‘King Of Kong’ Star Bobby Mitchell Had His Video Game Records Reinstated By Guinness

Billy Mitchell’s fight to clear his name and put it back in the video game record books appears to have been a success. The Donkey Kong player and subject of the King of Kong documentary has apparently been successful in his quest to overturn a ruling that banned his records after cheating accusations from many, including rival Steve Wiebe.

Mitchell said he would fight the decision, and in 2019 he threatened a lawsuit against the company for the ban. Wiebe, meanwhile, called the decision “surreal,” though even with Mitchell’s records taken down he no longer held the crown, either.

But it seems Mitchell won his case with Guinness World Records. Earlier in the week, Mitchell announced that the company had decided to reinstate his records, once again making him the King of Kong. Mitchell issued a statement on Pac-Man-like letterhead saying his records were reinstated.

The initial allegations against Mitchell are a bit complicated, but Twin Galaxies, a group Guinness uses for gaming records, ruled in 2018 that Mitchell’s high scores were not valid because he may have used a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) for his Donkey Kong and Pac-Man records instead of a genuine arcade machine.

“In this case, a re-examination of the records in question and the emergence of key eyewitness and expert testimonials led to a reversal of earlier disqualifications and the reinstating of Mr. Mitchell’s original records,” the Guinness statement said. “The records archive has been updated accordingly to reflect this.”

Records Mitchell reclaimed include his original 874,300-point outing from back in 1982, a 1,062,800-point game he recorded in 2010 and a notation for being the first person to reach the “kill screen” and score 1 million points in an arcade game.