Guinness EXPOSED: Private messages reveal the truth about the reinstatement of Billy Mitchell

by ersatz_cats

Merry Christmas, everyone!

In June 2020, Guinness World Records announced it was “reinstating” several titles previously belonging to disgraced video gaming cheater Billy Mitchell. Billy’s previous records, including for games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, were removed from the leaderboards of legacy gaming scorekeeper Twin Galaxies, after a lengthy investigation concluded that multiple of Billy’s Donkey Kong scores were fraudulently misrepresented. (TG didn’t officially say Billy “cheated”, but he cheated.) While this reversal by Guinness had been foreshadowed by some, it still came as quite a shock to those following the story, who were surprised Guinness would attempt to satisfy the demands of someone threatening baseless lawsuits.

But would it really shock you to learn that there was more to this story? Prior to Guinness’ announcement, the last the public knew for sure about Billy’s battle with Guinness was that Billy’s lawyer had sent them a legal threat, along with a whopping dud of an “evidence” packet filled with lies. Neither party published that letter, however, the same letter was also sent to Twin Galaxies, who made public all the material they had received from Billy’s attorneys in the interest of transparency.

As part of legal discovery in the ongoing court battle between Billy Mitchell and gaming scorekeeper Twin Galaxies, Billy was recently compelled to supply the communications between his attorneys and those for Guinness, along with some emails between himself and Guinness Editor in Chief, Craig Glenday (the guy from his reinstatement video). In addition to those emails, this communication consists of eight formal letters, culminating in a final four-page position statement from Guinness. Guinness’ attorney strenuously argued why they were right to rely on the conclusion of Twin Galaxies, who are experts in the field of video game adjudication, regardless of whether that conclusion was fundamentally true or not. None of the evidence relevant to the case was discussed, with the discourse rather focusing on case law arguments which Guinness’ attorney also found unconvincing. Shockingly, the letter reads as though Guinness themselves were not convinced that Twin Galaxies had come to an incorrect conclusion at all, referring to the possibility that Billy could, hypothetically, one day in the future, be able to prove the TG dispute verdict was incorrect. But even more shockingly, without any further evidentiary analysis… Guinness then did an about face and said they’ll go ahead and restore Billy’s records anyway, as long as he drops what they called – and these are Guinness’ words – his “bogus, threatened claims”.

Want to see more? We’ve got more receipts than Target after Christmas. Keep reading!

(If you think you’re brushed up on all the backstory, you can skip ahead to “Discovery Bites”.)

HOW WE GOT HERE

The last year or so has been pretty rough for Billy Mitchell.

His frivolous lawsuits are getting tossed one-by-one. But that hasn’t stopped his lawyers from sending out more legal threats to random journalists covering the story! One of Billy’s biggest supporters, Donkey Kong champion Robbie Lakeman, is now calling Billy a fraud and accusing him of trying to extort witnesses. In September, hardware engineer and Donkey Kong expert Tanner Fokkens published a 48-page technical analysis confirming and adding to the evidence that Billy’s DK tapes were fraudulently misrepresented. Billy’s PR campaign isn’t going much better, after he was caught convincing a crowd at Music City Multi-Con that he completed a perfect score on Pac-Man when he had actually come 5,090 points short. (Remember, his entire case for his cheated Donkey Kong scores hinges on witnesses claiming they saw what they think they saw.) Billy’s still pouring bad money after good into a losing lawsuit against YouTuber Karl Jobst in Australia, and has now been reduced to threatening to sue him again over other people’s memes. Even Billy’s own doctor won’t see him anymore! (Or at least that’s the story Billy is telling everyone, while calling out this doctor by name.) Most recently, Billy streamed some Pac-Man from Free Play Florida, playing on an obvious bootleg machine, which would be fine, except he told his Twitch chat it was “authentic” and “original”, suggesting that if they disagree “they can argue with Bally-Midway and Namco”. (This from the guy who says he only submits scores he knows were done on original hardware.)

And that isn’t even getting into Billy’s main lawsuit against Jace Hall’s Twin Galaxies in California! This case is a trip. As an outside observer, it looks like Mr. Mullet thought Jace would buckle and settle the moment mean old Billy threatened him, but obviously Jace isn’t the pushover Billy is used to bullying around. Billy’s testimony in this case is so full of lies, it’s impossible to quickly summarize them all. As an example, during the score dispute, Billy sent some incriminating text messages to Jace, which contradict Billy’s initial sworn testimony. In an attempt to disavow these texts, Billy added a new story, claiming that he called Jace on the phone and verbally told him the opposite of what’s preserved in those text messages. Later, when TG’s lawyers asked for proof of this phantom non-existent phone call, Billy’s story changed again, and it became a convoluted Skype call through a third party, which you would think would still result in some kind of phone record, which Billy claims he does not have. Meanwhile, Billy’s first lawyer in that case, James Gibbons, bailed on his entire firm. (He’s still working, just not for them.) The jokers at Gibbons’ old firm who took over this case asked the court for a quarter of a million dollars in legal fees and got promptly denied. Even worse, TG is now counter-suing Billy and his longtime friend and business partner Walter Day, for (among other things) fraudulently misrepresenting the TG scoreboard when they sold it to Jace in the first place. This whole legal proceeding has moved into the discovery and deposition phase, on its way to a trial Billy and his lawyers were surely never expecting.

However, through all of this, Billy has had one thing above all else going for him:

That’s right. Originally, after Twin Galaxies had scrubbed Billy from their leaderboards in April 2018, Guinness World Records followed suit and stripped Billy of his titles there as well, just as they had done with Todd Rogers before him. Guinness then issued a poorly-worded statement about both dispute verdicts in their next “Gamer’s Edition” book released that summer:

However, once lawsuits started flying around, the “fine”, “reputable” folks at Guinness announced their decision to reinstate all of Billy’s previously stripped recognitions. Heck, they even added a couple more designations for Billy they didn’t recognize previously, just for good measure. (We’ll get to that later.) This was all made public through a page on the Guinness website and a video featuring and coordinated with Billy himself. (And yes, Billy tells a bunch of lies in the video, because of course he does.) Guinness took added effort to give the announcement a veneer of legitimacy, using words like “compelling” and “unanimously”, and saying things like “Guinness World Records is always open to accepting new evidence”.

Admittedly, GWR’s participation in this publicity stunt seems like a lousy undertaking, given that Billy was actively suing a rival gaming scorekeeper, and it probably played a big part in Speedrun.com terminating their own relationship with Guinness as well as the end of the previously annual “Gamer’s Edition” series of Guinness books.

Either way, this was great publicity for Billy Mitchell, who seems to be looking for public acceptance and approval every bit as much as any victory in court. (Gotta keep those convention appearances coming somehow, I suppose.) Very shortly after Guinness’ June 2020 announcement, Billy’s lawyers filed a new opposition to TG’s anti-SLAPP motion, and sent TG a renewed legal threat, both of which highlighted Guinness’ decision as evidence that Twin Galaxies had come to the wrong conclusion about Billy’s scores:

But all of that was predicated on the idea that Guinness had done any sort of investigation at all in the first place. However, the problem with filing frivolous lawsuits is that, if you intend on winning, then you have to actually prove things, and you have to make the evidence you have available to the other party (known in court terms as “discovery”). You don’t get to just walk in and tell the judge, jury, and opposition “Trust me, bro!”

