The fight over Donkey Kong’s former world record is going to court

guest · May 5, 2020

The fight over Donkey Kong’s former world record is going to court
Billy Mitchell claims to have been defamed over decision to strip his title
May 5, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/5/2...n-galaxies-world-record-sued-defamation-court

Billy Mitchell, who rose to fame hunting high-scores in classic video games, is suing internet game scoreboard Twin Galaxies over its decision to strip him of his records and ban him from its leaderboards, according to court documents seen by Ars Technica. Mitchell is arguing that Twin Galaxies’ statement was libelous, and implied that he was a cheater. A court hearing is currently scheduled for July 6th.

Twin Galaxies announced its decision to strip Mitchell of his records back in April 2018 after its investigation revealed that he had not achieved his Donkey Kong high scores on original arcade hardware.
While some in the community have accused Mitchell of using the arcade emulation software MAME, Twin Galaxies said it didn’t have enough evidence to support this claim. Guinness World Records, which had been relying on Twin Galaxies to verify Mitchell’s scores, subsequently stripped him of his records.
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Twin Galaxies, meanwhile, maintains that its investigation was thorough and correct.

“Twin Galaxies believes that this was the most professionally documented and thoroughly investigated video game score of all time,” owner Jason Hall stated in a public declaration filed with the Los Angeles Los Angeles County county court where the suit is being heard.
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guest · Jun 18, 2020

Guinness reinstates Billy ‘King of Kong’ Mitchell’s world records
June 18, 2020
https://www.engadget.com/guinness-reinstates-billy-mitchell-donkey-kong-world-records-193144904.html

Billy "Video Game Player of the Century" Mitchell has been vindicated.

Today, Guinness World Records reinstated the Donkey Kong and Pac-Man records that were stripped from Mitchell in 2018. Once again, Mitchell holds the first perfect score on Pac-Man and several records for the highest score on Donkey Kong. He has also redeemed recognition as the first player to reach the kill screen on Donkey Kong and the first gamer to score one million points on Donkey Kong.

Mitchell, also known as the “King of Kong,” had his records expunged by Guinness and Twin Galaxies after an investigation alleged some of his performances on Donkey Kong were not reached on arcade hardware.
While Twin Galaxies has not changed its decision, Guinness shared a video explaining its reversal.
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"After reviewing Billy’s gameplay and reproducing similar games myself, I can honestly say that this is legitimate gameplay," Robbie Lakeman (the current Donkey Kong high-record holder) said in a statement shared by Ars Technica.
Sadly, this saga is not yet over. Twin Galaxies and Guinness are now split, and the hearing for Mitchell’s Twin Galaxies defamation case is scheduled for July 6th.
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guest · Oct 28, 2020

Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong high-score case will move forward to trial
Opposing lawyer tells Ars the trial will “show that Mitchell is not credible.”
October 28, 2020
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020...g-high-score-case-will-move-forward-to-trial/

A Los Angeles County judge has ruled that Billy Mitchell has met the "minimal merit" standard necessary to move forward to trial in his defamation case against the high-score adjudicators at the Twin Galaxies organization. But the ruling doesn't specifically weigh in on the conflicting evidence presented so far, and it suggests that both sides have some chance of prevailing at trial.

The defamation case, which Ars was the first to publicly report on in May, centers on Twin Galaxies' 2018 decision to invalidate all of Mitchell's high scores.
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But speaking to Ars Technica, Twin Galaxies lawyer David Tashroudian says that Mitchell is "making this seem like some great win on his part and that he will prevail at trial. That is not the case."

"The court is not allowed to determine the credibility of these statements [at this point] and must accept them as true," Tashroudian tells Ars. "[At trial] we'll be able to show that Mitchell is not credible because we have numerous situations of documented falsehoods in his papers. I'm confident that... after all of the evidence has been adduced, and when Billy is deposed and not allowed to hide behind declarations, the truth will come out."
The case now moves to a planned management conference on December 4, where the schedule for a trial and a fuller examination of the evidence will be set.
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EASTER · Oct 28, 2020

All over of all things Donkey Kong? What's next? Pac-Man?

What's the world coming to.

guest · Dec 1, 2020

Twin Galaxies attacks Billy Mitchell as a fraud in new legal claims
December 1, 2020
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020...egal-offensive-against-billy-mitchells-fraud/

Twin Galaxies is going on the offensive in its long-running legal and public relations battle with Billy Mitchell. In a cross-complaint filed last month, the video game score-tracking organization accuses Mitchell and Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day of a "decades-long pattern of abuse, impropriety, nepotism, and fraud" intended to falsely "manufacture a persona for Billy Mitchell as the greatest video game player of all time."
They “knew that these score performances were fake”
The counterclaim, filed in response to Mitchell's own claims of defamation against Twin Galaxies, goes much farther in attacking Mitchell than the organization's previous statements.
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In its new counterclaim, though, Twin Galaxies now directly says Mitchell "lacked the requisite natural skill or ability to be the greatest video game player of all time" [...]

"Both Billy Mitchell and Walter Day knew that these score performances were fake," Twin Galaxies writes in its complaint of the Donkey Kong score tapes. "But [it] still included the scores on the Twin Galaxies Score Database because of their need for self-aggrandization, their avarice, [...]
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Mitchell and his lawyers have not responded to a request from Ars for comment on the new allegations. A hearing on the cross-complaint is due to be argued in Los Angeles County Court on December 11.
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