‘King of Kong’ star Billy Mitchell lied, claims Donkey Kong world-record analysis

A Donkey Kong fansite has removed three high scores from arcade legend Billy Mitchell after an analysis revealed he likely misled the community about playing on real arcade hardware and that he instead submitted emulator gameplay. On Donkey Kong Forum, Mitchell previously held the No. 20 score with 1.062 million points, right behind his long-time rival Steve Wiebe’s 1.064 million. The professional gamer and hot-sauce magnate now has the No. 47 score with his 933,900 result he played in public on an arcade machine in 2004.

Mitchell and Wiebe’s battles over the Donkey Kong high score were the subject of the popular documentary film King of Kong: A Fistful of the Quarters. That movie painted Mitchell as a somewhat villainous character standing in the way of Wiebe’s heroic everyman. Now, that portrayal is starting to seem even more accurate, as it could include dishonesty and even cheating.