Billy certainly seems to be struggling with the “prove things” part of this equation. As for “discovery”…

THE MYTHICAL “INVESTIGATION”

Along with a brief written statement on their website, Guinness’ decision was announced by way of a YouTube video, featuring Guinness’ Editor in Chief, Craig Glenday. In the video, Glenday never highlights any specific piece of evidence, instead making broad references to “eyewitness testimony” (meaning, Billy’s friends like Todd Rogers claiming they saw Billy do the scores), “expert gameplay analyses” (meaning, Billy’s son’s attempts to gloss over the highly unusual game play on Billy’s tapes), and “hardware verification” (meaning, Billy’s claim that he sent a DK circuit board to Nintendo for verification).

In the end, we find that there just wasn’t sufficient evidence to support the disqualification across the board. In cases such as this, where there is debate, we would typically defer to the original contemporaneous adjudication, and this is the case here.

When you think about this, it’s quite stunning! The hubris it takes to stand in front of a community of dedicated hobbyists, who have poured countless hours into their own sincere investigations into the evidence, and declare “We don’t really understand what’s going on, but we just started looking into this, and we decided we know better than you.” And to do so while broadly citing already-rejected garbage without even attempting to offer anything new!

However, if you had just listened to Billy, and Billy’s friends who enjoy repeating his stories (sometimes verbatim), you would think Guinness undertook some serious investigation before coming to their decision to reinstate his cheated scores. On the same day of the Guinness announcement, Billy posted an additional video, produced for him by a local PR firm. (Billy removed it from his YouTube channel soon afterward, but you can still see it here.) In this video, Billy described Guinness’ “investigation” in his own words:

This is not a decision they came to quickly. It was a long investigation, substantial due diligence, and it’s that that I’d like to talk to you about here today. My first communication on this with Guinness World Records was September, 2019. They were very alarmed at the situation. Guinness World Records, as the most respected world record keeping authority in the world, decided it needed to take its own look into the situation, conduct its own due diligence, and reach its own conclusion. Over the next few months, the lines of communication remained open and active. In December, 2019, we received an email with their conclusions – to reinstate all of my world records, from 1982 to present day.

Billy sure loves emphasizing Guinness’ “due diligence”!

This narrative was repeated in an interview with RCadeRadio, shortly after (starting at 48:10):

They were… as professional as I had hoped. Remember, I had knowledge and a relationship with them to one degree or another for over 35 years. I was very confident that that part would go well. And it did. I had never dwelled into the world of.. what it was they had to do. What they do is what they do. They don’t share it with me. They said they would take everything, and they would be back in allotted time, and they were, with questions, more questions. It went back and forth for a number of months.

Ooooh, questions and more questions! Sure sounds like they got to the bottom of everything, right?

Billy continued:

Sometimes it would be two weeks, three weeks between communications, usually much more than that. But you’re sitting here saying to yourself, “What? What? What’s wrong?” You know, “Gee, what’s…?” You’re thinking they forgot about you, and then they come barreling forward with a lot of questions, and based upon the questions, you become very happy because you realize they’re getting into the meat and potatoes of it.

A couple days later, Billy spun a similar yarn about his communications with Guinness in an interview with his friend at TheVariant (starting at 12:00):

From the time we first presented it to them, I guess they… They looked at it for a period of months. There was tremendous communication. They had lots of questions. It went back and forth.

The host then chimes in to feed Billy more unprompted flattery. Billy then repeats his previous story about being frustrated with how long these communications took, before concluding:

But then at the end, you have to have appreciation, because you realize that they were ridiculously thorough, far more than I imagined. And so then you have a level of appreciation for it.

Wow! So it was “ridiculous” just how thorough Guinness was, huh? Keep in mind, the public Twin Galaxies dispute thread full of actual gaming enthusiasts assessing and compiling the evidence went on for 326 pages. So surely, if Guinness’ investigation was “ridiculously thorough”, it must have dwarfed even that effort, right?

It has already been discussed elsewhere that this “ridiculously thorough” investigation did not involve contacting anyone we can identify who would have represented the affirmative position on the TG score dispute verdict. Jeremy Young, the person who published the damning MAME evidence in the first place, confirmed he was never contacted by Guinness for input. Donkey Kong Forum founder Jeff Harrist, before his untimely passing, confirmed he had not been contacted as well. Tanner Fokkens, who also assisted with evidence against Billy and who more recently authored the aforementioned technical assessment, also confirmed Guinness did not contact him. And while I am not intrinsically important, by late 2019 I had already published the first edition of the “Evidence against Billy Mitchell” compilation, and Guinness did not seek my input for clarification on any of it – even though Twin Galaxies did seek my input into their renewed investigation. Did Guinness not contact literally anyone involved who wasn’t directly affiliated with Billy?

Billy’s narrative soon became self-perpetuating, as his friends and defenders got in on the act as well. One of Billy’s biggest defenders, Isaiah “Triforce” Johnson (seen in the corner), streamed his congratulations the evening after Guinness’ announcement. The segment wherein Triforce offers his version of events, starting at about 20:00, includes many misrepresentations, starting with the claim that Twin Galaxies specifically requested Guinness remove Billy’s scores, which Guinness themselves never claimed and which does not appear to be sourced anywhere. TG themselves said they had “notified Guinness World Records” of their decision. Further coverage in Variety, which included quotes from an unnamed Guinness spokesperson, also doesn’t seem to reflect Triforce’s version of events.

However, my favorite part of Triforce’s lie parade was this:

And Guinness decided to host their own investigation, and they found out a looooooooooot of discrepancies and issues with the original evidence that was given to have Billy’s records removed. They even found further evidence, that we don’t even know about. That’s crazy! There’s evidence on Guinness’ end we don’t know about.

It’s unclear how Triforce would have been made aware of secret evidence which he also doesn’t know about. It’s also never specified what these “discrepancies” and “issues” with the original evidence are. (Note that, even if you took Billy’s presented evidence at face value, very little of it attempts to compete with the technical MAME evidence, instead relying on witnesses who claim they saw Billy get the scores.) It’s almost as if Triforce’s intended audience consists of people who don’t know what the evidence is and just want someone to reassure them it’s not worth looking at.

Now that we’ve covered Billy’s tall tales of supposed evidentiary exoneration, let’s see what really happened.

THE OPENING SALVO

The first communication to go over is the initial four-page threat letter from Billy’s attorney James Gibbons, who at the time was still with Los Angeles firm Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester. This threat, sent to both Twin Galaxies and to Guinness on September 9, 2019, gave both parties a 14-day deadline to comply with their demand for a full retraction of the score dispute conclusion.

