Issue #1 - The Significance of Tim Sczerby's DK Record
Both The King of Kong movie and its trailer compel the audience to believe that Billy Mitchell will stop at nothing to keep his Donkey Kong World Record. And, the movie also convinces viewers to believe that the Twin Galaxies staff will stop at nothing to help Billy keep his high-score records, rallying around Billy to protect his scores and do anything within their power to stop a competitor from taking away Billy's records.
These are fictions. Here's the proof:
Billy Mitchell scored 874,300 points at Twin Galaxies on November 7, 1982. His record stood until August 17, 2000 when Tim Sczerby scored 879,200 points in Auburn, NY. When Tim scored this new record, his achievement was published on the Twin Galaxies website and the story was sent out all over the Internet. Also, Walter Day, Chief Scorekeeper at Twin Galaxies personally phoned Tim and congratulated him on his great accomplishment. A few days later, Billy himself phoned Tim and congratulated him. These facts are supported by Tim Sczerby himself in an interview published here:
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=43&id=1498
At no time did Billy Mitchell, in a fit of desperation, attempt to wrest back his world record. In fact, he hardly cared about the loss and went about his normal life as a father of three children and a hot sauce manufacturer. His actions were simply to congratulate Tim Sczerby and say goodbye to his 16-year record on Donkey Kong.
Then, Steve Wiebe, who appeared on the arcade gaming scene for the first time, took the Donkey Kong, Jr. World Record from Billy Mitchell in July, 2002. Again Billy Mitchell took no action to try and regain his record. He simply let it go. And he congratulated Steve for fine work.
And, the staff of Twin Galaxies welcomed Steve with open arms, crowning him the new world champion. It should be noted that Steve enjoyed a tremendous amount of publicity from this accomplishment, appearing in many news stories. These news stories did not happen by accident; they were engineered by Walter Day and the Twin Galaxies staff who spent much time promoting Steve Wiebe as the new star of Donkey Kong, Jr. The resulting wave of publicity for Steve Wiebe brought a near-record number of visitors to the Twin Galaxies website making the TG website server crash again and again from the onslaught of attention that Twin Galaxies brought to Steve Wiebe.
Next, Steve Wiebe broke Tim Sczerby's Donkey Kong World Record on about June 30, 2003, scoring 947,200 points. Again, Twin Galaxies embraced Steve's accomplishment with open arms, publicizing his achievement with great success, getting Steve in many news stories, and, once again, making the Twin Galaxies website server crash from the overload of visitors. And, once again, Billy Mitchell did nothing to take back the DK record. And, to show the extreme degree of respect extended to Steve Wiebe by Twin Galaxies, referee Robert Mruczek spent the time to publish this detailed report on Steve's successful accomplishment:
http://web.archive.org/web/200312030425 ... php?t=1253
And, even later, in 2004, Robert Mruczek wrote a 30-page report that compared Billy and Steve's top scores, analyzing their respective high-score progressions attained on each level of the game. Robert's labor of love was produced out of tremendous respect for both Steve's and Billy's high score accomplishments. The following reports listed below can be downloaded free-of-charge by merely clicking on the links. Each report, meticulously prepared and created by Robert Mruczek, shows that Steve Wiebe was respected on the same level as Billy Mitchell. It's clear that Twin Galaxies was completely in support of Steve Wiebe's Donkey Kong efforts, otherwise there would have been no reason to expend such a prodigious amount of man-hours and creative intelligence on Steve if Twin Galaxies was opposing his success. The reports created by Robert Mruczek available for download are:
Why are these facts important?
Because they demonstrate that both Twin Galaxies and Billy Mitchell treated Steve Wiebe and Tim Sczerby fairly and honorably when they scored their new world records. However, the movie does not include these facts even though we have three highly-documented instances of Billy losing his world records without doing anything to protect them or win them back. And, in each case, Twin Galaxies fully embraced these record-breaking developments and even expended much time and manpower in giving these player public exposure.
Conclusion:
Film makers are expected to use fiction to tell a story. However, the public expects a documentary to tell a true story, based on all the facts that are available. In the case of \"The King of Kong,\" an exclusive set of facts were favored that supported a particular storyline, while other facts were carefully omitted or overlooked. Though Twin Galaxies embraced both Tim Sczerby and Steve Wiebe with open arms, treating them with respect and honor, \"The King of Kong\" does not give Twin Galaxies nor its staff any credit for that good will or for those good actions. These omissions - whether intentional or accidental - definitely challenge \"The King of Kong's\" status as a \"documentary.\"
Later, when potential stress surfaced in regards to Steve Wiebe's later scores, these moments were not caused by Billy attempting to protect his scores, nor by Twin Galaxies attempting to thwart Steve's progress. They were caused by other factors that will be discussed under another topic published in this Official Statement.
REFERENCES:
1.
New Donkey Kong Arcade World Record Set
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=46&id=28
2.
Archive.org - New Donkey Kong Record
http://web.archive.org/web/200102091540 ... smashed.pl
3.
Classicgaming.com: Interview Tim Sczerby
http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?&id=298
4.
Steve Wiebe Takes Donkey Kong, Jr. Record Away from Billy Mitchell (9/02)
http://web.archive.org/web/200212062236 ... ng_news.pl
5.
Steve Wiebe Takes Donkey Kong Record Away from Tim Sczerby (7/03)
http://web.archive.org/web/200312030425 ... php?t=1253
6.
Steve Wiebe on CNN
http://www.twingalaxies.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1317
Some of the media that Twin Galaxies inspired through its publicity:
Eastside Journal (Bellevue, WA) - July 17, 2002
The game of his life: Redmond's Wiebe sets new world record in Donkey Kong Jr. Journal Reporter A few weeks ago, Steve Wiebe put his two children to bed and slipped out to the garage of his Redmond home.He turned on his Donkey Kong arcade machine and pulled up the bar stool, painted Donkey Kong blue, that stood against the wall under a Donkey Kong poster. He positioned a video camera on a shelf just above his left shoulder. Then Wiebe glanced at his Donkey Kong clock on the wall: 10:00 p.m.For the next four and a half hours Wiebe stared at the video screen...
[/u]
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
