As we noted a while back, Steve Wiebe (star of the hit movie King of Kong) is busy preparing to make another attempt on the Donkey Kong world record at this year's E3.
As part of his training he's set a new high score record for Donkey Kong Jr. - 1,139,800 points, to be exact.
Here's the full story, taken from Twin Galaxies:
With Twin Galaxies and the G4 Network preparing for Steve Wiebe's arrival at E3 in Los Angeles, CA in early June, Steve has been doing some preparing of his own.
While Steve hopes he can regain the Donkey Kong World Record on live national television on June 2, he is able to lay claim to recent success on another classic Donkey Kong title.
On April 24, Twin Galaxies announced that Steve Wiebe has officially taken the Donkey Kong Junior World Record.
The new World Record mark was accomplished on March 14 and verified by Twin Galaxies Chief Referee David Nelson. Steve's new World Record mark of 1,139,800 points takes the Donkey Kong Junior crown from fellow Washington state native Ike Hall, who was crowned the DKJ World Champ in August 2008 with a score of 1,033,000, taking the crown that Billy Mitchell had held on the game since 1985.
"I'm not surprised he was able to beat it," Ike Hall told Twin Galaxies Editor-In-Chief Scott Patterson via telephone on the day of this announcement. "I'm definately going to try and reclaim it, but it won't be an easy hill to climb."
Hall also stated that family life may make finding time to play in the near future difficult, but in the meantime he wishes to extend his congratulations to Steve.
"I'll be calling Steve to congratulate him," Hall said.
This new mark on Donkey Kong Junior also gained the attention of another who appears in the King of Kong film.
"This is a profound performance," notes Walter Day, Founder of Twin Galaxies. "On March 19, 1983, Billy Mitchell set a then-World Record of 957,300 points at the Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard in Ottumwa, Iowa. That record stood for 25 years until Ike Hall of Port Angeles, WA scored 1,033,000 points on August 10, 2008, lifting the record 86,000 points. Even though the World Record was able to creep up by only 86,000 points in those 25 years, Steve has managed the unimaginable and has lifted it another 106,000 points by scoring 1,139,500 points."
Steve's attempt on the original Donkey Kong is airing on the G4 Network at the annual E3 event in Los Angeles on June 2, with several Twin Galaxies officials there to witness and verify the attempt.
Twin Galaxies hopes to have a word with Steve and possibly with current and former World Record holders on both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior as this televised attempt approaches.
[source twingalaxies.com]
Comments 14
That guy is truly an inspiration. :')
Haha, fantastic news!
That's great, I love the whole chasing high scores thing. Steve seemed like a really decent bloke in the film, good luck to him.
Go Weibe go!
Nintendo's course of action should be clear: put the original Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr on the VC Arcade before E3 in honor of the event.
That is quite an accomplishment. The arcade DKJ is a whole lot harder than the NES one in my opinion. Even though I've only played that version once...
Personally, I hope Billy Mitchell gets to keep his world record. That guy deserves it. He got the first ever perfect score on Pac-Man!
WOW, now that is what i call a hardcore gamer !!!!
I am very happy for him. Well done.
Man, I love this guy. He's the best
I hope to meet him at E3!
I hope he does it, Go Wiebe!!
I will be watching this,
I loved the movie
I love Steve Wiebe. Billy Mitchell is evil. The movie was great.
Man, I had fun playing this on my Donkey Kong Classics cart on my NES - I also played the true version of Donkey Kong on Donkey Kong N64
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