Accompanying this threat letter was Billy’s now-infamous evidence packet and a personalized letter from Walter Day, both of which are replete with falsehoods. As a quick, partial list:

• Walter Day repeats Billy’s newly invented story that he did a perfect score on Pac-Man in Japan;
• Walter spins a wholly fabricated tale about Billy’s tape submission seen in King of Kong, contradicting basically everything he said about that score when the movie came out;
• Walter claimed that arcade technician Todd Tuckey told him “emulsion” hardware could never be installed in a Donkey Kong cabinet (which, assuming he meant “emulation”, it most certainly could have);
• The evidence packet author (identified as Billy’s son) bizarrely claimed that TG referee Robert Mruczek stole Billy’s Donkey Kong tape and submitted it without his consent;
• Statements from Billy and from Billy’s friend Chris Ayra repeat the lie that Billy’s Pac-Man attempts in July 1999 were publicly announced in advance, rather than a closely guarded secret;
• The evidence packet still relied on the crazy conspiracy theory that a player named Dwayne Richard had somehow altered Billy’s VHS tapes to look like MAME, which was already insane even before it was outright debunked by the February 2019 discovery of old footage of Billy’s game play showing MAME signatures as far back as 2006. (To this day, Billy’s people have still never attempted to address this rather important development, because they cannot.)

Again, let’s be clear about this: “Billy Junior”, Walter Day, and other friends of Billy lied directly to Guinness, in the hopes of convincing them to reinstate Billy’s scores.

Getting back to Gibbons’ initial letter, while it’s addressed to both Guinness and TG, it takes particular emphasis on Guinness, concluding that the company “will be held responsible”, and that “hiding behind its partnership with Twin Galaxies” will not be accepted. Of course, Gibbons’ letter also contains numerous falsehoods, including this notable splitting of hairs regarding the original adjudication of Billy’s scores:

Let’s be clear: There has never in the past been any splitting of hairs over whether an adjudication was by Twin Galaxies the organization or by Walter Day personally. Billy’s claimed Pac-Man score had always been presented as a Twin Galaxies recognized achievement, bolstered by that organization’s long standing as a gaming scorekeeper, and not “My friend and business partner here saw me do it, and that’s all you need to know.” Note also that Walter Day, in Iowa, recognized and announced Billy’s claimed Pac-Man score from New Hampshire on the same day it was allegedly achieved, without having seen the video of it, strictly on the basis that others who had some affiliation with Twin Galaxies had been in the building that day. (For what it’s worth, the only listed TG referee present that day, Ken Sweet, admits he was out of the room when the score was achieved.) If you’d like, at about 2:10 in this segment with G4TV, you can hear Walter Day himself describe being told about the score over the telephone, by others who in his words “verified it”. Sure, the current ownership was not involved in Twin Galaxies in 1999, but there was a purchase agreement which Walter willingly entered into, which covered the transfer of organizational control to Jace Hall. The appearance of organizational authority was the whole point of the sale in the first place. Walter Day may now regret this sale, depending on how he used that money, but that doesn’t make this distinction any more valid.

This first Gibbons letter is already public, not because either Billy’s attorney or Guinness published it, but because Twin Galaxies did as part of its effort to maintain transparency in its score dispute system. The letter also represents the first communication between Billy or his representatives and representatives of Guinness, as confirmed again in a later Guinness message linked below.

Twin Galaxies knew exactly what to do with this threat, as demonstrated by the four-page response from TG’s attorney David Tashroudian on September 27th, four days beyond Gibbons’ declared deadline:

(Note that, despite Tashroudian’s prediction, Billy did successfully move his case past anti-SLAPP by simply lying through his teeth to demonstrate a “prima facie” case he did not actually have. The reason litigants typically don’t do this is because all of that falsified testimony becomes relevant at deposition and at trial. But that’s a story for another day.)

DISCOVERY BITES

While Twin Galaxies gave Billy’s meritless and shameful legal threat the firm rebuke it deserved, Guinness World Records took a different approach. And this is where our heretofore public knowledge ends, and we begin treading into new material. Before we get into these letters and emails, I wish to be clear on this point: By providing this as his response to TG’s request for discovery in this manner, Billy is representing what follows as the entirety of his communication between himself or his representatives and Guinness World Records. While I can’t say that this necessarily covers all communications between Guinness and Walter Day (which may themselves become the subject of a future discovery request), Day was included in some of the emails between Billy and Glenday, which we’ll get to later. Keep in mind also, despite growing critical attention on Guinness in recent years, I’m not aware of any similar peek into the behind-the-scenes practices of Guinness settlements. In 2019, comedian John Oliver did a segment highlighting Guinness’ partnership with brutal dictators, and yet he gave no indication his team came across similar private material in the past. Normally, this material never becomes public, because when making sketchy deals, both parties have an interest in maintaining secrecy around those discussions. However, this time we do get a peek behind the curtain, only because one party to this action (Twin Galaxies) has chosen to fight these baseless threats in court.

https://perfectpacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Guinness-A-Hoover-2019-09-23.pdf

On September 23, exactly fourteen days after Gibbons’ legal threat, Marsha Hoover of firm Goldberg Kohn sent a reply on behalf of Guinness World Records:

“As you are well aware”, lmao. If you’ve never heard one lawyer call another lawyer a bald-faced liar, you have now. This was in reference to Gibbons’ splitting-of-hairs between Walter Day and Twin Galaxies as authenticators of Billy’s Donkey Kong scores. However, regarding Billy’s claimed perfect score of Pac-Man from 1999 (which may or may not have actually happened), Guinness curiously decides to concede that the score was verified directly by Walter Day, as if totally independently of Twin Galaxies:

This is a curious move, given that Variety’s coverage of the score dispute verdict quotes Guinness as correctly acknowledging Twin Galaxies the organization as their verification source for Billy’s “achievements”. Perhaps this sudden feigned recollection was their way of justifying their decision to hand out a couple records in the hopes it would appease an angry litigant?

At any rate, Guinness offered to reinstate just those records relating to Pac-Man. So Billy sent one threat, and got a concession. Hoover’s letter concluded (as did all her other letters) with language indicating the reinstatement is strictly on the condition that this agreement remain secret until the announcement is made, and that a settlement must be drafted releasing Guinness from any litigation:

So basically, “We’ll give you something if you drop your lawsuit”.

https://perfectpacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Guinness-B-Gibbons-2019-10-10.pdf

On October 10th (six days after Guinness’ deadline), greasy James Gibbons fired back a response, again attempting to assert that Walter Day was somehow the verification source for Billy’s DK scores, independently of Twin Galaxies the organization:

It’s bad enough to attempt to split hairs in this fashion with regard to Billy’s claimed 1999 Pac-Man score. But to do so over Billy’s later claimed Donkey Kong scores is absurd. The verification process used for each of these scores (faulty as they may have been) have been well documented for years. The “King of Kong” score was verified on the basis of a tape sent to TG head referee Robert Mruczek. The “mortgage brokers” score was authenticated through the presence of TG referee Todd Rogers (lol) and the videotape which was put through a separate adjudication process. And finally, the “Boomers” score was accepted based on a vote of referees who had not watched the tape, at a time when Walter Day no longer owned Twin Galaxies and was no longer involved in the organization. (TG was owned by a man named Pete Bouvier in July 2010. For a while, Walter retained the honorary title of “Chief Evangelist”, but he had relinquished that title to Todd Rogers in March 2010.)

