"There'll always be the argument that video games are meant to be played for fun." "Believe me, some of it's a lot of fun." "Video games are meant to be played at home, relaxing on a couch amongst friends." "And they are, and that's fun." "But competitive gaming, when you wanna attach your name to a world record, when you want your name written into history, you have to pay the price." "With this, it's just like me and the machine." "I can--lt doesn't matter if you, you know--lf you let me down or someone else, it doesn't come through." "I can always go out there." "I'm in control." "And I'm glad you touch on this." "Do we have enough tape?" "This is important." "Everybody, even Grandma, games--meaning checkers, cards, if not now, in the past." "Show me even a freakin' nun or a hermit who hasn't done cards or checkers." "I don't drink. I don't smoke." "I don't do drugs." "I play video games, which I think is far superior an addiction than any of those other ones." "I wanted to be a hero." "I wanted to be the center of attention." "I wanted the glory." "I wanted the fame." "I wanted the prem girls come at me and say," ""Hi. I see that you're good at Centipede."" "I had somebody draw an analogy for me once that I always remembered." "The top French pilot in World War I shot down 24 enemy planes." "The top American pilot-- you don't know his name, do you?" "Nobody does." "But it's Eddie Rickenbacker." "Shot down 26 enemy planes." "The German Ace, the Red Baron." "Everyone knows who the Red Baron is." "That's 'cause he shot down 87 enemy planes." "I mean, he was the best." "There's just--There's a level of difference between people, and it translates into some games." "Donkey Hong and Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga and Defender, these are the games that caught the public eye." "These are the games people cared about." "And so if you wanna be known as being world-class, you gotta master one of those games." "I like the simplicity of it, and that's what you'll probably hear from a lot of people that like retro games is that it's the simplicity." "Those games challenge eye-hand coordination, mind-body coordination, fast reaction time, and comprehensive thinking, on a level that modern games don't." "Memorization and pattern recognition is key." "Because for you to get a single point further in an old game from the early eighties meant a tremendous increase of skill." "If you do not know the next pattern coming up in a Tron light-cycle event, you will lose your life." "Only the die-hards who, for some reason, really love those games, continue to stick with them." "But what we've done is had the mayor tie off the entire street so that life magazine could come to town and photograph the world's greatest video game players, who've been flown in especially for this life photographic session." "All these great superstars are coming from North Carolina," "California, Canada, many other places, to be photographed as the official world champions on many different games." "That was the first time two world-class players went head-to-head for a competition was life magazine." "_ Without a doubt I met players that were amongst the best in the world and maybe even would say or do whatever they could to make people believe they were the best in the world." "Well, at that time, he was the world record holder on Centipede." "But also at that time, he was the world record holder on Donkey Hong." "But we didn't know that, because someone else was invited there from Hansas City who, because of a claim they had made, it was presumed that they were the Donkey Hong champion." "Donkey Hong was the one that I first lied about." "But he had submitted a bogus score, and I finally met him there at life magazine, and I finally sat down to play him." "We had not been there long, and Bill said," ""Come on." "Let's play."" "I went in the arcade and sat down with Donkey Hong, and I beat him to a pulp." "Well, I was better than the best." "And I got-- l got 200,OOO against Bill." "Bill got 800,OOO on his first man in that game." "He shellacked me." "He shellacked me." "Basically, he walked away with his head down and humbled, and that brought him to the truth." "And from there, we worked together." "Well, the Bible-- Proverbs says," ""As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."" "Bill made me a better person, and did so by basically making me confess." "I've pointed out to Steve that he's the person he is today because he came under the wrath of Bill Mitchell." "In front of the 19 top players in the nation, actually North America, he did the highest Donkey Hong score possible and also found out that the game ends on the 22nd board." "Since, I so-called debuted on the scene at life magazine in 1982, there hasn't been anybody who's played even close." "When Billy Mitchell walks into an arcade, you know, everything stops." "There's electricity around Billy Mitchell." "Everybody wants to crowd around him." "Everybody wants to see him." "You know, everything about him is perfect, you know?" "Billy is just that person." "You know, he wants to represent." "If you could hack into the machine and program it to play itself, you couldn't even program it that well." "There's a glamour to Billy." "There's a specialness to Billy." "He was the first." "He was the first great, great player." "The fact of the matter is," "Bill is the best classic arcade gamer of our era." "It's actually carved a part of my personality that benefits me every day." "I mean, a burning passion never to settle for what I have in my business, in my family." "That's what competitive gaming has done for me." "He's a winner." "Billy Mitchell is absolutely a winner." "It's sort of like being in a maze, but everything you see is actually sauce." "The all-around most-seasoned person in the hot saucelchicken wing industry--yeah, for sure, me." "There's a production end of it." "There's the preparation." "When there's the sales end of it, there's not somebody who encompasses all of those areas like me that I've ever met." "He sells his hot sauce, he sells himself." "Because he's so charming and such a good ambassador for all gaming because he's positive, there's no reason, in my opinion, why Billy Mitchell couldn't end up on a Wheaties box someday." "The video arcade classic has finally been conquered." "On July 4, at a New Hampshire arcade, 34-year-old Billy Mitchell became the first person to master Pac-Man by recording the first ever perfect game." "# Billy Mitchell primo joystick dude #" "# Amazing in the maze, he ain't gonna lose #" "To get through every board, getting every dot, every energizer, every ghost that's applicable, to reach to the final 256th screen without dying?" "That's--lt's impressive in its own right." "The success of this was not just because someone got a perfect Pac-Man score, but because Billy Mitchell got a perfect Pac-Man score." "# Blue man in the corridor singing the blues #" "# A perfect game goes down #" "# Billy's on the move #" "If I have all this good fortune, if everything's rollin' my way, if all these balls have bounced in my favor... there is some poor bastard out there who's getting the screws put to him." "When I got laid off and I had time on my hands, I was thinking, "Well, what can I do" ""to kind of feel like I have control of something,"" "so I looked at Twin Galaxies." "I just--well, I typed in Donkey Hong world record, and some spreadsheet came up, and I saw what the score was." "It was held by Billy Mitchell, and it was, like, 874,OOO." "I go, "Hey, I can beat that."" "Almost there." "I mean, I'm not the kind of wife that's needy that I need him sitting on the couch with me every night." "I don't