ENCORE: Billy Mitchell: Truth or Kong-sequences | 196

We’ll be back next week with a brand new episode. In the meantime, we’re taking you back to a time when arcades were sacred – and Donkey Kong was king. Billy Mitchell became the king of arcade games when he achieved a perfect Pac Man score, and held the highest score in Donkey Kong. But in the early 2000s, a documentary about an upstart trying to be the best at Donkey Kong leads fans to examine how Billy actually achieved those high scores. Nearly two decades later, the jury is still out on whether Billy was ever truly the King of Kong. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sarah Hagi?

  Audible subscribers can listen to all our episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app.

• 0:08Scaachi Koul?

  We'll be back next week with a brand-new episode of Scamfluencers, but today, we're rewinding the tape. Back to our episode on Billy Mitchell, the video game king whose Donkey Kong record sparked one of the messiest scandals in competitive gaming.

• 0:22Sarah Hagi?

  Billy was an arcade legend accused of faking his high scores and using emulators instead of real arcade hardware. His story set the gaming world on fire and split the community into believers and skeptics.

• 0:35Scaachi Koul?

  Well, since our episode first aired, there's been a major update. Earlier this year, Billy Mitchell won his defamation case against Australian YouTuber Carl Yobst. A judge ruled that Carl's video accusing Billy of cheating was recklessly based on a false claim. And the ruling wasn't small. The court ordered Carl to pay $350,000 plus interest and costs.

• 0:58Sarah Hagi?

  That is truly insane. I mean, just, this has been going on for so long.

• 1:04Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, and I mean, the case became its own kind of boss battle. But with legal filings instead of fireballs and expert testimony instead of high scores. In this round, Billy came out on top.

• 1:17Sarah Hagi?

  You know, if there's one thing gamers love, it's justice, so, you know, maybe it was served, I don't know.

• 1:22Scaachi Koul?

  Well, with that twist in mind, we thought this was the perfect moment to revisit our episode on Billy Mitchell. The controversies, the rivalries, and the decades-long fight over what it means to be a true champion.

• 1:35Sarah Hagi?

  Enjoy this encore and join us next week for a brand-new story, one with fewer barrels, but just as many surprises.

• 1:43Scaachi Koul?

  A heads up to our listeners, this story includes mention of suicide. Please listen with care.

• 1:53Scaachi Koul?

  Sarah, I'm afraid to ask this because I already know the answer, but are you a gamer by chance?

• 2:01Sarah Hagi?

  Oh, you know I am. Yes, I am a gamer. I love, love video games.

• 2:07Scaachi Koul?

  What kind of video games do you play?

• 2:09Sarah Hagi?

  I don't play any that are multiplayer, like where you're playing with someone online. I find that too scary.

• 2:15Scaachi Koul?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:15Sarah Hagi?

  But I really like adventure games. Like, I like all those, like, kind of platform games, like Mario, whatever. And then games that are very open world and take like 200 hours to complete because there's all these quests and you have like a whole life and everything. That's really fun.

• 2:29Scaachi Koul?

  I have a Switch and I've been really plugged into this game where you just open boxes and unpack them in your house. That's it. That's the whole game.

• 2:37Sarah Hagi?

  And you don't have a gun or a sword or like magic?

• 2:40Scaachi Koul?

  You don't have any guns or swords or magic. And if you don't put the item in the right place, you can't move to the next house.

• 2:46Sarah Hagi?

  That sounds actually kind of soothing.

• 2:48Scaachi Koul?

  It's so soothing. It's called unpacking.

• 2:53Sarah Hagi?

  Okay, I'll see. I'll see.

• 2:55Scaachi Koul?

  This is an ad for this game now. Well, I was asking about your gaming tendencies because today I have a story for you about a grown man so obsessed with being the best arcade gamer in the world that he's willing to do anything to hold on to his high score. It's June 2005 and Billy Mitchell is at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Billy is tall with brown hair down to his shoulders and he has a neatly trimmed beard. He's wearing his regular uniform, a dark suit with a big, loud, American flag tie. Billy's feeling a little anxious today, but not about flying. He's at the airport

• 3:36Scaachi Koul?

  to make sure a very important package gets to its final destination, a video game tournament in New Hampshire. See, Billy is a bit of a celebrity in the gaming world. About six years earlier, he accomplished the first so-called perfect game on the original Pac-Man. The accomplishment made the news and he even traveled to Japan to meet some of the game's creators. Billy also excels at the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong and is currently the world champion. But for the past year, an upstart gamer from the Pacific Northwest has been working to challenge Billy's high score. And now, the guy is heading to the tournament to try to dethrone him. Billy can't just sit back and let that happen. But Billy isn't going to the tournament to meet his rival face to face.

• 4:19Scaachi Koul?

  Instead, he's relying on help from one of his students who's going, a tiny 79-year-old woman named Doris. Here's a picture of them at the airport together. Sarah, can you describe it for me?

• 4:30Sarah Hagi?

  Okay. Billy's look is astounding. This whole photo is insane. First of all, he is like a full foot and a half taller than this old lady.

• 4:41Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah.

• 4:42Sarah Hagi?

  He's wearing a suit with a tie.

• 4:44Scaachi Koul?

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:45Sarah Hagi?

  His hair, he has so much hair on his head. And it is like, long hair, but it's not fully a mullet. It looks like a helmet of hair. It's so dense.

• 4:54Scaachi Koul?

  I think it's because he's put a lot of mousse in it, so it's feathered.

• 4:57Sarah Hagi?

  Most men would kill for this hair, but not this style. And it's like a nerd's idea of looking fancy.

• 5:03Scaachi Koul?

  Yes, very much so.

• 5:04Sarah Hagi?

  And Doris is like a classic old lady. She's cute and small and has short, white hair, bird cartoon style.

• 5:16Scaachi Koul?

