The Case Against Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong 

I added an update and correction to the video description, based on comments and recent new information. Doesn't change the value of any of the presented material, just helped to provide extra clarity.

The most important lesson that I've learned from all of this is that I'm not the most immature 50 year old man out there. yay!

Jesus man. He didn't cheat, this wasn't an emulator. I'm sick of you people destroying everyone's reputations! See Billy is so good he found a way to start the cabinet in second gear.

So basically MAME gave Billy Mitchell "the finger" and someone noticed after all these years.

18:16 "Record was witnessed by two TG judges, including Todd Rodgers" - pack it up guys, witness of someone as trustworthy as Todd means the records must be legit

I watched King of Kong again last night, and it all makes sense now, especially how he refused to compete against Steve Weibe in person. I really felt for Steve in that documentary but I'm glad he has beaten Mitchell now (his score has been beaten now but he's still the first million point player).

I remembering watching the King of Kong when it came out and thought how slimy Twin Galaxies acted. The invalidation of the challenge after inspecting the board on Steve Wiebe's game. It was obvious to all not only was win Galaxies was unable to point to what was amiss with Wiebe's machine but that they were doing all they could to protect Billy Mitchell and his record. This story warms my heart :). Who would want to even bother with Twin Galaxies as their reputation is and has been to not play it straight.

When TG had referees I asked about submitting a score on the Time Pilot arcade machine I had at the time. It was having issues with the sound not working. Other wise it played fine. I later found it was just a loose wire. Anyhow. I was told the video could not be submitted for evidence since the sound was not working for the machine. Always been curious how he could get by with a really bad quality video with no sound.

Probably should have underscored two important pieces of information: 1) That the "finger" appears consistently and reliably in Billy's recordings (dozens of times), and 2) that true arcade hardware has its own hallmarks which likewise will never appear in MAME, such as the fact that the transition frame features _five_ incomplete girders, 100% reliably. Also the rotation issue with 1.04/1.05 is the fact that the footage was rotated 180 degrees, a result which no "direct feed" recording would ever produce, but which you _could_ accidentally get if you guessed wrong when telling MAME which direction to rotate the output for your bogus tape. As you note, this mistake was corrected with the 1.062M score.

excellent job, this was really well presented. I saw the initial video on apollo's channel, and hadn't realized it had blown up so hard till this evening. So it's nice to see folks like yourself are already cataloging facts in a fair manner, rumor control and all that.

I think there's something WRONG with me. I LOVE these videos exposing cheaters.

This is really well put. I see the effort behind all of this. Thank you!

The fact that Billy Mitchell has probably watched this video like 10 times is hilarious.

People seem to have no knowledge of how proof works. We have 100% PROOF that he used MAME we have NO proof that he actually did any of the scores. He is AT BEST a medum-skilled swindler, and a PROVEN 100% cheater. This is FACT and has nothing to do with "what people think". Of course his friends and employees will claim he didn't cheat but that DOES NOT MATTER, since he actually is a cheater and all his scores are fake.

Amazing how a game released in 1981 can be the source of so much scandal.

No allegations of him pressuring for it to be accepted. As one of the people he did it to, I’ll flat out confirm it. And no, we did not get to view the footage before voting, and actual call to take it came from then-owner Pete Bouvier rather than the voting results.

This video helped me understand things i should have already known. It would have taken years before i would have realized many of the things that you have shown in this video, thank you.

research for the King of Kong sequel?

Yeah, the stuff that was done to people in the past (including myself and former Ref Patrick Scott Patterson, Ref David Nelson, Dwayne Richard, and so many others) who challenged Mitchell's scores or any of the "Legacy Scores", or evenTwin Galaxies' opinions on history itself, were ostracized, harassed, threatened with legal action, and even stalked and had projects sabotaged to the point that the projects became unsalvagable and had to be abandoned. There is a very visible pattern of negative and ruinous behavior coming from Mitchell and old TG icons against people who stood up to them or who just wanted to record concise and correct history and/or scores and honestly meant no one harm. But the "iconic crowd" gets very agitated when someone starts asking questions because, frankly, they have a lot to hide. The figurative closet is packed with skeletons, smoking guns and quid pro quo arrangements. There's a video that shows Dwayne Richard being sabotaged by TG people at a showing of his 2012 documentary, the one that dared examine Mitchell's sketchy scores. Don't know if you've seen it but...prepare to be creeped out. Note Dwayne just stands there and takes it like he expected it. He'd seen them do this to others before, that's why. They adore publicly shaming and ostracizing people hence TGs hit piece on Apollo Legend that was full-on sanctioned by Mitchell's clique. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Z1VnkpX5W9Q.html

