Billy Mitchell stripped of all high scores and banned by Twin Galaxies

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Billy Mitchell is known as the first man to play a million-point game in Donkey Kong, and also one of the few people in the world to ever play a perfect game of PAC-MAN. This morning, Mitchell was stripped of both of those accolades, and all of his high scores have been removed from the records of competitive high-score sanctioning authority Twin Galaxies.

The monumental decision comes just months after charges were brought against Mitchell, claiming that his high-score runs in Donkey Kong were achieved on an emulator, and not while playing on an original, unmodified, arcade cabinet motherboard. For scores to be verified and accepted by Twin Galaxies, all scores must be achieved on original hardware, and until very recently, it was believed that Mitchell had produced his scores legitimately. Frame-by-frame analysis of his gameplay footage, however, proves otherwise.

Basically, it comes down to this: When a Donkey Kong stage loads up, the on-screen pixels, objects, and art appear in a certain order, and in a distinct manner. When playing the game on an emulator, when you slow the footage down, you can visibly see the stage assets load up differently. The footage that Mitchell submitted for his record scores was, apparently, judged to be fed from an emulator.

Typically, judges have to be present in-person to see watch competitors play through their record runs, but for some reason, Mitchell was allowed to send in footage of his Donkey Kong playthrough as proof of his achievement. A man named Jeremy Young noticed the discrepancies in his footage, and brought it to the attention of Twin Galaxies back in February. The following investigation has led to Mitchell's banishment from Twin Galaxies as a competitor.

“Based on the complete body of evidence presented in this official dispute thread," the company said in an official statement, "Twin Galaxies administrative staff has unanimously decided to remove all of Billy Mitchell’s’ scores as well as ban him from participating in our competitive leaderboards.”


The assumption behind all of this, of course, is that Mitchell would be able to manipulate gameplay to his advantage while using an emulator. Save states, alternate input methods, and other means could be leveraged to bring that high score within reach, though the investigation did not conclude whether save states were used to manipulate the game. All they needed to close this case was proof that the game was not running on original hardware.

“From a Twin Galaxies viewpoint, the only important thing to know is whether or not the score performances are from an unmodified original DK arcade PCB as per the competitive rules,” the organization stated. “We now believe that they are not from an original unmodified DK arcade PCB, and so our investigation of the tape content ends with that conclusion and assertion.”


Thus we reach the end of an era, and now, Mitchell's long-time rival Steve Wiebe is recognized as the first man to score a million points in Donkey Kong. For more information on their rivalry, and Mitchell's legacy, you can check out the documentary King of Kong.



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Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/04/12/billy-mitchell-high-score-banned-donkey-kong-twin-galaxies/

Comments

"Billy Mitchell stripped of all high scores and banned by Twin Galaxies" :: Login/Create an Account :: 15 comments

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DemonSurferPosted:

Took long enough to find out.

raefonPosted:

kamilca I mean it states they didnt know if he was actually cheating but they stripped him of the titles for using an emulator I mean it loading differntly doesnt seem like cheating to me, its not like it gave him an advantage


The loading of the screen shows its not an original machine and instead an emulator which is against the rules therefore not a record. It also means he can cheat by using saves and just editing the footage together and thus its not a continuous one play through.

MazePosted:

Two_Faced I mean he should have saw this coming, all the evidence was against him. His buddy, I forget his name (who also held multiple world records) was reaching scores proved to be impossible. Can't believe it took so long.


I just can't believe they accepted his scores even though it states a judge needs to be there.

XeCookiePosted:

Well damn thats pretty rough, all I can say though is he got what he deserved, cheater!

Two_FacedPosted:

I mean he should have saw this coming, all the evidence was against him. His buddy, I forget his name (who also held multiple world records) was reaching scores proved to be impossible. Can't believe it took so long.

MazePosted:

kamilca I mean it states they didnt know if he was actually cheating but they stripped him of the titles for using an emulator I mean it loading differntly doesnt seem like cheating to me, its not like it gave him an advantage

Sure, but rules are rules, even the way he submitted his scores weren't the correct way.
Even though the emulator doesn't change much, I can definitely see why they would want it played on an original n64.

kamilcaPosted:

I mean it states they didnt know if he was actually cheating but they stripped him of the titles for using an emulator I mean it loading differntly doesnt seem like cheating to me, its not like it gave him an advantage

kamilcaPosted:

This also happend to the world record holder for super meat boy recently aswell, they slowed down the footage to show he was splicing clips together they could only tell because of a few frames missing from the loading symbol

DecyPosted:

Well that's what he gets for cheating lol.. Kinda pathetic if you ask me.

MazePosted:

Crazy to see how throughouly they investigated it. But rules are rules, this is insane.