So why does Gibbons think he can just lie to Guinness’ faces like this?

Gibbons also referred to an “exhaustive game play analysis” which is “supported by Robbie Lakeman” (the standing Donkey Kong record holder). Note that, while this statement is technically accurate, it appears to conflate two distinct items that accompanied Billy’s 2019 evidence packet. The bulk of this “exhaustive” analysis (“exhaustive” perhaps in number of pages, but not in the quality of the analysis) was written by Billy’s son, in what I referred to at the time as “an exercise in asserting Billy’s game play is not an aberration while simultaneously explaining why it’s an aberration.” Robbie’s contribution, starting on page 66, consists mostly of assurances that he successfully tried these strategies a few times. (If this sounds convincing, know that basically every other top DK player disagrees with Robbie on this.) But more to the point, as noted in a video by Karl Jobst, Lakeman never said that Billy’s scores were “legitimate”. He merely decided that he – a player of much higher caliber than Billy – believes that he himself would be able to complete runs using the strategies seen on Billy’s tapes. Billy’s lawyers decided to misrepresent what Lakeman had actually said, framing “This game play isn’t so unusual” as “I believe Billy’s scores are legitimate”, which is not the same thing. (Of course, it’ll be interesting to hear what Billy’s lawyers will have to say about Lakeman’s testimony now that he has turned on Billy and begun calling him a fraud as well.) But hey, points to Gibbons for derisively dismissing his opposition’s focus on, quotes, “science”.

Later in this letter was where Gibbons began to quibble over the wording of Guinness’ printed statement:

Note that literally nothing in Guinness’ statement was strictly untrue. TG stripped Billy of all his records. Those included two records for Pac-Man. Jeremy Young was able to prove Billy’s submitted scores (not all-inclusive) were obtained using MAME. This was forbidden under TG rules. (MAME is a legal platform, but passing MAME off as arcade is falsification.) Sure, the way in which Guinness assembled these facts can be construed to mean that Billy used MAME to produce his Pac-Man game, which he did not, and in that respect Guinness were sloppy with their words. But on the other hand, the overall message that one might interpret – that Billy cheated – is still fundamentally true.

https://perfectpacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Guinness-C-Hoover-2019-10-30.pdf

Once again, on October 30, Ms. Hoover retorts, this time by pointing out that Billy’s attorney will have a hard time proving “malice” (which is required in a case of alleged defamation of a public figure) given that Walter Day himself expressed his belief that Guinness was “misled”:

And yet, somehow, the list of Guinness’ proposed concessions grows:

They’ve added two Donkey Kong scores to the two Pac-Man chips already on the table. Hmm, keep threatening Guinness with things, and you keep getting more stuff. Oh, so THIS is why Gibbons thinks he can lie to Guinness’ faces! (Yes, I know, none of this was literally to anyone’s physical face. It’s a figurative rhetorical quip.)

You may at this point have noticed that no actual evidence is changing hands here. There are no “questions upon questions” being thrown around. These two records were added as concessions in response to case law citations and rhetorical arguments. Now, one may wonder why those arguments did not also apply to a third claimed DK score publicized in 2005. However, if you’re familiar with the background on this case, you will recall that the author of Billy’s September 2019 evidence packet was strenuously arguing that this 2005 tape was never intended as an official score submission in the first place. (For more elaboration on why they were momentarily making this silly and patently false argument, see “I never submit taped scores” here.) And yet, at the same time, Billy’s lawyers were pushing for this non-submission’s “reinstatement” anyway. So perhaps that score’s absence from this list proposed by Guinness represented some brief attempt to reconcile Billy’s nonsense in a semi-sensical fashion?

https://perfectpacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Guinness-D-Gibbons-2019-11-06.pdf

On November 6, Gibbons responded to Hoover, accurately pointing out that if Hoover’s list was to reflect each of Billy’s claimed scores they had “previously recognized”, then it should also include the “King of Kong” score, which was printed in the 2007 mainline edition of Guinness, and a 1982 claimed DK score which appeared in the 1984, 1985, and 1986 Guinness editions. Gibbons then demanded that any announcement about Billy’s reinstatement “cannot be unilaterally fashioned” (that’s lawyer-speak for “We get to have input on what you say”), while asserting that Billy should still be free to say whatever he wishes. Gibbons concluded by suggesting a mediated resolution for determining monetary damages, while adding that it’s not too late to add Guinness to the lawsuit it had already filed against Twin Galaxies in Los Angeles:

A couple quick things to clarify: First, even though Billy first issued his legal threat to Twin Galaxies in September 2019, the actual suit had been filed in April 2019, as sort of a placeholder. This is because TG’s dispute verdict was announced in April 2018, and because defamation in California carries a statute of limitations of one year. The bulk of the paperwork and the service came the following year, which was also when the existence of this lawsuit was first publicized. Also, as discussed elsewhere, Billy’s lawsuit against TG includes up to 200 “Doe” defendants, meaning anonymous or yet-unidentified individuals he can add later. Yes, Billy Mitchell really is suing the Internet for saying mean things about him.

https://perfectpacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Guinness-E-Hoover-2019-12-12.pdf

On December 12, Hoover responded yet again, still expressly unconvinced that Billy’s claims against them are “actionable”:

How many times are we gonna hear Guinness tell Billy he hasn’t proven anything?

(As a quick technical note, Hoover identified this letter as replying to a Gibbons communication from November 9, of which we have no record. This was likely intended to say “November 6”.)

Hoover included the same repeated language indicating that any agreement of reinstatement must be confidential until the formal announcement is made, and that all claims against Guinness must be released as a condition of reinstatement. Hoover also rejected Billy’s demand that he be able to say what he wants while Guinness is constrained, as well as any claim for monetary damages. However, those other two Donkey Kong scores were added to the ever-growing pot:

https://perfectpacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Guinness-F-Gibbons-2019-12-16.pdf

By this point, greasy Gibbons is probably expecting a shiny new pony if he keeps asking for stuff for long enough. In a letter dated December 16th, Gibbons reiterated previous case law citations regarding findings of “malice”, while continuing to argue that Guinness can’t rely on Twin Galaxies as a source for the claim that any of Billy’s scores were done on MAME. (Indeed, Jeremy Young asserted that Billy’s scores were “MAME-generated”, while Twin Galaxies concluded that a specific identification of the MAME platform was unnecessary. However, someone other than Guinness had definitely made a fair and accurate determination that Billy’s tapes were produced using MAME.)

Gibbons then reiterated Billy’s demand for mediated monetary damages, as well as the explicit threat that they would add Guinness as a “Doe” defendant:

THE FINAL CURTAIN

https://perfectpacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Guinness-G-Hoover-2020-01-17.pdf

And thus we arrive at Ms. Hoover’s final four-page letter to Mr. Gibbons, dated January 17, 2020. We’re going to go through every word of this one. Prepare yourselves.

