In 1999 at the iconic New Hampshire gaming arcade known as Funspot, a guy named Billy Mitchell achieved the first-ever perfect score on an arcade version of Pac-Man – 3,333,270 points over about six hours.
Since then, his claim and other of his arcade records have been embroiled in controversy involving geeky details of intense interest to non-arcade-game-fanatics, such as whether he used a different circuit board. The result is that his claims of Pac-Man and other records have been annulled, even removed from the Guinness Book of World Records.
Mitchell is a real publicity hound who has been in a few documentary films over the years, so it’s not surprising that he’s not taking this demotion quietly. Most recently, he’s threatening to sue (see story here).
Threatening to sue somebody is the easiest way to keep yourself in the public eye; you don’t even have to pay a lawyer. We’ll see if anything comes of it.
Return to the Concord Monitor