The board swap video started the dispute and was one of many pieces of evidence that led to this situation. The first video is something that cannot be reconciled.

Billy's reputation has been MAMEd and destroyed 🤣

This was a really well done, informative video. I would love to see more like it! Thanks man

Anyone still laughing at this almost 3 years later? Hard to believe anyone still thinks he didn't cheat but some do.

Thanks for this!! Awesome job summarizing the situation!! :-)

He is now removed from Twin Galaxies lmao

Why do so many Gen Y's on dismiss these classics as being not important. It's like it was before my time so it has no significance... This self importance gets right up my nose. No it isn't the latest and greatest, no they weren't the greatest games ever made, but they have a significant place in history. Just like the Model T Ford, it wasn't the first car by a long shot, and there was nothing particularly cutting edge about it, but it deserves its place in history because it represented a pivotal change in automotive thinking. Show a little respect to the games that made your current games possible.

I wonder if TG vs Billy Mitchell will go to court, crazy how it's still going a year later

Excellent presentation and balanced reporting. Thank you for this.

Thanks for working so hard on this stuff, and the Todd related stuff too. It's good to see the Old Boy's Club that is TG finally getting called out, and it's hilarious watching the cultlike behaviour of those who defend them no matter what.

Amazing. Great coverage of the facts.

Thanks for the clarification. Really helpful

The sad thing is, he MIGHT be another case of someone who might be close to being the best, but wanted the accolades and cheated just enough to prove what he /should/ be capable of in his mind. Those scores might even be his legit scores but just in MAME. His dishonesty though, as well as his continual need to sue people for defamation and whatnot, make it hard to care even if he was almost that good. As we say in my group of friends: You ain't gotta lie to kick it homie. If he owned his BS he might still have recognized scores for MAME.

Did He start in 2nd gear?

Very detailed, but why doesn’t he go into Joy stick colour?

I love the Shining Wisdom soundtrack near the beginning. First time I've ever found someone using that soundtrack out in the wild. Super underrated game!

Randomly interesting vid. Good work!

This was well put together thank you. It is quite compelling evidence. Billy Mitchell is undoubtedly an excellent Pac-Man player and this seemingly avoidable controversy is a real shame IMO.

The music is really distracting.

If you've been paying attention to this, I don't know how you could not believe that Billy is a cheater. Nothing he does seems genuine. Everything about him seems fake and designed with smoke and mirrors. His whole persona doesn't ring true. It's unsettling. Even without all these wonderful facts from the tireless efforts of so many, even without those facts and video proof, if someone were to just mention it to me in passing, I could easily believe it. There's something about him that disturbs me on a gut, instinctual level. I know all you people must see what I mean and feel it too.He's got the personality of a used car salesman.

Just imagine if the event was captured with a gameboycamera,then it would,ve beenreally really hard to analize the footage of frame transitions,and the high score ,hahaha

One funny point you got wrong -- but dont worry, it doesnt affect the legitamacy of your breakdown -- is that they didnt swap the dk jr board with another dk jr board, they swapped it with itself! Thats right, its almost like they wanted to get caught. Took out the dk jr board, put it down, then picked up the exact same board, put it in, and claimed that the board was swapped for a dk board.

How anyone could believe for just one second that his achievements are legit, is beyond me.

I don't really care at all about speed running, or record setting in games I just play them for fun, but god damn the Billy Mitchell's drama/scandal is so juicy. Good video btw.

