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Back in February, word broke that Billy Mitchell, the on-again, off-again king of the arcade game Donkey Kong, was having his high scores stripped from the leaderboards of the website Twin Galaxies. Moderator Jeremy “Xelnia” Young had called into question Mitchell’s scores, claiming that he had video evidence proving that the feats were the result of tampering. Young argued that Mitchell utilized emulation software dubbed MAME in order to play Donkey Kong; this software renders games playable in such a way that it gives users an unfair advantage over those competing on actual arcade hardware, thus Young’s objection to the validity of Mitchell’s scores.
Mitchell denied the allegations, but following Young’s claims Twin Galaxies itself launched an internal investigation into the situation and came to agree that the scores were illicitly obtained. Thus, Mitchell’s accomplishments have been removed entirely from the website’s leaderboards. What’s more, Guinness World Records has also stepped in to declare that they, too, will be striking Mitchell’s scores from their own record books, as they rely on Twin Galaxies when it comes to all things related to video game leaderboards. Guinness has even gone so far as to strike Mitchell’s high scores for Pac-Man (including what was formerly considered the first perfect score in the game).
It’s a fascinating turn for video game historians, as the books have effectively been re-written when it comes to this particular corner of the industry. There’s been no word yet from Mitchell, whose last statement alleged that the original videos he submitted were swapped out. We’ll continue to update as we discover more.
Source: Variety