need that." "What I need is him in the house helping me with the kids or I need him being with the kids." "So he would want to come out here and play, and that would drive me crazy, 'cause he is definitely OCD." "When he is obsessed on something, he is so focused, and I have to be like, "Hello."" "Um, so then I just said, "You have to do it at night."" "is level 2 easy?" "Yeah, it's prem easy." "I've dreamed of, you know, being a musician for a living." "That's what my dream was." "He was brought up to be that he was smart, he was an athlete, he was talented, and for whatever reason, he could never get those to fit." "Steve was one of the original starving grunge bands here in Seattle, just starving." "The only people who came to see him was us." "With his music, it's almost like he didn't want people to know he was doing it." "He's a total paradox that way." "# l've been looking so long at these pictures of you #" "He has maybe a little social hang-ups here and there that, um-- that haven't allowed him to be as successful on one end as in other ends." "They got to the state finals, and Steve couldn't pitch." "I've probably seen Steve with tears in his eyes more than any other guy I know, uh, because of the frustration that would build in him." "And half the time, it was on the pitcher's mound." "He had hurt his arm." "I had pitched him too much." "I was the manager of the team." "It was a chance for him to shine in front of thousands of people." "That killed him-- that he couldn't pitch because it's that competitiveness in him." "# And we kissed as the sky fell in #" "# Holding you close #" "# How I always held close # l envisioned him as, uh, an engineer at Boeing." "My dad worked at Boeing for 30 some years, and the plan was to go to Boeing and be a lifer, as they call 'em." "But, um, things didn't work out." "I don't know if he told you that he was laid off the day we signed papers on our house." "Yeah." "# And you finally found #" "# All your courage to let it all go #" "He never has quite reached that pinnacle." "He never quite, in any of his endeavors, was regaled as the number-one guy, the guy that was better than the rest and was on top of the mountain." "Oh, he's just come up short in a lot of things in his life, and I just think, you know, nobody wants to do that all the time." "# Lost in the cold #" "# You were always so lost in the dark #" "# Remembering you # lt has my high score saved on there from last." "# Slow drowned, you were angels #" "# So much more than everything #" "# Hold for the last time #" "# Then slip away quietly #" "What plunged me into competitive gaming, never to come out, was Donkey Hong." "Donkey Hong." "Well, that was the first ever Mario game." "The whole thing is a construction site." "It's all these girders and elevators with ladders going from one girder to the next." "The whole goal, the whole time is to get past the obstacles that Hong is throwing at you and get--get the girl." "Well, Donkey Hong, without question, is the hardest game." "It's ridiculously difficult on the first screen." "Donkey Hong is releasing these barrels." "You got to jump over the barrels." "You gotta duck the barrels." "You can grab a hammer and hammer the barrels." "Okay, the secret about the barrel board is you can actually control the barrels." "Right above this ladder, you'll do a quick left, and then a hard right turn." "See how it went down?" "Went down again." "You gotta get past all the barrels, the fireballs, get up the ladders." "And as soon as you get to her," "Donkey Hong takes her away to the next level." "The average Donkey Hong game doesn't last a minute." "It's absolute brutality." "Each of the 18 elevator boards represents the greatest challenge in video game playing." "The average gamer on Donkey Hong will never get past the third elevator stage." "Just the slightest touch from one of these springs, kills you." "There's no hammer for them." "There's no way to defeat them." "All you can do is avoid them." "That's it." "And the secret to the third elevators is knowing which spring to go on, and then knowing which spring to move up the ladder on, and recognizing when you must retreat." "If you don't time it just exactly right, you will die." "It boils down to hardcore skill." "So I go on that one because it line up with the dashed line." "Now I'm waiting for one to line up with the solid line there." "I have said from the day I met Steve that his talent is in his hands." "He pitched." "He was at basketball." "He's a phenomenal drawer, and if you ever seen pictures that he's drawn, but he's very artistic." "It's operating on some subconscious level with him, I think." "When we were driving to Hansas or whatever, family trips, he'd sit there, and for a hundred miles would bang his head, you know, four--four time against the back of the seat." "Five, six, seven, eight, nine..." "Well, I've often thought that he maybe is a little autistic, that he's just that obsessive compulsive, 'cause he would get something in his mind." "He wanted to play drums, and I don't even know where he got that idea." "This is Derek's drum set, and it's not too bad." "It's--lt does the trick." "The actual game play involves so much eye-hand coordination, mind-body coordination, fast reaction time, and comprehensive thinking." "Such a high level of precise execution." "So much skill... involves so much learning." "You have to have deep comprehensive intelligence." "Um, for years and years, it was believed that Billy's record of 874,OOO in 1982 was really the highest score anyone would ever get." "And in fact, some of us have played this game every day or every week or every month since then, and no one's gotten close to that." "No one across that big length of time will ever be able to beat his world record." "Derek, look." "You're on TV." "See yourself?" "Say, "hi."" "No." "I was havin' the game of my life." "I was--Think I got 600,OOO, uh, and I hadn't died yet." "And when I started hearing some noises coming down the stairs, screaming" "And it's all on tape, and l" "That's the tape I had to send in to--to Twin Galaxies." "Everything I'm all about by practicing transcendental meditation, and I like to see that mirrored in the way I apply myself to the video game world, in that I seek to find champions and watch them grow and become even greater" "as they begin to unfold more and more of their full potential, which is what we do when we do TM." "If Walter, through all these years, all the way since 1982, hadn't continued as a labor of love, then there would be no central organization for competitive video game playing." "Why do we do it?" "Because we actually love this." "Because we enjoy this." "We're fascinated by this." "There's just something in our genes that my group, Twin Galaxies, raising the banner high to do this and move--move organized video game playing into the future." "Walter opened the door to truly-- l was gonna say international, but at the very least, national competitive gaming." "We just happened to call it Twin Galaxies." "The name burst into my brain." "Walter Day didn't do that by accident." "Didn't get lucky." "He--He created his own empire." "Join us again for Video Game News Update." "I'm Walter Day at the Twin Galaxies international scoreboard." "It's been a wearying thing being the scorekeeper because everybody picks on me, you know?" "'Cause I'm the man, you know?" "I'm a police officer." "Video games need a guy like Bush, who will say," ""Look, this is the way we're gonna do it." "This is the rule, and if you don't like it, tough."" "You've got to have that." "If you didn't have that in the NFL, who'd win?" "How do you declare a champion unless there are rules?" "And if you break 'em, you lose." "The best features about him are also his biggest downfall." "People can just run over him because he's so nice." "Twin Galaxies survives because people like Walter, people like Robert Mruczek, people like me, who participate all for a passion of competitive gaming." "Nobody draws a paycheck." "I don't see details." "I see big pictures, you know?" "I see the big concept that lies behind the whole issue, and then I tweak that." "I can't do details and details." "Twin Galaxies needs a staff of detail-oriented people like Robert Mruczek." "Um, anything that's unexplainable, out of the ordinary, we have to keep our eyes out for." "That's not to say we're infallible." "When I have to watch that pile of eight tapes over there for Dwayne Richard's two-day nibbler performance, that's 48 straight hours of paying attention, to make sure that he's doing everything correctly." "Package from the Metroid team in Brazil, some Atari 2600 records." "Gotta watch that." "These things take time to veri_." "And I have to look at every single one of these." "Like I showed you over here." "This is just 200 videotapes." "That's nothing." "This is the real stuff that I have to do." "I see world's records in my room set just about every single day." "Some people think a world's record is what's set at the Olympics or at the end of a baseball season." "I see this every single day, and not just sometimes once." "It's exciting." "Derek!" " Stop playing Donkey Hong!" " You stop it!" " Stop playing Donkey Hong!" " Maybe." "Yeah, that was close." "That was actually good." "You stop it!" "Stop it!" "Derek, stop it." "No." "Stop playing Donkey Hong." " Derek?" " Stop playing Donkey Hong." "Derek, I'm gonna throw away your rest if you don't stop it." "Derek!" "Somebody has accomplished something that not only I can't do, that nobody else has ever been done before, and it's exciting to see that firsthand." "That's how you play Donkey Hong." "New world record." "Welcome back." "Bill Gates isn't necessarily the most famous name in Redmond tonight." "Coming up, meet the man who's at the top of his game." "A Donkey Hong world record." "He was a big celebrity there for a bit in Seattle." "I was just doing it." "Just thought it would be a neat achievement." "I didn't think it would ever blow up to be a big story." "He goes, "You're the first lady of Donkey Hong."" "I'm like, "Oh, my God."" "Even though it was this silly video game thing, it's not many of us that have a buddy who's the best in the world at something." "That was a godsend to him in the last couple of years to get him through." "Like it might be was like a safe haven for him, yeah." "# No equality #" "# Be still # # l will not accept defeat # # l will have you #" "# Yes, I will have you # # l will find a way #" "# And I will have you #" "We're at Hamiakin Junior High, and I'm here in my seventh and eight grade science classroom." "It's my first year at teaching, so it's been a challenge, but very enjoyable so far." "Sand, soil, and the cornstarch." "I went to, uh, the city university, which had a program and" "One year, you had a master's degree, so we roughed it out for a year." "And here I am today, so it finally worked out." "It's fun, and he's not making it so it's like," ""This is science." "This is boring."" "He talks to us about stuff that's not just like homework and schoolwork and school and stuff." "Okay, here is" "My history with Donkey Hong is, I have the world record." "Okay, I didn't know it was a world record." "It's for Donkey Hong, is it?" "Oh, my gosh." "There is like--lt's... all the science teachers here are weird." "Steve deserves a lot of credit for that because he also..." "He also broke the record on Donkey Hong Jr." "So he--he took two--He took two of Billy's titles, like, right away from him." "And I don't mean to sound, you know, crude or anything." "But he did." "He did." "Officially, he did." "That was the last world record that Bill ever had." "That was the last one to go." "He had five world records in 1985, and he had the Donkey Hong, and then Steve Wiebe took it away." "It's far more difficult when you're on top, anybody who's on top, to stay on top." "Billy's got a lot of things up his sleeve." "He likes to keep quiet in situations like that." "So, you know, somebody may have taken him down now, but behind closed doors, Billy's got something planned." "That's Billy Mitchell." "On my phone, it says, "Never surrender."" "If somebody beat his record, he'd have a plan to beat it back." "I'm sure." "The worse thing that could happen would be to give somebody the credibility of a score that doesn't deserve it." "But even far worse than that would be to deny somebody the credibility when they deserved it." "If I'm not there, I don't know." "Get this." "I came home one day and there was two people in my garage looking at my machine." "They wanted to-- They're spies." "It was a Saturday." "It was in July or August." "And my mom was here 'cause I was getting ready to go to work." "And these guys knocked on the door, and I don't think I knew they were gonna be here at all." "And they said that who they were, and they wanted to come in and look at the machine." "And I knew I had to leave, and I said," ""l'm not comfortable in letting you do that." ""l have to go to work." "My mom is here." ""Steve's gonna be home shortly." "You just need to wait." "You just need to wait."" "To find out at an ultra elite level, whether or not a score is good, sometimes we have no choice but to call in the pros." "Bri--Brian Huh, the Donkey Hong player, went to Steve's place." "Bill asked me to do it, but I didn't have time to go do it, so Brian did it." "Went there with one of the most respected gamers of all time," "Perry Rodgers, to back him up." "Billy Mitchell and Twin Galaxies asked me to, um, because I live in the area near him, to go investigate him." "So we went out to his house." "I mean, I'm the homeowner." "It's my house." "I'm the wife of the Donkey Hong guy." "They should've respected my wishes and left my mom alone and not come in, but they didn't." "They took apart his Donkey Hong machine, and started taking pictures of everything." "You know, trying to look for an excuse to try to invalidate his score." "They saw this box that has Roy Shildt's return address on it." "So they looked over and they said," ""Roy Shildt?" "Why is Roy Shildt's name on there?"" "Roy Shildt is the type of gamer that would like nothing more than to see Twin Galaxies get an egg on its face." "I want you to remember that no punk bastard ever got a gnarly piece of poontang by being sensitive and considerate." "He calls himself Mr. Awesome." "He drives the Awesomobile to fame and fortune, as he says on his web site." "He's jealous of Billy because Billy gets attention from beautiful women wherever he goes." "And, essentially, he wants to be like Billy." "I mean, I've seen the world champion cherry pit spitter on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "And if that guy should be on the Tonight Show, at least I can just--just be a celebrity for a day." "I didn't even get that." "I got no recognition at all." "I didn't get to be on any television shows." "It's like l-- It's like I was a ghost, and I just don't feel it's right, and I just want a little recognition." "I'm not necessarily to become a celebrity." "Hey, Billy." "How you doing, man?" " How are you doing?" " Billy, how are you?" "I'm perfect." "Haven't you read?" "Twin Galaxies does a lot to promote Billy 'cause it's very much to Twin Galaxies' advantage and very much to the whole gaming hobby's advantage for Billy to become a star." "When Walter Day published that book in 