Donkey Kong Million Point Timeline

[ChrisP]

As a companion to the killscreener timeline, here is a chronology of every known million-point player's first "rollover."

All of Billy Mitchell's three TG-verified million point performances have since been "de-verified" and struck from the high score lists of both TG and DKF, which you can read about here. Whether or not Mitchell ever actually achieved a legitimate million point score (prior to 2018) is now considered unknown. I have, however, left him on the list as an "asterisked entry", since his early scores were accepted at one time, and are (obviously) highly significant to the history of this game.

Are there any names missing? Perhaps. Based on his YouTube videos, Ben Mazowita seems extremely capable, but he isn't part of the community. There is also a rumor of a player from Japan who achieved a million-point game (on the US version) at some point prior to 2015, but this player is unknown to us as well.

We can be reasonably confident, at any rate, that Steve Wiebe's 1,006 was the first-ever million point game of DK, and that no more than a handful of players (if any) are missing from this list.

-#--	Player	Date	Score	Platform	Verification?
1	Steve Wiebe	6/4/2004	1,006,600	Arcade	TG (rejected but legit)
*	Billy Mitchell	6/7/2004	1,047,200	Arcade	TG (SEE THREAD HERE)
2	Tim Sczerby	12/31/2008	1,024,100	Arcade	None (replay streamed 8/1/09)
3	Scott Kessler*	4/27/2008	1,000,600	Arcade	None
4	Dean Saglio	5/7/2009	1,026,700	MAME	TG (1st MAME million)
5	Hank Chien	9/13/2009	1,037,700	Arcade	None (official TG score came later)
6	Vincent Lemay	9/11/2010	1,002,700	MAME	TG (2nd MAME million)
7	Jeff Willms*	8/16/2011	1,107,600	MAME	TG (3rd MAME million)
8	David McCrary	12/30/2011	1,015,000	Arcade	TG (4th TG-ranked arcade million)
9	Mark Kiehl	1/22/2012	1,016,500	Arcade	TG
10	Kyle Goewert*	4/27/2012	1,012,800	Arcade	TG
11	Benjamin Falls	5/5/2012	1,010,400	Arcade	Stream
12	Shaun Boyd*	5/21/2012	1,037,500	Arcade	TG
13	Steve Wiltshire	1/27/2013	1,019,600	Arcade	TG
14	Philip Tudose	2/22/2013	1,005,700	MAME	MARP
15	Robbie Lakeman	3/6/2013	1,007,600	MAME	Stream
16	Svavar Gunnar Gunnarsson	5/29/2013	1,008,800	Arcade	Live
17	Mike Groesbeck	6/21/2013	1,023,600	Arcade	TG
18	Jon McKinnell*	7/7/2013	1,025,200	Arcade	Stream
19	Jeff Wolfe	9/22/2013	1,054,900	Arcade	Stream
20	Corey Chambers	9/24/2013	1,008,100	Arcade	Stream
21	Ross Benziger*	9/27/2013	1,136,500	Arcade	TG
22	Mick Winzeler	1/5/2014	1,018,300	Arcade	YouTube
23	Wes Copeland	5/4/2014	1,028,200	MAME	Stream
24	Jason Wade	1/1/2015	1,027,100	MAME	Stream
25	Ethan Daniels	1/10/2015	1,041,100	Arcade	Stream
26	Shawn Robinson*	1/24/2015	1,022,700	Arcade	TG
27	Jonathan McCourt	4/16/2015	1,002,300	MAME	Stream
28	Daniel Desjardins*	6/21/2015	1,059,700	Arcade	Stream
29	Graham Hawkins*	7/6/2015	1,045,900	MAME	Stream
30	Andrew Barrow	8/14/2015	1,014,600	MAME	Stream
31	John McCurdy	8/17/2015	1,010,500	MAME	Stream
32	Tanner Fokkens	11/7/2015	1,004,100	Arcade	Stream
33	Martin Laing*	3/5/2016	1,026,800	Arcade	Stream
34	Jason Corey Brittain	3/22/2016	1,001,600	MAME	Stream
35	Thomas Bauer	5/5/2016	1,019,000	MAME	Stream
36	Joe DuPree*	8/14/2016	1,008,700	Arcade	Stream
37	"DKK-OKINAWA"*	12/26/2017	1,014,400	Arcade	Stream
38	"ACU-AZU"	1/1/2018	1,046,600	Arcade	Twitter
39	Estel Goffinet*	1/12/2018	1,031,200	Arcade	Stream
40	Scott Cunningham*	3/11/2018	1,064,500	MAME	Stream
41	J P Buergers	12/17/2018	1,110,200	MAME	Stream
42	Justin Elliott	5/12/2019	1,068,500	MAME	Stream
43	David Lyne*	8/11/2019	1,007,300	MAME	Stream
44	"FloBeamer1922"*	8/17/2019	1,032,100	MAME	Stream
45	Matt Tecchio	9/2/2019	1,052,600	Arcade	Stream
46	Josh Mayden*	5/26/2020	1,027,700	Arcade	Stream
47	Steven Kleisath*	7/21/2020	1,001,800	Arcade	Stream
48	Brad Williamson*	8/30/2020	1,001,300	MAME	Stream
49	Laura Neville*	10/04/2020	1,003,900	Arcade	Stream
50	James Cook*	11/28/2020	1,009,200	Arcade	Stream

*  - denotes an "unimproved PB": a player whose first million remains his personal best score. Players with no *  have scored higher since their first million.

