Today’s 538 Significant Digits includes this item:
1,047,200 points
That was Billy Mitchell’s score on “Donkey Kong” — the official first higher-than-a-million score on the game. Until Thursday, that is. An investigation by Twin Galaxies, a group which decides on the validity of arcade records, concluded that the evidence Mitchell cheated in order to obtain the score was sufficient to strip him of that title. Twin Galaxies will ban the competitive gamer from participating in their leaderboards. Steve Wiebe will now be recognized as the first person to get a million points on Donkey Kong. [Variety]
It was a number of years ago when it hit me: I am no longer anywhere near the pulse of the zeitgeist. I think it had something to do with not recognizing the names of celebrities in the Daily News gossip pages — or not even knowing what they did to be celebrated.
But this Donkey Kong thing. I am totally out of it.
What does Donkey Kong look like and where can one see one? What does Billy Mitchell do to support himself, assuming that he doesn’t get pennies for each Donkey Kong score? Is Billy Mitchell quite sane? Does this mean another reality TV show?
Am I asking the right questions?
Don’t bother answering. I really do not want to know.