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Steve Wiebe is the King of Kong Again
Anyone who watched 'The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters' knows the epic struggle for global Kong dominance waged by Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. Wiebe took back the crown by scoring 1,064,500-points which was officially verified. And if you haven't seen the movie, go watch it. You won't be sorry.
After watching King of Kong I'm extremely happy to hear Wiebe is back on top. Something about Billy Mitchell has never sat right with me.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
I'm very happy that he won, but is he still married? From the documentary, it looked like his playing was tough on his family life. I couldn't imagine how much more dedication would be needed to beat Mitchell's top score--probably a lot more than what we saw in the movie.
there's a Donkey Kong kill-screen coming up.
-dZ.
Carol vs. Ghost
Now maybe he can spend some time with his kids. The scene in the documentary with him playing DK while his kids were asking for his help really depressed me. I'm not saying he's a bad guy, I just hope he uses this as an impetus to start being a dad.
After watching King of Kong I'm extremely happy to hear Wiebe is back on top. Something about Billy Mitchell has never sat right with me.
Perhaps how the 'documentary' demonized him? Is he egotistical and full of himself? Probably. But it seems the documentary was either not entirely truthful or misrepresented time lines. I met Walter Day at the Mall of America in college and will say that in the few minutes I chatted with him he was the kindest and most honest person I have met. If Walter Day doesn't think Billy Mitchell is pure evil than neither do I. If Billy had tried to do anything truly sinister I think Day would have short circuited it and I'm not clear on whether or not the mailed in tape that beat Wiebe in the documentary was actually accepted.
I'd be careful to accept something as truth when it could have made for gripping cinema. Mitchell is such a villain in the documentary that it's almost too good to be true when juxtaposing him to Wiebe.
I would caution your "doesn't sit right with me" assessment from a film and point out it's probably as reliable as anything meant to entertain someone can be. Yeah there's probably some truth to it. But Mitchell is no more purely evil than Wiebe is purely good. Selective footage can make it seem that way though. Before you jump all over Mitchell I would suggest you read the this and meet him first. You've selected one single source that is a highly entertaining movie and it has a very high chance of being unfairly biased to represent an epic battle between good and evil. They may be foils of each other in several ways but I would imagine some of it is manufactured to put you on Wiebe's side. Mitchell's devoted a lot of his life to video games and has held other records. The documentary really doesn't seem to investigate the positives of Mitchell as much as it does Wiebe.
Just something to consider when judging others.
My work here is dung.
Is this with or without the ROM hack that removes the kill screen and restores the programmer's original intent for the game?
I watched that movie on Hulu a couple months back. It is probably still on there, if it hasn't expired. Check it out.
http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1303
They have a few arcade cabinets from back in the day that are in great condition...one of them is a Donkey Kong machine, with the high score on it being in the 600,000 range.
Certainly no where near the world record, but still amazing nonetheless.
Living With a Nerd
Why not just link to the original story?
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=19&id=2264
I have to return some videotapes...
...you still lose.
I'd enjoy hearing how accurate the portrayals of the rivals were in The King of Kong. I bought that film after seeing it mentioned here on Slashdot; fantastic entertainment for those who recall the 1980s and younger people who aren't as acquianted with the arcade culture since the decline that happened after that decade elapsed.
In the documentary, Steve Wiebe was portrayed as a geeky underrachieving family man; all around a likable, modest chap who'd arrived at competing for Donkey Kong's high score much later than the era in which it was 'mainstream' to play.
Billy Mitchell was portrayed as a proud, competitive, somewhat disgruntled insider who'd been affiliated with the judging body Twin Galaxies and the videogame high score scene since the beginning. To my mind he didn't seem near as affable or appealing a person as Wiebe.
This is the age of manipulative editing, and in a 'reality' type production such as The King of Kong I'm a bit wary of a disturbed chronology enacted to favour the rivalry and contrast elements. Does anyone here have anything to verify or debunk the film's portrayals?
