Did any of you ever watch the old documentary "King of Kong"

[kc78]

About Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell trying to be the first to record 1,000,000 points on Donkey Kong? If so, you probably despised Billy afterwards.

Turns out, he was most likely cheating all along and has now been stripped of all world records.

Billy Mitchell is a cheater

 

[fsu1jreed]

Read that a few weeks ago........."cheating" is a stretch, he still had to play the game, he just used an emulator that allowed a higher score than what you could get with the "official" emulator.

 

[Nole Lou]

That is literally probably in my top 5 films of all time, and favorite documentary. It's hard to express how much I love that film. Billy Mitchell in that movie is a top-3 villain in cinema history.

I had not heard this yet, interested to read it. From what I have read surrounding this scene, Billy was supposedly not as bad a guy, or at least one dimensional, as he was in the movie, but was both edited to look a little worse and absolutely played to the villain role.

 

[cmanole]

What did it for me is when he showed up in the game room with a new Rolex and phat stacks...

 

[kc78]

Read that a few weeks ago........."cheating" is a stretch, he still had to play the game, he just used an emulator that allowed a higher score than what you could get with the "official" emulator.

Well emulators are against the rule because they can be manipulated. They can also allow for editing and other save states that allow them to circumvent, especially if they are doing this with "video" that can then allow for easier cheating. He knew that, and also intentionally marked up the video to make it appear that the emulator imperfections were actually just a problem with the video.

He also had an actual arcade he could have done it on, but chose the emulator for some reason. There was obviously some advantage to be had.

 

[fsu1jreed]

Wow, I had never seen the documentary all the way through, so I had it playing in the background while at work................but the idea that Billy Mitchell can't go up and introduce himself to Steve Wiebe tells me that Billy is a big, egocentric pussy.

Well emulators are against the rule because they can be manipulated. They can also allow for editing and other save states that allow them to circumvent, especially if they are doing this with "video" that can then allow for easier cheating. He knew that, and also intentionally marked up the video to make it appear that the emulator imperfections were actually just a problem with the video.

He also had an actual arcade he could have done it on, but chose the emulator for some reason. There was obviously some advantage to be had.

Oh, I agree.........wasn't trying to say otherwise. And I didn't know that video tape was that bad, in 2005 no less.........that's pretty pathetic and obviously manipulated. I just now watched the 'World's Most Infamous Donkey Kong Player Caught Cheating!' video.

 

[fsunole025]

I want his ties. First time I watched it I thought it was from 1985. Nope, it's just an awkward culture.

 

[kc78]

Wow, I had never seen the documentary all the way through, so I had it playing in the background while at work................but the idea that Billy Mitchell can't go up and introduce himself to Steve Wiebe tells me that Billy is a big, egocentric pussy.



Oh, I agree.........wasn't trying to say otherwise. And I didn't know that video tape was that bad, in 2005 no less.........that's pretty pathetic and obviously manipulated. I just now watched the 'World's Most Infamous Donkey Kong Player Caught Cheating!' video.

Yeah, I don't know if he's as much of an ass in real life, or if he just played it up for the camera, but this video is the one he had prepared to go hand in as soon as Steve actually gets the record to undercut all of his work and accomplishment. And now we know it was all fake and doctored. I hope they update the documentary to add this information in. And apparently many of his records he provided no proof for, they just trusted him and took him on his word.

 

[Nole Lou]

Wow, I had never seen the documentary all the way through, so I had it playing in the background while at work................but the idea that Billy Mitchell can't go up and introduce himself to Steve Wiebe tells me that Billy is a big, egocentric pussy.

The documentary was heavily edited as far as timeline. I think the story is true in spirit, but far from accurate. They cut the events and timing such to tell a much less complicated story. Normally, I don't really dig that in docs, but the end result was so damn good, and the story came together so smoothly, that I forgive it.

But one of the misdirections is the idea that the documentary was capturing Billy and Weibe's first interactions. They knew each other long before the events of the documentary, had appeared together, and Weibe had long been on Twin Galaxy's radar, etc. So he was maybe a dick for not saying hi to him or whatever, if it's even true that he didn't and wasn't just edited that way. But it wasn't a matter of introducing himself...they well knew each other. Basically, the timeline of events in the movie bear very little resemblance to how things went down...they played with it a LOT.

The basic theme of the story I think was faithful, I haven't heard any people involved persuasively argue against the basic dynamics the movie represents, but any particular moment captured in the film needs to be taken with many grains of salt.

Still love it.

And somehow, this makes me very sad. Billy Mitchell his a huge villain and a-hole, but I didn't want to have this verified. I can't really explain this, but without having any sympathy or liking for Billy Mitchell at all, this somehow ruins the whole thing a bit for me.

