Billy mitchell first high score.

[Bliss1083]

Okay we know bill went to Iowa back in 1982 for his centipede record  and had a heads up game of donkey kong against Steve sanders. I k ow his score in the game was 874k but I was wondering if he had a higher score then this prior to that game. He was the actual record holder and knew the game had a kill screen so just out of curiosity wondering what that score was. Steve wiebes score in 1989 as well.

[hchien]

I think Billy's Centipede score was set prior to Ottumwa as his score was already on the Life magazine shoot.  I don't think he had a higher DK score prior to his 874K as he did not know (nor did anyone else) about the killscreen until that day.

As for Steve, he said in an interview that he had reached the killscreen in college (with 9xxK), but didn't know it was the killscreen and thought his machine was broken.  I think it was actually mentioned in the KoK extras.

[Bliss1083]

Ok thanks Hank. I thought bill had reached the kill screen on 5 men settings or it might have been Steve sanders. To actually see their was a kill screen. I thought Billy called Steve before the lifetime mag shoot to ask him how he got passed 22-1. This could have been after the shoot and the reason why Steve finally broke down and confessed though.

[ChrisP]

Sanders did it on 6-man. He mentions that in an interview somewhere.

I'd also suspect that Billy's actual PB by the end of the classic era was probably significantly higher than his 874K world record. He mentioned at some point that he got to the kill screen on repeated occasions.

[Bliss1083]

Yeah. Seen that too Chris. I guess if anyone thinks about it at the kong offs they might s
Ask for me. I've always wondered.

[dd0ck]

I think Billy's Centipede score was set prior to Ottumwa as his score was already on the Life magazine shoot.  I don't think he had a higher DK score prior to his 874K as he did not know (nor did anyone else) about the killscreen until that day.

As for Steve, he said in an interview that he had reached the killscreen in college (with 9xxK), but didn't know it was the killscreen and thought his machine was broken.  I think it was actually mentioned in the KoK extras.

I talked to Wiebe at the KO2 about his play in college.  He reached the ks a couple times and didn't really know what was going on.  He though there was something wrong with the machine, he thought "what was that an invisible barrel?". 

I could imagine back in the day, that happening after playing for hours and hours to think the machine was broken.  That's what people thought the Pac-Man ks was, just the machine not being able to take it.

He said he had games in the 900s back then, but I don't think he knows exactly what his scores were.  That's how he knew he could easily beat Billy's 874k or Tim Sczerby's 879k, because he'd done it multiple times.

[ChrisP]

Food for thought: at no point has Tim Sczerby ever held the actual world record on DK (that is to say, the highest DK score ever achieved).

Both Billy and Steve had scored well over 879K by 2000.

Much is made about Tim not being included in KoK, but again, the fact that Billy and Steve were both ahead of him the whole time is definitely something worth contemplating...

In fact, Tim himself might feel better if he were to contemplate it.

[Bliss1083]

Agreed. As the the verified record holder I can see how he felt snubbed but it was really a two man contest during the kok. I think adding another person to the race would have been too time consuming for the film. Steve I heard was in the 960's in 1989 and bill probably was in the 900's somewhere in the 80's.

[giv]

If a high score falls in the forest and no one is there to see it, does it count?

And I'm not talking about Josh Lombay's new Timber WR.

[ChrisP]

By the time KoK started filming (Funspot 2005) Tim's record had been broken six times over (by Steve, Billy, Steve, Steve, Steve, and Billy) starting a full two years before. Both Billy and Steve were over a million by then. Tim hadn't made a peep in years.

Leaving Tim out of the movie was not some terrible injustice. It was just one detail of many that had to be skipped to keep the movie reasonably short and straightforward. The only "crime" was presenting things as if Billy had been champ since 1982. Regardless, the competition was fully between Billy and Steve by the time the cameras rolled.

[LMDAVE]

Has anyone ever thought hard about how/why Billy played a 1.1M+ game and tanked it after beating Steve's world record, but since these new players came along he has never came back and repeated it since beating Steve? And now there are five other player passed that tanked game.

To tank that game is to give the impression that I've done this before and can easily do it again.

[giv]

Dave: I don't claim to know anything about anything, but I think Billy's priorities in life changed at that point. There are just so many hours in a day, in a life. Sometimes you have to pick what to put the fire underneath, and what to keep simmering on the back burner. and of course the hot sauce makes everything better. Okay that last part didn't really fit the metaphor, but I couldn't help it.

Chris: so I guess your answer to my question is 'yes'.

[ChrisP]

Has anyone ever thought hard about how/why Billy played a 1.1M+ game and tanked it after beating Steve's world record, but since these new players came along he has never came back and repeated it since beating Steve? And now there are five other player passed that tanked game.

To tank that game is to give the impression that I've done this before and can easily do it again.

Oh, we've definitely thought about it Dave. 

[mikegmi2]

I've always thought he tanked games because deep down, he cared more about allowing the DK record to keep it's relevence...meaning...not pushing it super high so that nobody would try beating it.

If the record stays beatable, people keep their interest in the game, and keep on playing it...knowing they can beat the world record.

A day will come when it's essentially all over.

"All of the science teachers here are weird..."

[LMDAVE]

I've always thought he tanked games because deep down, he cared more about allowing the DK record to keep it's relevence...meaning...not pushing it super high so that nobody would try beating it.

If the record stays beatable, people keep their interest in the game, and keep on playing it...knowing they can beat the world record.

A day will come when it's essentially all over.

"All of the science teachers here are weird..."

Yeah, that was always the thought of why he did it. I don't think any true DK player appreciated that though. We always encourage putting up your best score, because, any score that followed Billy's tanked game could never truly say they have had the WR because that game theoretically could have went further. So, I know that is the main reason why Hank continued his score up. You want to beat all rumored scores.

Tanking the game to me will always be looked at as passive taunting.

However, several now took the game to the upper limits, over 1.1M and still pushing higher.

The ironic this here is this. Billy did what he did so that others wouldn't run away/lose interest from trying anymore, but what ended up happened is, "others" pushed the score up so high that Billy ended up being the one not trying anymore. (Be it for whatever reason, family, job, too little time, score is too high, etc...)