‘Donkey Kong’ Master From ‘King of Kong’ Documentary Stripped of World Records, Banned From Competition

This is bananas.

Can’t we have any heroes?

News has just broken that professional gamer Billy Mitchell, best known for his leading role in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, has been accused of cheating.

The NY Post reports that he was officially stripped of his Donkey Kong and other video game high scores and banned from submitting his best attempts to the world’s largest tracker of video game world records, Twin Galaxies. (You didn’t know such an organization existed, now did you?)

In case you don’t recall, here’s a little refresher on one of the most oddly compelling docs in recent memory: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hBs2oFjSWk

The Post has all the nasty details:

“With this ruling, Twin Galaxies can no longer recognize Billy Mitchell as the first million point ‘Donkey Kong’ record holder,” the group wrote in its announcement. “According to our findings, Steve Wiebe would be the official 1st million point record holder.”

The decision comes after months of research by the administrators of Twin Galaxies, which tracks world gaming records and helps the Guinness Book of World records validate gaming scores, according to a statement released by the group Thursday morning.

Way to go Steve Wiebe, we guess?

So wait, how did he cheat exactly?

The group writes in a statement released Thursday that Mitchell’s famous”Donkey Kong” score of 1,047,200 was not achieved on an arcade machine — a requirement for Twin Galaxies and Guinness — but rather through the use of emulation software.

“The rules for submitting scores for the original arcade”Donkey Kong” competitive leaderboards requires the use of original arcade hardware only,” according to the group. “The use of MAME or any other emulation software for submission to these leaderboards is strictly forbidden.”

Let that be a lesson to all you aspiring video game record holders out there: Using emulation software might seem like an easy way to shave down your score, but ultimately, you’re going to pay the price.

Billy, color us disappointed.