For decades, Billy Mitchell stood as video gaming royalty – the first player to achieve a perfect Pac-Man game and the first to reach an astonishing 1 million points on Donkey Kong. He proudly embraced the monikers of "The King of Kong" and "The Greatest Arcade Video Game Player of All Time."
But recent years have seen Mitchell endure a savage and humiliating fall from grace as long-held suspicions about his gaming feats have been confirmed – he is an utterly brazen cheat who not only falsified scores but tried to cover up his lies through manipulation and lawsuits.
The Self-Styled "Gamer of the Century" and His Questionable Records
Mitchell first made waves in the early 1980s when he set a new Donkey Kong record with over 800,000 points. It was an era where arcade gaming was still nascent and competitive scenes began blossoming.
In 1999, Mitchell recorded the first perfect score in Pac-Man – 3,333,360 points – cementing his status as a video game phenom. Two years later, he would top his own Donkey Kong record by becoming the first to break 1 million points.
| Year | Game | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Pac-Man | 3,333,360 points (First "Perfect Game") |
| 2001 | Donkey Kong | 1,047,200 points (First to break 1 million) |
But there were murmurs of suspicion around some of Mitchell‘s world record scores. Some noted that his Donkey Kong playing didn‘t seem to match that of his supposed tapes. And his supposed "Perfect Pac-Man Game" bore a striking resemblance to an emulated game.
Still, Mitchell bathed in the glory of being gaming‘s crown jewel. He relished the "King of Kong" label and self-described himself as the greatest arcade gamer ever. Who would dare challenge a legend over a few shadows of doubt?
Suspicions Confirmed – Mitchell‘s Scores Are Debunked as Fakes
In early 2018, things swiftly unraveled for Mitchell. The renowned score-tracking site Twin Galaxies conducted an exhaustive investigation into Mitchell‘s scores.
What they found was damning – almost his entire gaming resume was built on deception through the use of emulators. Emulators allow games to be played under easier conditions on PCs – granting major unfair advantages.
Most shocking was confirmation that both Mitchell‘s "Perfect Pac-Man Game" and his 1 million+ point Donkey Kong record were faked through emulation. These were THE feats that had sealed his reputation. And Mitchell had brazenly lied for years to protect his fraudulent records.
Twin Galaxies decisively stripped Mitchell of all his scores and issued a lifetime ban. It represented a brutal public shaming for someone who called themselves the "Gamer of the Century."
Mitchell‘s Bizarre Defamation Lawsuit Against Twin Galaxies Backfires
Billy Mitchell did not take his dethroning lying down. He immediately filed a defamation lawsuit against Twin Galaxies, shifting between claiming the score stripping was unfair and arguing that his reputation made him impervious to damage.
The lawsuit quickly became farcical. Mitchell‘s legal assertions were regularly mocked by the gaming community. He seemed oblivious to how frivolous his lawsuit was in trying to silence his critics.
But most damaging was the phone call recording submitted as evidence by Twin Galaxies. In it, Mitchell openly discusses a ploy to trick Twin Galaxies into verifying a falsified tape of a supposed next Donkey Kong world record over 1.3 million points.
The idea was to create a direct feed tape that hides the fact it‘s being played in an emulator. Mitchell admitted he could manipulate things to fool Twin Galaxies‘ analysts. It was a smoking gun confirming what observers had claimed for years – Mitchell‘s records were not achieved on arcade cabinet gameplay.
Beyond exposing his deception, the phone call also demolished Mitchell‘s argument that his stellar reputation made him invulnerable to defamation. Clearly his reputation was already tattered within the gaming community. The lawsuit was rightly tossed out in 2022.
David Race – The Pac-Man Champ Who Helped Take Down a Fake Gaming God
While Twin Galaxies‘ investigation built the foundation for Mitchell‘s downfall, another gaming great helped supply the final nails in the coffin – David Race.
Race, nicknamed "The Lion", attained his own legendary status within gaming by setting the recognized world record on Pac-Man – the first to break the 4 million point barrier with a score of 4,455,930.
Initially, Race was reluctant to believe claims that Mitchell had lied and cheated. As a staunch defender, he suggested Mitchell was too skilled to need falsifying scores.
But after conducting his own digging, Race reached the same conclusion as Twin Galaxies – the evidence against Mitchell was overwhelming. The Pac-Man and Donkey Kong records were complete phonies.
Beyond just recognizing Mitchell‘s lies retrospectively, Race would directly pry a confession from "The King of Kong" himself. After Mitchell sued Race in Florida for recording a phone call with Mitchell in Ohio (where recording calls is legal), the tape was submitted to the court.
Once again, Mitchell‘s own words damned him. Throughout the call, he rambles about his plans to fool Twin Galaxies and trick people into believing his Donkey Kong prowess remained unmatched so he could charge money for tapes and appearances.
Far from the gaming mastermind he portrayed himself as, the call exposed Mitchell‘s hare-brained schemes, overblown bravado, and refusal to admit his cheating was the reason scores were stricken.
In the end, Race won a legal victory and gets to recoup attorneys fees from Mitchell – worsening the financial sinkhole Mitchell‘s legal escapades created.
Why the Saga Represents a Modern Cautionary Tale
Beyond just the inglorious demise of a single gaming antihero, the Billy Mitchell saga carries deeper parallels as a distinctly modern monument of disgrace.
In many ways Mitchell and his outrageous ego was a product befitting the internet era where online personalities craft bombastic personas. But the same digital tools and networks that allowed his fame also facilitated his downfall.
The ubiquity of recordings and evidence documentation meant Mitchell‘s lies were catalogued for retrospective scrutiny. And the internet gave whistleblowers an open platform to conduct investigation and reveal inconvenient truths without gatekeeper obstacles.
When falsified feats become probable based on digital analysis, reputations built on swagger quickly crumble. Mitchell ascending unimpeded for years despite rumors of cheating seems unimaginable today thanks to better verification technology.
Indeed, the lunching of public figures over exposed misdeeds now feels like a common online phenomenon. But for Mitchell to be so brazenly unrepentant in trying to silence doubters rather than rebut evidence made his case particularly surreal.
Some speculate that the toll of legal costs around $100,000 and counting might force Mitchell into bankruptcy – a financial ruination matching his reputational downfall. It‘s a stark reminder that combining lies with litigation rarely turns out well when the truth emerges.
For the former "King of Kong" now deposed from his throne, his doomed crusade to sue detractors and resuscitate his fraudulent fame cements him as a supremely infuriating yet fascinating microcosm of hubris and deception. Any notions of him going quietly into the night have been emphatically extinguished.
But the calls persist from the gaming community around whether Mitchell‘s disgraced name deserves to be etched permanently for some legitimate feats accomplishments amidst his ruin. Or should the annals of video game glory be cleansed by scorching the earth of anyone who ever cheated the faithful fans who once revered their achievements?
That wider debate around posterity and redemption rages on. But when it comes to Billy Mitchell‘s reputational obliteration by his own hand, this purposeful fall from grace is undoubtedly total.