Guinness Reinstates Billy Mitchell's Records After Legitimacy Accusations

DualShockers

By Cameron Hawkins

Published Jun 19, 2020

After having his legendary video game records revoked, Billy Mitchell is getting his recognition back in the Guinness World Records.

After getting his records stripped in 2018 Billy "King of Kong" Mitchell has had his reinstated by Guinness World Records. Mitchell was accused by Twin Galaxies, an organization that helps keep records of major achievements and world records in gaming, who said that the high score that Mitchell managed to earn in 2010 for Donkey Kong was not played on traditional arcade hardware which led to Guinness revoking all of his records including his record for obtaining the first perfect score in July of 1999. The King of Kong ended up appealing against the decision as well as pursuing Twin Galaxies in court for false claims.

Craig Glenday, the Editor-in-Chief for Guinness World Records said that the organization led to this decision after an investigation which included footage review from gameplay experts and "hardware verification." While the company did not say that Mitchell was innocent regarding the falsification accusations they did say that there “just wasn’t sufficient evidence to support the disqualification across the board.”

Billy Mitchell was featured in a 2007 documentary known as The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters about to competition behind achieving the Donkey Kong world record. The video game legend brought backlash regarding the film's interpretation of him outing him as the "villain" in the documentary. Mitchell has lost the highest score title since 1982 but regained the title in 2005, 2007, and 2010. He is no longer the holder of the high score which is currently held by Robbie Lakeman since last year.

Here is a list of all his records according to Guinness World Records:

July 3, 1999 - First Perfect Score on PAC-Man – 3,333,360 Points
November 7, 1982 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 874,300 Points
June 4, 2005 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,047,200 Points
July 14, 2007 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,050,200 Points
July 31, 2010 – Highest score on Donkey Kong – 1,062,800 Points

Despite the re-recognition from Guinness, the first hearing for Mitchell's defamation case against Twin Galaxies is set for July 6th according to Engadget where more news will likely surface.