Billy's the one on the right, by the way

It's fair to say that it's not been a great year for Billy Mitchell, the former "King of Kong". Earlier this year he was accused of cheating in order to claim his famous Donkey Kong high score, and last week Twin Galaxies responded and removed all of his submissions from its site. To make matters worse, Guinness World Records has also wiped Mitchell's scores - a sad state of affairs for a man who has been perhaps the famous face of the arcade high score community for decades.

Mitchell addressed the claims earlier this year, but has remained silent about recent events - until now. He has recorded at statement during his time at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee, which has been partially transcribed below:

The fact of the matter is, now, there is a true professional due diligence being done to investigate things that happened as far as 35 years ago, in a professional manner, not in a shock-jock mentality designed to create hits.

We will show that everything that has been done, everything was done professionally, according to the rules, according to the scoreboard, the integrity that was set up. Not 2014 forward by the current regime, who wants to reach back 35 years.

Everything will be transparent, everything will be available, I wish I had it in my hands right now, I wish I could hand it to you. But its taken a considerable amount of time, witnesses, documents, everything, everything will be made available to you, nothing will be withheld.

What Billy's investigation will achieve remains to be seen; he has previously claimed that the tapes he submitted had been switched, although this theory has been branded as outlandish by some. We'll no doubt see if Mitchell's efforts to clear his name bear fruit in the coming months, but let us know what you think of this statement by posting a comment below.

[source polygon.com]