  Two sweet nerds. Well, Billy has been coaching Doris on her favorite game, Q-Bert. Doris was once the world champion in Q-Bert, but someone else beat her score, and she's on her way to the tournament in New Hampshire to reclaim her title. But Billy isn't focused on Doris's quest right now. He needs her help with something more important. He reaches into his coat and hands Doris a package to bring to the tournament officials. Billy tells Doris that delivering the tape to the proper authorities is absolutely critical. He tells her, quote, "You can lose your luggage, but don't lose the tape." That tape is Billy's secret weapon to protect his position as Donkey Kong champion. It contains footage of him achieving over 1 million points in the game, something nobody's ever done before. It's his ace in the hole,

• 6:01Scaachi Koul?

  to be deployed only in the event that the challenger manages to beat Billy's existing high score. Doris seems to understand where Billy's priorities lie. Here's what she says about Billy in the documentary, King of Kong.

• 6:12Speaker 02

  He's a very devious person. He works things out to his end very well.

• 6:19Sarah Hagi?

  Calling someone devious is usually not very complimentary, but it seems to be working in some way.

• 6:26Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it is working. But Doris doesn't even know the half of it. Billy hopes the tape will be seen as a clever way to thwart his rival. And he knows this might be the only way he can defend his title. Because while his performance on tape sure looks impressive, Billy's in-person performances aren't so hot. He needs every advantage he can get. But in two years' time, this tape will become the center of a huge scandal. And some gaming experts argue that Billy hit his high score on an illegitimate version of the game. Billy will deny these claims, but no matter whose story you believe, the controversy will bring his world record-breaking streak to a grinding halt. And when this happens, it might finally be game over.

• 7:14Speaker 03

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• 8:46Scaachi Koul?

  From Wondery, I'm Sachi Cole.

• 8:48Sarah Hagi?

  And I'm Sarah Haggie.

• 8:50Scaachi Koul?

  And this is Scamfluencers.

• 9:00Scaachi Koul?

  Billy Mitchell was one of the first real gaming celebrities. He helped popularize competitive arcade gaming and achieved world records on classic games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, earning fame, money, and prestige in the process. His quest to regain his world record, featured in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong, should have been Billy's biggest mainstream platform yet. But instead, it highlighted his history of undercutting his competition and colluding with referees. And it led a new generation of gamers to wonder, is Billy the best ever? Or is he just totally full of shit? This is a story about how massive egos, sketchy videotapes, and a dash of xenophobia turned a subculture full of nostalgic nerds into a toxic mess.

• 9:43Scaachi Koul?

  Let's call it Billy Mitchell: Truth or Kong Sequences.

• 9:52Scaachi Koul?

  It's the summer of 1982 in Hollywood, Florida. Seventeen-year-old Billy Mitchell is leafing through a copy of Joystick magazine, reading about his favorite pastime: video games. Billy is a tall and athletic high schooler who plays baseball, basketball, and football. But his heart belongs to the arcade machines in Ricky's, the chicken wing restaurant/sports bar owned by his parents. In fact, he's so focused that he later says he would spend nearly 40 hours a week playing these games. Sarah, can you read what his dad later told Oxford American Magazine about young Billy?

• 10:25Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, he says, "He drove me nuts. He played Centipede for 30 hours. I couldn't stand him playing because he would take up a machine for hours and spend one quarter. And it was probably a quarter he stole off my desk." Yeah, that's pretty remarkable. That's a true gamer.

• 10:40Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, he sounds pretty good at it. And Billy isn't just obsessed with playing these games. He's super competitive. He wants to be the best. And while he's probably the undisputed king of arcade games at his parents' restaurant, he wants more. Billy wants to be the best in the world. That's why he's reading this magazine. Just a few months ago, Twin Galaxies, an arcade in Iowa, announced that they would start tracking world records, since no major video game companies are doing it themselves. The owner of Twin Galaxies, a man named Walter Day, has solicited scores from arcade gamers around the country. And they've listed the top scores in a huge spread in Joystick Magazine, the first time the high-score results have ever been published.

• 11:22Scaachi Koul?

  When Billy reads that another player claims to have scored 1.4 million points on Donkey Kong, he's indignant. He calls Walter at Twin Galaxies and tells him that the score must have been faked. Billy adds that he has only achieved around 887,000 points in Donkey Kong, and he doesn't believe anyone could possibly be better than him.

• 11:44Sarah Hagi?

  This is a game that's played all around the world by so many people. It's one of the most popular games that's ever existed. It's pretty crazy to be like, "I'm the best. There can be no one better than me." It's like, you live in a small world. How do you know?

• 11:56Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, all of these nerds are about to get really, really pedantic. But Walter doesn't seem to want to handle this dispute himself. So he gives Billy the phone number of the guy holding the Donkey Kong high score, and Billy calls him up. He later says that when he talked to the guy about the game, something wasn't right. The guy, quote, "Just didn't have the right answers for two players on that level talking." Billy hangs up and calls Walter back. He says he's positive the guy is faking the score. And a few weeks later, the guy admits he lied. At least, that's how Billy tells it. Now that Twin Galaxies is acting as an official scorekeeper, Billy feels like he can finally get real recognition for his gaming skills. But he's learned an important lesson.

• 12:40Scaachi Koul?

  It isn't good enough to just be the best. You have to go to extremes to protect this title from going to anyone unworthy. Which, to Billy, means anyone besides himself.

• 12:52Scaachi Koul?

  A couple of months after his phone call with Billy, Walter does an interview with the local news in Iowa. Walter is a lanky 33-year-old with a 70s haircut, a thick brown mustache, and the patter of a born salesman. And he's still riding high from a recent Life magazine photo shoot, which featured his arcade, Twin Galaxies, and some VIP gamers. The photo is part of an upcoming spread calling Twin Galaxies "the video game capital of the world." Now, Walter tells the local news crew that there's a movie studio interested in making a documentary about the arcade's history. But it seems like none of this hype actually pays the bills. By 1984, business has gotten so bad that Walter shuts down Twin Galaxies and skips town. He doesn't let the failure get to him, though. He's got plenty of wacky ideas

• 13:37Scaachi Koul?

  and a talent for getting media attention for them. About five years after shutting down his arcade, Walter tells a Michigan newspaper that he wants to build a $4 million museum of celebrity yearbooks. A few years later, he tries to get money for his collection of business cards.

