AML DVD Review: “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” (2007)

Mike February 17th, 2008 Movies, Reviews

Video games and their players constitute an entire subculture that you’d have no clue about if you weren’t part of it or if there weren’t films like King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

The King of Kong is a documentary filmed over almost three years after Ed Cunningham, the producer of the movie, met Steve Weibe up in Seattle, Washington.

Steve Weibe was a family man, with a wife and two kids, who had become a celebrity in his hometown of Seattle after breaking an old Donkey Kong record.

What, who cares about a Donkey Kong record? Apparently, many people do. Mostly gamers. I had no idea.

There is actually a website called TwinGalaxies.com that is known and recognized by the Guiness Book of World Records, as the official video game record monitor. Volunteer referees from around the country go to video game events and cover tournaments to make sure everything is official.ns.
In the film, there is a guy who is the head referee and he actually will watch hours and hours of taped video game play sent in by gamers so he can update the record standings.

The King of Kong centers around Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. Mitchell was recognized in 1982 as the Gamer of the Century by LIFE Magazine. That magazine did a spread on a bunch of gamers and at the shoot, Billy set the record for Donkey Kong at 874,300 points.

Billy Mitchell Mitchell (pictured right) lived off that record for the next 20+ years, relishing in his supposed fame in the circles he walked.

And as a matter of fact, in those circles…he WAS a celebrity…an idol with followers.

That record was one nobody thought would be broken and never was…until 2003. By Steve Weibe.

Weibe had failed at many things in his life, and for some reason felt like he needed to be the best at something. So when he heard about this record he figured he could beat it. He’d always been great at using his hands, from art, to pitching to playing the drums.

So he sat down, learned the game and filmed himself scoring over a MILLION points playing Donkey Kong.

That’s when everything started, when he submits his score to Twin Galaxies which causes a ripple of doubt in the minds of those interested parties. Mitchell himself is a member of the Twin Galaxies referee list and his unwillingness to let go of the record he’s held for so long spurs off a chain of events that happens over the next 3 years.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

The documentary is shockingly great in how it portrays this sub-culture of gamers. The real-life characters are amazing in their devotion to this “sport” as they almost see it and the way they worship the top people is mind-blowing.

The focus is mainly on the classic arcade games, like Centipede, Missile Command, Donkey Kong, Pac-Mac, etc. Those old games are considered better than most that you see these days because of the direct skill involves with hand-eye coordination the further you get in each game.

Fascinating and well-made, even those who are not into this stuff will love how it shows human nature, our strive to be great, our fear of losing and the way we all have something we care about.

Highly entertaining.

And if you do watch the movie, there is a lot of stuff out there on the web about the events after filming and in fact, the producers say the story continues.

AML Rating: A

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