Donkey Kong scoreboard strips Billy Mitchell’s high score claims [Updated]

Enlarge / Mitchell rides an oversized Donkey Kong machine in the recent Citrus Bowl parade. (credit: Billy Mitchell / Twitter)

Update (Feb. 4, 2018): Former Donkey Kong world record holder Wes Copeland has presented new statistical evidence that he says suggests Mitchell's 1.05 million point game was patched together from multiple emulated plays. Drawing data from the KongTrackr analysis app, Copeland says Mitchell's run derives a significantly higher-than-average ratio of points from smashing enemies with the hammer.

Since the points derived from those enemy smashes are assigned semi-randomly (as detailed here), Copeland says such a statistically divergent performance "is evidence of splicing. Billy replayed the boards over and over until he got the right smash RNG [random number generation] to lock in his pace." Copeland adds that it's "extremely unlikely" such a performance could happen due to pure chance in a single run. While this statistical evidence is still a bit circumstantial, it certainly takes on added weight when combined with the evidence of MAME play presented below.

Amid all this unfolding drama, Robbie Lakeman managed to beat his own Donkey Kong world record in a livestreamed performance on Friday. Lakeman surpassed a December mark of 1,230,100 by scoring 1,247,700 points.

Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments