It’s stuff like this that defines why people love classic arcade games and what made them so timeless. There was a time where people didn’t play games due to the intricate storylines, but due to an insatiable quest to prove their skills by obtaining a score that others couldn’t touch.
This weekend a documentary is going to be shown in Seattle that documents the quest of one man to prove his world record high score on the classic Donkey Kong. The famous Billy Mitchell held the previous score and the movie documents their battle for supremacy among other things. Apparently this film was shown this year at the Slamdance festival, which takes place in my home area every year, but I didn’t know about it and missed out. From reading about the film, it looks like it may also cover a few other record holders as well, such as Doris Self, the famous woman who was the world record holder for Q*Bert although the primary focus is the battle between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell on Donkey Kong. The film is PG-13 for a sexual reference and runs 79 minutes long. Either way it sounds like quite a treat for arcade fans.
It looks like the film will be on DVD before too long and while I haven’t been able to locate a trailer yet for the film, I will be sure to edit this post and add that once I do.
Steve Wiebe with DK
trailer is on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K7wpatALDQ
Thanks for the link to the trailer. I forgot to check that of all places.