 

[F4Gary]

What do these emulators do?

 

[fsu1jreed]

QUOTE="Nole Lou, post: 3638950, member: 3320"]So he was maybe a dick for not saying hi to him or whatever, if it's even true that he didn't and wasn't just edited that way. But it wasn't a matter of introducing himself...they well knew each other.[/QUOTE]

I got that, but still.........say hi. Right here Steve says, "Hey Billy" and not only does he not acknowledge but right as he walks by he tells his wife, "there's certain people I don't want to spend too much time with."



That's a passive-aggressive comment stated to tell Steve that he's one of those "certain people", and the other time where he wouldn't even come in the building so he made his friend meet him at the car out back. If all this was caught on camera secretly then that's one thing, but the idea that he knows he's being filmed and still acts like that is very informative about what kind of person he is........most people that know they are being filmed tend to be overly polite and friendly interpersonally, but not him.

What do these emulators do?

An emulator is just a computer that "hosts" the software needed to play said game, etc.

 

[F4Gary]

An emulator is just a computer that "hosts" the software needed to play said game, etc.

OK, so how did that give him an advantage. Sorry, I was never a gamer.

 

[fsu1jreed]

OK, so how did that give him an advantage. Sorry, I was never a gamer.

No biggie..........he could pause the game for one, but he could also redo levels to get the best possible score and then combine those levels to make it look like they all came from the same game.

 

[funksouljon]

Never heard of it. So is it a documentary or docu-drama? Either way, sounds interesting.

@fsu1jreed thanks for the definition on emulator, I also wasn't a gamer nor had a clue. Guessing it is a thing for older systems. ?

 

[fsu1jreed]

@fsu1jreed thanks for the definition on emulator, I also wasn't a gamer nor had a clue. Guessing it is a thing for older systems. ?

I think most of its uses by the average person is playing older games on newer systems, but you can also use an emulator to:

• Run a Mac Software/OS on a Windows computer or vice versa
• Run a Linux OS on a Windows/Mac computer or vice versa
• Run a Chromebook Software/OS on a Windows/Mac computer or vice versa
• Run an Android OS on a Windows/Mac computer

 

[Nole Lou]

Never heard of it. So is it a documentary or docu-drama? Either way, sounds interesting.

It's a documentary. You've got to see it...it's awesome.

 

[Nole Lou]

No biggie..........he could pause the game for one, but he could also redo levels to get the best possible score and then combine those levels to make it look like they all came from the same game.

Yeah, I think the biggest advantage is that you can make save points, so along the way when you achieve a certain level, you save, and then you can resume in that spot when you die. Then you just have to edit out the unsuccessful segments.

One of the crazy things, if you read up on it, is that at numerous points Billy achieved high scores by exactly certain points..like 100,000 points ahead exactly, or 1100, and then let himself die, to "send a message" or taunt the person he was beating. In retrospect, sticking a number like that would almost certainly need to be done using an emulator with save states, the idea that someone could or would do that any other way is absurd.

 

[Nole Lou]

I got that, but still.........say hi. Right here Steve says, "Hey Billy" and not only does he not acknowledge but right as he walks by he tells his wife, "there's certain people I don't want to spend too much time with."

That's a passive-aggressive comment stated to tell Steve that he's one of those "certain people", and the other time where he wouldn't even come in the building so he made his friend meet him at the car out back. If all this was caught on camera secretly then that's one thing, but the idea that he knows he's being filmed and still acts like that is very informative about what kind of person he is........most people that know they are being filmed tend to be overly polite and friendly interpersonally, but not him.

Absolutely. No doubt he was an a--hole. Perfect example of how the movie, to me, is "true" without being "accurate", if that makes sense.

 

[seminole97]

Absolutely. No doubt he was an a--hole. Perfect example of how the movie, to me, is "true" without being "accurate", if that makes sense.

‘Fake, but accurate’, did Dan Rather direct this?

 

[funksouljon]

It's a documentary. You've got to see it...it's awesome.

Okay. Ill watch.

I was explaining it to my wife and as I said it out loud, it didn't SOUND that interesting... "See, its a story about how a guy cheated at Donkey Kong..." ahhh....

 

[Nole Lou]

Okay. Ill watch.

I was explaining it to my wife and as I said it out loud, it didn't SOUND that interesting... "See, its a story about how a guy cheated at Donkey Kong..." ahhh....

Don't try to explain it...and the cheating is really mostly the aftermath, the movie isn't really about cheating. It's just a human rivalry story. For what it's worth, my wife liked it a lot.