The King of Kong

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film about competitive arcade 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 Billy Mitchell. The film premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and was released in U.S. theaters in August 2007. It received positive reviews. Summary Walter Day is the founder of Twin Galaxies, an organization dedicated to tracking high scores in arcade games, especially those from the golden age of arcade games of the early 1980s. Restaurateur Billy Mitchell holds the high score for several arcade games, including the original 1981 release of Donkey Kong. In Redmond, Washington, out-of-work engineer Steve Wiebe has purchased a Donkey Kong cabinet in hopes of achieving the world record. Using his mathematical knowledge to identify exploitable patterns in the game, Wiebe sets a new record of 947,200 points in 2003. He sends the tape to Twin Galaxies as evidence and becomes a Seattle celebrity. Wiebe sets a new record with a score of 1,006,600 – the first-ever score over a million. Mitchell and Twin Galaxies send two referees to investigate Wiebe's machine. They learn that the machine's circuit board was provided by Roy Shildt, a self-proclaimed fitness guru and pickup artist who claims the high score for Missile Command. Unbeknownst to Wiebe, Shildt and Mitchell have been at odds for years after Mitchell questioned Shildt's high score, causing Twin Galaxies to disqualify it. Twin Galaxies suspects that Shildt may have tampered with Wiebe's board and does not recognize Wiebe's record because it was made on video and using a board which may be questionable due to its association with Shildt.