1997, with all those egregious errors in there," "Bill Mitchell saw it." "And he knew they were wrong." "He knew they were mistakes." "But he tried to pretend like they were real to try to take my Missile Command score down." "Roy and I met at California Extreme, and he knew that I was-- had a capability of beating Billy on Donkey Hong." "Steve Wiebe is the one who had unlocked the secrets to Donkey Hong to figure out how to get a million points." "He offered to buy me a board, a Donkey Hong board, because mine had broken." "And I didn't have the money." "So, you know, it was a mutual-beneficial relationship." "He would buy me a board." "I would have the opportunity to beat Billy's record, and at the same time, I would take Billy down and seek Roy's revenge on Billy." "Um, and it seemed good at the time, you know?" "And unknowing to me, I didn't know the history between the bad blood with Roy and Billy, and" "To attempt something like this for the sole purpose of taking down one of Bill's scores, it's like a...a slap in the face." "They would say that I somehow monkeyed with the board or something, they-- but they wouldn't have any evidence." "They looked at the board." "They took the pictures of the board, and they couldn't find anything wrong with it." "The fact that the right gummy substance on the right chip out of all these chips, in the right spot on the right board." "I mean, l--l--l--l have to say there's a conspiracy here." "Any board that's worked on could have a problem." "To find out that this gamer potentially has a fraudulent score has upset Billy's master plan for what he wanted to do." "I mean, when you come home and see two guys in your garage, and you know why-- and you've learned why they're there, and you got to-- from a guy like Bill Mitchell, I mean, you know," "who's done crazy thing after crazy thing after the next crazy thing, you know?" "Billy Mitchell was one of the evaluators, which seemed a little strange that the guy whose records Steve is competing against is deciding whether or not Steve's records are valid." "Even if that board is a completely legitimate board," "Roy's taint on it is too strong." ""Roy Shildt's a liar." "Roy Shildt's a cheater." ""Roy Shildt's full of crap." "Roy Shildt's out to get me." ""And he's crazy, blah, blah, blah, blah."" "Well, he threatened Bill Mitchell physically." "Uh, in fact, he has threatened Bill Mitchell's life." "No, I did not." "I did not. I did not." "He threatened his own life to make it look like me because for whatever-- to gain leverage with the other-- with other people, I don't know." "He figured--What he" "What he knows that my Missile Command score is genuine." "No matter what I say, it draws controversy." "Sort of like the abortion issue." "If you're for it, you're a son of a gun." "If you're against it, you're a son of a gun." "Uh, I'm not God." "I don't have all the answers." "And so I have to be careful how I share my opinions." "So Roy just was trying to help me out, and I accepted his offer." "I just, you know..." "It's just too bad that association with him, I never thought that would hurt me." "We couldn't accept a pretender board, so to speak." "So we couldn't accept the score." "I would encourage Steve just to leave that board behind, leave Roy behind, and only play on other Donkey Hong machines like the one at Funspot, for example." "To me, most importantly, is you travel to a sanctioned location, like Funspot." "Uh, that makes it official." "If tomorrow Tiger Woods goes and he golfs a 59, big deal." "If he does that at Augusta, that's where it counts." "He's never really asserted himself in a way that I think he should." "It's been-- just disappointed so many times where you just kind of, like, throw your hands up and go," ""Well, let's move on to the next thing."" "Everything would've fell right into place, but he forgot about one thing:" "that I would--about me convincing Steve Wiebe not to be a chump, talking him out of being-- out of chumpatizing himself." "I didn't think twice about sending him to back east." "It was like, "Absolutely." "Go kick some ass."" "Hi." "My name is Justine Barker, and I'm Miss Winnipesaukee." "I would like to welcome you to the seventh annual" "American Classic Arcade Museum Tournament at Funspot." "Funspot has become the best recognized place worldwide for those who want to set a world record on a classic game." "# You're the best around #" "# Nothing's gonna ever keep you down #" "# You're the best #" "Funspot is the Mecca of classic arcade games." "That place is awesome." "Funspot's the premier place where the media comes and meets with the superstars." "That's--You don't see maybe a lot of DDG, which is drop dead gorgeous if you don't know-- girls who are playing the games." "The world's best players of classic games are coming here to do what they do best." "Play well." "# You're the best around #" "# Nothing's gonna ever keep you down #" "# You're the best #" "# ...around #" "Very recently, just a few months back, I turned 30, and I retired, and I moved here to New Hampshire." "And I live right close to Funspot." "I play games at Funspot every day now." "I'm gonna have ten pieces of well done bacon, I'm gonna have four hardboiled eggs." "I'm gonna have three pancakes, and hopefully, play some great games." "Here I am in my garage." "We're gonna give Billy Mitchell a call, see if he's up to a challenge at Funspot." "Let's go ahead and dial him up." "Hi." "You've reached Bill Mitchell." "I'm sorry I'm unavailable to take your call." "Please leave your name and phone number." "I'll call you back as soon as possible." "Thank you." "At the tone, please record your message." "When you finish recording-- l got a phone message." "press "1" for more options." "Hey, Billy." "This is Steve Wiebe." "Just calling to see how you're doin'." "Hope everything's okay with you." "Just seein' what your plans are for Funspot." "I was--Walter Day invited me out there." "And I was just wonderin' it'd be cool if we could maybe, uh, just have a kind of friendly competition thing." "I help a lot of people who wanna go to contests." "When I look at different people who were my favorites, who I'd wanna help, she's at the top of the list." " Surprise." " Oh, my God." "And at the ripe age of 80, she's gonna go to Funspot, and she's gonna set a world record on Qbert." "Okay." " That's the challenge." " All right." " Is that agreed?" " Yeah." "All right." "# Nothing's gonna ever keep you down #" "# You're the best around #" "# Nothing's gonna ever keep you down #" "You know, we have a Donkey Hong machine here that Funspot purchased in its year of issue, and it might even be a little bit tougher to play here." "People complain about getting too many wild barrels." "And although it's totally a random element, uh, if you're gonna set a score, you come to Funspot, set it on their Donkey Hong that everybody knows about." "They won't give me my record, so they've urged me to come out and do it live." "And I think it's cooler to do it live, too, so... I'm prem amped up about Donkey Hong." "Because I am a serious contender on Donkey Hong." "I've been trying to actually beat the score that Billy Mitchell got back in 1982." "Uh, Nicole, she's, uh--She was stressing about being home this weekend with the kids without me." "She's probably getting sick of the Donkey Hong thing." "It doesn't seem to die." "This is a big weekend, and I'm really hoping that this fellow shows up because, um, you know, he'd like to tell you that, uh, he's the Donkey Hong champion." "And, um, the fact of the matter is, um, all of us have not seen him play Donkey Hong." "No one really noticed me at first." "I was kinda lookin' to see who