King of Kong movie

[rtm]

Hi Mark:

     I'll give you the following to dwell upon.

1st - I can personally attest that BIll has never, ever been used to view a Steve Wiebe tape. While I have asked him over the phone whether certain things are within the possible dynamics of the game, things I could not personally hope to achieve with my own limited skillset, he has never been given one of Steve's tapes to watch. Period.

     For the 985K submission, however, that one was special. Chris Ayra had to be called in to do the special verification. More on this later in point three below.

2nd - There is a scene when Steve Sanders is rattling off numbers to Bill over the phone, something like "730, 785, 745" or whatever they were. Bottom line is that this was Steve Sanders talking about the "JOUST" scores that he and Donald Hayes were achieving at that very same event. The way the footage was interspersed out of context it appeared that Steve S. was telling Bill what Steve W. was doing on DK. LIke I said...slick editing.

3rd - I am in a scene where I say something like when a verification appears problematic or however I phrased this, "then we have to call in the pros". IMMEDIATELY thereafter the viewer is shown footage of Dwayne, then Perry, as part of the explanation of the claimed "break in" into Steve's garage. This is total BS. I was referring to sending Steve's 985K pre-2005 tape to Chris Ayra, or when TG has to send an upper echelon performance to a noted expert when evaluation is impossible. Of course since they cut the film where they did, it would appear that Robert of TG is condoning TG unleashing minions to do their dirty work, or whatever an audience member may derive from this. Total BS.

     If I took shorthand, maybe I could have written down everything that I found to be problematic fast enough as I watched the film, but that would be stretching it. It was like one bad moment after another...I doubt I write that fast.

4th - Oh yes, here's a freebie. I like that TG Scoreboard they show with Bill as number one and Brian as number 2. Where's Sczerby ? In fact, where is that exact scoreboard with that exact look on the TG website ? Answer: it is not.

5th - Another freebie. When Steve Wiebe is once again crying into the camera for the umpteenth time stating how he is trying ot penetrate into this "empire", and this was after he set the 985K live at FS and after Brian showed the tape, just exactly how did he NOT penetrate into this "empire" ? Was it, perhaps, when the 20 or so players in attendance cheered as he hit 985K ? Yeah, that's gotta be it. We really let him have it there...that'll show him how little we regard what he does. All that clapping and goodwill, that was all a sham.

     You wanted some examples, Mark. There you go.

Robert

[yankeebest]

That was (5) FIVE points, NOT (3) THREE!!!.

[rtm]

Hi Yankeebest:

     The last two were "freebies" !!

Robert

[***PL***]

Review of King of Kong  (opinions expressed are those of the author)

I went to see this movie with an open neutral mind.  Tried to avoid thinking about all the hearsay and commotion surrounding the flick and was prepared for anything. The small theater crowd was virtually 100% males, OK perhaps one or two females, but you catch my drift.

First I'll start with the positives.  I thought the production quality was excellent, albeit in what appeared to be 4:3 format.  I expected shaky camcorder footage, but this was not the case.  The storyline is an intriguing one, with the premise that Billy Mitchell, reigning DK champ will do anything and everything to protect his DK world record from any challengers, in particular Steve Wiebe, who is a formidable competitor.  The allies over at Twin Galaxies, the video game scorekeeping conglomerate, could be called upon to assist when required.  And as expected it became absolutely necessary to use these powerful resources in various ways given the intense competitive fight from the "new" gamer in town.

The movie starts out like a true documentary, laying the foundation, setting the proper stage and explaining pertinent facts and supporting interviews are all well done.  I have to state that the movie opened well until 20 minutes into it, when Mr. Awesome appeared.  At that point two things happened:  the humor level increased exponentially along with the lies.  The crowd was roaring and I must admit I laughed pretty hard at some of footage presented from this moment on.  There was at least one back-to-back gut splitting series of funnies where you easily could have missed the second one.

Unfortunately, this also is where the storyline builds with more and more fabrications.  The editing style changed noticeably and the movie starting getting cut up with quick transitional cuts and choppy edits.  Scenes began to appear staged, actors where asked to perhaps perform or repeat things that were missed on camera.  It started having a reality show feeling where the seriousness of a true documentary was lost.  Facts were tossed aside, flat out ignored, or totally flipped around.  But of course they need to keep viewers entertained, and certainly succeeded in this regard.