Thank you. Learnd about him today. But everyone else thinks that the origin is known?!

What about the recent claim of the impossibility due to the MAME version with the finger not existing yet? There was some kind of TG & Billy Mitchell press conference where that versioning issue was brought up - I saw via George Riley's channel.

When did this version come out? I looked it up and it seems like it came out much later

The power of social media. I bet they didn’t account for back in 2007.

Excellent summary!

I worked with Roy for years, funny guy. I had no idea when I worked with him that he was a former Missile Command world record holder, I found out all this many years later. Here's to you Mr. Awesome!

Thanks for the great video!!!

Summary: Billy fuggin cheated.

I don't understand why this took so many years to uncover.

Is there a reason you didn't show the GIF of real hardware building the levels from the sides inward? I think that helps to show that the differences are not subtle.

Great video. When you say that a statistical analysis shows a low likelihood (regarding the barrel smashes), do you mind showing that analysis? Did you do an ANOVA or t-test or something? Just upon looking at the number 1 score (Wes Copeland), it seems that Billy isn't much higher than him in those areas. 380 vs 371. I doubt that you can find a statistical model that won't write that off as natural variation.

The lack of interlacing is beyond merely suspiscious. It would have taken advanced deinterlacing and synchronization to do that and do it well in that timeframe. But when it comes to fast character motion in a video game to do it from interlaced to deinterlaced and avoid comb artifacts even if you do deinterlace is a significant challenge beyond available affordable hardware of the era (and of course requires direct video feed). The machine literally cannot produce the pixels that Billy presented, but MAME can :-/

Nice video BTW that. It is good to see someone just present the evidence not stamp what they think happened on top of everything. 12:54 Not sure how they came to the conclusion he would have had to have a lot of luck, when the top score got 200,000 points more, but Billy only got 6000 more in smashing barrels. In order to get the high score and the barrels to be close he would have to finish the levels fast and got more stuff during the level. The maths don't make sense when you think about it.

Very nice presentation!

Billy also said the swap was staged

20:20 Of course it was staged. “I’m switching it out and putting in a Donkey King Jr board. And in goes the Donkey Kong Jr board. Now we have a Donkey Kong Jr board. Did I mention it’s Donkey Kong Jr in there now?” Better acting in The Room.

Personally I think its pretty obvious he used MAME, and the only reason to lie about using it is because he used save states or something else to cheat his score.

Nicely put together video, I liked it then went to your channel to check what else you have... saw Suikoden II speedrun and instantly pressed Subscribe :D

I legit worry about making any comments on Billy Mitchell because I do not want to get sued.

billy mitchell is suing Apollo Legend for exposing the truth. If (and when) he loses his lawsuit Twin galaxies should be required to remove his previous scores from their records. Steve Wiebe may not hold the high score, but he rightfully deserves to be credited as the first player to break one million points in donkey kong.

that is sad but you are right.

It's never difficult to capture audio off of a game. Hook up jumper leads to the terminals on the speaker, use a potentiometer to lower the voltage if necessary, and record.

how game draws first screen etc does it effect gameplay make it easyer or harder?

You really need to turn up the volume, I have to crank my speakers way too high to hear you talk.

Around 16:00-16:30, I felt like continuing my game of Dragon Quest Warriors for some reason. I wondered why but didn't think much of it. Then I turned up the volume of this video and concentrated on the BG music. Ah!!

Where do you get your ROMS from?

search for Twin Galaxies: The legend of Walter day

Wait, videos like this are supposed to have disclaimers about credit? I never knew!

Billy Mitchell Video Game Player of the Century

YO! Evil Zone training mode music! I thought I had heard that before.

Gotta say, I love the dragon quest music playing in the background around 15:20-17:15. I listened to this first years ago and didnt pick up on it.

Why does he just set the record straight and do it again, oh wait😂

11:45 Chris Gleed Direct Feed (Formerly Chuck's)

just a question,Billy win a lot of money because of this so my question is: the other guy on the movie can sue because of this?

Did you record this in a Mexican restaurant?

