Gamers strive to be remembered in history by winning tournaments, which is the case for most competitive titles. Others go for holding the highest score.
The latter is the more prevalent way of establishing dominance over a specific game back when arcades were still popular. Players would line up and try to beat each other's score in popular games like Pac-Man, Joust, Dragster, and Donkey Kong.
The last two games mentioned are recently in the news as experts scrutinized the scores and authenticity of each title's respective record holders. Both Todd Rogers and Billy Mitchell allegedly falsified their numbers through different methods such as emulators.
A Fall From Grace
Several news outlets recently confirmed that the high score record submitted for Dragster was mathematically invalid, according to experts at Twin Galaxies, an American organization that keeps track of video game world records. The score belonged to Todd Rogers, which was supposedly verified by Activision in 1982 with a time of 5.51 seconds. Additionally, the score was likewise registered with Guinness World Records.
Last year, Dick Moreland, a member of the said organization, disputed Roger's score, which was then removed from the group's records. Also, Rogers is apparently banned from all future participation.
Now, it appears that Twin Galaxies has set its eyes on Billy Mitchell and his 2010 high score for Donkey Kong.
The King Of Kong
Billy Mitchell's name might sound familiar to most people, especially gamers. He is widely known among video game fanatics as the King of Kong, a title he earned from The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters, a 2007 documentary film about Steve Wiebe and Mitchell's rivalry over the Nintendo arcade game.
Just a few days after Rogers was taken off the leaderboards for allegedly falsifying his scores for Dragster, Twin Galaxies started an investigation into Mitchell's high score record. Jeremy Young, a moderator of Donkey Kong Forum, brought forward an evidence that supposedly proves Mitchell's numbers were inaccurate.
"In summary, these GIFs show that each of the Donkey Kong world record direct feed recordings presented by Billy Mitchell and verified by [Twin Galaxies] were generated in MAME and not by original Donkey Kong hardware," claimed Young.
Ongoing Investigation
Despite the evidence presented by Young, Twin Galaxies acknowledged that it will perform its own investigation thoroughly and impartially. Even though the Donkey Kong Forum updated the leaderboards to reflect Billy Mitchell's high score and standing, the organization will wait for the conclusion of its internal analysis surrounding the alleged cheating via an emulator.