I'd pay the money to to get in the tournament, signed in." "I recognized Robert Mruczek." "Zack is about 30 seconds away from dying." "So I just prem much walked over to the Donkey Hong machine." "Okay." "We might have a good story." "It looks like the mysterious player from the West Coast, Steve Wiebe is here, um, playing Donkey Hong." "So maybe I, uh--l'm gonna stop watching the tournament, and we'll go over, see him." " Hey, Walter." " You did it, man." " Good to see you." " Good to see you." "Yeah." "He didn't say anything to me, unless he..." "Probably a week, or a few days ago." "Steve, apparently, as I understand it, is here right now to prove to everyone that he's got what it takes." "But with Donkey Hong, it's, you know--it's a little random." "You could get, um, bad luck with a barrel--with the barrels." "You can get bad luck with the fireballs, with conveyor belts, with the elevators." "Because that's a tough machine." "These people think that the machine is possessed, really." "Even Bill thinks it's possessed." "But, um, if Steve can pull off 850,OOO or higher on that machine, that's a good score." "Well, Billy Mitchell's the champ, and I guess that makes me the prodigy." "So we've got the prodigy against the newcomer." "You can really make a comparison between an athletic event, um, and this because this is, you know, this is four days of, you know, really of alertness and paying attention, and, uh, you know," "not as hard as doing a decathlon or a triathlon but still very, very hard." "Do you want me to get it?" "That's Funspot." "Hello." "Hey, Brian." "How you doin'?" "Steve Wiebe walked in, so I've been over at the Donkey Hong the whole time." "Um, what do you think?" "Um, I'm gonna be, uh, you know, playing over Steve Wiebe's shoulder." "All right." "I'll talk to you later." " Okay." " Bye." "Bye." "Brian Huh came over, and he's one of the guys that came to my house that fateful afternoon to check out my machine." "We're about to pass 520,OOO On One Man." "So we really have, uh, have a memorable game here at the Funspot tournament." "And maybe-- maybe I'll skip dinner and squeeze in a game, and we'll come back with a score on there." " Come right in, Brian." " Yep." "That ape is very, very cunning, and he will do what he needs to to stop you." "I couldn't get up fast enough, and it got me on the left." "Yeah." "I scored 229,OOO points." "Prem weak game, considering I played a few already." "A little bit half than what Steve scored, and Steve's up again." "All right." "We brought you to Qbert." "You dedicated time to it." "You said you'd give up some of your other vices in order to practice." "We're not gonna lose." "We're not gonna be disappointed." "We're going there to win." "But I have one project, one thing far more important." "What I need you to deliver is this." "What is this?" "This is a score that they've wanted to see for a long time, and I've held it for all too long." "You give it to Robert or you give it to Walter." "You can lose your luggage, but don't lose the tape." " Okay." " Okay?" "I'm doing it just for the fun of it." "When I do an actual score, I'll do it in person." "He's a very devious person." "He works things out to his end very well." "We're really seeing a great game here." "Uh, it almost--Uh, Steve almost lost a man right there at the end of that board." "He got a lucky, lucky break." "The randomness went the opposite way that it usually goes." "And, uh, Steve is still going here." "Oh. I didn't see that." "Steve Wiebe is on his second man." "He's at 696,OOO." " Who is this guy?" " What?" "This is Steve Wiebe." " l won't bother you anymore." " No problem, man." " l just wanna say hi." " Yeah." "Nice meeting you." " Yeah, you, too." " All right." "He could beat it if he-- if he" "He'd have to have a really good game." "I don't think he knows the tricks that Billy knows, but I hear he's very good on the escalator stage." "Okay." "Well, right now Steve Wiebe has 870,OOO points on an active game of Donkey Hong." "Uh, if he clears a few more boards, he's gonna have a shot at getting to the kill screen." "Uh, as far as I know, no one's ever achieved the kill screen on the Donkey Hong machine at Funspot." "Numerous classic games, they all have something in common." "They have an end to the game play." "There's not quite enough memory for the final board." "It's called a "kill screen" because basically, there's no way to finish the level." "That some sort of random data, or code, inside the program, ends up getting used for what you see on the screen." "Donkey Hong is really strange in that it actually lets you play the fi--um, the kill screen level for maybe five seconds or so." "Everything looks normal and then, suddenly, Mario just up and dies on you." "The people who could get besides myself, that have been seen getting to the end of Donkey Hong..." "Gee, now that I think about it, I don't think anybody has." "If anybody wants to see, there's a Donkey Hong kill screen coming up." "There's a Donkey Hong kill screen coming up if anybody wants to watch." "You got to be able to perform in the show with someone who's a contender staring straight at you, staring at the game," "Possibly even playing mind games with you." "I mean, it's all-- it's part of being a champion." "You have to overcome it." "There's a potential Donkey Hong kill screen if you wanna watch." "I can tell he's not on my side." "He's one-- He's a disciple of, uh, Billy." "This is, uh--You know, he's gonna have to play it perfectly." "He's at the hardest part of Donkey Hong." "And, uh, you know, it's not gonna get any easier." "So we may have an exciting moment here or, you know, the pressure may get to him." "One of those random elements might happen." "Uh, sounds like he just cleared another board, but we could have a wild barrel or some aggressive fireballs." "I thought I was gonna be the first Funspot kill screen." "And then, I had-- l had three fireballs trap me." "I had the hammer in my hand." "They still got me." "So anything can happen in Donkey Hong." "So, uh, for someone else to beat me to the kill screen would be a let down, but let's see what happens." "Maybe he'll--Maybe he'll crack under the pressure, and maybe I'll get my chance to do it first." "There's a Donkey Hong kill screen might be coming up, if anybody wants to see it." "Hey, Todd, if you're interested, there might be a Donkey Hong kill screen in a couple of minutes." "I think the energy kind of picked me up." "I was feeling kind of like a zombie in the middle of the game." "But towards the end, I got, you know, a little bit of a natural rush going from the crowd and the excitement." "So that kind of boosted me and put me over the top to complete the game." "The kill screen." "The kill screen kicked in." "This is the highest Donkey Hong score done in public." "Um, Walter Day stated that this was the highest score ever done, and this is the first kill screen achieved on Funspot's machine." "Steve Wiebe has become the third person to reach Donkey Hong's kill screen." "This is completely hard verification." "You know what I mean?" "There's nothing stronger than having it be done in front of a crowd." "The process, it stands for itself." "He did it in front of all of us, but this solves any kind of doubt that there could have ever been." "Now you'll get all the accolades you deserve and that's-- that's just the way it is but, you know..." "So it's good." "And I guess there was kind of like an impromptu press conference after the-- after the score happened." "There were, you know..." "There were cameras on the game." "There were cameras on Steve Wiebe." "There were cameras on the crowd looking at Steve Wiebe." "I didn't get an