• 13:53Sarah Hagi?

  This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard. Like, I-

• 13:56Scaachi Koul?

  But pre-internet. This is pre-internet.

• 13:59Sarah Hagi?

  Okay, pre-internet. $4 million goes a long way. You don't need to create a museum of celebrity yearbooks. That's insane.

• 14:08Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Sarah, as you could probably predict, none of Walter's other schemes are anywhere near as successful as Twin Galaxies. So, in the mid-'90s, he decides to take advantage of the growing popularity of the internet to bring back the Twin Galaxies scoreboard, this time as an online database. He starts styling himself as an official scorekeeper, appearing in public in a black-and-white striped referee's shirt. One day, Walter receives a phone call that sparks yet another idea. It's from two Canadian gamers, who tell him they're close to cracking the perfect game of Pac-Man. Okay, Sarah, let me explain why it's possible to have a perfect score in Pac-Man. Unlike a lot of modern video games, most classic arcade games don't have clearly defined endings.

• 14:51Scaachi Koul?

  Instead, they loop their stages and become more and more difficult. In Pac-Man, this means that the enemy ghosts get faster and the power-ups become less powerful. And because early arcade games have relatively small reserves of computer memory, if you get far enough, the game will eventually break down. In Pac-Man, this happens at the 256th stage. To get a perfect game, you have to reach this stage without dying, which enables you to get the maximum number of points possible: 3,333,360.

• 15:22Sarah Hagi?

  I mean, that makes total sense, because these games aren't like games that you're saving on your personal PlayStation or whatever. They're very primitive. Even at the time, it's like, you can only go so far. And also, they're not expecting people to go that far, so there's no real precedent for a certain number.

• 15:40Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. Well, people have been getting insane scores in Pac-Man for years, but as far as Walter knows, nobody has ever managed a perfect game. Or at least, no one has ever documented one. Someone finally reaching this milestone could be huge for the world of Pac-Man enthusiasts, and for Walter. If someone cracked the perfect game, he could use this achievement to bring renewed attention to the Twin Galaxies scoreboard database. But Walter doesn't really know these Canadian gamers. He does, however, know someone who's been playing Pac-Man for years: Billy Mitchell. Back in the early 80s, Billy told Walter that he had reached the final stage of Pac-Man and came close to achieving a perfect game. But every time Walter asked him about doing it publicly, Billy deflected.

• 16:25Scaachi Koul?

  Achieving a perfect game means sitting for a marathon gaming session about six hours long, so it is a big ask. And by the late 90s, video games had been on the backburner for Billy for a few years. He's in his early 30s now, with a one-year-old daughter and a second child on the way. Plus, he's running his parents' restaurant and selling a line of hot sauce. But ever the hype man, Walter sees a big media opportunity if Billy sets out to beat the Canadians to the perfect game. So he urges Billy to come out of semi-retirement and give these Canadians a run for their money. He says the perfect chance for a showdown is just on the horizon: the classic video and pinball tournament that Twin Galaxies is cosponsoring in New Hampshire. Walter sees this as his chance to reclaim the glory days when he was at the center of the video game universe.

• 17:10Scaachi Koul?

  But he'll need Billy to return to his glory days too, and prove that he is still the greatest. And Walter is ready to do anything in his power to make this happen.

• 17:23Scaachi Koul?

  Billy arrives at the Fun Spot Family Entertainment Center in central New Hampshire in May 1999. It's a 60,000-square-foot entertainment complex that has mini golf, a bowling alley, a driving range, and one of the biggest indoor arcades in the US with more than 500 games. But Billy is only focused on one: Pac-Man. He's actually here a few days early. The Canadians are breathing down his neck, and he won't settle for anything other than being the first person to achieve the perfect game. Billy plays Pac-Man all weekend, hardly leaving the machines to eat or even use the bathroom. He plays until his eyes are dry and his palm is raw from maneuvering Pac-Man around the 256 mazes that make up the game. But despite his best efforts, he fails to achieve the perfect game.

• 18:08Scaachi Koul?

  Instead, one of his Canadian rivals sets a new world record, just 90 points shy of a perfect run, all while putting up huge scores on several other games. Adding insult to injury, this guy even wins the Donkey Kong competition. Billy comes in second place.

• 18:25Sarah Hagi?

  You know, knowing that this guy obviously has a very intense obsession with being first and proving that he's the best, I can only imagine being second stings more than if he came in last.

• 18:38Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, well, if you're second place, that's just first loser. And Billy has failed to make the most of his big return to competitive gaming. But at least none of his competitors pulled off the perfect game either. As the tournament wraps up, he and his rivals make a gentleman's agreement. They'll hold off on chasing the perfect Pac-Man score until next year's tournament, both as a courtesy to one another and as a way to increase hype for the event. But Billy is no gentleman. Just a few weeks later, over the 4th of July weekend, he comes back to Fun Spot and starts playing Pac-Man again. After a while, Billy knows he has to get the first perfect game, not just for himself, but for America. When Billy finally gets a perfect run going, a kid accidentally unplugs the machine.

• 19:23Scaachi Koul?

  So Sarah, can you read what Billy tells the Tampa Bay Times about that incident?

• 19:27Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, he says, "I lost everything. The kid said it was an accident, and I know it was, but he sure sounded Canadian to me." You know, it also is just so funny that he is so conspiratorial, where he thinks like, oh yeah, the Canadians sent a little kid to accidentally unplug it. It's like, things just happen. Also, you're at an arcade. Kids are there. Like, what do you think happens at an arcade? People are spilling stuff and tripping over things all the time.