Right away, this letter sets itself apart from the others, which began by identifying themselves as replies to specific prior messages on certain dates. This reads from the onset as a global position statement, complete with self-promotive language.

Note how Guinness is not ignorant of the fact that there was a significant public investigation by Twin Galaxies, for which Billy was able to present unfiltered evidence in his defense. Indeed, Guinness had no reason to fear liability, given that the conclusion was overwhelmingly supported by the evidence, and that it was not even required that Guinness themselves be the ones to make the conclusion.

The statement continues outlining legal arguments for why Billy’s attorneys will never be able to establish that Guinness was guilty of “actual malice” in printing the statement it did:

Notice how Guinness themselves have made clear, albeit in this private communication, that Billy made no effort to contact them, or offer any evidence or rebuttal during the nearly year-and-a-half window between when Guinness removed Billy’s scores (in April 2018) to when the legal threat was issued (in September 2019).

HOLD UP.

WHAT DID THAT SAY!?

“Even if your client is able to prove” that TG’s conclusion was incorrect?

“EVEN”……. “IF”!?!?!?

You may have noticed this was not the first point at which Ms. Hoover qualified Billy’s claims with an “even if”. However, those earlier remarks could have been said to preface the bulk of their talks, during the course of which perhaps Hoover expected some sort of meaningful evidentiary revelation. This, on the other hand, is Ms. Hoover’s big conclusion. Their final(ish) offer is on the table, and Guinness still sounds wholly unconvinced of Billy’s innocence!

At the risk of doing Billy’s lackeys’ thinking for them, the only thing they could really argue in this case is that Hoover didn’t use the standard definition of “prove”, as you and I would understand the term, but rather the legal definition of “prove”, meaning “demonstrate in court to a sufficient degree as to convince a jury”. And it’s true, given that among six lawsuits and a counter-suit so far, none of them have yet proceeded to trial, so Billy “proving” something in the legal sense at trial would still be a hypothetical.

However, in addition to not conveying any sense that the author leans toward believing their own hypothetical, the language in this context was also unnecessary. Sure, the company lawyers are not going to actively concede that any statements were indeed false without a written settlement agreement (although they do seem happy to concede so much else). But any uncertain language like that can still be avoided. Saying “even if your client is able to prove that Twin Galaxies’s conclusion […] is false” is not so far from the more straightforward phrasing of “even if Twin Galaxies’s conclusion is false”, and if they had worded their rebuttal that way, I don’t think there would have been any question what they meant.

Regardless, given Guinness’ demonstrated lack of interest in the evidence during this discourse, and their failure to reconcile the many lies in what Team Billy provided them, as well as their failure to seek out contributions from anyone not affiliated with Billy personally, I believe it’s safe to say that Guinness did not even entertain any conclusion whatsoever on whether Billy’s claims were proven or not.

Hoover’s letter continued by questioning Gibbons’ interpretation of cited case law:

Again, the only thing being discussed is legal positioning. Arcade rasterizations, girder fingers, MTV interviews, contradictions in the evidence packet, specific lies from Billy, or Walter Day, or Todd Rogers – none of that is being discussed.

This is a bit of an odd position for an entity like Guinness to take, especially with a lawyer behind the pen. Why would you concede that any record you are withdrawing recognition for strictly did not happen? Is there not space to say that a claimed achievement may have happened, but that the burden of proof does not meet this adjudicator’s standard for public recognition? In a way, language like this could be used against not only themselves, but possibly also against other adjudicators like Twin Galaxies, in the event they de-list achievements for which the evidence justifying them has become too questionable.

Going back and referencing various points made in Gibbons’ letters along the way, Hoover asserts that nothing Guinness said was technically inaccurate, and that Gibbons misrepresented what was actually said. While Hoover does not express knowledge of the fact that Jeremy Young very much did conclude and prove that Billy’s tapes were produced using MAME (something even a casual observer of the case should know), she does correctly identify “MAME” as a known shorthand for emulation, and that arguments over which emulation platform was used do not affect the underlying veracity of their conclusion.

We’re almost to the end of page 3. And honestly, setting aside the previous capitulations, everything here reads great so far. Billy hasn’t proven his case, and even if he did, Guinness themselves would not be liable for a factual inaccuracy, nor were they acting with malice even if they made a mistake.

Even if.

However, this is where Guinness’ credibility takes a sharp turn in the wrong direction:

Following these assertions, Ms. Hoover immediately pivots into detailing their new proposed settlement, while still referring to Billy’s “bogus, threatened claims”:

And in the interest of continuing this yet-uninterrupted chain of Guinness adding concessions to every previous offer, Guinness has now provided sample language for a settlement declaration (which, notably, differs from the final published version):

“Compelling new evidence”. Oh yes, the sort of “compelling new evidence” you never refer to or discuss, which just happens to justify whatever position it is you think may get you out of legal trouble.

Ms. Hoover concluded by reiterating that Guinness will offer no monetary damages to Billy, and if necessary will fight any lawsuit while pursuing “all available remedies against him for knowingly filing a meritless lawsuit”.

Most people have long suspected that Guinness did no sincere evaluation of any evidence in this case, and simply noped out to avoid Billy’s lawsuit. However, it’s still stunning to see it so brazenly in print. The people who said this “reinstatement” was a fraud were right all along.

MORE RECEIPTS

Before we get to our final new document, we should address a remaining elephant in the room, which is Walter Day’s longstanding personal connections with the bigwigs at Guinness. Given how many of these old, long-accepted stories from the Walter Day community have failed to withstand modern journalistic scrutiny, and how Guinness themselves have shown no reluctance to partner with those who lie about their credentials to their faces (thus negating any endorsement they may offer), I don’t wish to be misunderstood as endorsing a narrative here which may yet succumb to more scrutiny. However, we can say that it is commonly understood at present that Walter Day has had a noteworthy role in Guinness adjudications, sometimes even ones not involving video games, going back to the 1980s.

On the other hand, Billy’s historical role with Guinness is less certain. Take for example Guinness’ 2004 adjudication of DreamHack in Sweden as the then-largest LAN party (as seen above). In his 2015 lawsuit against Cartoon Network, Billy cited amongst his credentials having been a “Credible Witness” for Guinness for this event. However, the actual adjudicative authority behind this event was Guinness representative Dave Hawksett, pictured on the far right. Subsequent DreamHack events were adjudicated in the same fashion, without Billy’s presence. Also, in Walter Day’s biography, he lists himself as the one who “joined forces with” Hawksett to verify the LAN party record, with no mention of Billy. In that case at least, despite Billy’s later claims, it seems he was just a guy in the room who happened to have connections.

Interestingly, in 2015, when Walter Day described his then-upcoming role in adjudicating an arcade-related Guinness attempt in Illinois, he used the same term as Billy, without capitalization but with quotations:

I will be there in person as the “credible witness” for Guinness World Records as we gather documentation for the submission of two claims for “WORLD RECORDS.”