exact count of the people." "There were a lot of other witnesses in the crowd and people watchin' it, so, you know, we have a verified score on a legitimate Donkey Hong machine for Steve Wiebe now." "We just got off the internet, where l logged on the front page of the Twin Galaxies web site the news story that Steve Wiebe just scored 985,600 points, which, essentially, is the officially recognized first place score on the web site." "So he's been announced as the world champion." "We'll see what happens now with Steve putting the pressure back on Billy Mitchell." "Thank you." "I think it hit him prem hard." "Thank you for volunteering your phone." "This was an important call to" "Oh, no, no." "I understand that." "Yeah, I can imagine." "He probably wasn't real thrilled." "Yeah, he said, now his playing out the tape that he submitted is more important, uh... more important than ever, I guess." " Don't share that with anybody." " No--l--Well, obviously." "We've got everybody on the invitation-only list." "And, uh, you know what?" "Walter is here." "We're just kind of, you know, tellin' jokes and havin' fun." "Um, who's there?" "Like Todd and Duane?" "Yeah." "What I mean is, it's probably a good idea, like, if I say hi to Todd." "Actually, would you believe he's in the middle of a--of a Lady Bug game." "I don't think we wanna interrupt." "We have a Lady Bug cabaret in the cabin, and Todd's got a score going." "Okay, we're gonna get Walter on the phone." "Um, a couple of hours ago, we were all at the Funspot, and, uh, Brian Huh said that Billy, um, had a delivery for us here at the cabin." "Oh!" "Brian Huh, he's kind of like" "He's kinda like really good friends with Billy." "He talks to him all the time." "Um, he said everybody is gonna wanna see what's on the tape." "Brian Huh is there?" "He knows everything to do with the tape." "He knows to guard the tape with his life." "I explained to him." "He could lose his life, but don't lose the tape." "Who wants to hear the announcement?" "So even in Florida, the long arm of Billy Mitchell has reached in here to Funspot seven to cause more interesting developments." "Now, we're gonna start on this TV screen the videotape and, essentially, if Steve Wiebe or Brian Huh or anybody else can also beat the score on that tape by about 4:" "OO tomorrow afternoon, he'll give them $10,OOO, okay?" "And we know Billy Mitchell can pay these promises, too, okay?" "So he has it while I'm tryin' to get a million live." "He has it set out so people, you know, at Funspot can gather around and...and look at his tape." "Okay, here we are." "We got cameras on the screen, cameras on the crowd." "No one's gonna miss this moment." "998,2." "Here we go." "We have every eye in the crowd focused right on your screen." "Everybody's lookin', every camera's on here." "We're not gonna miss this for anything." "I don't think there's any distraction that can pull everyone away right now." "Oh, and look at that." "And with the bonus, we have the first million point game of Donkey Hong." "And the score-- And the score reads zero." "Six zeroes all the way across." "Not even Helen of Troy had that much--much attention." "Billy kinda steal the show, and he's not even there." "It's kinda the way they, you know, were kind of diffusing what I was going for, you know, in hyping up Billy's, you know, videotape." "1,047,200 points is the highest score any have ever seen." "I don't know. I suppose Walter's got to get in that office to that computer now, doesn't he?" "Okay, um, go ahead and, uh..." "Go ahead and hand to Walter the phone real quick." "Hi, Billy." "Prem good." "It's all been wonderful." "Billy's probably the closest person to being a Jedi of any of the players, and he refers to it with humor as "Obi-Wan Henobi-ing" people." "Steve Wiebe not having the opportunity to view anything that Bill Mitchell does." "I mean, Bill Mitchell plays at a great advantage." "When Billy Mitchell is watching" "Steve's world-record winning tapes, he's in a position to study Steve's technique." "When the man says, "l wanna see your papers,"" "and Obi-Wan Henobi goes," ""You don't need to see our papers,"" "and suddenly the guy says, "You can go." "I don't need to see your papers."" "You saw the tape, which is no doubt a copy because I'm sure he didn't send the master." "He's gonna send a copy or the master to Rob Mrcuzek, who is the chief referee of Twin Galaxies." "I try to promote Twin Galaxies as "integrity above all."" "Um, I will do that with my dying breath." "And if a gamer knowingly cheats or tries to put one past us, we will make sure that the score is not recognized." "Did the gamer pause at any time?" "Illegal glitches or glitch abuse." "Did they cheat?" "Did they pause the game after the load-up for the purpose of using a flying erase head to then reload the game at different settings?" "I gotta look for things like that." "This tape may be done in a week, week and a half, to answer your question." "All these wonderful games are fixed to the left." "Walter is entering this into the Internet as we speak." "Well, Billy Mitchell is being upgraded." "We're officially submitting his score." "Uh, 1 ,047,OOO and how much, Billy?" " Was it 200 or 300?" " Two hundred." "That's what I thought." "Right on the barrels, yeah." "It's kind of ironic that he went" "He was a guy that pushed for live scores all the time." "And now here I am at Funspot busting my ass to get a live score and he just submits taped scores now and then gets the record." "World record headquarters." "Can I help you?" "If this score, this "Donkey Hong" defines Billy Mitchell, then why could he not find time in his life to go to Funspot?" "Steve did." "Steve has a job." "Steve has a family." "Steve has kids." "He went." "Why can't Billy?" "I think he feels that pressure to, um, to meet people's expectations of him, and he puts a lot of pressure on himself, and if he doesn't succeed, I think he feels like he's failed them." "And he feels that deeply, I think." "If I were to break a million, he wanted to maybe show that, you know, I've already done it because no one knows that I've done it, too." "I haven't really thought too much about, um... you know, the--the controversy." "I've kind of let it go since I, you know, I went to Funspot, did--did my best." "Got my score up." "I've been killing myself for like-- with school 12 to 14 hours, prepping three classes and grading-- every--every day after school." "Almost there till eight." "A lot of my songs are like big rock songs, with lots of guitars in them, lots of layers of vocals." "Here's one called "Three Lies." l'm gonna sing this to you guys in the midst of this cold summer day." "This is who I really am." "I'm some guy out there who's supposed to be an artist, who's up there just getting wild and crazy." "# Didn't I tell you #" "# You, you, you, you #" "# Never not to love #" "'Cause I'm being-- l'm being Mr. Scorekeeper, and I've been doing it for 25 years, so there's all these automaton things I can turn on." ""Okay." "Yes." ""And the reason for this is that" ""and that the reason for that is this," you know." "Now I'm--You know, I'm ready to-- l'm ready to let it go." "# Two lies are more than plenty #" "# But three lies, I'll probably be saying #" "# Goodbye, love #" "No matter how many people get involved in this, it's still my child, 'cause it came right out of my psyche, you know." "But still, the others are more attached to it, and they believe they need it more." "Part of the reason I'm still here doing it is for them to help them have the benefit of this, or the happiness of this, so that it can go on and continue to benefit people." "Because it's in such a place that I don't