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It has been a long and twisting journey for the former and now once-again King of Kong, Billy Mitchell. The video game high score legend and hot sauce aficionado has been in a dispute since 2018 with the gaming leaderboards website Twin Galaxies over the removal of his records in the arcade games Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. In brief, Twin Galaxies jettisoned Mitchell’s scores after alleging that it had launched an internal investigation which revealed Mitchell to have used emulation software MAME to cheat his way to earning his record scores. Twin Galaxies findings were so damning that they led to Guinness World Records also eliminating Mitchell’s achievements from its own database of high scores.
In 2019, Mitchell took the dispute with Twin Galaxies from the web to the courtroom. Mitchell has sued Twin Galaxies for libel following the nullification of his records and as part of the lawsuit asked Guinness to conduct its own separate investigation into the veracity of his high scores. It would seem that Guinness has done exactly that and has decided, as a result, to reinstate Mitchell’s scores back into its official records. Here’s what Guinness had to say about the decision:
In the light of compelling new evidence received by Guinness World Records, the Records Management Team has unanimously decided to reverse decisions made in April 2018 in regards to videogame high scores achieved by Billy Mitchell between 1982 and 2010.
As of 10 June 2020, the following historical records for the arcade platform have been reinstated:
- 3 July 1999 – First Perfect Score on PAC-Man – 3,333,360 Points
- 7 November 1982 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 874,300 Points
- 4 June 2005 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,047,200 Points
- 14 July 2007 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,050,200 Points
- 31 July 2010 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,062,800 Points
This reinstatement also re-recognizes Mr Mitchell as the first gamer to reach the kill screen on Donkey Kong (7 November 1982) and first gamer to score 1 million points on Donkey Kong (4 June 2005).
Guinness World Records is always open to accepting new evidence for historical achievements, and to reviewing new and existing evidence for disputed titles.
In this case, a re-examination of the records in question and the emergence of key eyewitness and expert testimonials led to a reversal of earlier disqualifications and the reinstating of Mr Mitchell’s original records. The records archive has been updated accordingly to reflect this.
Mitchell for his part had the following reaction:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Guinness World Records has officially announced the full reinstatement of my Pac-Man and Donkey Kong records as a result of an independent, fair, and unbiased investigation. GWR also recognizes me as the first million-point Donkey Kong player. See below👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/LFOvkg3WiI
— Billy Mitchell (@BillyPacman) June 18, 2020
Mitchell has been gaining steam in his initiative to have the legitimacy of his scores re-recognized, helped in part by the support of Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day, industry veteran Todd Tuckey, and current Donkey Kong world record holder Robbie Lakeman, not to mention his own submission of proof to counter Twin Galaxies’ findings. While the legal proceedings are still underway, this reinstatement by Guinness is surely quite the symbolic victory for Mitchell, if nothing else.
Source: CNET