I had my expert buddy watch this. He thinks and agrees about your point #3 I believe. He said you could definitely redo over n over a level to either perfect the run or max the score for that level. Well done video sir!!!

Wasn't there evidence of splicing on one of the tapes?

Hi. Great video . Awsome channel,. Question could you please call Nintendo usa or Japan and ask them questions about this technical issue's? Thanks

I'm a bit confused now. The Billy 1.04M Footage shows the girder finger. This girder finger only occurs in MAME versions .116 and later. But he played the 1.04M game in 2005. And I currently have the versions list of MAME right before me and Billy can't have used MAME version .116 or later versions in 2005. The time he achieved the score there was no version .116. It simply didn't exist at that time, yet. In fact MAME was in its version .97 or .98 (if the game happened in July 2005). And if in earlier versions of MAME (versions before .115) no girder finger could be found, then MAME can't be the cause of the girder finger in the 1.04M (the King of Kong) score. Can somebody enlighten me on this? Everybody says the girder finger would be the convincing evidence. But the date of the score and the release date of the MAME versions don't match. Regarding the Mortgage Broker score happening in 2007 i might add that MAME .116 was released in June 2007 and that the girder finger in those transition screens might be caused by version .116. I'm just referring to the 1.04M score. P.S.: I know I'm a bit late to the show. But maybe someone passes by willing to quench my curiosity.

Did you get sued?

Ok but ballad of the goddess playing in the background was nice I liked that in this video

If his claim is that they aren't his tapes, then the scores should be removed anyways?

Hahahahaha XD... All the hardcore 80's cheaters never took into account the advances in tech to finally catch them out. Serves them all right. Cheater culture fueled by ego brought down.

one of the herpiest and derpiest things that ever happened in gaming

17:28 "The 1.04 and 1.05 were rotated right-side up so that they could be shown on a TV that didn't have to be turned on its side" this is seemingly contradicted by King of Kong where we see the 1.04M score played on a TV at funspot and the TV is sideways. Not sure where the confusion lies but maybe that's based on a different tape.

For the last mame comparison Billy's screen looks like a computer screen and not an arcade cabinet you can tell by the edge.

Best video on this subject

did you make this video in a mexican restaurant?

great video. after watching him play more games than anyone else at kong off 6, i have high doubts he's gotten those million point games. 9 years ago, i'd doubt it even more before the new crop of players have advanced point pressing. i'd almost call his 800k score this weekend, a bit lucky, to be honest.

The Big BM carries himself like an arrogant douche-bag. In the past he's made great efforts to have TG not accept other player's scores by making accusations about rules/regulations. The guy has no sense of modesty and it's pretty apparent he's got something going on with TG to have them defend him like no other player they could/would have defended in the past. Had Michell carried himself with some class, grace, or simple respect...probably none of this would probably ever happened.

Simple: 1. When were Billy's scores 'recorded' 2. When were Todd's falsified scores recorded. If Todd's cheated before the recording date then it's likely that in the TG rules there's something that invalidates his ref status at the time thus making Billy's submissions invalid.

I have no clue about this and I don't really care but was billy's footage shot at the same framerate the crt and the direct feed has? otherwise you can't compare those two, since if the direct feed has more FPS than the camera that shot the CRT and the CRT has a different FPS than the camera, it will never look the same

Billy = Busted

I feel like game design courses should use this video among possible others in a segment on potential cheating, at least to help create awareness. I say this because things like speedrunning and unorthodox ways of playing (looking at you, Let’s Game It Out) have become more popular and a way for players and game developers to truly see a game’s limits and loopholes in practice. Cheaters tend to make everyone look bad.

A Movie on his life would be interesting.

I'm sure people have already mentioned this, but the previous versions of MAME going all the way back to at least 0.56 can also display the 'finger' on the 3-girder transitions. This can be done one of two ways. The most simple is activating cheats and setting CPU0 to 99%. The other way started in version 0.85 which is to enable cheats and set the refresh rate to 60.6Hz, which would later become the default rate in 0.116, which is why we see the finger show up by default in that version.

Enjoyed the Dragon Quest battle music.