have to do Twin Galaxies, but I really would like to see it have closure that's positive." "Boy, I got cold fingers." "It's cold." "I often have people ask me what my handle is, what my three initials are." "I mean, come on." "I tell people, "Look at me."" "What do you think my three initials were?" "If you don't know, you're not looking hard enough." "T.l.E.?" "No." "Which one was I wearing yesterday?" " The America" " U.S.A." "U.S.A. So I had Latin friends and I had Canadian friends, and I always had to keep the Americans on top." "Hello." "This is a message for Walter." "This is Craig Glenday calling from Guinness World Records." "Guinness from England called." "They want me to call them back immediately." "Hello." "Craig speaking." "Craig, this is Walter Day with Twin Galaxies." "How are you?" "They're announcing to the world that they trust everything we do and that they rely on everything we do as being true and honest, and so that's why they're going with us as the official scorekeepers and providers of electronic gaming content" "for their upcoming books." "It's become very complicated." "So to have someone like Walter and his team who just know everything there is to know about computer games, um, was for us a godsend." "Since older people also read your book, a certain number of people would care what the world record is on Donkey Hong." "We look forward to being a part of Guinness." "Yeah, yeah." "It's just an, uh, reward to be here." "You know, working with Twin Galaxies." "You just recorded a big piece of Twin Galaxies' history, you know?" "You saw what it said." "They're announcing to the world we're the official scorekeepers and people have to be verified by us." "Wait until you see the poster upstairs I just did to turn the process of submitting to Guinness into a contest." "When you wanna put a score up and you wanna have a title of world champion, you're competing against everybody in the world." "You want a title for your own living room?" "Man, I'll send you that title." "Your own arcade?" "Man, I'll sign it, and I'll make up a paper, and I'll send you a plaque." "You want your name in the Guinness Book of World Records and in the Twin Galaxies international scoreboard?" "You have to earn it." "I have to earn it." "There's a lot of scores I've gotten." "And when the time comes and the pressure is that hard, I'll have to do it in a public forum, as I always have." "is that truthful?" "is that true?" "Then we better get practicing." "The only thing to do is to" "Yeah, go somewhere and break 1,OOO,047 live." "And that would be the only way to do it for sure, you know?" "There would be no gettin' screwed over." "I've got kicked around like the dog for so long, I don't trust referees." "This is the contest that gets them into the Guinness Book of world Records, so they would have that inspiration." "But as far as my skills, I'm" "Yeah, I'm feeling on the top of my game." "And I'd love to see Bill defend his title against Steve Weibe, head-to-head." "That'd be great." "It's all about head-to-head competition." "He's kinda one of my tougher students, he goes," ""Yeah." "When are you gonna go kick that guy's ass?"" "And I go, "Watch your language."" "And I go, "l'm gonna do it here soon."" "And if someone is going to break a classic arcade game record, they're gonna have to come prepared." "Maybe that's what I need." "So I can be at my best, have him there." "# Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past #" "# You must fight just to keep them alive # l was hoping Billy would be there so we could compete head-to-head." "He's been--always an advocate of live scores, live scores." "But now, he's all of a sudden Mr. Videotape." "It just--l mean, I know to win is, like, so important." "But to blatantly do things that are against the rules and know in your heart that you didn't do it correctly and get credit for it..." "We know what kind of-- Is there any satisfaction there?" "I don't see-- l don't see any." "I just need one favor from you." "I know it's--of all you've done for me, I just-- give me a shot at it without you, you know, kind of, bein' my backbone." "I need to, kind of, attack it by myself." "It says, "Good luck, Steve, in Donkey Hong."" " All right." " Hnock 'em dead." " l will." " You will." ""Work is for people who can't play video games." " Billy Mitchell."" " That's right." "Out of the entire global classic gaming hobby, there's one significant rivalry that's equivalent to the big rivalries in history:" "YankeeslRed Sox, MarislMantle, Heckle and Jeckle." "All the big rivalries in history, you know." "This is up there on that level." "So Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe are going for the top spot in the forthcoming book of world records on Donkey Hong." "Hello, Billy." "This is Steve Wiebe." "I really think we need to settle this thing." "May the best man win." "So we'll be seein' you next week." "He knows I'm going to be there." "It's just a skip away." "A hop, skip, and a jog from his house, so... there's really no excuse for him not to be there." "Never leave home without it:" ""How to win at Donkey Hong."" "Yeah, so..." "The Guinness-- A lot of people are" "Yeah, people--A lot of people read that book." "This is actually, technically, a weightlifting glove because I discovered in the eighties that you could buy a weightlifting glove which was fingerless, and I use it to--l used it to play marble madness." "See the double padding?" "Occasionally, I use this to avoid calluses from certain joystick games." "You can do Marble Madness, a track ball all day long." "Excuse me, guy. I got a celebrity in the car here." " Can I cut in front of you?" " Oh, I'm sorry" " Did you get dropped off?" " l got dropped off." " Was Billy driving?" " Billy was driving." "Well, anyway, welcome to the Dodge City of video games." "Thank you, Walter." "Happy to be here." "I want this." "I'll get you some out of there." "What do you need?" "In order: 693,500..." "Okay." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Nicole." "Hi. I'm Nicole." "And this is little Derek, huh?" "Yeah." " The faster, yeah." " Derek, he's about-- l'm afraid if he can't do it, he's gonna beat himself up about it." "I don't know if that's the forum in which he will be successful." "I mean, I know he can be successful." "I'm just afraid, what if it doesn't happen?" " Bye, Derek." " Derek, give Daddy a hug." "What are you guys gonna do?" " We're just gonna go home." " Go swimming." "You gonna go swimming?" "That sounds fun." "Okay." "Let's go." " Bye." " l love you." "Bye." "Thank you." "Yeah, the longer I wait, the more, you know, pressing, I, you know, I get more nervous." "So if I do it the first night, it'll be great." "Steve Wiebe is a trouper." "Steve Wiebe has come to three events to prove himself in the fire of in-person competition and under the stress of having all eyes on him." "Oh!" "Yeah." "Yeah." "." "Was it "Weeb" or "Weebee"?" "." " "Weebee."" " That's all right." " Sorry." "Well, most--Twin Galaxies call me Wiebe, so..." "Okay." " And that's a common mistake." " Is it?" "Either that or "Wibe."" "But at least, you got the correct pronunciation." "Steve Wiebe is who I wanted to be when I grew up playing Donkey Hong." "He's quite the player." "# Everybody knows that the dice are loaded #" "# Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed #" "# Everybody knows the war is over #" "# Everybody knows the good guys lost #" "# Everybody knows the fight was fixed #" "# The poor stay poor #" "# The rich get rich #" "# That's how it goes #" "# Everybody knows #" "Well, maybe they'd like it if I lose." "I got to try losing some time." "Oh, I can break a million." "I've done it." "I've been on pace..." "Two games l got to 850, I thought I was gonna do it, and I just got...just in a bind." "# Is leaking #" "# Everybody knows the captain lied #" "# Everybody got this broken feelin' #" "# Like their father or their dog just died #" "Does this have my name on the back or something?" "What does it say?" "It says, "You have a yearning for perfection."" "Because he's in, um, his own business, it's very flexible for him." "He can go over to the school for events." "He was at an Easter egg hunt the other day." "'Cause he'll--he'll come in the office someday and they'll say, "Geez, where is Billy today?"" ""Billy's not here."" "I told him last night that he had to come, that there's no reason for him not to be here." "He says, "l have 15 reasons why I can't come."" "I said, "They're all b.s."" "This is after 1:30 in the morning." "I said, "They're all b.s. 