Great, now I'll have "In the Hall of the Mountain King" stuck in my head all day.
just how easily people's minds are swayed by giving them the right bits of information, get people to see through an 80 minute movie and they'll come out thinking they know a person they've never actually met.
Related, but off topic.
At SXSW a while back ('01? '02?) there was a movie shown called Bang the Machine, and it was about a Street Fighter tournament. If you manage to find it anywhere, watch it. I remember enjoying it.
After a quick search, there was a Slashdot post about it: http://news.slashdot.org/story/02/03/11/1520256/Bang-The-Machine
You chatted a few minutes? Under which circumstances? You should know that matters... That's why the film does without doubt portray Billy Mitchell as he is, an asshole. From the previous slashdot story on this as mentioned by others there's a comment by someone who nails it on the head:
and
As to Walter Day, what I noticed most of all is that he said Steve Wiebe 'redeemed' himself. Redeemed? He didn't do anything wrong! He just confirmed his ability that day. As to that dual circuit board that may or may not act differently than a regular one: Not his fault if it did act differently, so W.Day should have said Wiebe confirmed his ability, not that he redeemed himself. And if you think this is just an error, I think not, such things show how people think... Further:
I read the mtv interview and very little of Mitchell's personality comes through (in fact there's fairly little of his own words in it!), except that he tries to talk his way out stuff. Also, the inaccuracies are more the normal
I agree that Billy Mitchell seemed like a villain in the movie. Without a villain there aren't heroes though, and without Billy Mitchell there wouldn't be a "King of Kong" and hardly anyone would care who holds the high score in a game from 1981. Where would professional wrestling be without guys like Billy Mitchell? I don't know, but no one would care.
While your post is childish and poorly punctuated, I think the troll rating is undeserved as you make a good point. I've even seem the movie twice and while i found it entertaining I was thinking in the back of my head "Who gives a shit about high scores is DK Jr.?"
I don't know how many years on this Earth I got left. I'm going to get real weird with it. - Frank Reynolds
I'll take David Lee Roth over Mr. Rogers any day. Douche? Probably. Entertaining? Hell yes!
Billy Mitchell is probably no saint, but another film put the lie to the creative license practiced for the "King of Kong" filmmakers. "A Fistfull of Quarters" features several of the same Twin Galaxies regulars and is a more balanced film.
Billy Mitchell, mullet and all, is there helping Walter research and document world records. Mitchell comes off as someone who's seen cheating and attempts to steal fifteen minutes of glory (in fact FFoQ tells one such story) Made before King of Kong it does not feature Steve Wiebe.
Serves me right for going from memory. Fistful of Quarters is the subtitle for King of Kong. "Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade" is another film that came out around the same time.
Chasing Ghosts is every bit as entertaining without trying to turn Billy Mitchell into a villain. He's perhaps a bit cynical, but as I pointed out he had seen some players attempt to steal records. He helps Walter in this film to document and verify several records. He speaks of some of his own former records, which he held several besides Donkey Kong. He's not spiteful about those records falling as he looks like this is all part of the sport. He probably intents to reclaim those records at some point in the future.
I would expect Steve Wiebe tenure as record holder will be short.
Thanks. I'd love to watch that. Now if Netflix will just get it.
I met Walter Day at the Mall of America in college and will say that in the few minutes I chatted with him he was the kindest and most honest person I have met.
Seriously? You chat with someone for a "few minutes" and decide they are the "kindest and most honest" person you've ever met? Do you only hang with sociopaths?
Da Blog
I personally know Billy Mitchell well and while he is a bit stuck on himself and still wears that hideous mullet he is nothing like the person portrayed in the movie.
When that Seth guy came around our shop and wanted to shoot scenes using my bench as a back drop i made sure i was not around when the camera was rolling.
Something about him said manipulator and i did not want any part of his fantasy
Several of the games used in that movie were reconstructed and repaired by me.
The movie may have been biased, sure. But they did not make up what the people said. The sycophants surrounding Billy are the really disturbing ones, especially his little lackey who is constantly talking behind Steve when he is trying to get high score.