• 19:54Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, I refuse to let Canada be a scapegoat here. But Billy isn't about to let this kid get in the way of his glory. Two days later, after hours and hours of playing Pac-Man, he finally does it. Billy gets the perfect game. It's a huge deal. There are journalists, cameras, and fans mobbing him. Or, so he says, there's actually only one photo of Billy's achievement ever published, and the guy who took it is a Fun Spot Arcade employee. Sarah, can you describe this photo for us?

• 20:23Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, this photo is very funny, because he's wearing formal wear to play Pac-Man. He's like, wearing an American flag tie. And the whole point of this is that we're supposed to see his score, and you can't even really see the screen of the game. Like, you can't see anything. It's just him standing there beside the physical arcade game with his thumb up.

• 20:45Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it's a, it's a really interesting look and an interesting pose to strike. But not only that, this wasn't even at an official event like the Fun Spot Tournament. This is weeks later, on his own. It would be like Michael Phelps saying he got a world swimming record in practice, rather than at the Olympics. Still, Walter and Twin Galaxies are happy to record his result. And between Billy's ego and Walter's nose for publicity, they're going to capitalize on this moment and make Billy a star.

• 21:17Scaachi Koul?

  A month after getting his perfect score, Billy is onstage in Las Vegas at the August 1999 Classic Gaming Expo. He's beaming with pride as he accepts an award from Walter for his accomplishments. Billy's once again gone above and beyond. He isn't just getting a Player of the Year award, which Twin Galaxies has been giving out for a while. He's the Player of the Century, a title Walter seems to have created just for him. After receiving his award, Billy gets to play presenter himself. He hands out the Game of the Century Award to, you guessed it, Pac-Man. Billy claims that, quote, "Pac-Man is the most recognizable figure in the world, even more well-known than Mickey Mouse and Coca-Cola."

• 21:59Sarah Hagi?

  What universe does he live in? That is simply not true. I'm sorry. It's like, yeah, it's super recognizable, but like, it's not Mickey Mouse or Coca-Cola. It just isn't.

• 22:09Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, I think it's maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but Billy's victory tour is just getting started. After the Classic Gaming Expo, he's flown to Japan to attend the Tokyo Game Show, where he's presented with a commemorative plaque by the president of Namco, the company that developed Pac-Man. Sarah, I need to show you a photo of Billy onstage with his plaque.

• 22:31Sarah Hagi?

  He is in a full suit and tie, and to his left and his right are like, these beautiful women in short skirts and crop tops. And it's like expo women, you know what I mean? Like, you'd see them at like a car show or whatever.

• 22:45Scaachi Koul?

  Booth girls.

• 22:45Sarah Hagi?

  Booth girls.

• 22:46Scaachi Koul?

  Booth bait is what they call it.

• 22:47Sarah Hagi?

  Why is he making this so serious? Like, it should be fun. And he's just, there's no like lightness to him.

• 22:53Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Sarah, Billy later describes this as the, quote, "climactic point" in his illustrious gaming career. Oh, and Walter is there, too. He tags along, trying to drum up more attention for himself and twin galaxies. When Billy describes his trip to Japan, he claims to have been treated like a triumphant hero. He says people were constantly walking up to him and giving him gifts. In fact, Billy consistently claims that everyone he met in Japan saw him as basically a god of video games. Here's how he describes his meeting with Namco staff on a G4 TV segment.

• 23:27Speaker 06

  When I was there in Japan, I asked them various questions. And they said to me, "Oh, Mr. Mitchell, you know more about Pac-Man than we know. We never thought school like this possible."

• 23:39Sarah Hagi?

  I cannot believe he did that accent, and they kept that in. Outside of that, "you know more about Pac-Man than we know." I'm sorry, this isn't real life. He's being so humorless about anything to do with a game.

• 23:54Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Billy's story of his trip to Japan might be entirely full of shit, but now, he's established his image as the reigning king of retro gaming. With a little help from Walter, he's able to trade on this reputation for years. He finally achieves what he wanted way back in the early 80s: public recognition for playing video games. Throughout the early 2000s, gaming goes mainstream. And thanks to his achievement, both he and Walter loom large in the subculture. Billy starts showing up more and more in game magazines and on video game television channels like G4. He's invited to make appearances at gaming conventions. And we don't know exactly how much he makes from these, but in legal filings years later, Billy says that he was paid thousands of dollars for convention appearances that happened

• 24:38Scaachi Koul?

  well after his heyday. And as the official scorekeeper and validator of Billy's records, Walter and twin galaxies stay in the conversation as important figures in gaming. Walter is often quoted in video game articles, and pictures of him wearing his referee outfit are everywhere. By the mid 2000s, Billy and Walter are basically talking as if Billy is Bradley Cooper in Limitless. Billy tells a writer at the Oxford American that he has superhuman senses that burden him in day-to-day life. Sarah, can you read this quote from Billy?

• 25:09Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, he says, "I see things that other people don't see and hear things others don't hear. If a door hinge is going to need oil soon, if someone's wedding ring needs adjusting, if a letter on a sign way down the road is missing, it can be too much information." What the hell are you talking about? That, first of all, no. And second of all, you're this genius with, like, otherworldly senses, and this is how you're spending your life?

• 25:38Scaachi Koul?

  Well, listen, he's pretending he's in a House episode, but this kind of talk serves two purposes. First, it makes being good at Pac-Man seem like the pinnacle of human achievement. And second, it makes Billy seem like a legend who's worth every penny of his appearance fees. For now, the media is eating it up, but a new challenger is approaching, ready to turn Billy into the one thing he's always despised: a loser.

• 26:09Speaker 07

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• 26:37Speaker 08

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• 27:30Scaachi Koul?

