Billy Mitchell's Direct Feed Recordings are MAME Generated

[Raven]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=234Y76_3YPE

This video has some issues, but there are some things that are new and quite a bit of it is true.

First, I want to point out the opening quote from Billy in that video actually continues on to say something like "but even worse still, would be to deny someone a legitimate score."  - No real bearing, just some context I found amusing.

Second, the video presents a case that the one game that does have audio out of the three being disputed still on TG shows signs of splicing.  I am not qualified to say if the things he points out are, in fact, proof of that.  Can anyone here take a look at the relevant section of the video (starting at 4:09 and going for about 10 seconds) and offer a more informed opinion on this audio evidence?

To be clear I am not suggesting you can render a verdict on the entire tape from what he shows, but does the video's assertion hold any water based on what is presented?

The Billy Mitchell 1,050,200 score video does appear to have been spliced, in addition to containing distinct MAME characteristics. To confirm the sound anomalies reported by Apollo Legend, I exported the audio from the video to an mp3 file, then used Audacity to create an audio spectrogram. Note the gap followed by an overlap, which is indicative of a splice point.



Afterwards, I performed a frame by frame analysis of the same portion of the video, where a very interesting sequence of events took place when the score reached 747,400. The stacked monkeys screen appeared, followed by the rivet screen, then the barrel screen, then the stacked monkeys screen, and finally the rivet screen. The entire sequence of events took place in the span of roughly 8 seconds, and the score remained 747,400 on each of the screens.

• 01:52:43:24 - Stacked Monkeys Screen
• 01:52:44:22 - Rivet Screen
• 01:52:46:18 - Barrel Screen
• 01:52:48:19 - Stacked Monkeys Screen
• 01:52:51:09 - Rivet Screen

The Billy Mitchell 1,050,200 score video is linked below, starting at the point where the anomalies begin to take place.

https://youtu.be/qfk0WxlSqpo?t=6762

DISCLAIMER: I'm just a casual home gamer who is neither for or against Billy Mitchell. In fact, I had never heard of Billy Mitchell or Twin Galaxies until roughly two weeks ago when the story first appeared in my news feed. Being one who can't resist a good mystery, I decided to follow this story as it develops and quietly do my own investigation to see what clues might turn up. Needless to say, the sheer volume of evidence is quite compelling, but it's not my place to pass judgment on anyone.

[Scoundrl]

 

[QAOP Spaceman]

Good heavens 

[LMDAVE]

Wow great catch...not sure how that was missed.

[Bounty Bob]

Wow great catch...not sure how that was missed.

That's what I was wondering! 

[LMDAVE]

I guess the actual tape will have to show this, couldnt this be just from digitizing it for you tube and there was a size limitation and that’s where the split was?. If tbe actual tape shows this then thats pretty clear.

[Bounty Bob]

Is this just some sloppy edit made after it was imported to a PC? Maybe it had to be imported as separate files for some reason? The rivet screen we see briefly seems to be the same one we see next, a firefox appears in the same place at the same time and if you step frame by frame it appears facing left, then faces right for a frame, then looks back left and goes up the ladder at the same point. Even when Mario appears the P from the flashing 1 up at the top is the same, with just that letter visible.

I'm not saying Billy is innocent but in this example it just seems odd that everything seems to start the exact same way on that board. But obviously this anomaly would be enough to invalidate the score if this video was the only evidence. Wonder if the original tape has this same anomaly?

[Bounty Bob]

I guess the actual tape will have to show this, couldnt this be just from digitizing it for you tube and there was a size limitation and that’s where the split was?. If tbe actual tape shows this then thats pretty clear.

You posted while I was typing up the same thought. 

[jdllama]

Been watching this from Discord, but had to point out that that vid was uploaded in 2017; however, this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ZKEGZpggI&feature=youtu.be&t=1h53m15s was in 2016, and should start at the right time and does not have that particular video issue that Raven found.

EDIT: I'm not trying to be anonymous, I just don't want to log back in to Twin Galaxies. Call it a conscious effort. No worries about my name being bandied about and such.

[JCHarrist]

Been watching this from Discord, but had to point out that that vid was uploaded in 2017; however, this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0ZKEGZpggI&feature=youtu.be&t=1h53m15s was in 2016, and should start at the right time and does not have that particular video issue that Raven found.

Correct. The anomaly is an overlap that happened during the duplication process. It's not a splice.

[SHLONKY]

it seems TG have some of billys original tapes now so hopefully we can get to the end of some of this!

[Snazzavich]

Sorry if I made the RNG case seem stronger than it was, that was just the impression I got from reading about the transcriptions. Still I think there's more than enough evidence even without that element, not to mention a conspicuous lack of evidence of the existence of a real run.

[SHLONKY]

apparently walter has made a comment saying some engineers have discovered billys innocence and details will appear in a few days. The comments are on page 127 on TG.

[Raven]

The anomaly is an overlap that happened during the duplication process. It's not a splice.

If the anomalies were the result of a duplication process, one would expect to see a different score on at least one of the adjacent screens. In this case, the score remained 747,400 on each of them. Why?



Given the fact that VHS tapes had a finite amount of recording time, I expect to see occasional splices in digitized footage, where the splice points generally have identical overlapping frame sequences. For example, one might see frames A, B, C, D followed by B, C, D, E where B, C, D are the overlapping frames. One might also see gaps if the footage is not perfectly aligned. However, one should never see multiple adjacent screens with identical scores.

Since additional Billy Mitchell 1,050,200 score video footage exists from different sources, it could mean that the anomalies were found and corrected at some point in time. Without additional information, it's impossible to know for sure.

[LMDAVE]

Well the 747,400 was at the end of the barrel board, the stacked Kong’s next, then rivers start with same score of course. it then backed up to the end of the barrel board again. No reason the score would change. It did look pretty crazy at first but it’s already been shown the original record didn’t have it.