On the real-world consequences of being a movie villain, and the relationship between rivals:
BM: Yesterday, I get a phone call. I'll give you the phone number if you want; you can call the person. "Hi, is Billy there?" I'm on the other line, but I go, "Sure, who's calling?" "Steve Wiebe." Well, first of all, they said "WEE-be," which leads me to believe it's somebody who knows something. [Laughs.] And I says, "Yeah, hi, Steve, how ya doin'?" He goes, "Good." Click. He hung up on me. It wasn't him. This call was from Indiana. I'll give you the phone number if you want. You can put it through the 411 reverse and see what you learn or whatever, I don't know.
AVC: But have you actually had conversations with the real Steve?
BM: So if Seth Gordon once again in an interview says, "Billy Mitchell and his minions have started a smear campaign against the film…" I mean, where have I said anything negative about the film? I don't! I'm sure it's entertaining. I guess that's the best thing that can be said. [Steve] and I had three very friendly phone calls, um, each lasting more than an hour, on three different occasions. Not recently. Not at all recently. This was before he went to San Jose. I invited him to the Classic Gaming Expo, 2004. I invited him there, and I went up to speak onstage, as I do at each expo there. When I went up and spoke onstage, I called him to the stage, in order to honor him. I unveiled the poster in his honor, honoring his accomplishments. I did that in 2004. He was onstage with me. And I'm sorry to tell you that you can't see that, 'cause they forgot to put that in the movie. The pictures of me onstage with him, the posters, I think even film, are available, you're welcome to look at 'em. Do you really wanna go this deep? I mean, I can really shovel it at ya. But the thing is, like, what'd make me unhappy is, I give you all this, and all you do is state it in the paper. I mean, if you wanna know about it, then you look at the pictures. Then it's not he-said-she-said. Then you could ask Steve about it if you want. It's not "Billy Mitchell claims." It's "My research shows me." You know what I mean? I don't wanna be foolish, and, ya know, entertain you with this and then be made to look silly, you know? I read your reviews, "These two guys who obviously hate each other." That's absurd! I don't know him well enough to hate him. It's a video game. I wouldn't hate him over a video game.
The ins and outs of Donkey Kong
On Billy's reclamation of the throne, post-release:
BM: I last played Donkey Kong in July of last year, when I got the world record. I did it as a favor to a friend who was participating in the convention in Orlando. They asked me to go, and I said no. That was in August. I said no in September, no in October, no in November. In December, they said that if I go there and I play, that they'll send my family, too, and we can have a vacation out of it. I said yes, but they had to donate $1,000 to a charity of my choice, which they agreed to. Sometime in January or February, I actually bought a Donkey Kong off eBay because I don't own one. I don't own any video games in my house. None. So in preparation for the convention, I practiced, played a little bit just to be able to show off and be entertaining. And things kinda came together really good, and about a week before I went there, I thought, "Wow, man, this fell back together good." So I went to the convention, and three weeks before the movie came out, I beat Steve's score, which sort of debunked what they did. I think I aggravated 'em. Not Steve, I think I aggravated the movie people. I guess they'd rather I didn't do that, but I did it, and I haven't played since. Prior to playing that July, I hadn't played since 2004, when I got to the kill screen and set what was thought to be a new world record in Milwaukee. So the idea that I had played it intensely since 1982… Gimme a break. I went 13 years without playing a video game at all, from around '87 to '99.
AVC: How much of your day-to-day is taken up, since the movie came out, with talking to people about it?
BM: Before the movie came out, there wasn't a day would go by that I didn't have somebody say hi or recognize me from video games as a whole. Matter of fact, if a day did go by, I'd say, "Phew, nobody said anything to me." Now that the movie's out, it's the same thing. Before, it was mostly, "That's the video-game guy," or "That's the Pac-Man guy," and it's still dominantly, "That's the Pac-Man guy." But some of it is, "That's the Donkey Kong guy." As far as sayin' hi to people and things like that, it does happen on a daily basis, sayin' hi to kids who come in the restaurant or play with my children. Everything that's face-to-face is always very, very friendly. I get e-mails and such that would turn your stomach. People, they surprise ya! [Laughs.] With how strong their emotions are. I guess that's because it's an entertaining movie. And some people, like yourself, find it entertaining, great to watch and be humored, and some people take it as a whole lot more, I guess.
AVC: And you're interested in setting the record straight wherever you can?
BM: No.
AVC: You're not interested?
BM: For every hundred interviews that I have the opportunity to do, I just once in a while do it, 'cause somebody's polite on the phone. Like you. The interviews I've done in a year, I can count on both hands. It's just a video game, and it's brought me a lot of fun, the experience as a whole from 1982 to now. I've been to 48 out of 50 states. I didn't get to Hawaii yet, and for whatever reason, I haven't been to North Dakota. I've been in Canada, I've been in Europe, I've been in Asia. How can it not be a great experience? But every year that ticks on the calendar seems to deal me more and more responsibility in the real world, and less and less available for recreation.
AVC: So if somebody beat your new record, would that inspire you to go do it again?
