I wasn’t going to post this, but when more than 2 people send it and think it’s a worthy post, you have to respond to the people!
(Warning- Spoilers Galore)
If you’ve never seen the documentary King of Kong- A Fistful of Quarters, do yourself a favor and set aside some time to give it a look. I risk recommending this because people could very well hit me with the ol’ “I want my hour and a half back,” because the topic of the documentary is one that many people wouldn’t care about- the world of Arcade games. But trust me, this is not about Arcade games. The pathos in this transcends the topic.
The piece opens with archival news footage of a bunch of top gamers being photographed for Life magazine. The arcade games are set up in the street with each master standing tall above them. That’s when we are introduced to Billy Mitchell, the top gamer of them all, holding records in multiple games.
Mitchell looks like a burnout stoner, and he shows up for the shoot with a giant hickey on his neck, a not so subtle glimpse into the psyche of this character. One wonders if the hickey wasn’t the result of a Hoover vacuum, because that’s exactly what this Billy Mitchell would do.
Mitchell’s main rival was a kid named Steven Sanders who claimed to have a score of 3,165,300 in Donkey Kong, a score that is now known to be impossible to achieve. The game will not allow a score that high.
Mitchell, smelling a rat, because a rat knows a rat, challenges Sanders to a round of Donkey Kong. Mitchell destroys him and Sanders fesses up that he lied to Life magazine. A friendship blooms, with Sanders becoming a Mitchell lapdog. Mitchell will have many over the course of his storied career as King of all gamers.
The stoner-looking Mitchell grows out of his look and grows into a guy that makes you long for the stoner Mitchell. Billy cultivates an Herbal Essence black mullet-like mane with a beard and mustache and wears all black, looking like the gayest bad guy gunslinger in Fire Island. He walks in a way as to not let the wind muss his hair. We learn that he’s a hot sauce mogul living in Hollywood… Florida.
The good guy in the documentary is a very likable Steve Weibe, a recently unemployed husband and father who started playing Donkey Kong in his garage because he thought it would boost his self-esteem.
Weibe is a talented guy. He was great at sports, art and music, but never best. He was always very driven, his mother saying she suspected he has a form of autism because he can get lost with determination to be the best at whatever it is he sets out to do. It’s just that he doesn’t get there.
We like Weibe. We root for Weibe, and he finally does it. He breaks Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong record. He submitted his video to Twin Galaxies, the arbiters of gaming records, complete with his toddler son screaming in the background to stop playing the game because he needed his butt wiped.
That’s when life changes for Weibe. A group of Twin Galaxies people descend on his house and demand to see the Donkey Kong game. These people adore Billy Mitchell (who is on the board of Twin Galaxies. Can we say conflict of interest?) They find a mailing box from a guy they consider nefarious addressed to Weibe. With this evidence they disqualify Weibe’s submission.
Weibe is crestfallen.
But he’s not a quitter. And so begins the saga of Mitchell versus Weibe.
If you watch the doc, and you can see it here, you have the benefit of not being left hanging because you will now know that after a decade, Twin Galaxies has determined that Billy Mitchell cheated.
A key moment in the documentary is when Billy Mitchell is told by a mole that Weibe was poised to break his record LIVE in front of people at the Mecca of all arcade venues- Fun Spot. Weibe was about to enter into something called a Kill Screen, something that no one had ever achieved in a public setting. It’s the point where Donkey Kong “gives up” with no other parts of the game to offer the player.
Just as this is happening, Billy Mitchell, back at Mitchell headquarters, is announcing that he is in possession of a video he has held secretly and was waiting to spring on the gaming world. It’s Mitchell entering into the Kill Screen, but with added bonus points that put him over the million point mark, something that Weibe didn’t do.
So Weibe holds the Donkey Kong record for mere hours.
This is Shakespeare, folks.
Weibe, once again, is relegated to “also-ran.”
BUT WAIT!!!!!
ht/ JS, Irony Curtain and others
Footnote:
Something to watch for in the doc. There’s a moment when Mitchell and Weibe actually meet, and you think for a second they may play against each other. The filmmaker asks Mitchell’s wife if she has ever seen her husband play against someone in public. She says no. I find that odd, and telling. Mitchell’s legend was built on video submissions alone.
This could be an epic Bill Murray movie. Better than kingpins.
I have to say, I rewatched it last night.
It’s really a great study in human nature.
There are so many great subtle moments.
In the epilogue of the documentary, when Mitchell feels as if he vanquished his rival, his lapdog tells the filmmaker that he has a lot of respect for Weibe as a person, that he’s convinced he has integrity, talent and is a great father, etc., Mitchell shoots his lapdog a look that suggest he’s thinking about the best swamp in Hollywood, Florida to dump him in.
Speaking of swamps-
On a political note. Mitchell is the clear villain and a scumbag, but it’s a shame to have to report that he’s a republican and his sister ran against Debbie Wasserman Schultz 2 times.
I choose to think of him as a swamp creature RINO.
Better than “Cats”!
See! My wife was right – she told me that somewhere there is a person whose life was being ruined because of video games and that I had better stop trying to beat Frogger. (I wanted the frog to get home safely)
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
In an IOTW relativity way…
Art Bell has moved to a Higher Frequency. Sad.
Many 100’s of late Nineties cross-country late night hours shared.
God Speed Art.
May his deci-Bells always tune 5 X 5 X 51
Flowing in a Real Audio stream
To be heard again in Time.
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*** PS: Fur, please reserve slot Guess-the-Reader-52 (specifically 52)
Skip to 53 if you haven’t acquired the specific pic before 52 url is needed.
Asking for a friend. A link to 52 pic will be provided in a post by Sunday evening.
This has already been made into a movie.
It was called “Pixels.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIOcWZOQL5M
You know the numbers of the Guess the Reader slots?
I don’t.
“Billy cultivates an Herbal Essence black mullet-like mane”
LOL!!! Dammit. I use Herbal Essence (Bio Renew). But my mullet is dark brown though. 🤣
OK seriously though. I know about this saga because of my ex. Have mercy. I can’t even. 😀
“You know the numbers of the Guess the Reader slots?”
I meant the URL… hahaha.
Current is…
“h.t.t.p.s iotwreport.com guess-the-reader-48 ”
slashes removed to not bumfuzzle the paste
next will be
“h.t.t.p.s iotwreport.com guess-the-reader-49 ” etc etc
Can you reserve number 52 url for a specific pic.
All efforts being made to get pic to you before 52 is used.
Alas, Time will tell. Hopefully up and ready by Sunday eve.
A pic link paste can be posted before hand in another post.
You can then use it for 52. If no link by the time 52 up…
skip to 53 and reserve 52… possible? Or use a blank pic
in 52 and a Post with the Pic will appear… but that needs
too much timing.
This is IOTW… it will work out.
It always works out.
I will pause at 51 and wait…
I hated donkey Kong. I could routinely score over a million on Galaga though.😉
Galaxian 500 – Sad. Wife and I liked to listen to him in the late 90s. He had one of those great voices.
An Epic Battle Over Nothing.
Highly recommended documentary!
Art Bell made my night drives interesting. It was a sad day when he turned it over to Noory.
And what a voice.
I prefer the classic Gottlieb games, SlickChick, Bank a Ball, Crosstown. Just sayin.
Oh yeah-gotta watch it! Just got home from seeing ReadyPlayerOne. (👍) Thanks for posting and sending in the hat tips-never would have found it otherwise.
I’m still trying to master Pong.
(Shut up! We can’t all be Pinball Wizards.)