However, “credible witness” doesn’t seem to be an official term in use by Guinness themselves. Guinness does publish an evidence guide, and nowhere does the word “credible” even appear (lol). Their description of “independent” witnesses, however, would seem to have been grounds for excluding Walter Day’s testimony on behalf of Billy Mitchell:

Of course, people tend to overlook these things when dealing with others whom they consider to be personal friends, which could be said to have been the underlying point of Billy’s and Walter’s hobnobbing all these years. And Billy and Walter have indeed made many friends in the industry, including at Guinness, which brings us all the way back around to this guy:

In addition to the letter chain between Mr. Gibbons and Ms. Hoover, the new lawsuit discovery also includes subsequent email conversations between Billy and Guinness Editor in Chief Craig Glenday, with Walter Day looped in:

https://perfectpacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Guinness-H-Glenday-emails.pdf

Note that some of the messages from Glenday include the following confidentiality assertion:

Ah, Guinness do love their secrets! Not to mention threats, both offered and received. Guinness is free to bark words as they wish, but luckily for us, the initial release of these communications was compelled by legal discovery in a case of great importance to the gaming public, which I happen to be responsibly reporting on. Their confidentiality agreements don’t apply to me, and in fact I would be outright negligent in my work if I did not share these emails with you now. I said this before, but I believe this to be an unprecedented look at the truth behind Guinness adjudication practices.

The conversation begins on February 13 with Billy sweet-talking Craig Glenday, by way of a message to Walter Day which he forwards on for Craig to see:

The next day, Craig responded, only too happy to finally meet the great Billy Mitchell for the first time. (Note that Glenday lives and works in the United Kingdom, so the fact he had never met Billy in person is not unusual.) However, Glenday does make clear that he cannot arrange any meeting until Billy formally drops his legal threat against Guinness:

Billy replied soon after, with more flattery, and suggestions of how else Guinness could indulge him:

Geez, get a room, guys!

Billy does eventually agree to drop the demand of a financial offer from Guinness, before all parties begin coordinating possible dates for a meet-up in March. However, a certain communicable disease outbreak soon complicates matters. In another message directed toward Walter which Craig is again allowed to overhear, Billy expressed his frustration with Guinness’ slow pace, openly pondering whether he may yet have to trade his carrot for a stick:

Amidst all the bombshell revelations, it’s easy to gloss over just how disturbingly manipulative this rhetoric is. If anyone ever speaks to you or about you in your presence this way, my advice would be to run away as fast as you can.

However, coronavirus restrictions aside, Craig Glenday is still as eager as anyone to find some way to meet up with Billy, provided once again that he withdraw his threats and concede on any question of a monetary settlement:

The messages continue with attempts to coordinate a Zoom conference between the parties, as well as a demand from Billy for corrections to the proposed settlement language as well as “certificates”. In a message shortly before Guinness’ reinstatement announcement, Billy brags about meeting his “biggest fan”, Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports, which Billy describes as “now bigger than ESPN”. This leads to Glenday offering his thoughts on Billy breaking the “embargo” on telling outside parties of the impending reinstatement:

The only known piece of interest not included in this collection of discovery would be the actual settlement paper between Billy and Guinness, which presumably would include the final language of the published announcement. Without that document, it’s impossible to tell exactly how far in advance of the June 18, 2020 announcement this deal was finalized. We can presume by the language in Glenday’s emails that this was formally settled no earlier than April. We also don’t have specific final terms related to the production of their coordinated videos.

If this final settlement ever does go public, I would be very interested to see what failsafes Guinness did or did not include to cover for the possibility that Billy lied to them. Remember, in Guinness’ own video, Glenday does not characterize the matter as settled. Rather, he simply suggests that there is evidence, that the matter is in dispute, and that they’re going to stick with “the original contemporaneous adjudication”. I can’t imagine what other proof of Billy’s lies Guinness would need, but surely something – the discovery of Billy’s missing Boomers tape, or a confession from Billy’s accomplice, or a traffic ticket for Billy in one state at the exact moment he claimed to be achieving a DK record in another state – hypothetically something must be straightforward and compelling enough to shake even the clueless Guinness of their gullibility. But what if they didn’t include a failsafe? What if they didn’t include a provision in this legally binding settlement reserving the right to revoke Billy’s records if they are later found to be fraudulent through other means? Could you imagine if Guinness, through their own incompetence, forced themselves to eat Billy Mitchell’s shit for all of eternity?

At any rate, as is tradition, Guinness’ announcement included yet more concessions. In addition to everything else offered in Hoover’s final letter, language was added to the published version specifically recognizing Billy as “first gamer to reach the kill screen on Donkey Kong” and “first gamer to score 1 million points on Donkey Kong”. These titles were then recognized by Guinness as distinct honors, with pages all of their own:

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/620434-first-gamer-to-score-one-million-points-on-donkey-kong

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/620433-first-gamer-to-reach-the-kill-screen-on-donkey-kong

Note that, while the specific scores had previously been recognized in Guinness, I can find no indication that these two particular honorifics (first million and first kill screen) had even been specifically bestowed to Billy before this “reinstatement” agreement.

A new statement on Guinness’ reversal was printed in the 2022 edition of Guinness’ mainline book, opposite such important gaming items as “Most viewers for a debut stream on Twitch” (for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) and “Largest audience for an eSports tournament”. Keep in mind, the mainline series is the only place Guinness can place such acknowledgments, now that their “Gamer’s Edition” series has been discontinued.

Following the pandemic-related delays, Billy and Walter did eventually get their meeting with Glenday in September of this year, at Guinness headquarters in the UK. In a humble ceremony, Glenday offered Walter Day a Guinness certificate declaring him “The Father of Esports” – a title created by Walter and his colleagues after e-sports’ rise in popularity. (For what it’s worth, it seems Guinness can’t decide whether to capitalize the “E” or the “S”.) And while a public pronouncement to this end was not made, judging by the banners in the background, this meeting likely also included a formal Guinness’ acknowledgment of Billy’s self-proclaimed title of “video game player of the century”.

But I suppose, if you’re going to coddle a crazed narcissistic cheater, it’s best to lean into it and pretend that was the plan all along.

LIES ALL THE WAY DOWN

We’ll get to Guinness fallout in a moment, but first I’d like to discuss how this reflects on Billy’s case. Of course, when his reinstatement was first announced, Billy immediately took to social media to flaunt his victory:

This social media campaign was accompanied by a paid and coordinated public relations blitz, courtesy of Florida firm BoardroomPR. As their own publicity page puts it:

In addition to media relations, BoardroomPR shot and edited a custom video, photo-shoot, and managed online reputation management for the Mitchells. “With a perfectly laid out plan of attack, we were able to gain media coverage for the reinstatement of Billy’s scores locally and nationally,” said Benjamin. Our well-written press release and distribution plan generated media coverage in all the major gaming magazines, blogs and portals, national news outlets like the Associated Press and ESPN and locally with the Sun Sentinel and Channel 10 News.

Again, we don’t have the final written terms of their legal settlement, but we can see why it was important to Billy that he be allowed to go around telling everyone whatever he wants about his reinstatement, while Guinness be required to stick to a script.

