Hacker Cinema
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
2007 · Film · documentary · 83 min
Directed by Seth Gordon
In this hilarious arcade showdown, a humble novice goes head-to-head against the reigning Donkey Kong champ in a confrontation that rocks the gaming world to its processors! For over 20 years, Billy Mitchell has owned the throne of the Donkey Kong world. No one could beat his top score until now. Newcomer Steve Wiebe claims to have beaten the unbeatable, but Mitchell isn't ready to relinquish his crown without a fight. Go behind the barrels as the two battle it out in a vicious war to earn the title of the true King of Kong.
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34 comments on Hacker News
The movie The King of Kong is a good intro to the sordid side of the world of competitive arcade gaming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Kong
I have watched the Fog of War so many times.
It is just hard for me to rate the King of Kong or American Movie against the Fog of War though. Those are my top 3.
I will have to give the The Act of Killing a go.
I’m reminded of the tagline from The King of Kong, the documentary about competitive Donkey Kong: “The competition is so vicious because the stakes are so low.”
There's some criticism of the King of Kong film that they tilted quite a few scenes to make him look worse that he was. There was some playing with timelines and implying bad behavior that didn't actually happen. The thrust of story is true, but it was definitely a movie made to make you hate Billy Mitchell instead of a piece of journalism.
I believed it was like war games growing up. I knew it wasn't like hackers but still enjoyed it. I knew the takedown story and it didn't represent the whole community but presented a real slice from one person. Mr Robot is a show but played like a movie and represented a shared vision of what many secretly wanted until everything fell apart.
From my experience hacker culture is more like the movie: The King of Kong with all of the drama/bragging/pettiness of a high school musical fight.
I need to find it, but I remember reading an article that was critical - or at least complicated the narrative - of the documentary, saying that the characterizations were not very fair/were very lopsided to facilitate the "good guy vs. villain" story. I'll try to track it down.
Update: https://www.avclub.com/the-king-of-kong-continued-donkey-kong-champ-billy-mi-1798213302
One thing that irks me with this era is the conflation of "North-America" with "the World". Records, tournaments, and championships were only announced, solicited, and held across USA+Canada, in English.
The same can be observed in the referenced "King of Kong" documentary, the "Nintendo World Championships" (organized only in NA by Nintendo of America), and the "Classic Tetris World Championship".
They should just call it for what it was: North-American records.
In case anyone missed it, The King of Kong (2007) [1] is a great watch. Steve Wiebe is the true champion! Well, maybe. Who cares? From the outside this was just great fun.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
Surprised no one mentioned this one yet:
> The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film about competitive gaming directed by Seth Gordon. It follows Steve Wiebe in his attempts to take the high score record for the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong from the previous holder, Billy Mitchell. - Wikipedia
All documentaries by: Scott Noble (available free at his site http://metanoia-films.org/), Patricio Guzman, Werner Herzog, Adam Curtis, The Yes Men.
Other great documentaries: Man with a Movie Camera, Sherman's March, Burden of Dreams, Bus 174, My Winnipeg, How to Start a Revolution, Merchants of Doubt, Silenced (2014), the Corporation (2003), Man on Wire, The Parking Lot Movie, Land of Look Behind, Intangible Asset No. 82, Brasileirinho, Jodorowsky's Dune, Revolution OS, Facebookistan, The King of Kong, Kumaré, McLibel, Harlan County USA
Why? Because they're amazing, important, will change your life etc. Sorry I don't have hours to go into detail. Enjoy!
ps I found a lot of these by googling best documentaries lists, IMDb lists etc. I judge whether to watch movies/docos by reading 2 or 3 pages of user reviews on IMDb, occasionally Ebert or Urban Cinefile etc also.
“The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”[1] is a 2007 documentary that documents the twists and turns of this particular record.
