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“I was told not to do this.” – Billy Mitchell, Saturday, June 9th, 2018

Billy Mitchell is the best at what he does.

You might know him as one of the most famous players of video games in the world. In 2007, he featured prominently in the documentary “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” about the world of competitive arcade players who chase high scores. Mitchell held the world record high score for “Donkey Kong” at the time; in the film, an unknown upstart named Steve Wiebe takes him on, turning Mitchell into the de facto villain. In the decade since, even as his scores fell off the top ranks, Mitchell’s charismatic personality and lanky presence — most always seen in his all-white suit and stars-and-stripes necktie– have dominated a certain corner of retro game culture.

But what he’s really good at is talking.

This past Saturday night, in the Marriott...

Recurring documentary subject and video-game legend Billy Mitchell was unanimously stripped of his record-breaking scores Thursday following allegations of cheating. Twin Galaxies, the premiere tracker of global gamers’ success, will also not recognize any of Mitchell’s future scores.

In 2010, Mitchell became the first “Donkey Kong” player to earn one million points; he started setting records in that game 28 years prior. Now 52, Mitchell also attained the first “Pac-Man” perfect score in 1999. His gaming prowess led to roles in “Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade” (2007), “The King of Arcades” (2014), and “Man Vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler” (2016).

But his most notable onscreen appearance came in future “Horrible Bosses” and “Baywatch” (2017) director Seth Gordon’s 2007 film, “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.” A SXSW and Tribeca Film Festival selection, “The King of Kong” was about an upstart named Steve Wiebe who scheduled multiple public challenges against no-show Mitchell.

Famed high-score gamer Billy Mitchell, best known for his leading role in “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” documentary, was officially stripped of his “Donkey Kong” and other video game high scores and banned from submitting scores to the world’s largest tracker of video game world records following a decision that he cheated, Twin Galaxies announced today.

“With this ruling, Twin Galaxies can no longer recognize Billy Mitchell as the first million point ‘Donkey Kong’ record holder,” the group wrote in its announcement. “According to our findings, Steve Wiebe would be the official 1st million point record holder.”

Variety has reached out to Mitchell and Wiebe for comment and Guinness to see if his record there will stand.

The decision comes after months of research by the administrators of Twin Galaxies, which tracks world gaming records and helps the Guinness Book of World records validate gaming scores,...

Billy Mitchell has been referred to as “probably the greatest arcade video game player of all time,” but one of his achievements might soon be stricken from the record books. The expert gamer, who was prominently featured in the 2007 documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” has been accused of faking his 1,000,000+ score.

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The allegation comes from Jeremy Young, the moderator of Donkey King Forum, who lays out his evidence in a lengthy two-part post. His argument boils down to the idea that Mitchell used an emulator, and not the actual “Donkey Kong” game, to generate his score; Young also claims that “all of this can be independently confirmed by anyone” and that he is “not in sole possession of any critical, secret piece of information here.”

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