Twin Galaxies Remove Billy Mitchell High Scores And Issues Ban

Twin Galaxies Remove Billy Mitchell Highscores

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but one of the most polarising characters in gaming is finding his reputation is in tatters. For several months Twin Galaxies had been investigating allegations that Billy Mitchell, best known for his role in the film ‘The King of Kong’, had used emulation software to submit Donkey Kong high scores.

You might at this point be wondering what the problem with that is. Using emulation is a reasonably acceptable means of attempting a high score, particularly when an original gaming cabinet would be somewhat hard to come by. In this instance, however, Billy Mitchell declared that his high scores were achieved on an actual cabinet.

Subsequent testing by both Twin Galaxies and many individuals, however, have concluded that MAME (an arcade emulator) was likely used in the videos. As such, Billy Mitchells scores have been removed from the website completely. It should be noted that Twin Galaxies have not categorically confirmed the use of MAME. It’s impossible to know exactly what Billy Mitchell used until he says so himself. They are, however, categorical that it was not an arcade cabinet!

Is he a cheater?

That is the big question. Although I am not a fan of Billy Mitchell’s, I think ‘cheater‘ is a step too far. As far as I am concerned, all the evidence has proven is that Billy Mitchell is a liar and as such his gaming score credibility is now zilch.

The decision was made based on several testing (both in-house and independent) being completely unable to recreate the videos as Billy Mitchell submitted. I am aware of the details, but I won’t bore you with them here. You can, of course, read the full decision report from Twin Galaxies if you wish here.

In this regard though, things have taken an interesting turn. As far as I was aware up until this point, it was only 3 specific scores that were in question. As such, with this decision, I expect them to only remove these 3. It seems, however, that Twin Galaxies, under new ownership since late 2016, want to make a bit of a statement here. As such, they have completely removed Billy Mitchell from the entire website scoring.

Yes, every single one of his high scores is now removed and deemed ineligible. Such is the price of being a liar. As such, feel free to call him a liar. Twin Galaxies basically have. A cheater, however?… I’m not so sure…

Billy Mitchell Banned!

If that wasn’t enough, Twin Galaxies have also decided to outright BAN Billy Mitchell from ever submitting a score again. His name, as things currently stand, is officially dirt in the gaming industry. A sad end to what was an interesting character who clearly let his need for fame exceed his better judgment.

Twin Galaxies are probably on high-alert for the notice to sue from Mr. Mitchell.

It’s a crazy story and I doubt this is the last chapter, but damn… what a mess. It’s certainly a LOT more from Twin Galaxies than I expected and I think, albeit harsh, probably the right decision. They needed a clean break from the horrific issues which have dogged the company in recent years, this is definitely a step in the right direction to restore a lot of credibility to them. Not so much though, to Mr. Mitchell.