  In 2004, a few years after Billy's perfect Pac-Man game, Walter is sorting through piles of VHS tapes. Each one contains footage of a world-record hopeful's high score. Today, one of the tapes stops Walter in his tracks. It shows a man named Steve Weeby achieving a score of over 1 million points in a marathon Donkey Kong session. This beats Billy's high score by over 72,000 points. Walter is suspicious. Remember that Donkey Kong score Billy debunked back in the 80s? Walter hasn't heard of anyone breaking a million points since then. And Steve beat the record at home, not in public at an arcade tournament, and tapes scores can be doctored. Walter has to be sure that Steve's score is legit before he claims a new king of Kong. So he sends two guys to check out the machine

• 28:15Scaachi Koul?

  that Steve played at his house in Redmond, Washington. And when they report back, they tell Walter that Steve got part of his Donkey Kong machine from someone named Mr. Awesome. Walter hates Mr. Awesome. They have a longstanding beef related to the world record for the game Missile Command. This connection is pretty tenuous, but Walter decides it's enough to reject Steve's tape. He claims it's because there could have been modifications to Steve's Donkey Kong machine as a part of some kind of conspiracy to take down Billy.

• 28:44Sarah Hagi?

  You know, all of this is just so intense for something that should be joyous. This instant thing of being totally suspicious, to me, like, the whole reason why you want to play games is because it's fun and light, and you're also literally talking about Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, right?

• 29:03Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, we are talking about Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. At this point, Walter and Billy's reputations are totally intertwined. Any threat to Billy is a threat to his livelihood, too. But Walter doesn't dismiss Steve entirely. American arcades have been languishing. The gaming public has mostly moved on to home consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation 2. Walter sees the publicity potential in stoking another rivalry, just like he did when he encouraged Billy to challenge the Canadians at Pac-Man. In fact, it could be just the thing he needs to bring media attention back to Twin Galaxies. So he tells Steve that playing in a central, supervised location is key to recognition of his abilities, somewhere like Fun Spot. Walter's plan will work better than he could have ever imagined.

• 29:47Scaachi Koul?

  Maybe too well? Because soon, more people than ever will know about Twin Galaxies. But this will be the first major step in bringing Billy down.

• 29:58Scaachi Koul?

  In June 2005, Steve Weeby walks into Fun Spot Arcade, ready to prove himself. He's traveled 3,000 miles to get here, and he's determined not to go home empty-handed. Steve is in his mid-30s, and in many ways, he's basically Billy's polar opposite. He's soft-spoken, clean-shaven, and boyish. And while Billy's been a competitive gamer since he was a teen, Steve threw himself into Donkey Kong after getting laid off from his engineering job at Boeing. And now, he's good enough to compete for major world records. Steve's story is so compelling that a documentarian has been filming him for a movie that will eventually be called "The King of Kong." Steve has made a number of taped attempts as he tries to beat Billy's record. Sarah, listen to this clip from one of them that later makes it into the movie.

• 30:44Speaker 09

  I don't believe this is happening.

• 30:49Speaker 09

  Wipe your bottom? I will in a second, bud.

• 30:55Speaker 09

  Can you bring me some toilet paper, buddy? Derek, I got, I'm gonna get the world record, Derek. Derek, I'm gonna get the world record.

• 31:02Speaker 10

  Don't play, don't play.

• 31:04Speaker 09

  Derek?

• 31:08Speaker 09

  Derek! You stop it!

• 31:12Sarah Hagi?

  Okay, so what I'm learning is that this guy is like Homer Simpson. And he's like laser focus on this one thing to the point where his kid's like, "Please wipe my ass."

• 31:23Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, this is like him and Maggie, for sure. But remember, Sarah, Walter rejected this tape. And since Twin Galaxies is the authority on gaming scores, Steve has to try and break Billy's record in person. So now, he's playing Donkey Kong in front of a crowd of onlookers. Billy isn't here, but he has several friends present, including a guy who watches over Steve's shoulder and calls Billy with updates. Steve fails to reproduce his videotaped million-point score, but his new total still beats Billy's record. This should be Steve's triumphant moment. But his victory is short-lived. Later that night, he gets some bad news. Remember the tape that Billy gave his friend Doris back in the beginning of the episode? She's delivered it, and it shows Billy's new high score, breaking a million points.

• 32:09Scaachi Koul?

  Sure, there may have been some visual glitches on the tape, and sure, Walter and Twin Galaxies refuse to accept Steve's tape, but they've decided that this one is totally above board, which means Billy is once again the reigning champ. When Steve asks if he can watch the tape, one of Billy's friends says, "No." And yes, this is just like middle school.

• 32:31Sarah Hagi?

  I think it's pretty weird that Billy and Walter are in cahoots in this way, when if you're gonna take something like this this seriously, like, won't you be fair about it and not collude so that the only direct competition isn't out of the running in some way? Like, it just seems like weird and mean.

• 32:47Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it is mean. Well, Steve is frustrated, and that's before he finds out that there may be more to the story. Later, he'll learn that some critics claim that Billy didn't play his record-breaking game on an authentic Donkey Kong arcade machine. They claim that Billy played on software that emulated the classic Donkey Kong instead. Sarah, here's where we have to get into the weeds for a second. There are actually a few differences between emulation and a real arcade machine. For example, arcade games are usually pretty high-stress, because if you mess up, the game ends and you have to start over from the beginning. But with an emulator, you can save wherever you want and redo any mistakes.

• 33:27Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, I mean, that makes using an emulator very fun, because there are older games where you want to have a place to save your game, so you don't have to restart. But I do feel like for the purpose of playing Donkey Kong and getting the highest score, you shouldn't have an ability to save, because then what's really the big challenge, right?

• 33:49Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Billy denies that he broke the record on an emulator, but doubt about his win spreads. For now, all Steve can do is accept defeat. He heads home to his current gig, teaching junior high, but he doesn't give up on Donkey Kong. The next summer, Steve dedicates himself to beating the new score. And finally, in August 2006, on the last day of summer break, he does it. He once again cracks a million points on a machine that Walter has already certified, which means Steve officially becomes the new world record holder. He must be over the moon. His years of fighting against Billy, Walter, and the established video game elite have paid off. He is the best in the world. But Steve won't hold that title for long, because Billy is about to take his cheating

• 34:32Scaachi Koul?

  to one of the sleaziest places imaginable: his home state of Florida.

