Comments on: Dethroning the king of 'Donkey Kong'

New documentary looks at the dramatic quest to grab the highest score in one of the all-time great video games.
Photos: Duel to the 'Kong' finish

[DerekStu]

SPOILERS

This review reveals way too much, thanks a lot.

[Hardrada]

not a review

I wouldn't call it a review. It's a summary of the film. Big difference.

[tridentnyc]

I Totally Agree

The writer should have put a spoiler warning at the front of his piece at the very least. Who gives away the ending of a new movie, without a warning? I still want to see the movie, but a lot of the suspense has been ruined for me.

[sdsdv10]

Mitchell regains high score

"Jul 27 2007 3:36 PM EDT

'Donkey Kong' King Reclaims Top Score ? And He's Got Witnesses To Prove It"

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1565744/20070727/index.jhtml

[Eddie-c]

Extra score from where?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the original 870+K score was at the "kill" screen? If so, how can they pull an extra 200K from 'nowhere'? - Or had they just been playing crap before and not going for the bonuses? (Then again, that would be THE point i.e. getting all the bonuses possible because of the timer getting lower further in the game until hitting the kill screen)

Sounds like either both players were playing crap to start with or shenanigans. Give them a machine with the same firmware as the original.

[AMPerez]

The same for movie trailers...

They all give away too much of the movie, before you even see it. Take for example the trailer for "The Shining", by Stanley Kubrick. It just shows you the scene where the blood streams from the elevator doors in the hotel. That's it. That's all you get - making you want to watch the movie to see what that meant. Nowadays, if you watch the trailer, you're pretty much given the whole story/movie in 5 minutes. Bleh.

[bkerins]

King of Kong at California Extreme

For those interested, a screening of "King of Kong" along with "Chasing Ghosts", another documentary about classic arcade high scores, will be held at the California Extreme show this Saturday, August 11.

Both movies are a lot of fun.

[Karl_J]

What are standards for 'proving' high score?

I'm a bit confused, but perhaps I just need to see the movie. Still:

It sounds like Wiebe's efforts from his own machine were automatically called into question and invalidated, while a video-taped effort from Mitchell is good enough to nullify a bona-fide, record-setting run in front of a group of spectators on a neutral machine. What makes Mitchell's done-from-home effort any more worthy than Wiebe's? Am I misreading something?

[Davross]

Not So Automatic...

Wiebe's efforts weren't automatically called into question ..."But prior to his world record attempt, Wiebe's Donkey Kong machine had died, and Shildt had given him a new control board. And when Twin Galaxies investigators showed up to check out the machine, they found hastily explained abnormalities with it that led them to invalidate Wiebe's score."

It stands to reason that Galaxies investigators would want to check out the machine. That it came to Wiebe from someone with an axe to grind against Mitchell makes it suspect but even beyond that the investigators found "abnormalities" with the machine. That is what invalidated his score if we're to take it at face value.

The later videotaped effort of Mitchell being held up as valid with no investigation of his machine makes Twin Galaxies look suspicious. Were they trying to protect their grand champion by giving him the benefit of the doubt? It would certainly seem that way.

In any case, I think Wiebe proved himself the true champion for going as far as he did over thousands of miles for the ultimate showdown with the "champ". When presented with the chance to blow Wiebe away, to crush him so that no one might ever doubt ...Mitchell instead hid. To me, that fact alone makes his supposed effort and all the praise he's received for it questionable.

[ShamusMac]

Cliched Rant : Type 5.01.03

Someone is going to say it eventually and it might as well be me. How truly pathetic it is that people care so much about so little.