We’ve already seen how Billy and his friends have misrepresented Guinness’ “ridiculously thorough” investigation, wherein they had to be reminded of what they had previously printed in their own books. This misrepresentation continued in a letter from Gibbons to TG on June 18, 2020, coordinated on the very same day as the reinstatement announcement:

Yes, Guinness found it so “alarmingly contradictory” that they cited exactly no evidence, made clear at every opportunity that Billy had proven nothing, and argued for months before offering enough concessions to make an annoying lawsuit go away.

This particular letter has been public since around the time it was delivered, after TG published it and several of Billy’s early legal filings. However, Gibbons’ assertions take on a whole new look, now that we know what his actual exchange with Ms. Hoover looked like.

Ah, so a confirmation directly from Billy’s lawyer that Guinness was only given the same evidence that was given to TG, which TG published, and which the community correctly ascertained changed nothing about the facts of the case. So much for all that secret evidence Triforce and only Triforce is aware of!

Nothing in the process we’ve seen merits the characterization Gibbons uses here. And yet Gibbons, knowing full well about the extent of these communications, which did not go beyond case law posturing and semantic arguments over whether scores were “verified” by Walter Day or the Twin Galaxies organization, chose to misrepresent this exchange as an affirmation of Billy’s material innocence, including in a subsequent court filing:

In drafting today’s article, I did not reach out to James Gibbons (now working at London Fischer), or to Billy’s new attorney Tony Ellrod (still at Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester), primarily because I have no interest in platforming proven liars who help sue innocent people. I also did not reach out to anyone from Guinness, because they do not have anything relevant to say about gaming. However, it should be noted that some people were indeed swayed by Guinness’ decision to “investigate” and announce a contrary conclusion. On some level, I can’t blame them, as there is a lot of evidence to go through, and Guinness does have a far more broadly recognizable commercial brand than Twin Galaxies.

On the other hand, when the public did finally hear this news, many naturally assumed this was simply an attempt by Guinness to throw the gaming community under the bus and avoid dealing with litigation – an assumption now bolstered by the evidence seen above. However, this perception wouldn’t help Billy’s narrative, since the Guinness reinstatement was a key element to Billy’s ongoing attempts to rehabilitate his image with the gaming public. And so, to reconcile this reinstatement with the known fact that it was only offered under threat of lawsuit, Billy spun a narrative about his own legal threats having no bearing on Guinness’ decision. In a statement to Ars Technica the day of Guinness’ announcement, Billy claimed:

We had no chance to beat [Guinness] in court, because we could not prove it acted with actual malice… that it knew its statements were false or they had a reckless disregard for truth or falsity. […] You must prove this to win a defamation case. GWR made [today’s] decision because it was true and correct. Those are their values… At best, I feel that the legal sphere simply got their attention.

While Ms. Hoover seemed to agree that Billy had no legal case to stand on, Billy’s attorney was strenuously arguing just the opposite all along the way. I’ll leave it to the legal experts to decide which version of Team Billy’s story was the more accurate one. However, it should be noted, even if you accepted this version of events straight from the Giant Bearded Face himself, this is tantamount to a confession that Billy files frivolous lawsuits he knows he cannot win in the hopes that doing so will yield concessions.

While Billy and his sycophants have been running their mouths for years now about the “biased” score dispute, about all their “secret evidence”, and maligning the evil Jace Hall who they say is behind it all, TG has been doing the responsible thing, and not discussing an ongoing matter of litigation except as necessary. When asked for comment on Guinness’ reinstatement of Billy, Jace replied with an uncaptioned Kermit the Frog tea meme, as if to say “What Guinness does is none of my business”.

Meanwhile, Guinness’ attempts to quietly satisfy unreasonable litigants hasn’t made their operation any more robust. In late January 2020, after Billy Mitchell appeared to have privately secured his settlement, Todd Rogers turned around and filed his own frivolous lawsuit against Twin Galaxies and Guinness, hoping perhaps to secure reinstatement of his claim of 5.51 seconds on Atari 2600 Dragster.

Todd’s initial lawsuit was covered well by Karl Jobst, as was a recent attempt by Todd to revive his case by reclassifying his Dragster disqualification as “tortious interference” with a make-believe book deal he pretends to have had. (In Florida, tortious interference has a longer statute of limitations than defamation.) This lawsuit too has since been summarily thrown out, based on responses filed by both Guinness and the TG-related entity in Florida now known as “EF ESPORT”.

What couldn’t be understood was where Todd was getting money to file lawsuits against Guinness and against TG, especially when he seemed to demonstrate no interest in following up on them. Even if you grant that some lawyer somewhere may be dumb enough to take on a case like his on contingency, the filing fees alone on these are not cheap! Aside from his spider-collecting hobby, Todd is known to live humbly, with no indication that has changed since the time his home was filmed for the movie “Chasing Ghosts”:

To be clear, this is just speculation, but what would make a lot more sense than “Todd Rogers woke up one day and decided to burn a thousand dollars on lawsuits he makes no effort on following up on” would be “Billy Mitchell funded Todd’s lawsuit against Twin Galaxies, and got Todd to go along with it by including Guinness as a defendant in the hope they would fold like they did with Billy.” In this light, we could understand Todd’s motive for this course of action, as well as Billy’s, since Billy has his eyes on what he still hopes would be a multi-million dollar payout against TG. Any new Todd action against TG would give Jace Hall and company another legal front they would have to expend resources defending, and would bolster Todd as a witness in Billy’s case, since they could make the argument that Todd’s disenfranchisement is being disputed in court.

I wish to reiterate that I have no proof of this beyond these stated facts. You are free to draw whatever conclusions you wish. However, this theory does line up with what we know, both about these cases, and about Billy Mitchell the person, who I have no doubt would be willing to shake hands with Craig Glenday and flatter him to his face while funding a lawsuit against his employer behind his back. And if this really is the case, then wow, did Guinness step in it this time. But to be fair, that is what happens when you try to appease and collaborate with an unrepentant narcissist who wishes to use your platform to do what he loves most, which is taking credit for accomplishments he never earned.

THE TALLARICO FACTOR

And that leaves us with Guinness themselves, who it just so happens were recently featured in a prominent video by YouTuber and Aquaman enthusiast hbomberguy. The video, which primarily focused on gaming industry figure Tommy Tallarico and his attempt to claim credit for the Roblox “Oof” sound (as well as any honorifics anyone may leave lying around unattended), also examined the role of Guinness in accepting and perpetuating Tommy’s lies. Having myself become known in some circles as “That guy who investigates the Billy Mitchell stuff”, a few people sent me a link to the video, asking if it reminded me of anyone. (And yes, it did.)

I was not the least bit surprised to see Guinness enthusiastically print lies, even ones disrespectfully told directly to them, because I’ve seen them do it with Billy. Even going around and lying about one’s Guinness acknowledgments is obviously not considered disqualifying. When asked by hbomberguy’s producer Kat about one of Tommy’s Guinness records, she was told it was sourced through one of their “specialist consultants”, whose expertise they rely on – a policy which seems to have been forgotten when it came time to reinstate Billy Mitchell based solely on the word of him and his friends. And I laughed as hard as anyone when Guinness clarified that their records are not “evidence based”. (Yeah, no shit!)