I felt the movie wandered a little bit too much and started to feel like patchwork.  Scenes were repeated over twice in at least a couple of instances and nonsensical Funspot filler was evident.  Billy unnecessarily sent two tapes to Funspot for public viewing.  The one shown while Wiebe was playing was somewhat disturbing as portrayed.  It appears that Billy had another tape overnighted to smother the excitement of Steve's new WR performed in public earlier.  I believe the delivery and presentation of the 2nd tape (in the white package) as shown was not accurate at all -- a handoff to Robert at, and incorrectly noted, Brian Kuh's cabin -- huh?

A couple of people (supporting roles) had lots of "air time". Robert was a true victim and undeservedly appeared as a TG mastermind whose command of the entire verification process wholly supports the villian's one and only objective.  Because of the verbosity and substantial amount of interview time they had to work with, they were able to create convincing illusions of reality.  The movie lost even more creditability near the end with the 4 days of Pompano Beach footage which I was present for taping.  Steve Sanders was another and it should be noted and will deservedly take some heat for things he said, or rather should not have.  He's not the only gamer to come clean from cheating.  I found one comment particularly offensive directed at Steve Wiebe and Mark Alpiger.  Were you guys really unwelcome guests at Ricky's???  This restaurant scene another factual location/time/sequence error (called a Luncheon).

What I did not like about the movie was the slick video AND AUDIO editing.  Words were inserted into people's interviews.  Sentences were chopped off.  Those verbal phrases were rearranged and inter-twined with other people comments to create drama. Several times voice overs were used when lips were not moving.  Speech substitutions (e.g. Steve's young daughter asking questions like a seasoned teenager), irrelevant one-way conversions with people the get across a certain message or build-up the story, etc.

In summary, I saw no character assassinations.  I knew just about everyone in the movie and they were presented faithfully as I see them and relate to them in person.  Yes, Billy is a cocky, self-serving, control-freak while Steve comes across as a humble, sensitive, family-type guy.  I found it interesting that some people would be shown on screen and immediately get laughs from the audience.  Greg Bond and Perry Rodgers come to mind.  So yes there was some laughter at the expense of gamers we all know.  Mark's dumpster clip is not there.  Dwayne appears twice, at two different venues.  Many interviews did not make it.  Lots of footage is on the cutting floor.

IN THE END, WE GOT DUPED!!!!  It was supposed to be a documentary about high level gamers trying to break World Records. 

That said, my most compelling thoughts after the movie was over:

• Billy doesn't practice what he preaches.  Would not attend Funspot 2005 (or 2006) and refuses to compete 10 miles from his home!

• Steve doesn't fess up and say OK, I cheated, let me make it up.  How does a poor guy get a hold of several DK boards and why does he leave them all laying around when you only need an authentic one in the cabinet?

• A remake does not seem feasible, as retelling this falsified story and all the events surrounding it has demonstrated lost credibility.

[George Strain]

Q.
Who is Tim Sczerby?
A.
While our movie focuses on the rivalry between Billy and Steve, one other gamer has a very high-score in the Twin Galaxies database on Donkey Kong, Tim Sczerby. After repeated investigations into the validity of Tim's score, and after finding one dead end after another in our Twin-Galaxies-assisted attempts to reach Mr. Sczerby, we determined that his consistently disputed record was impossible to verify and did not merit inclusion in the film. The experts on the subject of Donkey Kong, especially Brian Kuh, always referred to Billy Mitchell as the reigning champion and maintained that his unrivaled skill put him on top of the record holder chart.

Does anybody know more about this?  I couple of minutes searching on the internet led me to believe Tim probably isn't that hard to get ahold of.  He's a VAPS member and has been active on the Dragon's Lair Project message board in the last year (including posting his email address). 

They describe Tim's record as "consistently disputed", but I couldn't find any place that disputed it (other than the Answer).  Doesn't the fact that it's still listed as a TG score mean that it's not "consistently" disputed?  Has anybody ever heard anything about the score being disputed?

