. Billy Mitchell claimed the former, Twin Galaxies disagreed and removed all of his scores (from all of his games) from their website. You can learn more about it via the link here!
Billy Mitchell and the Road to Redemption
Since the ban, however, he has been on a ‘Road to Redemption’ to try and clear his name and reputation. A factor in which he has seen more than a little success in obtaining many scores (live-streamed) that were previously brought into question.
For example, he recently broke the million point score in Donkey Kong. He then later followed this up by deliberately matching a prior (also from Donkey Kong) record that was removed from Twin Galaxies.
Following a live-stream on his Twitch channel, however, Billy Mitchell has achieved another milestone by completing a ‘perfect’ game of Pac-Man reaching the kill screen at the end. What’s a perfect game I hear you ask? Well, that’s collecting everything, including all the items, and reaching the final level which triggers a ‘kill screen’.
What Do We Think?
I have often been critical of Billy Mitchell. Largely because I believe that he did use Mame in a number of his submitted record runs. A factor that did (potentially) allow for his runs to be faked.
There are, however, two key points I should make clear. Particularly since I suspect he might be reading this (I did get an e-mail once from someone purporting to represent him). Firstly, I don’t think he did cheat (beyond the use of emulation). Secondly, I don’t think he’s a fake. Billy Mitchell is clearly a great gamer and, via his Twitch channel, is doing well in convincing others of this too.
The Road to Redemption for him is still long, but not impossible!
At this point, if you haven’t watched the film ‘The King of Kong‘ (which heavily features Billy Mitchell) you really should!
What do you think? Has your opinion on Billy Mitchell changed? – Let us know in the comments!