NOTE: Scott Kessler is the only player on this list who does not appear on the DKF High Score List (no video or other verification of this score exists).

By year:
1981-2003: 0
2004: 1
2005: 0
2006: 0
2007 (King of Kong released): 0
2008: 2
2009: 2
2010: 1
2011: 2
2012: 4
2013: 9
2014: 2
2015: 9
2016: 4
2017: 1
2018: 4
2019: 4
2020: 5

[tudose]

love it. MARP oh yer

[Xermon54]

Good to have that ;-).

I lol'ed at Jeff's score of 1.1m. Jeff said: Screw 1m, I'm gonna get 1.1m! YOLO!

[ChrisP]

Oops, I have your date wrong Phil. I know it was February, do you know the date?

You over-wrote that .inp with your 1,050 game.

[tudose]

Oops, I have your date wrong Phil. I know it was February, do you know the date?

You over-wrote that .inp with your 1,050 game.

feb 22nd

[ChrisP]

I'm glad I put together most of this info last year, before the TG forum went down. This would not have been possible otherwise.

FFS, we really, really need to pry the old TG forum out of Richie's hands, since its obvious that he never plans to put it back up.

I'm looking through this file I have that has notes on various TG threads, and I want so badly to be able to read them. There is SO much DK history on that forum. I know it doesn't matter to Richie, but it matters to me, and others.

[marinomitch13]

Don't forget about the female player from Washington that did it in early 1982... I "know", because Cat told me.

[hchien]

1M is the new killscreen.

Great list!  A few notes/corrections (off the top of my head so you may want to double check me):

Steve Wiebe's 1.006M game was done on an 8 way joystick (not 100% sure)

As you mention, Billy did have an unofficial 1.014M or something like that, but his first official submission was was 1,047,200.  (see http://superbunker.com/resources/dkt/)

Scott Kessler's 1M was done at home.  His FS performance was just a run through (89xK).

My first 1M was at home and not TG verified (TG recording rules at the time didn't allow recorded 1M scores).

[homerwannabee]

My first 1M was at home and not TG verified (TG recording rules at the time didn't allow recorded 1M scores).

Looking back at that, this has to be one of the worst rules ever instituted.  Thankfully they got rid of it.

[ChrisP]

Thanks for the info, Hank.

It's really too bad that Tim Sczerby kept his first million to himself. If he was sore about not getting recognition in KoK, the adulation over being the third player to a million would have at least healed the wound a little, not to mention told the world that he was right up there with Billy and Steve. I understand why he'd have a beef with TG in 2008, obviously, but why bother even doing it to prove yourself to everybody if you're not going to let it be known that you did it?

And his 1,032 in 2010 is still a huge score even today. He's angry about being pushed aside, but ever since the movie it's almost like he's pushing himself aside.

As for Steve, I'm not gonna worry about or note the 8-way. That game is too important to question on a technicality (especially since the technicality makes the game harder!)

[stella_blue]

Players who have NOT yet improved on their initial 1M score: Kessler, Goewert, Falls, Boyd, Wiltshire, Gunnarsson, Groesbeck. (7 out of 18)

Jeff Willms makes it 8 out of 18, although improving on a score of 1,107,600 represents a more difficult challenge (compared to the others).

[hchien]

Scott Kessler actually self-reported that he had improved on his initial 1M game, but he never made the score known publically.  I think because of his general reputation it was believed to be true.

It's really too bad that Tim Sczerby kept his first million to himself.

I think the reason(s) he withheld his scores were:

- TG 1M point rule (it's not a coincidence that every arcade 1M game on this list in 2008-2009 was unofficial)

- He did not want to submit unless he broke the WR at the time (1.05M).

[giv]

I love the idea of a rule that says 1 million points+ must be done live. It's like my feelings on how you have to get out of your comfort zone, codified into law.

You want recognition, you gotta deliver the goods while the pressure's on, baby! 

(And before anyone gets all upset by it, know that I mean baby as a term of endearment and not in a derogatory fashion.)

[hchien]

Trivia question (I'm actually not sure of the answer):

Who had the first live 1M point game?

[Xermon54]

Good question! Steve Wiebe didn't even get 1m live in KoK (got lik 985k?). Hasn't Scott Kessler gotten 1m in like 2009 or something like that at Funspot?

Don't tell me Hank you're the one that got 1m+ live the first at Funspot with your 1.09m?