'cause I have 15 reasons why you have to be here tomorrow."" "He had a chance to play him in Funspot this year." "He had a chance to play him in Pompano Beach." "He had a chance to play him at California Extreme." "That's three of 'em I can think of right there." "Why wouldn't he play against Steve?" "'Cause he's afraid he's gonna lose." "I traveled 3,OOO miles to give myself a chance to get the world record and be in Guinness." "I hope he can, at least, come ten miles and put his game on the line, so you make the call." "Where are you?" "All right, well, we're, like, we're all here." "We're all seated and getting ready to order, so..." "Um, okay, let me go down the list here." "We got Tom Rodgers and his girl." "We got Shawn, Fran, Jason, and" "That's fair, isn't it?" "Okay." "I'm real sorry he's not-- he didn't come." " Bill?" " Yeah." "Well, you know, Mark and Steve showed up unexpectedly and uninvitedly, but hard to keep them away." "Yeah." "And Bill just doesn't want anything to do with him." "Yeah." "All right." "See you." "He's got a plan, so when he comes out because Billy is Billy, you know." "And he's gonna come out with a bang." "Oh, Billy Mitchell always has a plan." " He likes to keep secrets." " Yeah." "He likes surprising people." "He likes--He likes people seeing' him do the unexpected and say, "Oh, boy, I didn't realize" " "you were gonna do something like that, Bill."" " Yup." "That's how he is." "It's annoying when somebody's ahead of you." "You know, when you're not the lead dog, the view doesn't change, and I always wanted the view, so..." "He's got the Roy Shildt excuse." "He's got--You know, he's not gonna show up." "I've heard a lot of talk of Billy Mitchell, and I've heard a lot of talk of strange videos and things." "But I haven't heard much in the way of him getting in front of a camera crew or people and winning a record in front of people." "I haven't heard about that yet." "Maybe he did that 25 years ago." "But I haven't heard of him doing it lately, and it makes you wonder why not." "We got him here." "He's here." "Hey, Billy." "Video games are meant to be played in a competitive environment, under pressure, organized, where you have to perform literally on demand." "Never." "Never." "And when you do that, you have far more credibility than someone who says, "Oh, I did that last week."" "No matter how good you play tennis, no matter how good you play golf, if you don't play when you have to play, if you don't play when the pressure's on, you're really not good enough." "# Everybody knows the deal is rotten #" "# Old black Joe's still pickin' cotton #" "# For your ribbons and bows # l can handle losing if he would, at least, compete against me." "I'm not afraid to lose." "I'm just some no-name guy from Washington." "Billy is trying to live up to this image of being the greatest ever in" "So he's afraid that if he loses, that's gonna tarnish him." "Yeah, that was the game before this." "# But just a shining artifact of the past #" "# Everybody knows the scene is dead #" "# But there's gonna be a-- # lt's been three days, man, and the fatigue's starting to set in, this mentally, this, you know, starting over, it takes a toll on you." "# Everybody knows #" "# Everybody knows #" "# Everybody knows #" "# That's how it goes #" "Steve Wiebe, I think, is a very straight shooter." "This is the last day, isn't it?" "I think that he gets influenced sometimes by people, and, uh...and that's probably one of his lessons-- to be stronger in himself." "You know what I mean?" "We all have lessons." "Thanks." "Yeah, I'm gonna break then." "Last start?" "Okay." " Okay." " So..." "Oh, here it is." "This is the last shot." "I'm done." " l'm done." " Casualty." "It's so heart-breaking." "I guess it's not even about Donkey Hong anymore." " It's" " What's it about?" "Just, uh--l don't know." "It's become just a game and trying-- for me, trying to get a score recognized... and trying to beat this empire that I'm trying to break through and get a fair chance." "'Cause he is not cunning and manipulative and mean." "He is a decent person at heart." "In the end, that's all that matters." "In a funny sort of way, it's like being the king and having the advisers speak their opinions but then trying to choose the right answer and the right path of action based on the advice." "I think that Steve Wiebe has to be viewed on his own merit and not on anything alleged which may have happened." "Steve Wiebe feels fine to me." "Doesn't he to you?" "Steve Wiebe, could you come up here?" " Is it Steve "Weebee"?" " Yeah. "Weebee."" " All right." " That's okay." "For some reason, I keep thinking it's "Weeb." Sorry." "The thing about Steve is Steve is special." "Steve has gone through a long history that don't need to burden you with, but I just wanted to tell you that I wanted to congratulate you and shake your hand again, that as far as I'm concerned," "you are a top player, worthy of the highest regard from Twin Galaxies, and we're very honored to receive your videotapes at any time you wanna record them and send them to us because we think, uh..." "We think your skill set is on the highest level, and you're a member of the family and you're great." "And so you're okay." "You're great, You're" " You make me feel--uh, really..." " You're a great performer." "Whoo!" "I can only speak for myself, but l--l've talked with Steve, I talked to his wife, I talked to his kids, I've met with him, talked to him in detail." "And speaking for myself, I have no question about his integrity, his ability, or anything else." "I mean, he's proven himself not just as a Donkey Hong player, but really as a person of-- of somebody who really desires to do the right thing." "You agree with--l mean, his-- l'm not familiar enough with the situation." "Okay." "I feel I won, that I tried, and I hope people will remember it, you know, this--empty his name tag here." "After I returned from the trip, Walter e-mailed me and had these words:" ""Steve, your Donkey Hong accomplishment was fantastic." ""After soul searching, we at Twin Galaxies" ""wish to apologize to you for such inconsiderate treatment." ""We look forward to your future exploits" ""and are excited" ""about the amazing high-score breakthroughs" ""you'll be bringing to the Donkey Hong community." "Blessings and friendship." "Walter Day."" "So that's his, um... the way he wanted to bring peace to this situation." " Dad!" " Dad!" "is it cold?" "He was searching, you know?" "He was--He wanted something, and I wanted that for him 'cause I wanted him to be happy." "So now, I see that." "Don't do that." "Do it again." "# Oh, yeah # # l wanna go back to my hometown # # l'd be a big shot, be a little star #" "# And drive the best car off the lot # # l wanna be your lucky winner #" "Baby!" "New high score!"