Kongfrontation

In the film, Mitchell comes across as an oily competitor who avoids any chance to compete against Wiebe. Viewers first see him dodge Wiebe at the Funspot competition in February 2005. Instead of traveling to the event to compete, Mitchell sends 80-year-old Q Bert champ Doris Self to the contest with a videotaped score. We feel Mitchell's icy grip from afar as he plots against Wiebe via telephone. We see Walter Day — founder of Twin Galaxies, an organization that acts as gaming referee — squash Wiebe's aspirations of claiming a record through live play by posting Mitchell's seemingly dubious taped score as the new record on the TG website.

Easy, Mitchell says. It's all in the emphasis. That tape he sent with Doris Self? It was "just for fun," not an elaborate tactic to cheat Wiebe. The score from Mitchell's tape was yanked from TG's website just days later, and Wiebe actually reigned as Donkey Kong champion for the next eight months — a fact the film doesn't reveal.

But why hadn't Mitchell shown up in person for the mano a mano that audiences have clamored for? He says director Gordon and producer Ed Cunningham knew well in advance that he wouldn't be at the Funspot contest, which Mitchell, distracted from gaming, hadn't attended since 2002. Cunningham even dispatched a film crew to Mitchell's house to tape him during the competition. (Cunningham denies that he ever received a definitive answer on whether Mitchell would appear at Funspot and expected that he might show up on the final day of the competition.)

"They wanted to film me playing games," Mitchell says. "But I don't have any games in my home, so they asked me to talk with the people at Funspot."

During that time, Wiebe called Mitchell, asking if he was going to show at the contest. Mitchell found it strange. "After I got the message from Steve, something really rubbed me the wrong way," he says. "The contest had started already, and they knew I wasn't going to be there. I thought, 'Why is he calling me?' "

Mitchell suspects he was being set up as the villain from the get-go.

The last time Wiebe and Mitchell had actually spoken was in 2004, when Wiebe submitted three taped Donkey Kong scores to Twin Galaxies. Wiebe's score of 1,006,600 points at the time was not only a record; it destroyed the previous score of 879,200 set in 2000 by then DK champion Tim Sczerby — also not mentioned in the film. Below Sczerby's score was the original record that Mitchell had held: 874,300 points, set in 1982.

Mitchell says he called Wiebe, congratulated him for his score, and invited him to the 2004 Classic Gaming Expo in San Jose, California. At the Expo's banquet dinner, the two shared kind words about each other, and Mitchell drew a comparison to sluggers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire.

"I thought that was such a positive rivalry, where each person was happy to root for the other guy and give incentive to each other," Mitchell recounts of the meeting.

The pair had planned to play a game of Kong, and Mitchell had drafted congratulatory posters in the hopes that both of them would top the 1 million-point mark at a live venue. But once at the convention, the only version of the game they could find was an emulation, unsuitable for a sanctioned match. They actually played a friendly game and later appeared on a gaming radio program together, talking about their shared interests in Kong.

The next time they would meet would be the last: the Guinness World Record Tournament, set in 2006 at Apollo Games in Pompano Beach. In that scene, comprising the film's climax, Wiebe is left wondering why Mitchell would refuse to participate in a contest within minutes of his hometown and why the veteran gamer would snub him so harshly.

But according to Mitchell, he had not played videogames in nearly a year because of family considerations, which he says Cunningham knew. A spokesman for Apollo Games confirms that it was Cunningham who arranged to have the store turned into an arcade for the film.

Mitchell maintains that, contrary to what the film shows, he was at the Guinness luncheon at Rickey's and exchanged words and a handshake with Wiebe. Video clips taken from the camera of TG referee Todd Rogers show Mitchell interacting with Wiebe at the luncheon — also cut from the film.

Wiebe himself, though, says he got no warmth from Mitchell. "I was unwelcome there [Rickey's]," Wiebe says. "It was obvious from the tension. You could argue that we were best friends four years ago, but that wasn't how he treated me when the film was shot."