BM: August 17, 2000, Tim Sczerby beat my score. I don't know if you know that. I wasn't the world-record holder [as the movie implies]. That's just a big sham. He beat my world record, and I called him, I congratulated him. I guess you could say we talked Donkey Kong on a higher level. And he went back to his life, and I went back to mine. That was in the year 2000. Steve Wiebe came along in 2004 or 2003, and he submitted a score of 947,000. And when he submitted that, he had the record. During this time period, I had never played or attempted to beat anybody's record. In the movie, when you show [Steve] getting a million six, and the score is pulled down, and it goes back down to 874,000—what happened to the 937,000 that Tim Sczerby had? And what happened to the 947,000 that Steve Wiebe had? They just crossed that over, but it made a better movie. If you really want the facts, I'll give 'em, but to answer your question, no, it's not that important to me. I mean, it wasn't important then. I did it for the charity, and I have done many scores at many times that, had I chosen to videotape them or submit them, they would have been a big deal. But as the years go on, the big deal is the wife and kids.
Steve Wiebe reaches the legendary "kill screen" at FunSpot, and Bill Mitchell's "spy."
On Billy Mitchell's heavily documented current score:
AVC: You have the record now, correct? And you achieved it live?
BM: You ask good questions, man. You been doing your research? Considering all the controversy surrounding Steve's score and all the fuss that was made about the score, I didn't wanna be a part of that. That's why in the movie—search your memory banks or watch the movie again—never, ever do I say a bad or negative word about Steve or anyone. It's just not part of my nature. So I didn't wanna be a part of the controversy, and I thought, "Well, how do I drive this point home?" And so I bought a game, I sent the board to Nintendo—this is all documented—they verified its authenticity, that it was a real board and had not been tampered with. It was sent to the manager from GameWorks and a notary public, who were there and plugged it in at the event in Orlando. So the notaries were there. The game was locked up and the manager of GameWorks kept the key with him, and the Twin Galaxies senior referee Todd Rogers was there. If you follow the rules, you have a senior referee there, a senior referee witnesses it, period. End of paragraph. Score verified.
AVC: But you did more than that.
BM: The game was videotaped, and then the overall area of me playing was taped. Once the score was done, the GameWorks guy came back with the key, opened the cabinet, then put it in a box and they sent it back to Nintendo, who re-verified it as the same board, still authentic, untampered with. Lastly, I took the videotape of the game and sent it to two referees, the same referees that had viewed previous tapes, and they verified the authenticity of the tapes. I can't really do a whole lot more than that.
AVC: You say it's just a video game, but you took it pretty seriously.
BM: I didn't want to cause any rhetoric or any heartache, and without kidding you, and this part is the touching part for me… People in the movie, like Walter [Day, video-game scorekeeper], who are very giving of their time, for a labor of love, people in the movie who are made to look corrupt, incompetent, or manipulated, they take a lot of flack that they don't deserve. They can't take any flack on this.
On the "break-in" at Steve Wiebe's house, in which two gamers—friends of Mitchell's—examined Steve Wiebe's machine:
BM: The two guys who went to Steve's house, they called ahead of time, they were told when to be there. He was late getting home. The grandmother opened the garage, they let 'em play. Nobody broke into his house. And now Steve Wiebe says that. He says, "No, they were pleasant," and now when they do interviews, they don't say "the goons who broke in," like the movie would have you believe. They just say "the two guys who visited Steve." And I appreciate that, because I have it on my conscience that otherwise good people are criminalized, and they shouldn't be. It was a fun thing, and if you sensationalize something for the sake of Hollywood, I think that's fine. I don't think it's a big deal. I think the interviews, afterwards, they talked to Cunningham, and they talked to Seth Gordon, and they openly say that these goons came in and broke into his garage, these two spies came in and tore his machine apart. They didn't tear his machine apart. Steve opened it. Now Steve says that, and I appreciate his character on that, and the fact of the matter is, it's not necessary to say those things in an interview to sensationalize the movie. The movie sensationalizes itself. They don't have to do that. And it's better that they don't.
AVC: Have you spoken with Seth Gordon after reading these sorts of interviews?
BM: Seth was behind the camera, and I obviously did interact with him, but without kidding you, if Ed Cunningham came in and sat in a restaurant and started eating and I walked past him, I'd know who he was. If Seth Gordon did, I would not, and it's not a slight to Seth Gordon. He was not the one that was steering the cart. It was Ed Cunningham, and Ed Cunningham was the one who organized things, and all that kind of stuff. Seth Gordon does these interviews and comes up with these things he says out of thin air, these quotes he says I'm saying—they're beyond me. I have no idea. I haven't had a conversation with him. You know, the idea that Billy Mitchell is bitter about the movie… Says who? I think it's funny. I think it's humorous. The closest thing to bitterness that I have is, I think it's lousy that they criminalize people. You know, they're the ones who have to live with that. But the fact that myself and others were duped, that's no fun. We were led to believe something else about the movie, and, oh well.
Ed Cunningham: We could have spent 25 minutes dissecting how they got in [to Wiebe's garage], and how they were asked not to come in. But the point is, two guys showed up at this guy's garage, unannounced. They didn't call, and I don't care what anybody says, they went at the behest of Bill Mitchell. Three people say that. The whole thing started, honestly, when we just kind of, in editing, referred to it as "the break-in." They didn't break into the garage, nor does the film say that they broke into the garage. And everyone was upset, and I understand that it had come out that we had said in a Q&A or something online that it was a break-in. I get that, and we've pulled back from that. We don't refer to it as the break-in any more. But the overall fact is, two guys showed up at Steve Wiebe's garage unannounced to look at his machine.
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