After much controversy and deliberation, Guinness World Records has officially reinstated Billy Mitchell’s world records for Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, effectively making him the record-holder for the perfect score in Pac-Man from 1999 and for reaching 1 million points in Donkey Kong back in 2005.
According to Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday, there wasn’t enough “sufficient evidence” to support Mitchell’s alleged cheating of using emulators instead of original hardware, and as such, cleared the world record holder of any suspicion and wrongdoing. “In cases such as this where there is debate, we would typically defer to the original contemporaneous adjudication, and this is the case here,” Glenday explained as part of the decision.
Additionally, Mitchell himself issued a statement on his Twitter account in which he talked about the ruling and said how his scores have been officially reinstated after an “independent, fair, and unbiased investigation.” Furthermore, Mitchell shared a link to the official Guinness World Records page in which all of his accomplishments are listed, and a statement which verifies the reinstatement of his scores.
The controversy originally occurred in 2018 when Mitchell was accused of using an emulator to manipulate the Donkey Kong arcade game in his favor, thus having his score removed from score-tracking site Donkey Kong Forum. To add to that, some of the moderators on the site took it upon themselves to closer inspect Mitchell’s gameplay, and arrived at the conclusion that he used an emulator because the game loaded in chunks instead of sliding in from the top of the screen (which is an apparent telltale sign that an emulator was used).
To further escalate the situation, Twin Galaxies, a record-keeping website which Guinness World Records often references, made an announcement in April 2018 that Mitchell’s Donkey Kong score was removed and how he was effectively banned from all future entries. Fast forward to May 2020, Mitchell readied a defamation counter case that aimed to prove his innocence and sue Twin Galaxies for accusing him of cheating. Twin Galaxies has yet to comment on the Guinness decision, or reinstate Mitchell’s score.
Source: PC Gamer