• 34:39Scaachi Koul?

  2007 gets off to a rough start for Billy. The King of Kong, the documentary about his rivalry with Steve, premieres at the Slam Dance Film Festival in January. The movie is compelling, and critics rave about it. The King of Kong gives Billy a huge boost to his profile, but it also creates a narrative that doesn't exactly work in his favor. The movie portrays Steve as an underdog and Billy as a villain standing in his way.

• 35:03Sarah Hagi?

  You know, I feel like Billy sees himself as like this underdog who achieved so much against all odds. Like, he really sees himself as the hero of his own story. So I imagine him being portrayed as the villain in a documentary that got quite popular will not bode very well for the rest of the story.

• 35:25Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Billy has spent years promoting himself as the gaming world's benevolent legend, and he can't just sit back and let his reputation take this kind of a hit. So, a few months after the premiere, Billy tells his side of the story to MTV. Billy says he hasn't seen the movie, but he's upset that it depicts him as, quote, "a son of a gun." One of his friends compares the King of Kong to Swiss cheese because it is so full of holes.

• 35:51Scaachi Koul?

  Billy hasn't given up on being the greatest gamer of all time, so about a month later, he makes this big move at the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers annual convention in Orlando. The convention is 80s-themed, and the brokers asked Billy to come sign autographs and play some classic games. He later says that he agreed to make the appearance as long as the mortgage brokers made a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. But he's also here to play Donkey Kong and try to reclaim the world record. The odd venue offers some key advantages. There are lots of people around who can confirm that he was present and playing, but not many who know the ins and outs of high-level arcade play. Later, Billy claims to have gone to great lengths to make sure his score is legit.

• 36:33Scaachi Koul?

  In fact, he says he sent the hardware to Nintendo of America to get it authenticated. But at the convention, the only person on site who knows about video games is a Twin Galaxies referee, whose own game-high scores are later exposed as fraudulent. It's not too different from the circumstances under which Billy achieved his perfect game of Pac-Man. Still, Billy gains about 1,000 points on Steve, and he does it. He beats Steve's record. We can only imagine how thrilled the mortgage brokers were for him.

• 37:03Scaachi Koul?

  However, Twin Galaxies doesn't publish any photos of Billy's record-setting game, despite talking up his achievement. When photos of the game player discovered much later, they show Billy using a non-standard joystick on the machine. This joystick allows for eight-directional movement rather than the standard four, a modification that makes the game much easier. And under Twin Galaxies' rules, that should disqualify Billy from the scoreboards.

• 37:28Sarah Hagi?

  I mean, I do see this as Billy getting a little desperate. I feel like this could be a response to him really spinning out for being, again, portrayed as a villain in the documentary. And this just kind of reeks of desperation, like, just play normally. Why are you still being so controversial?

• 37:46Scaachi Koul?

  Well, this time, Billy is better prepared to defend himself. He might not have a photo of the score, but he does have a videotape recording of the game. Later, critics will claim that the tape shows Billy using an emulator to achieve this record, a claim that Billy denies. But Walter and Twin Galaxies accept his score. At this point, they're either unaware of or uninterested in the bubbling controversy. Now that Billy has the record again, he's determined to hang on to it. And he has one last tactic for staying on top. Billy is about to start complaining to a new referee, a federal judge.

• 38:23Scaachi Koul?

  In February 2010, more than two years after Billy's new world record, he hears news that probably makes him furious. His Donkey Kong record has been bested. Again. This time, by a plastic surgeon. In July, Billy sets out to regain his record at an arcade just outside Fort Lauderdale. He supposedly achieves a new record-high score, and then goes on to break the world record score in Donkey Kong Jr. as well. Billy claims that big crowds gather to watch him play. But even though it's 2010, and plenty of people have smartphones and digital cameras, there is no footage or photos of him playing. And once again, the tape Billy provides as evidence causes critics to question the veracity of the video and whether it's been tampered with.

• 39:05Scaachi Koul?

  The gap between Billy's public performances and his recorded scores is becoming more and more obvious to anyone who's paying attention. In March 2011, at the first annual Kong Off at an arcade in New Jersey, Billy places 7th, far behind competitors like Steve. He does, however, take the time to snap some promotional pictures with the staff of the hotel where the competitors are staying. Sarah, please take a look at this.

• 39:30Sarah Hagi?

  I don't want to see any more photos. I'm sick of this. Okay, first of all, it's taken on like, uh, old cellphone quality.

• 39:37Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, the screen has been dipped in Vaseline.

• 39:39Sarah Hagi?

  It's Billy looking more animated than we've ever seen him because to his right and his left are two women kissing him on the cheek, and he is wearing his American flag tie. He's doing a Kubrick stare, direct eye contact with the camera. It's making me sick. Like, no, like, I, this isn't right.

• 40:01Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, he looks like the Babadook. That same year, Billy finds a new enemy: a cartoon. Sarah, I'm gonna show you a clip from the Cartoon Network series Regular Show.

• 40:11Speaker 11

  You're not mad at us for breaking your world record, are you? It's no big deal. Not like it's the universe record or anything important. The universe record? It's the highest score in the whole universe: 1,279,001. Now who holds that record again? Oh yeah, me!

• 40:32Sarah Hagi?

  You know, most people would see something like this and think it's like flattering. It's like being parodied on South Park, you know what I mean? Like, hey, at least you're being acknowledged. Like, he shouldn't be in the public consciousness, yet he is. And he should be happy that people know who he is, period, because he shouldn't be known.

• 40:51Scaachi Koul?

  Well, it's clearly a bit of a joke at his expense. GBF, the character who claims to own the universe record, does look a lot like Billy. But Billy decides that this is actually a huge insult. A few years later, he sues Cartoon Network, claiming that GBF infringes on his likeness. But the New Jersey federal judge throws the case out on the grounds that the character is a parody protected under First Amendment rights. She says, quote, "GBF appears as a non-human creature, a giant floating head with no body from outer space, while plaintiff is a human being." And when GBF loses his title, the character literally explodes, unlike plaintiff. But while it's true that Billy doesn't literally explode when he loses, his myth is about to be blown into pieces.

