(2006) An amusing and rather enticing documentary from Seth Gordon about two world-class video-arcade competitors vying for records and recognition.

In the early 1980s Billy Mitchell, the charming champ, in becoming the king of Donkey Kong (scoring a seemingly untouchable 874,300 points) along with other titles, was proclaimed Player of the Century. At 34 he achieved the first perfect score on Pac Man.

We exist in a war universe, wrote William S. Burroughs, in which we engage ourselves in war and games. The founder of Twin Galaxies in Iowa, Walter Day, established the rules for arcade tournament play and created the website for all official records. The first Mario Brothers game, Donkey Kong, requires eye-hand coordination, pattern recognition, and deep comprehensive intelligence, according to Day and various players. There are elevators and obstacles such as barrels and fireballs: upon achieving success at a particular level, Kong grabs the girl, taking her up to the next level.

A few years ago science teacher Steve Wiebe (pronounced Wee-bee) in Redmond, Washington, videotaped his own performance on his arcade machine in his garage, while his little boy screamed for him to quit playing and come wipe his bottom, a new world record of 1,006,600 points. He submitted the videotape to Twin Galaxies for official recognition. Unfortunately, because Steve obtained his machine's game board from Roy Shildt, aka Mr Awesome, who had made known his desire for revenge against Billy Mitchell, the score was tainted by suspicions of conspiracy and fraud.

Nevertheless, Day invited Steve to play at the Funspot Arcade Tournament where he proved his skill in a live performance, setting a new world record of 985,600 points in 2 hours 27 minutes of play, resolving any earlier doubts concerning his abilities. At the same time Billy Mitchell, in a display of one-upmanship, submitted a new videotape of his own gaming with a new world record of 1,047,200 points.

Nine months later Day invites Wiebe and Mitchell to compete live in "the Dodge City of video games," at the suggestion of Craig Glenday of The Guinness Book of World Records for inclusion in the next edition of the book. Wiebe with his wife Nicole and their two children travel 3000 miles to Hollywood, Florida, for the four-day event, but Mitchell who lives ten miles from the competition site is an uncertain show, though he says that gamers who don't play when they have to play aren't good enough.

On August 3rd, 2006, a new world record of 1,049,100 points at Donkey Kong was set.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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