Hey nerds, there’s an alert coming down the pipe from my 2400 baud CompuServe BBS! Or, at least, it looks that dated:
Redmond’s Steve Wiebe, the likeable dad and teacher best known for the world’s second-highest score in Donkey Kong (and associated doc King of Kong), has just announced that he’ll go for the DK record once more at the 2009 NW Pinball and Gameroom Show this weekend at Seattle Center. Though KoK‘s famed gaming douchebag and Kong record holder Billy Mitchell has “donated” the above promotional JPG (seriously, look at the tag at the very bottom), and is even shipping limited edition, customized bottles of his hot sauce, he won’t be there to defend his mullet and American flag tie in an epic Kong-off on Saturday. Shame.
Bring your nose plugs, cuz it’ll be an old-school gaming who’s who this weekend. The Pinball and Gameroom Show will have a few seminars hosted by pinball game makers of yesteryear, along with Walter Day, the guy dressed up in sweet referee stripes in KoK and Chasing Ghosts, as host of a Twin Galaxies Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Sadly, that’ll induct gamers, not game characters—sorry, Mr. Do. Maybe next time. Even more interesting might be the session with former NBA player, and current seven-foot-tall Bainbridge Island resident, Todd MacCulloch, who has transitioned from getting dunked on by Shaq to getting dunked on by nerds in pro pinball tournaments. Watch him giggle and slap himself in the face in the below video, or at the very least, watch long enough to see his vintage home arcade. Twenty seconds are dedicated to the Slurpee machine:
If watching other people play games isn’t your thing, have no fear; over 100 pinball tables and over 100 old-school arcade cabinets will be free to play with the cost of admission. It was fun last year; looks like it’ll be better this time.
I’m hoping for a surprise visit from Mr. Awesome!
You know, I saw the movie, and Billy seems like a giant douchebag, but I also read the Atlantic Monthly article about a guy who was involved on the sidelines in the movie and spent time with Billy. Billy’s got a lot of arrogance, but the fellow who wrote the article was fairly convincing about the editing decisions (especially about timing) that made him look worse.
Like reality TV!
I can’t ever keep Donkey Kong and donkey show straight in my mind. Maybe because a Donkey Kong sounds like something that would be necessary to a donkey show.
Billy Mitchell gave me a call at the Stranger offices after I referred to him as a “sleazy BBQ magnate” in this SLOG post I wrote when the movie first came out.
He turned out to be a pretty likable guy, devoted to his family, and was certainly done no favors by the editors of the film. At least that’s how he presented himself.
They definintely played up the hero vs. villain role in King of Kong to make the movie more engaging. It’s what made it so good, you feel for Wiebe, the normal guy, who seems screwed over by the weird dude with the mullet. I met Wiebe and saw his talk at last year’s NW Pinball and Gamroom show, he was super nice and funny and didn’t really say anything bad about Mitchell, total stand up guy. I’m totally rooting for him to take over the high score record in Seattle on Saturday though, that would rock.
I went to the screening where Steve and his wife and some producer guy was there. Someone asked if they were worried that they made Billy look ‘too bad’ so that people wouldn’t buy it. The producer claimed that they actually had to cut out some stuff that made him look even worse, (like clips of him yelling at his kids), and thus that the version of him in the film was actually quite generous
@4: If Billy sees my post and calls to chat, then I will say to him what I’m saying below:
I do not toss my “douchebag” comment out flippantly, nor do I believe that Billy is all that awful a person. I believe KoK did its best to take all sides of Billy as he presented them to the filming crew, and reveal them fairly, particularly his care for Doris, the gaming grandma in the film.
I met the makers of KoK while working at a film festival years ago, and they patently stated that there was material left on the cutting room floor that would’ve made Mitchell look worse, not better, as far as his manipulativeness, his cheesiness, and his social grodiness. These aren’t the hallmarks of an evil person, but they are the hallmarks of a douchebag, as is the douchey poster I posted. Mitchell’s a highly competitive guy, essentially, not unlike king of douchebags Barry Bonds. I guess if I had to pick between roids and hot sauce, I’d pick hot sauce.
When I first saw that poster I assumed that Polly Esther’s had reopened.
BTW, the real poster for the show, which is hung around town and also the ad in this week’s Stranger, is actually really awesome. The Twin Galaxies/Billy-sanctioned one Sam posted is the ridiculous one.