http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/fun.gam....ap/index.html

Man sets new Donkey Kong record
Thursday, July 17, 2003 Posted: 11:59 AM EDT (1559 GMT)



Steve Wiebe became the first player to get a million points on Donkey Kong Junior, the sequel to the original game. He beat out Billy Mitchell for that record as well.

I was getting burned out playing so much, but I was determined to go for it.
-- Steve Wiebe, Kong king


REDMOND, Washington (AP) -- Steve Wiebe now rules as the Donkey Kong king after setting a new world record with more than 900,000 points in the classic video game.

The victory was a solitary one.

A few times a week, after his two young kids had gone to bed and his wife, Nicole, was busy working, the 34-year-old would head to the garage and turn on the video camera that would prove his score.

He diligently set to work maneuvering Mario to dodge objects thrown by an angry ape.

"Since I'd been trying so long, it wasn't like I jumped out of my chair or anything (when I got that score)," he said.

Record stood for 20 years
Finally last week, the Redmond resident broke an 879,200-point record set last year by a New York man, which edged past one set nearly 20 years ago by Billy Mitchell, a Florida man generally consider the Don of the Arcade Game. Mitchell's mark was 874,300.

Wiebe scored 947,200 points in the 22 levels of the game. He sent a videotape documenting his feat to Twin Galaxies, the definitive scorekeeping organization for gamers.

The record was big enough news to video-game enthusiasts that they crashed the organization's Web site, said Robert Mruczek, chief referee at Twin Galaxies.

"If you beat a gamer with the caliber of Billy Mitchell, that's a feather in your cap," he said. "They're the cream of the crop when it comes to video gaming."

Hooked on Kong
Despite all the points, Donkey Kong is not a game players can win. It ends with what's known as a kill screen, a final level that's impossible to beat. Even if a character could run headlong through the course with no obstacles, it never could make it in the time allotted.

Wiebe has been hooked on the game since college.

Mitchell, 37, says he only counts his scores if they're played in a public venue, and he won't say if he can beat his cross-country competitor. He'll only say that he's planning something big and unprecedented in response to Wiebe's win.

Nintendo smiles
The competition is just fine by Nintendo, which created Donkey Kong.

"We always smile when we hear about these kinds of things," company spokeswoman Perrin Kaplan said. "Donkey Kong means 'stubborn monkey' (in one rough translation from Japanese), and the fact that (Wiebe) was able to achieve this many points against a stubborn monkey says something."

Wiebe said he'll keep striving for the million-point mark, then retire.

The former Boeing engineer and computer-software tester plans to head back to school to become a high-school math and science teacher.

Tommorow's headline: "BREAKING NEWS: Donkey Kong champ killed by rolling barrel after Ape escapes from Zoo."

Conan O'Brien talked about this last night. He said he won a trip to his favorite place.... 1986!

His mother must be so proud.

DK is probably my favorite classic game from the early 80s. At least until Punch Out came around.

The screen with the elevators was the best.

Wow. That's quite a feat!

If he wasn't maried right now, he'd be getting so many chicks...

I seriously thought this was an Onion article until I looked at the URL.

Misleading article. He's has the Donkey Kong Junior record.

Who would want to get a record in a game that hardly anyone plays anymore?

"Sorry Donkey Kong, you're just not a draw anymore...."




"Hey, he's still got it!"

It's confusing. The article desscibes the original Donkey Kong, not DK Jr., but the pic has a Jr. machine in the background.

Still, I'm just amazed anyone even bothers to officially keep track of this kind of thing anymore.

It is confusing.. What happened was that the guy got a score of over a million in DK Jr. last year, and this year the same guy beat the record for DK (not Jr.) by getting 947,200 points.

The 22nd level that it talks about as the kill screen is actually the 117th screen you play, if you start from the beginning.

http://www.allrpg.com/rpgnews/news_show.php?newsid=908

"I am Steve's penis. I feel neglected."

Mmm, don't you move Mario around dodging barrels? It's not Donkey Kong Jr for the SNES.

I guess that's what I get for skimming!


And Otto, please tell me you just looked all that up, and didn't pull it out of memory.

Y2K: Of course not. I googled it and got the link that I posted. Click it and you get the same info.

Of course, now I do have it in memory and it'll come up in a trivia contest or something. That always happens to me.

It's a me, It's mario

It is rather confusing, but I took it to mean he holds the record to both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.

Now if someone could just explain one other thing to me. THERE'S 22 LEVELS IN DONKEY KONG? I had absolutely no idea! I thought there was the barrels, the elevators, and then the conveyor belt. Only three levels. I must not be as good at that game as I thought! (Makes me want to find one and start playing again. )

I've made it to 9th key.

Considering that most games today SUCK, I figure there's at least a decent percentage of people. Donkey Kong will be forver, the Tomb Raiders and GTAs of today will leave thier mark but fade away.

There's 4 boards but they loop.. the 22nd level however is the famous "kill screen".

I work with a guy who is a friend of this guy. Wow, I kind of know somebody famous now.

I saw that too.

Its probably a better hobby than collecting DVDs that sit on your shelf for years. I can't quite understand all these people calling hiim a loser and such. He's got a family, he just does it on his spare time.