Billy Mitchell(King of Kong) stripped of World Records by Guinness

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**Dreadwinter**

This has been going on for a couple days. What has happened is Twin Galaxies has done an investigation in to his footage of beating Donkey Kong and determined that his world records were obtained on an emulator and not an arcade box. Because of the findings, Guinness has stripped him of all of his world records, including his perfect run of Pac Man. Pretty interesting if you are in to Geek Culture or just old arcade machines.

http://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/billy-mitchell-pac-man-world-record-1202752594/

Billy Mitchell’s perfect “Pac-Man” run and highest score, as well as his “Donkey Kong” score made famous in the documentary “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” will no longer be recognized by Guinness World Records, the organization told Variety on Friday.

The decision to remove all of his world records is driven by news yesterday that Twin Galaxies, which is Guinness’ official source for verification of these achievements, was stripping all of Mitchell’s high scores and banning him from future attempts after it was discovered that he was not playing on a regulation arcade version of “Donkey Kong” to set his records.

Twin Galaxies wrote Thursday in an statement that Mitchell’s famous”Donkey Kong” score of 1,047,200 was not achieved on an arcade machine — a requirement for Twin Galaxies and Guinness — but rather through the use of emulation software. Using emulated software, and not the original circuit board version of the game, means a player could cheat in any number of potentially undetectable ways. That’s why all submitted high scores must be from playing on original, unmodified arcade machine.

“Twin Galaxies is Guinness World Records’ trusted adviser on video game high scores and as such we rely on it to monitor high score gaming records and handle any and all disputes that occur within its community,” a spokesperson told Variety. “The Guinness World Records titles relating to Mr. Mitchell’s highest scores on ‘Donkey Kong’ have all been disqualified due to Twin Galaxies being our source of verification for these achievements.”

“We also recognize records for first perfect score on ‘Pac-Man’ and Highest score on ‘Pac-Man,'” the spokesperson added. “Twin Galaxies was the original source of verification for these record titles and in line with their decision to remove all of Mr. Mitchell’s records from their system, we have disqualified Mr. Mitchell as the holder of these two records. Guinness World Records will look to update and find the appropriate holder of these records in the next few days. “

Mitchell has not responded to Variety’s request for comment.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Thanks, I've been trying to figure out what the issue was.

Using emulated software, and not the original circuit board version of the game, means a player could cheat in any number of potentially undetectable ways. That’s why all submitted high scores must be from playing on original, unmodified arcade machine.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

Fetch the secateurs, and let us claim his cheaty fingers!

**timetowaste85**

While it’s very possible he didn’t even knowingly cheat, just using an emulator is cheating on it’s own; after all, if it’s on a computer, you can use the keypad. Configuring movement to your hand’s comfort. As opposed to using the company designated layout and format of joystick and buttons. It’s a bummer, but hopefully he can do it all again, on a proper machine, and prove to people if he wants his title back.

**Kid_Kyoto**

Well he's barred from future records with Guiness,

banning him from future attempts

He can still do whatever he wants but it'll be hard to get his reputation back.

**BrookM**

The guy has his restaurants and sauces, he's still doing fine for himself.

**sebster**

timetowaste85 wrote:
While it’s very possible he didn’t even knowingly cheat, just using an emulator is cheating on it’s own; after all, if it’s on a computer, you can use the keypad. Configuring movement to your hand’s comfort. As opposed to using the company designated layout and format of joystick and buttons. It’s a bummer, but hopefully he can do it all again, on a proper machine, and prove to people if he wants his title back.

The records are submitted by recording. There's a level of trust that the machine you're using is legit. Mitchell doesn't have that trust anymore.