New evidence has been uncovered that suggests Billy Mitchell did indeed cheat to attain his record-breaking Donkey Kong scores — the ones which Twin Galaxies removed from its record boards because they were allegedly achieved via emulation rather than original arcade hardware, and for which Mitchell is suing the record-keeping company.

As revealed by Karl Jobst on YouTube in the video at the top of the page, previously unseen photographic evidence shows what appears to be a non-original, potentially eight-way joystick as opposed to the four-way stick of the original cabinet. This difference makes it easier to perform certain moves and would give anyone using it an unfair advantage over someone using original hardware.

Red stick
The offending red stick, which differs substantially to the arcade original black stick with a chromed stem — Image: Karl Jobst

For those unfamiliar with this whole sordid saga, we have covered it in-depth multiple times in the past, beginning when rumours of foul play around the video documenting the former King of Kong's submitted scores first surfaced. The gameplay featured in the video was shown to come from an emulator rather than an original Donkey Kong arcade cabinet. Mitchell claimed that the videos must have been faked as part of "a conspiracy nearly as broad (and untenable) as the Kennedy assassination," as stated in his subsequent lawsuit documentation. He claimed that the tape itself was irrelevant anyway as he performed the feat in a live setting with witnesses.

Twin Galaxies nuked Mitchell's scores back in 2018 and banned him from competing while also recognising Steve Wiebe as the first million-point DK player. Mitchell's scores were subsequently reinstated by Guinness World Records and Mitchell initiated legal proceedings against Twin Galaxies and claimed that his doctor of 30 years refused to see him for an annual check-up due to the cheating allegations.

You can read more about all of these events in the articles at the bottom of the page, but ultimately Mitchell's current lawsuit claims that he achieved his high score on totally unmodified, original arcade hardware — a claim backed by his witnesses, which Jobst suggests are of dubious reliability in the video above (seriously, it's only 13 minutes, so give it a watch) — and these newly-found photos provide compelling evidence that suggests otherwise.

It's unclear at the moment exactly what impact this new evidence will have on Mitchell's case in the ongoing lawsuit, but one would imagine it's a massively significant setback in his efforts to clear his name. The saga continues.

Honestly, it's tough to keep out with the ins and outs of this neverending story. Let us know what you make of this latest turn-up below.

[source youtube.com]