King of Kong’s Billy Mitchell Stripped of All His High Scores, Banned From Competition
Billy Mitchell was stripped of his Donkey Kong and other video game high scores following the decision that he cheated, Twin Galaxies announced Thursday.
He was also banned from submitting scores to the leaderboard. The group, which tracks video game world records, notified the Guinness World Records of its decision.
"With this ruling Twin Galaxies can no longer recognize Billy Mitchell as the 1st million point Donkey Kong record holder," Twin Galaxies wrote in its announcement. "According to our findings, Steve Wiebe would be the official 1st million point record holder."
Mitchell appeared in the 2007 documentary, "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters." Wiebe also appeared in the film as Mitchell's main challenger.
Twin Galaxies came to the decision after months of research following the the original dispute claim against Mitchell's records made by member Jeremy Young.
The group discovered Mitchell's famous 1,047,200 score was not achieved through an arcade machine, which is a requirement for Twin Galaxies. He instead used MAME, an emulation software, which is forbidden.
The group said it "meticulously tested and investigated the dispute case assertions as well as a number of relevant contingent factors.” Twin Galaxies also said at least two different third parties conducted invetigations and came to the same conclusion as them.
Read Twin Galaxies' full announcement here.