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Billy 'King of Kong' Mitchell's 'Donkey Kong' scores were a lie
It's over. Billy Mitchell (above, left), the "King of Kong," has had his long-contested Donkey Kong high scores stripped from the Twin Galaxies leaderboards and the organization has notified Guinness World Records of its decision. More than that, all of his records have been removed from the forums and he's banned from TG's competitive leaderboards wholesale. TG ran an independent investigation, in addition to having "at least" two third-parties perform their own, with other experts weighing in on the dispute as well.
Video game records are broken. Can anyone fix them?
After a period of relative quiet, Twin Galaxies recently found itself thrust into the spotlight. The arbiter for video-game recordkeeping played an intrinsic role in disputing two long-standing achievements hosted on its forums: Todd Rogers' unbeatable Dragster time and Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong high score. Both records have had their share of challenges over the decades, but before users on the TG forums raised their concerns the other week, nothing was done to officially dispute them. In 1982, Rogers sent Dragster developer Activision a letter saying he'd finished a race in 5.51-seconds -- without proof -- and in return, he received a certificate saying he held the record. For many, Mitchell is the "King of Kong" thanks to his appearance in a documentary by the same name. He has recorded higher scores since, but allegedly, Mitchell's 2010 best wasn't recorded on an actual Donkey Kong cabinet, but in MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). (We reached out to Mitchell and Rogers for comment, but they haven't responded.) According to Jace Hall, TG's head custodian of records, it was only a matter of time before these disputes happened.
Cult horror franchise owner seeks indie dev for new 'Condemned' game
Condemned is coming back. Maybe. A few days ago, former Monolith Productions (Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, No One Lives Forever) boss Jace Hall posted something very interesting to Facebook: He wants to find an indie game development team to pick up the reigns of his Xbox 360 cult-classic franchise, Condemned, and make another game where you battle supernatural creatures and deranged hobos. He owns the rights to the horror franchise, but despite consistent demand, he's too busy with other projects to work on a new game himself. Thankfully for Condemned fans, Hall's got a plan.
