UPDATE: Mitchell has responded to these claims, denying any wrongdoing and promising he’ll provide evidence proving his innocence. Watch his full video response below.
Back in 2007, there was a hit documentary that arrived by way of the Slamdance Film Festival called The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. The film from director Seth Gordon follows two expert gamers who are racing for the record to be the first player to ever reach 1 million points on the classic arcade game Donkey Kong.
The story at the center of The King of Kong is an underdog sports tale that could go toe-to-toe with the likes of Rocky, The Karate Kid, Rudy and more. Steve Wiebe was portrayed as the hero, a family man looking to achieve a goal that would bring some glory into his life. Meanwhile, Billy Mitchell was painted as the villain, who ended up triumphing over our hero and becoming the first player to hit 1 million points. But a recent development reveals that Billy Mitchell cheated. Read More »
I can’t believe it’s been nearly a decade since The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters was released. Seth Gordon‘s now-classic documentary chronicled the world of arcade gaming championships, with the main storyline focusing on the feud between a Redmond, Washington high school teacher named Steve Wiebe who attempted to break Billy Mitchell‘s record score in Donkey Kong. The film has become one of my favorite movies, and since its release we’ve followed the story as the championship title got passed among other gamers and back to Weibe again in 2010 for a short time before a plastic surgeon named Hank Chien took the title.
But it now seems that the story of the Donkey Kong championship may have come to an end, and neither Steve Wiebe or Billy Mitchell will ever be the King of Kong ever again.
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Video game and documentary fans should know the name Steve Wiebe. He’s the star of The King of Kong, Seth Gordon’s awesome 2007 documentary about how Wiebe battled master gamer Billy Mitchell for the world record high score at Donkey Kong. The film made Wiebe a household name in those circles and now Disney has brought him in for another challenge.
Wiebe went to Gameworks in Seattle, WA during the Penny Arcade Expo (better known as PAX) to play Fix-It Felix Jr., the game at the center of Disney’s November 2 release Wreck-It Ralph. There he played the game for the first time and set the high score on the machine. Check out a video of Wiebe’s achievement, as well as an interview with the master gamer himself, after the jump. Read More »
Many of you probably have seen the 2007 documentary The King of Kong (and if you haven’t, Netflix it now!). The movie follows the battle between Steve Wiebe and noted Donkey Kong/vintage video game champion Billy Mitchell, over the world record for Donkey Kong. Since the release of the film, it has been fun tracking the back and fourth battle between Wiebe and Mitchell for the world record (Steve Wiebe recently reclaimed the Donkey Kong World Record from Billy Mitchell before losing the title months later to Plastic Surgeon Hank Chien).
Billy Mitchell makes a great villain, but everyone knows that there have been accusations of selective editing and what not. From what I understand, Mitchell claims that he has still, to this day, not seen the movie. But that didn’t stop him from opening a King of Kong-themed arcade inside the Orlando International Airport (n the main terminal near the food court). The small arcade is decked out with posters and signage from The King of Kong marketing, and even features a Donkey Kong mural on the walls. But one thing the arcade doesn’t appear to have is a Donkey Kong machine – not an original, not Donkey Kong Junior, Donkey Kong 3, Crazy Kong, or even Donkey Kong II. The arcade is filled with mostly new arcade cabinets, with no retro games to be found.
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I attended the grand opening of Gallery 1988’s Venice art gallery on Saturday night, the opening night of their video game-inspired “Multiplayer” art print exhibition. One of the pieces at the show was actually inspired by a movie — Rich Kelly’s “Kill Screen” poster pays homage to the great video game documentary The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters. It’s actually one of the prints I ended up purchasing at the show. As of Sunday night, while I’m preparing this post, copies of the print are still available through the Gallery 1988 website for $30. But who knows for how long. The 18×24 inch print is a signed & numbered edition of only 100. Hit the jump to see the full piece.
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Many of you probably have seen the 2007 documentary The King of Kong (and if you haven’t, Netflix it now!). The movie follows the battle between Steve Wiebe and noted Donkey Kong/vintage video game champion Billy Mitchell, over the world record for Donkey Kong. Since the release of the film, it has been fun tracking the back and fourth battle between Wiebe and Mitchell for the world record (we’ve even covered it on the site in the past).
There has been a lot of action over the past few months. In August, Billy Mitchell beat the Donkey Kong high score with 1,062,800 points — 1,100 points more than the previous record score. Mitchell reportedly quit his Donkey Kong game (still in progress). Asked why, Mitchell said: “Some say I’m being cocky. Some say I’m being lazy. I say, I’m being Billy Mitchell.” Later that month, Steve Wiebe reclaimed the Donkey Kong World Record with a score of 1,064,500 points. Weibe recorded his championship game on August 30th 2010 for submission to Twin Galaxies.
But now neither Billy nor Steve hold the record high score.
Read More »
Many of you probably have seen the 2007 documentary The King of Kong (and if you haven’t, Netflix it now!). The movie follows the battle between Steve Wiebe and noted Donkey Kong/vintage video game champion Billy Mitchell, over the world record for Donkey Kong. Since the release of the film, it has been fun tracking the back and fourth battle between Wiebe and Mitchell for the world record (we’ve even covered it on the site in the past).
We have a bit of good news to report, Steve Wiebe has officially reclaimed the Donkey Kong World Record from Billy Mitchell! Details after the jump.
Read More »
Disclaimer: Because we’re a movie blog, news from other mediums (like video games) sometimes take longer to get to us. So please excuse us if you already read about this on a video game website or blog. And I figure if I somehow missed this news, some of you might have as well.
Many of you probably have seen the 2007 documentary The King of Kong (and if you haven’t, Netflix it now!). The movie follows the battle between Steve Wiebe and noted Donkey Kong/vintage video game champion Billy Mitchell, over the world record for Donkey Kong. Since the release of the film, it has been fun tracking the back and fourth battle between Wiebe and Mitchell for the world record (we’ve even covered it on the site in the past). But in March of this year, Queens plastic surgeon Hank S Chien beat Mitchell to become the Donkey Kong champion. I was left disappointed. If some random guy can beat Billy and Steve, then it’s no longer as interesting…
Cut to: August 7th 2010….
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Steve Wiebe, noted Donkey Kong competitor and star of the 2007 documentary The King of Kong, recaptured his title as the Donkey Kong Junior World Record Holder. Billy Mitchell still remains the world record holder for regular Donkey Kong. Here is the update from Twin Galaxies:
On behalf of Twin Galaxies, I’d like to congratulate Steve Wiebe of Redmond, WA for re-claiming the WR on Donkey Kong Junior! Steve reached the kill screen and scored 1,190,400 points on his home machine on 2/12/2010 to take back the crown.
Wiebe’s score is 233,100 points higher than the record Billy Mitchell set in 1983, a record that lasted over 25 years. It should also be noted that Mitchell beat Wiebe’s regular Donkey Kong record in June of 2007, and currently is ranked #1 with 1,050,200 points to Steve’s 1,049,100 points (only 1,100 points separating them). I know this isn’t really movie-focused news, but I love keeping a tab on this epic rivalry.
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Cool Posts From Around the Web:
We wrote a while back that former King Kong champion Steve Wiebe was going to try to reclaim his title at the E3 video game convention in June. As you know, Wiebe was the first person on record to break a million points in Donkey Kong, a high score that he ultimately lost to his nemesis Billy Mitchell as documented in the great film The King Of Kong: A Fist Full Of Quarters. It is now June, and Wiebe will be playing live, not only at the expo, but live on the web via a JustinTV stream. Want to watch the King of Kong star try to reclaim his title? Watch the stream after the jump!
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