The score looks like it was verified by video and beat Billy Mitchell's score.  Unless somebody can give me some evidence, I'm inclined to believe their Answer is just a lame rationalization for ignoring Tim's score at the cost of belittling and discrediting it.  Also, mentioning that TG had already recognized another score that beat Billy's record clearly wouldn't advance their storyline.  It seems really lame to me not to recognize a player's score like this when one of the premises of the move is that TG was so wrong to not recognize Steve's scores.

-George

[rtm]

Hi George/all:

     As you know I am no longer a TG referee, but I can at least state what I know on the matter, or more appropriately what I do not know of the matter.

     When I started at TG back in Apr/01 as a "contributing editor" and then later Aug/01 as "chief referee", I really did not pay attention to every single score already in the database, to be honest. Plus, back then, I could not even enter a score...no one could, except thise working at TG on premise, and even then it was extremely difficult.

     I do not know when this score was entered, who verified it, or for that matter who posted it to the TG scoreboard. However, I never personally "disputed" the score other than asking my fellow referees if they knew anything about this gamer, or knew anyone who did. He certainly does not have any other scores of significance in the TG database, and possibly to this day it would be his only one, assuming it is still there (which I still have yet to check).

     It is possible, I thought, that Walter witnessed this ages ago and only recently entered it into the database, It is also possible that he dug up some old TG affiliate scoresheets from a previously sanctioned event and this was one such score. I really do not know.

     What I do know for a fact is this...I do not personally have possession of any tape(s) from this gamer on this title. I do not know of, or believe, that any other referee including Walter does. No mention of this even being on tape has come across my level of attention. It is my opinion that if this is a legit score, it was witnessed as opposed to being taped, at possibly a TG sanctioned event though even that I cannot be sure of.

     Bottom line is that I do not know where this one came from...Walter would have to respond with details.

Robert

[George Strain]

Hi George/all:

    When I started at TG back in Apr/01 as a "contributing editor" and then later Aug/01 as "chief referee", I really did not pay attention to every single score already in the database, to be honest. Plus, back then, I could not even enter a score...no one could, except thise working at TG on premise, and even then it was extremely difficult.

     Bottom line is that I do not know where this one came from...Walter would have to respond with details.

Robert

Well based on the interview with Tim here: http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=298 ; Tim set his record on August 17, 2000.   Later in the article he says "I always played with a video camera pointed toward the game", which implies it was a video tape submission to TG.

There's a thread that just started on the Dragon's Lair Project forums at, http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/community/forums/board/default.asp?Action=View&MessageID=54910.  It seems several of the members there know Tim personally, and have vouched for him being a top notch DK player.  You can also find Tim's email address there, although I haven't tried it out.

Update: I found the TG announcement for Tim's record: http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=46&id=28.  It's dated August 20, 2000.  It's not clear who wrote the article, but it makes it clear the score was a video submission.
-George

[rtm]

Hi George/all:

     Based on the date, I did not write the article. Based on the verbiage/style, neither did Walter. Doesn't even look like Ron's style. Probably was one of the older TG crew from before I came onboard.

     Still begs the question...where is the tape ?

Robert

[pauldean]

Tim Sczerby, The forgotten Donkey Kong Champion - Some Links

Some Interviews with Tim Sczerby, the first player to beat Billy Mitchell's long
Term World Record High Score from the early 1980’s:

Arcade
Game of The Week
Donkey Kong - By Fragmaster

“Don't expect to beat Tim Sczerby's world-record score of 879,200”
http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=GameMuseum.Detail&id=297

Twin Galaxies Forums
Permafrostrick
http://www.twingalaxies.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1412&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30


Location: Glen Burnie, MD
 Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2003 11:53 am 

879,200 by Tim Sczerby (Coin-Op)
874,300 Billy Mitchell (Coin-Op)
904,100 Ben Jos (MAME)
Mame unconfirmed score:


The Deeper Side of Donkey-Kong
 an excerpt from
Lucky Wander Boy by d. b. weiss

“On August 20, 2000, when Tim Sczerby scored 879,200 points on Donkey Kong (thought to be the highest score theoretically possible), the game killed him off on Level 22 without explanation or apology”
http://www.livereal.com/movies/donkey_kong.htm

