Yesterday we reported that Twin Galaxies had issued a verdict concerning allegations of cheating against Billy Mitchell. Mitchell, a subject of the movie King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, once held world records in Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Donkey-Kong Jr. But, it was recently revealed that at least some of his recorded record-breaking runs were recorded using a play method other than an authentic Donkey Kong arcade board in violation of Twin Galaxies’ rules. As Twin Galaxies is the source of verification for Mitchell’s entries in the Guinness World Records, his records in that publication are now invalidated as well.
Speaking with Kotaku, Guinness stated:
“The Guinness World Records titles relating to Mr. Mitchell’s highest scores on Donkey Kong have all been disqualified due to Twin Galaxies being our source of verification for these achievements. We also recognize records for First perfect score on Pac-Man and Highest score on Pac-Man. Twin Galaxies was the original source of verification for these record titles and in line with their decision to remove all of Mr. Mitchell’s records from their system, we have disqualified Mr. Mitchell as the holder of these two records. Guinness World Records will look to update and find the appropriate holder of these records in the next few days.”
Guinness has stated that it would be seeking out the appropriate holder of those records in order to confer those records to them. Unfortunately, Mitchell was able to achieve years of notoriety for his scores, including being named “Video Game Player of the Century” at Tokyo Game Show 1999.
However, after 14 years, Steve Wiebe, also a subject in the documentary King of Kong, has finally been recognized as being the first person to reach over a million points on a Donkey Kong arcade machine. As of yet, Mitchell hasn’t commented on Twin Galaxies’ and Guinness’ decision.
Image Credit: Datagod/Wikimedia Commons
