Former Donkey Kong champ threatens to sue Guinness over record removal

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

Competitive video gamer Billy Mitchell is threatening "legal recourse" against Guinness World Records and the Twin Galaxies scoreboard if they don't retract "defamatory statements" against him and reinstate his expunged video game high score world records within the next two weeks.

Last April, in response to a dispute raised by Donkey Kong Forum's Jeremy Young, Twin Galaxies determined that a number of Donkey Kong score tapes submitted by Mitchell were not achieved on an "unmodified original DK arcade PCB [printed circuit board] as per the competitive rules." The scoreboard management thus decided to remove all of Mitchell's scores from its listings, including Mitchell's heavily publicized record for the first perfect Pac-Man score. Guinness, which partners with Twin Galaxies to adjudicate video game-based records, followed suit.

At the time, Mitchell said he planned to provide witnesses and documents that would "show that everything was done professionally, according to the rules." Mitchell has now attempted to do just that, sending Twin Galaxies a 156-page document dump outlining his disputes through a collection of screenshots, witness statements, and "technical evidence."

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