But what stuck with me more than anything was how multiple of Tommy’s records were in an “inactive” state, where Guinness did not invite “proactive applications”. This wasn’t a competition. They weren’t looking for challengers. Tommy simply owned that title. He had paid his fare, and that was his standing reward.

In a way, such a system is perfect for the liars of the early arcade days of gaming, where one player could simply assert they were the best at a given game before being able to claim they had done whatever high score they thought was convincing while no one was looking. (Even better if your business partner is the scorekeeper, and is willing to say the score was actually done at a Guinness-sanctioned event when it was not.) This model is also reflected in Billy’s reinstatement, although Guinness made it a bit less obvious than with Tallarico. Let’s look again at the full list of accolades Guinness bestowed on Billy in June 2020:

“First Perfect Score on Pac-Man” – 3,333,360 points – July 3, 1999

“Highest score on Donkey Kong” – 874,300 points – November 7, 1982

“Highest score on Donkey Kong” – 1,047,200 points – June 4, 2005

“Highest score on Donkey Kong” – 1,050,200 points – July 14, 2007

“Highest score on Donkey Kong” – 1,062,800 points – July 31, 2010

“First gamer to score one million points on Donkey Kong” – June 4, 2005

First gamer to reach the kill screen on Donkey Kong” – November 7, 1982

Okay, let’s just set aside that even if you took Billy at his word, some of those dates are wrong. Billy has alternatively claimed his first Donkey Kong kill screen was at a tournament in July of 1982. Also, June 4, 2005 was when Billy’s “King of Kong” tape was shown at Funspot, whereas Billy claims the actual score was done in either June or December of 2004, depending on who Billy’s lying to in a given moment. I think we understand by now that Guinness didn’t care about any of that. Let’s also set aside that their currently recognized “Highest score on Donkey Kong” (1,260,700 by Robbie Lakeman) is a bit outdated, as well as the fact that Billy’s claimed 1999 perfect score of Pac-Man may not have actually happened.

How does Billy hold four instances of “Highest score on Donkey Kong”, which are far less than their current standing DK record? Because these are identified as “historical records”. In Guinness’ eyes, Billy simply owns those titles, from now into perpetuity. Challengers need not apply. Once you notice that, you also see that “first perfect score”, “first gamer” to do this, and “first gamer” to do that also fall into that same category.

And thus you see the actual dynamic on display in these private communications, for which we are now given an exceptional peek behind the curtain. Guinness’ records may have value to their recipients, who can either use them to market themselves or at least stroke their own egos, but the records themselves are meaningless. As long as printed certificates are not involved, Guinness could issue a thousand at essentially no cost. It’s free currency for them! So of course they’re more than happy to keep adding more accolades to the negotiation, as long as they can find some way to justify them. “Oh, uh, just tell him that we reviewed our records and saw that it was… originally adjudicated… byyyy… I don’t know, make something up.” And as we saw, with each message, more gets added to the pile. But they draw a firm line at real money, because that’s the only way actual value gets taken out of their system.

Pair that with Craig Glenday’s attempted sales job, and with tales of “compelling new evidence” and “unanimous” decisions, and the full sham is laid bare. Guinness chose to refuse comments on each of Billy’s pages, and on the YouTube video, because in the end, they knew exactly what they were doing. Guinness World Records never cared about accuracy. They only cared about public perception, and about money.

On the other hand, the new Twin Galaxies with Jace Hall is in just the opposite position. They took such a beating over Dragster, even though fundamentally they got it right. They tested the dispute claim on hardware, and they expelled Todd Rogers from the leaderboards. And on the heels of that decision, they spent thousands of dollars on equipment attempting to verify the Donkey Kong dispute claims, money they did not need to spend, simply because they genuinely appreciate honest gaming achievement, and they wanted to get it right.

SETTLING THE SCORE

I hope this discovery was a welcome Christmas present to the gaming community. While it isn’t my wish to sour anyone’s holiday jubilation, I do think it’s important to conclude with a frank look at how Guinness’ decision to reinstate this particular proven cheater has affected that same community.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this Guinness saga is the fact that, even with their poorly worded printed statement, Guinness always had all the resources it needed to fight off Billy’s frivolous lawsuit – more than the individual gamers and YouTubers who Billy also went after. Obviously no one wants to be sued, but even with the earlier rumors of reinstatement, I did not believe Guinness would actually entertain Billy’s threats of litigation. Sure, they’re a faceless corporation simply looking at the bottom line, but they needed no other reason to turn Billy away than fear of opening the floodgates to every other clown seeking a piece of the action. Instead, they rolled over because they did not feel like fighting it. And they deserve to be roasted for eternity for it.

It’s wild to think of how different this still-unfolding scandal could have looked had Guinness stood their ground. Would Apollo Legend have settled in August 2020 the way he did if Billy had not brandished the Guinness feather in his cap? Would Donkey Kong Forum founder Jeff Harrist have had to spend the final year of his life with Billy’s lawsuit still hanging over him? Would Twin Galaxies have defeated Billy at anti-SLAPP if they’d had Guinness’ attorneys working by their side, rather than handing Billy a testimonial which may have helped sway the judge to allow the case to move forward? (And yes, Guinness’ reinstatement was featured in Billy’s anti-SLAPP opposition, and was even noted by the appellate judge who authored the appeal ruling.)

If Billy Mitchell himself had just confessed to cheating when the MAME evidence was published, most everyone would have already forgiven him by now. Obviously that door is long closed for Billy by this point, but whether it remains ajar for Guinness remains to be seen. If Guinness ever – and I mean literally ever, from now until the end of time – wanted to regain their credibility in video gaming, they would have to overturn their reinstatement of Billy Mitchell, and they would have to do it soon. 2023 looks to be a year full of Ls for Billy Mitchell, which means that door is closing fast. People will respect a risk taken for the truth, even if apologetically delayed. But nobody will respect an opportunistic attempt to save face after the danger has already passed.

Make no mistake: Billy Mitchell is actively trying to destroy people’s lives, having filed six high-dollar lawsuits against gamers and journalists from Florida to Australia, all just so he can avoid having to face up to the fact that he lied about something. Right now, Jace Hall’s Twin Galaxies is the conduit through which he can be stopped. Just like how the current TG has worked to excise its poor reputation owing to past mistakes from previous owners, Guinness truly had an opportunity in the Billy Mitchell case. Guinness could have had everyone championing their names. Sure, no matter who they are, they’re going to get some things wrong. But we could have looked at them and said “At least they’re trying to get this right.” But instead, we saw no effort, and no concern. They could have stuck to their story that they were just relying on experts, or barring that, they had the standard corporate option to keep quiet, lay low, and wait it out. Instead, they knowingly and actively fueled and collaborated in a liar’s lawsuit against another gaming adjudicator (formerly a partner, and now a rival), as well as in other suits against defenseless individuals. I don’t believe Guinness did this because they actively wanted to destroy any of these people, but rather because they simply didn’t care if they did.

Remember that the next time someone you know thinks about putting a Guinness book under someone’s tree.

(As always, thank you to the Whistle Crew for your invaluable research contributions.)