• 41:41Speaker 12

  I'm Gemma Whelan, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we tell the story of the original femme fatale, the spy who was Mata Hari. A famous dancer turned World War I secret agent, accused of seducing Allied officers to uncover their plans. But was she a temptress or a scapegoat for French failures? Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Was Mata Hari, early and ad-free on Audible.

• 42:11Speaker 13

  Hi, I'm Kenya Barris.

• 42:12Speaker 14

  And I'm Malcolm Gladwell. We're back for season two of our Audible original podcast, The Unusual Suspects.

• 42:18Speaker 13

  We're bringing you fresh, new conversations from guests like Anderson Paak, David Zedars, Ryan Howard, Rich Roll, Amy Sherald, and many more.

• 42:24Speaker 14

  Sign up for a free trial to Audible to listen to season two in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.

• 42:33Speaker 15

  Now I feel like a legend.

• 42:38Scaachi Koul?

  In August 2017, a man named Jeremy Young starts looking into Billy's scores. Jeremy is a pretty private person, so we don't know a lot about him. But we do know that he's a longtime moderator of the Donkey Kong Forum and a statistics junkie. He's interested in retro games and part of a community that is scrutinizing the historical performance of players, including Billy. Jeremy obsessively researches the differences between authentic Donkey Kong arcade graphics and those generated by an emulator. He says he's identified a few ways that you can tell if someone is using an emulator, and Billy's tapes have all of them. A key piece of evidence in Jeremy's findings is the footage on Billy's secret weapon tape, the one that he had Doris deliver for him. Some of the footage was included in King of Kong,

• 43:20Scaachi Koul?

  so every video game obsessive can now see it for themselves. When Jeremy presents the results of his research on the Donkey Kong Forum, it shakes the community. Billy says these tapes aren't an accurate representation of his performance. He says the tapes were out of his hands for a decade and alleges that during that time, someone edited them to make him look bad.

• 43:41Sarah Hagi?

  I feel like that's highly unlikely. I mean, it is so crazy that there are tapes involved in this, that it's like, we're looking at the footage and we're assessing how real it is.

• 43:51Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it's like the JFK assassination.

• 43:53Sarah Hagi?

  Oh, my god.

• 43:54Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Jeremy's research leads Twin Galaxies to launch an investigation into Billy's scores. And this time, they're actually in a position to be a more objective authority. Walter sold Twin Galaxies, and the new owner does not have the same affection for Billy. Eventually, Twin Galaxies agrees with Jeremy. There's no way Billy was using an authentic Donkey Kong machine. In April 2018, they remove Billy's scores from their records, including his perfect Pac-Man score, and ban him indefinitely from submitting future scores. Guinness World Records also strips his scores.

• 44:27Sarah Hagi?

  I mean, the fallout for this, as silly as it all is, is pretty intense and real. This is what Billy had been working towards for so long. And now these titles are stripped from his name.

• 44:41Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, it's his dream, and it's also his livelihood. So Billy doesn't take this news lightly. He sues Twin Galaxies for defamation. In public statements, Billy claims that Twin Galaxies was defaming him for attention in order to drive traffic and ad revenue to the scoreboard's website, even though Twin Galaxies doesn't seem to be running ads on their site at this time. In his quest for honesty in Donkey Kong scorekeeping, Jeremy has helped light a powder keg and pushed Billy to a point of desperation. And he and the gaming world are about to see Billy complete his transformation from a gamer into a boss. Nearly a year later, Billy sits behind a microphone in a conference room at the Southern Fried Gaming Expo in Atlanta. Billy is wearing a pristine white suit with his American flag tie, of course,

• 45:27Scaachi Koul?

  but he's going the extra mile today with a USA pocket square. He addresses the small crowd, saying, quote, "I'm here against very, very strong legal advice. I was told not to do this, and I said, 'Too bad, I'm doing it.'" His presentation is titled "The Road to Redemption." Billy has set out to rebuild his reputation and defend his legacy. But his tactics have become increasingly aggressive against the very community he helped build. Throughout all of his legal actions, Billy maintains that he never cheated. He argues that he has eyewitness testimony that supersedes Jeremy's evidence. He claims that the allegations have caused him financial loss and emotional distress, as well as health problems such as a hernia and atrial fibrillation. He also says that his doctor of 30 years now refuses to see him

• 46:12Scaachi Koul?

  after having read the allegations.

• 46:15Sarah Hagi?

  I feel like the more I get to know Billy, the more I understand there's only one thing he cares about in the world, and it's this. So I do believe that maybe he did actually feel these things. And a part of me feels weirdly bad for how seriously he's taking this, because it shows that he has nothing really else going on in his life. However, I think his doctor probably was like, "Hey, I'm dropping you because your vibes are bad."

• 46:41Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. In Billy's delusional world, his doctor really cares about his stupid record. But Billy's persistence eventually pays off. Sort of. In 2020, Guinness reverses course. They make an announcement saying that, after reviewing all the evidence, they determine there's no concrete evidence either way. So they decided to revert back to the original records. Notably, making this choice also allows them to avoid a court battle with Billy. And then, in January 2024, Twin Galaxies and Billy finally settle for undisclosed terms. Twin Galaxies agrees to repost Billy's record to a historical database of scores and removes their forum posts accusing him of cheating. But they continue to ban Billy from submitting future scores.

• 47:25Scaachi Koul?

