Time to give the doctor the spotlight, dontcha think?

Five years ago this week the world saw the release of a little film called The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.  It was here that the mainstream first learned that people still did battle over high scores on early 80s arcade games as they learned of Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell’s battle.

Now, much could be written here about the liberties taken with the story, ranging from the fact that Mitchell had actually  lost his record in 2000 to a gamer who was left out of the film to the fact that Wiebe had the officially recognized high score when the film began, but I won’t.  Frankly, enough has been written and said about this film over the past half-decade.

I’ve met and spoken with both Steve and Billy many times over the years and know them fairly well.  I’ve also run in circles that seem to want to bring up this film to me on an almost daily basis.  Seems any time that Donkey Kong is brought up, thanks to this movie, they speak of Billy or Steve or Steve or Billy or both, with a few remarks about gummy substances and the way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way overused “kill screen is coming up” jokes.

The focus SHOULD be on the present, and a guy named Hank Chien.

Despite the fact that he’s been international news regarding Donkey Kong several times, it seems that when one posts a story about Donkey Kong the other two players are still brought up first.   Hell… if you type “Donkey Kong” into Google it will suggest profiles about the game’s creator and Billy and Steve to you, but that’s it.  No Hank.

For those who are among the “wait… Hank?  Who’s that?” crowd… let me run it down for you real quick.

– Hank took the top honors in DK in March 2010 with a score of 1,061,700 points, knocking Mitchell off the throne.

– After losing the record back to Mitchell that summer, who in turn lost it to Wiebe again, Chien struck back himself with a score of 1,068,000 points.

– Chien has held the record since and has actually pushed it higher on two occasions now.  The current record stands at 1,110,100 points as of May of this year.

– Chien won the multi-player “Kong Off” event last year as well, beating out both Steve and Billy in the process.  Wiebe came in second place while Mitchell finished in seventh place.

Now, when I bring this fellow up to those who think the King of Kong was the end of the Donkey Kong story, they ask why Hank isn’t in a movie, too.  Thing is… he is.  Doctor Kong: Cutting up the Competition is a documentary short that came out over a year ago.

Overall, I’m glad that a movie involving vintage video games managed to find a mainstream audience.  That’s the kind of fight I’m out there fighting all the freakin’ time.  However, let’s give the doctor the spotlight from here.  He’s earned that by now, dontcha think?