Features: CVG News: News Items 0-562

“28 Sep 2000: Twin Galaxies reports the world record on Donkey Kong has been broken. The new high score is 879,200, scored by Tim Sczerby of Auburn, NY. The previous record was 874,300 by Billy Mitchell, who last year played the world's first perfect Pac-Man game.”
http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/cvg/nexus/features/news/viewnews.cgi?newsall

The Mushroom Kingdom
News: 2003 and Earlier
News archive

 “On June 30th, Steve Wiebe of Redmond, Washington, set a new record for Donkey Kong (arcade), finishing with 947,200 points. For a detailed breakdown of Steve's record-breaking run, check out TwinGalaxies.com. The previous record of 879,200 was held by Tim Sczerby of Auburn, New York.”
http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/news_2003.shtml



Interview: Tim Sczerby, Donkey Kong Champ
Barrels of questions for the record DK scorer - By William

Tim Sczerby's Interview:
“Tim's problem was that on Level 21, he realized he wouldn't be able to accumulate enough points to beat Mitchell's record. "You can only get about 400 points on the last board because it kills you off," he said. So, he repeatedly played through Level 21, getting as many points as possible before sacrificing his extra lives, thereby building up his score. It may seem odd to kill yourself voluntarily to attain a better score, but you do what you have to.”
http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=298

[rtm]

Hi Paul:

     Just curious...does anyone happen to know if Tim has any plans to get back into the game and go for a much higher performance, if only to say that he can get past 900K or 1M just to see if he can ? I can understand that he might have trepidations about getting into the fracas with the media hooplah the way it is, but even if just to prove it to himself, maybe he should pick up the joystick and jump button again and give it a whirl.

     Anyone that can get nearly 900K is a step above the rest in terms of arcade skills, and such skills generally come from a passion within. I have to imagine that a player of this calibre would be interested in trying again if he gets the bug. However, surprisingly, some players that were suprestars in the classic era literally hung up their joysticks. Eric Finner, according to Mike V. from "Men at Work Productions" tried to get Eric to come to the 2005 Life reunion shoot. He declined and basically said that he did what he did back then, and has left that phase of his life behind.

Robert

[AL]

Now we can all watch and judge for ourselves....

http://isohunt.com/torrents.php?ihq=king+of+kong




AL

[Welby]

Is that a pirate website?  Is it safe to download from there?  How do you get the file(s) to download and play?

[ben]

Hi Welby...it is a torrent file which requires an application such as BitTorrent to do the actual download.  I used it today to download KoK and it worked great.  Go to bittorrent.com and download it for free.  The movie is in .avi format and plays great with DivX, a free video player, but I had trouble viewing it with other players.  I haven't had any other problems so far.  Hope this helps.

Ben

[Super TNN]

   I'd really like tos ee it but i hope there's mroe to it than DK!  I think tehre's far better arcade games than this!  Hey I'm one of the few that probably finds Kangaroo more interesting.  I wished there was more on Galaga, Crystal Castles, Q*Bert and other classics than it all cenetred on a tired game that just isn't all it's cracked up to be.   Maybe I just prefer games I'm better at though if I ahd the chance I'd buy the amchine to improve my gameplay and become a bigger fan!  The two sequels are better in my opinion though!

       I'll probably buy this when it comes out on DVD!  it may not be completely accurate but it does show plenty of info on classic arcade games or seems to from what I heard right???

       TNN

 

     

     

[MDARULZ]

http://isohunt.com/torrents.php?ihq=king+of+kong

Thanks for the info, Al, but (of course) I must encourage everyone not to do anything illegal.  So...  if you do happen to 'accidentally' click, and download the movie, please be sure to non-accidentally go see the movie in the theaters (if it plays near you), and also buy the DVD when it comes out.  Hey, after all, if it's worth getting via download, it's worth patronizing the legal way too !

Final thot - keep in mind that (especially if the movie looks like it was not shot in a theater, as many pirated early releases of course are) the download version might be an 'early' screener copy.  I've had an offer (which didn't pan out) to see a copy of that, and it would be interesting to see what changed in the final version.  If this is an early screener, we'll get to see, I guess...