  Between the Guinness and Twin Galaxies outcomes, Billy has, in a sense, won. But his reputation lies in tatters. His vindictive lawsuits aren't winning him any new fans. And he still isn't done. In fall 2024, Billy is once again in court. He's traveled all the way to Brisbane, Australia, for yet another case. He's filed several defamation lawsuits against Australian YouTuber and video game speedrunner Carl Yobes, who has made several videos covering the case against Billy. At this point, Billy is suing people for doing so much as jokingly implying that he might have cheated. Billy argues that Carl defamed him in his videos, but not by calling him a cheater. In his videos, Carl accuses Billy of hounding another YouTuber,

• 48:08Scaachi Koul?

  one who did accuse Billy of cheating, so intensely that it contributed to his eventual death by suicide. Billy is now pushing 60. He sits as his son, Billy Jr., an Army officer who helps run his social media accounts, takes the stand to defend him. He watches as the defense calls high-profile YouTubers to explain things like Twitch and give their opinion of Billy's character. Sarah, can you imagine being a lawyer or a jury member, hearing the testimony of someone named Moist Critical in a lawsuit about video games?

• 48:41Sarah Hagi?

  You know, if I was a jury member in this, I would do like anything to disqualify myself. I would be like, how do I get myself out of jury duty? Put me on anything but this.

• 48:52Scaachi Koul?

  While Billy listens as Walter calls in from Iowa to testify about their relationship. Walter acknowledges that he profited from Billy's fame and says that he still considers him a close friend. But when asked by the defense if he and Billy are a package deal, Walter replies, "Not lately." It's a sad end to a long relationship. But the whole lawsuit is worse. It's been six years since Billy was first accused of cheating. And aside from a few dedicated observers, most people have moved on. It seems like the public just doesn't care anymore. Sitting in a Brisbane courthouse, Billy no longer appears to be an embattled minor celebrity, but a vengeful has-been, fighting legal battles with a YouTuber 20 years his junior. We don't know the outcome of this lawsuit yet. But what we do know is that a quarter of a century

• 49:36Scaachi Koul?

  after that perfect game of Pac-Man, Billy Mitchell has successfully written himself into the video game history books, just maybe not for the reasons he wanted.

• 49:48Scaachi Koul?

  Well, Sarah, as a resident gamer, you must have loved this one.

• 49:52Sarah Hagi?

  Shut up.

• 49:56Sarah Hagi?

  How many points do you think you could get on an old four-directional Pac-Man machine? Here's the thing. I really like games. Am I that good at them? Not really. I'm having a good time. So that's why this is so gross to me. Conceptually alone, this isn't so crazy to be like, I'm really good at Donkey Kong and I've, you know, I'm kind of like the best in the world. But like, none of this is fun.

• 50:19Scaachi Koul?

  I'm always impressed by the ways that some people, not all. People, but mostly men, take something that should be fun and that we should be having a nice time with, and then they ruin it by making it competitive and boring.

• 50:35Sarah Hagi?

  It is so crazy because also the parameters of all this seem so vague. Like you can doctor a tape. Shouldn't there be a more official way for all this to go down? Like one way of this ever working?

• 50:48Scaachi Koul?

  I mean, I guess when twin galaxies started trying to keep records, they were trying to be that official body. What I find so odd about this is that there's a great business opportunity in setting Billy up to eventually fall, kind of. Like, wouldn't you want there to be a young scrappy upstart who does eventually win and takes a record from him? And then you get to be like, and I found him too. Like, it's just bad business. It's like lazy marketing from these guys.

• 51:15Sarah Hagi?

  Even like for wrestling, someone's not on top forever. Why be so obsessed with this guy being the best to ever do it?

• 51:23Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah.

• 51:24Sarah Hagi?

  I also think this highlights something for me that I find so annoying, which is everything has to turn into something serious or something to monetize, become a thing. Like, is it not enough to just be like really, really good at something? You gotta turn it into a whole thing.

• 51:40Scaachi Koul?

  You are advocating for more hobbies, fewer competitions.

• 51:46Sarah Hagi?

  More hobbies, fewer competitions, fewer monetization of hobbies.

• 51:49Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah. I think today's lesson is that it's good to have a hobby that you don't immediately turn into something that is commodified. And that is a lesson that I have been trying to learn for 35 years. And I think this is the year I really get it, Sarah.

• 52:03Sarah Hagi?

  I think also it's like, you don't need to be the best at everything.

• 52:07Scaachi Koul?

  Yeah, just be okay at stuff.

• 52:09Sarah Hagi?

  Yeah, you could just, it's okay if you're not the best. Just be okay. If you're having fun, that's great.

• 52:19Scaachi Koul?

  Follow Scamfluencers on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Scamfluencers ad-free by joining Audible. This is Billy Mitchell, Truth or Consequences. I'm Sachi Cole.

• 52:33Sarah Hagi?

  And I'm Sarah Hagi. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at [email protected]. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, directed by Seth Gordon, The Perfect Man by David Ramsey for The Oxford American, and the collected research at perfectpacman.com.

• 52:57Scaachi Koul?

  Merrick Kay wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Hagi. Eric Thurm is our story editor. Fact checking by Lexi Peery. Sound design by James Morgan. Additional audio assistance provided by Augustine Lim. Our music supervisor is Scott Velazquez for Breeze on Sync. Our managing producer is Desi Blaylock. Our senior managing producer is Callum Pluse. Janine Cornolo and Stephanie Jens are our development producers. Our associate producer is Charlotte Miller. Our producer is Julina Gruder. Our senior producers are Sarah Enni and Ginny Bloom. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer-Beckman, Marsha Louis and Erin O'Flaherty. For Wondery.

• 53:42Speaker 16

  Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia spent her life exposing powerful people. Then, in 2017, she was killed in a car bombing. I'm Stephen Gray, and for the past nine years, I've been trying to find out who wanted her dead. That search took me to Malta through secret companies, organized crime, and eventually to one of the island's richest and most powerful men. Now, after years of waiting, his trial has finally happened. But when the verdict came in, the case took a turn that almost no one had expected. In a brand-new update to the multi-award-winning podcast, Who Killed Daphne?, I'm returning to Malta to find out how we got there and where the search for the truth goes next. Listen to the new episode of Who Killed Daphne? wherever you get your podcasts.

• 54:27Speaker 16

  And you can hear the full six-part investigation from the beginning, ad-free with Audible. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app and by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.