Donkey Kong high score champion takes 'cheating' case to court

Battle over title has been raging for years

Billy Mitchell has consistently argued that he is not a 'cheater'

The man who claimed the high score on video game Donkey Kong, before having his title stripped because of cheating allegations, took the scorekeeper to court in a proceeding that’s been going on for months.

In 2018 Twin Galaxies, which records video game world records and supplies them to Guinness, stripped Billy Mitchell of his scores after three investigations – one by Twin Galaxies and two by third-parties – came to the conclusion that Mitchell did not achieve his high scores on an unmodified Donkey Kong arcade board.

Some have accused Mitchell of using emulation software to cheat his way to the high score, but Twin Galaxies could not confirm that.

Mitchell since said that he would be taking legal recourse, asking for “retraction by Guinness World Records and Twin Galaxies for their defamatory statements” in September 2019.

It seems that recourse has been unfolding for at least five months prior, as documents reportedly seen by Ars Technica. Talking to the publication, Mitchell said that the lawsuit was filed in April 2018 following Twin Galaxies’ decision.

Mitchell argues that the scorekeepers statement was “libelous on its face,” going on to argue that they “at least implied [he cheated], so that any reasonable reader would understand Twin Galaxies has called Mitchell a cheater who deserved punishment by stripping him of all his Twin Galaxies records and banning him for life from submitting further records.”

Mitchell also says that Twin Galaxies’ conclusion stems from “biased observed intent on generating publicity and internet 'clicks' by accusing Mitchell, the most visible of all video gamers, of cheating.”

Twin Galaxies’ statement does not comment on Mitchell’s character and does not specifically call him a cheater. Instead, its original statement focused on the “impossibility of original unmodified Donkey Kong arcade hardware [producing] specific board transition images shown in the videotaped recordings of those adjudicated performances.“

In a public declaration filed with the Los Angeles County court, Twin Galaxies owner Jason Hall said “Twin Galaxies believes that this was the most professionally documented and thoroughly investigated video game score of all time.”

In its motion, Twin Galaxies also writes how Mitchell had “he opportunity to submit evidence in support of his score performances and to engage in the lively public debate about the scores,“ but that he “chose not to do so”, following up that Michell’s lawsuit ”seeks to chill the expression of free speech."

Billy Mitchell declined to comment. Twin Galaxies did not reply to The Independent's request for comment.