[1]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
I've never researched a "historical" film or "biopic" and not found out that much of the conflict was added in to create drama in the story. Even many so-called "documentaries" do the same thing, such as King of Kong. This duplicity is taught in Hollywood as standard operating procedure. It is an industry wide norm that they care about entertainment above all else.
I saw The King of Kong documentary when it first came out and remember Billy Mitchell was so hateable. There is nothing humble about a man who answers his phone: "World-Record headquarters, how can I help you?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wef2qDT5j3I
He was caught cheating back then too, if I remember correctly, by sending a video that messed with the score. I am surprised they accept sent-in submissions from anybody in an age where videos are so easily edited, let alone from a notorious cheater.
People like Mitchell will go as far as they can to win regardless of whether or not they deserve it, and I'm interested in hearing what the thoughts are in the industry around dealing with cheaters. I've seen some gamers beat records while on Twitch, which I don't really know anything about first hand but it seems somewhat more legit than a sent-in video, as there are people watching both the player and the game he's playing in real time.
Are there any Twitch features that can tell if a game is really being played live?
Otherwise, are there any obvious moves that should/could be taken to ensure legitimacy in gaming world records?
HA!
The 2007 documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" is my favorite movie of all-time, I must have watched it at least 40 times. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hBs2oFjSWk
For those who haven't seen the film, the contender Steve Wiebe sets a new record live at an arcade tournament in Funspot (NH) but reigning champ Billy Mitchell sends in a VHS tape with an even higher score.
The video gets fuzzy and looks suspicious but Mitchell's toadies in the group immediately accept the score, despite refusing to previously accept a VHS tape from the contender Steve Wiebe.
Since the movie came out both men were left in the dust by new players, but recently the score-keepers slow-mo'ed Billy's tapes and the Donkey Kong levels render the way MAME does them, not the actual arcade hardware. The current No. 2 ranked player (Wes Copeland) is basically corroborating this by running his performance through an app and determining the point ratios are off (e.g., too much from hammers).
Personally I don't think Billy's a bad guy, and the film actually shows him performing selfless acts for others, but if this allegation is true -- and it's hard to argue with the data -- I do think this seriously compromises his integrity and position in classic gaming history.
Obligatory movie recommendation: The King of Kong http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
And I just finished watching "Man vs. Snake" on Netflix over the weekend. Another also-ran video game.
(Not as good a film as "King of Kong", BTW, but, come on, that's pretty high bar.)
It's timely this should come up as I've been on a bit of an Adam Curtis binge lately, having recently watched half of HyperNormalisation and then the entirety of the 'The Power Of Nightmares' series. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of his work.
One question I have for those that have seen his stuff - a recurring criticism I see of Curtis' work is that he states his opinions as if they are historical facts and heavily editorialises, leaving out important chunks of history because they don't support the view he's trying to push.
Are these accurate criticisms? I don't want to feel like I'm learning about history when in actuality I'm being fed something that's inaccurate (thanks 'King of Kong' for ruining my trust in documentaries, but I digress!). For example after watching 'The Power Of Nightmares' I feel like I know much more about what was going on in the world of geopolitics in the 80s and 90s, but I'd hate to think that I've just picked up a series of falsehoods (doubt this is the case though).
Must see is a hard term to qualify, does this mean enjoyable documentaries or only the ones that educate. I really enjoyed The King of Kong last week. It's a documentary about the best arcade Donkey Kong players in the world and their battles.
I think the best and most relevant example of this for the HN crowd might be Donkey Kong :-) Ever since the documentary "King of Kong" came out, and that douche Billy Mitchell's record was broken, there's been a stream of new records.
BTW if you haven't seen "King of Kong" you owe it to yourself to watch, regardless of whether or not you're a video game person. It's hilarious.
Didn't Steve Wiebe discover this (on his own?) in the King of Kong documentary?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_of_Kong:_A_Fistful_of_Quarters
What an excellent article. I think this needs a documentary, in the style of Wordplay[1] and King of Kong[2].
