Those of you holding out hope that Billy Mitchell really was all talk and no game have a bit less ammo today. The controversial restaurateur/ career self-absorbed egomaniac painted as the villain in the 2007 documentaryThe King of Kong: A Fistful of Quartersbeat high scores in both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. over the weekend for the inaugural ceremony of the International Video Game Hall of Fame in Ottumwa, Iowa.
Above: This man sells hot sauce. And dreams.
The event, held in the ancestral home of gaming scoreboard hub Twin Galaxies, showcased, among other things, a score-focused tournament for a variety of games from gamedom's past and present. While he didn't complete the high scores on-hand at the event, Mitchell arrived packing a verified videotape of the scoring attempts- which clock in at 2 hours 42 minutes for Donkey Kong and 3 hours 58 minutes for Donkey Kong Jr.
The two games Mitchell set out to conquer have plagued his persona since King of Kong was released, thus making the opportunity to attain the high scores for an event that partly honored him (as well as other historically high scoring gamers) all the sweeter. The final scores of the Donkey Kong and Jr. were 1,062,800 and 1,270,900, respectively.
Though the previous high score in Donkey Kong was not held by King of Kong rival Steve Weibe (it was actually held by Hank Chien since March of this year), Mitchell walked away from DK just 100 points after beating the previous record. Smarmy? According to Mitchell, "Some say I'm being cocky. Some say I'm being lazy. I say, I'm being Billy Mitchell."
Indeed.
Aug 09, 2010
SOURCE:Twin Galaxies
