The allegations of cheating levied against Billy Mitchell are heating up again, as photographic evidence appears to suggest that his world record was achieved on a modified Donkey Kong machine. This would be in breach of the rules over on the leaderboard site, Twin Galaxies, backing their decision to remove his records from the site in 2018.
This comes as Mitchell continues to sue both Twin Galaxies and one of his accusers, YouTuber Karl Jobst, for defamation. While these cases haven't yet moved to trial, it's being assumed that this image will help Twin Galaxies and Jobst in their defences, as it seemingly contradicts statements previously made by Mitchell.
In the images, we see Mitchell and former Twin Galaxies referee, Todd Rogers, posing near a Donkey Kong machine. Given that the image was taken at the 2007 event in which Mitchell claims to have achieved his world record (the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers Convention), many are assuming this is the machine he would have played on. These would also be the only publicly available photographs linking him to the event, with Mitchell relying on eyewitness testimony to support his argument that he was there, and achieved the record live.
However, in the images, we can clearly see that the Donkey Kong machine has a red joystick. A quick search shows that the original machines have smaller, black joysticks. Modern third-party machines can be seen to have red joysticks, although considering these rely on emulation to play the game, they are disqualified by Twin Galaxies.
Unsurprisingly, Jobst has highlighted the image on his YouTube channel, using it to support this claim that Mitchell didn't play the game on original hardware. He further suggests that the red stick would allow the player to move in eight dimensions, as opposed to the original four, making the game much easier to play.
As for the origin of the images, Arstechnica reports that they were shared by professional Pac-Man player David Race last month. He says the pictures were provided to him by anonymous Micthell critic, Ersatz Cats, who wouldn't reveal their sources to Arstechnica. However, other sources in the report vouched for the authenticity of the images, saying that they have been shared among pro players for years.
Mitchell doesn't appear to have responded to the release of this image, and his Twitter account is currently set to private. He has always maintained that he achieved the records legitimately, and since taking legal action against his critics, he has had his Guinness World Records reinstated. In making the decision, Guinness World Records said that there wasn't "sufficient evidence" to back the claims of cheating.
Source: Read Full Article