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordplay_(film)
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_kong
For those who haven't seen "King of Kong", it's an excellent film. Strongly recommended.
Man on Wire (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155592/)
Exit Through the Gift Shop (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/)
The King of Kong (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/)
You've done a great job, and I am in no way intending to be critical. My only concern was the claim of accuracy. It is an outstanding simulation of the original, and I commend you for your work on it.
However, leaving out the bugs, for example, makes it not accurate. As for the timer, I don't see how you could guarantee the frequency in a javascript VM. It could be similar (by continually testing how inaccurate it is and adjusting the frequency of subsequent iterations), granted, but this is not accuracy (it is emulation). As for memory, etc, many of these older games had "death screens" where a buffer overflows and simple crashes the game, preventing you from continuing past a certain point - that too would be very difficult to accurately model in javascript. The list could go on and on. And this is in no way critical of you, or what you have done - it is simply statement of fact about accuracy!
As an aside, Billy Mitchell (the first person to ever get a perfect pacman score) was one of the stars in the movie The King of Kong.
Again, I think what you have done is AWESOME. But it is not accurate (and likely could not be).
Urghhh... I wish i'd never posted anything now :(
Having recently watched King of Kong (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/) I highly doubt the accuracy of these "remakes".
Keep in mind King of Kong's accuracy is quite widely disputed, including by the people who were the subjects of the film. The filmmaker pumped up the drama between everyone quite a bit. Still a fun documentary.
Here are some nerdy ones:
"BBS: The Documentary" and "Get Lamp" by Jason Scott are a couple great hacker docs, about BBSs and Interactive Fiction Games (though I would have to say they have a more Apple/wintel PC bent over other computers, but still historically interesting). Both have many great interviews with BBS and interactive fiction luminaries.
Tilt - The Battle to Save Pinball, this one covers the trials and tribualtions of Pinball 2000 the development of a digital/analog pinball hybrid. There's also The History of Pinball, its not as fancy but it's interesting.
The King of Kong is slightly entertaining about the world of Donkey Kong high scores and a peek into competitive arcade game competitions.
Revolution OS - About Linux/GNU kinda dry but interesting interviews.
Deathbed Vigil...and other tales of digital angst. Documents the last days of Commodore when it went bankrupt in 1994. I think mainly interesting to Commodore fans or folks who enjoyed seeing commodore fail...
King of Kong. Donkey Kong was a little before my time, but the characters are so amazing that it's almost hard to believe it's a documentary.
Cosmos. Because it's Carl Sagan.
If you're interested in this you might also check out King of Kong is also an interesting documentary on Donkey Kong and the world record holders. Also, it's one of the better documentaries I've seen.
It's not about making the drive understandable. Everyone understands it in a general sense. Every 'lay' person I've ever met has some hobby they 'geek out' over, as its own reward.
For movies, it's a matter of making the story entertaining for the larger swath of people who (by definition) don't all geek out about the same things.
E.g. I'm a geek. I'm a gamer. I can't even get up the motivation to netflix King of Kong, let alone watch it all the way through. I understand and respect that those guys geek out over Donkey Kong. But that doesn't hold my interest.
Hollywood would have as much luck trying to make people understand the joy of hacking as we hackers have in trying to make people understand privacy and security.
There is a documentary titled The King of Kong that explains the history of the personal rivalry between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
I liked the King of Kong: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/.
Man on Wire is on my list of movies to watch: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1155592/
There's a great article on Billy Mitchell who was the first guy to master the Pac Man kill screen in the July issue of Harpers.
His "reverse engineering" of the game was so detailed that he amazed the original programmers.
http://laweekly.blogs.com/joshuah_bearman/2008/08/finally-the-kil.html
Also, be sure to check out the movie "King of Kong" where Billy Mitchell is also a controversial figure.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
If you liked the video, check out this movie on Donkey Kong world records, called "The King of Kong": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/ User Rating: 8.6/10