The King of Kong may be dethroned through discovery of deceit, it seems. Billy Mitchell is a legend in the gamer community and has been a legend as far as Donkey Kong goes for literal decades. Evidence amassed at the forum Twin Galaxies and brought to the Kong community by Jeremy Young calls into question the veracity of his impressive high scores.
One issue that is brought up is the fact that Mitchell didn't disclose his use of the MAME arcade game emulator. MAME wins and high scores are allowed, but in such cases closer scrutiny is required to verify that, for instance, the run was human-controlled and took place in one continuous playthrough. Even if Mitchell didn't cheat the lack of disclosure about not using "official hardware" has been deemed "problematic" by Endgadget.
According to Endgadget:
<quote>The evidence for the allegations is complex, and largely centers on framerate analysis and an apparent mis-rotation of the playscreen, but taken as a whole it appears quite damning.</quote>
One member of the Goldwater staff noted that, for gamers, this potential scandal is "the video game equivalent of Lance Armstrong doping to win the Tour De France then losing all his trophies." The news also comes hot on the heels of Todd Rogers, another video game champion, being stripped of his Dragster title for "mathematically impossible times." Mitchell managed to hold the Donkey Kong record for nearly 20 full years, but Young's "damning evidence" may besmirch the name of the namesake of the popular video-game documentary King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.
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Jeremy Young is also the moderator of Donkey Kong Forum (DKF) and in addition to sharing a mass of evidence that Mitchell cheated to attain his high score, removed Mitchell's record from the DKF leaderboard. Young recently spoke to Endgadget about his claims:
<blockquote>"The specific information provided in the thread has been gathered over the past week or so. But closer looks at his videos have been happening for years. I started the formal [Twin Galaxies] dispute last August."</blockquote>
Young went on to say that Billy was "a great person" but that it was important that the community "take a stand against cheating and dishonesty." According to Young, the rumors had been circling at least since late 2012/early 2013. He points out that Mitchell is still on the board with a 933,900 point game that was performed in public and completely verifiable. Most recently, in an update to the Endgadget article, Twin Galaxies issued the following statement.
<blockquote>"Twin Galaxies is in the process of fully-reviewing the compelling evidence provided by Jeremy Young to support his current score dispute case against Bily Mitchell's Donkey Kong score. We will do this thoroughly and impartially. In the meantime we will continue to observe this discussion by experts in the community and will also examine any further evidence that may be provided during this review period."</blockquote>
Source:
https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/02/donkey-kong-billy-mitchell-high-score-fraud-allegation/
