What would gaming be without the gamers? I decided to start doing a spotlight every now and then on the most influential gamers in history. I guess you could say I grew up in the “golden age” of gaming during the 1980s when arcades were the thing. One gamer from the 1980s who definitely stood out was the famous Billy Mitchell. Perhaps you remember him from the cover of Time magazine.
Wikipedia: Mitchell grew up in South Florida and began playing video games around age sixteen. Already a dominant pinball player, he was at first uninterested in video games that started appearing in the early 80s until he saw that “Everyone was standing around the Donkey Kong machine and I wanted that attention.”[5] Mitchell graduated from Chaminade Catholic High School and soon began work as a manager in the kitchen of his parents’ bar and restaurant, Ricky’s. In the mid-1980s, he took over the restaurant and owns and manages it to this day.
Mitchell was recently in the documentary ‘King of Kong’ which is a film I really enjoyed. Some people gave the movie bad reviews, but that’s because they simply do not understand how things were back in the old days of gaming. If you are fond of high score memories and remember the days when getting the top score was bragging rights, then it’s probably something you should watch. I remember taking many Polaroid pictures of my top scores and sending them into game magazines. To be a legitimate gamer in those days, you needed the score and the proof to back it up.
Some of Billy’s top scores include:
- Achieving a score on Burgertime of 7,881,050 in 1984.
- Achieving a score on Donkey Kong of 1,047,200 in 2006.
- Achieving a perfect score on Donkey Kong Jr. of 957,300 in 2004.
- Unofficially achieved a score on Centipede of 25,000,00.
If you think those scores aren’t impressive, go ahead and try to get close to any of them. I know I can’t. He was also the first person in history to achieve a perfect score on Pac-Man.
9 Comments to Most Influential Gamers Of All Time: Billy Mitchell
by: Billy Mitchell
On July 19, 2007 at 8:52 am
Thanks for the kind words…
Never Surrender, Never,
Billy Mitchell
by: Xboxlenny
On July 19, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Thats cool. He is a legend gamer. I hope you can appreate his dedication and skills. I was a little too young for the arcade days but got the tail end of that. The atari started it for me. This guy has seen alot and i bet he is one hardcore gamer. not many people would have that dedication to acheive those scores. I challange anyone to do that. I sure cannot.
by: Riker
On July 28, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Did you see this?
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=19&id=1465
Now Billy did it again. He broke the old Donkey Kong world record easily at a live venue, and raised money for the Make-A-Wish foundation while he was at it! He is also offering 10 grand to anybody who can beat his record at CGE this weekend. Bold man & awesome gamer!
by: William
On July 29, 2007 at 12:39 am
wow. He seems like the kind of guy who will be trying to break records for the rest of his life. He also seems like a stand up guy. I hope to interview him one of these days.
by: Riker
On July 31, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Yeah, I’d dig on reading an interview. Maybe he’d tell us the secret to DK records. I know the Pac-Man thing is about patterns, right? There must be some secret to getting such crazy high scores on DK, too. Are there DK patterns?
Of course, he probably guards those secrets closely. =)
By the way, there was another article here, at MTV, with more details: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1565744/20070727/index.jhtml
by: William
On July 31, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I’m sure he guards the secrets like Fort Knox. If you have ever seen him interviewed before, he seems like the perfect guy for an interesting conversation. Thanks for the link
by: Christopher
On March 8, 2008 at 2:49 am
I don’t know anything about him personally, but he came off as a total douche wad on “King of Kong”. Have they released video of him beating the score? i would really like to see that, if for nothing else to quench my belief that he can. Like his friend steve said ” you can’t video tape a 59 at augusta and send that in as your performance”.
by: Christopher
On March 8, 2008 at 2:53 am
um it should read “… my belief that he can’t.”
by: Stephany
On July 6, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I finally watched this yesterday, and while he may indeed be a “legendary gamer” he acted like a total prick completely obsessed with himself. I would not take one step in his general direction to shake his squishy hand.