Movie documents attempt to dethrone the Donkey Kong king

Trying to break arcade records is certainly nothing new. Since the earliest days of arcade games, millions of quarters have been plunked into those boxy behemoths for the chance to flick a joystick and get a triad of initials forever burned into the top of the screen. Very few, however, have been lucky enough to get their high scores in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Making way to select theaters on August 17, 2007, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a documentary about two gamers competing for the highest score in the classic arcade game, Donkey Kong. The film’s site gives a quick synopsis of the movie, which follows both Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell as they compete for the 2007 record. The film is directed by Seth Gordon, will be a limited release (so likely New York and Las Angeles) and is rated PG-13 for a brief sexual reference.

Billy Mitchel set a high score back in 1982 (874,300 points) which was topped by Steve Wiebe in 2003 (947,200 points). Fair warning – if you do click through to read the ZDNet]article, there are spoilers for the film.

Read [ZDNet] Site [The King of Kong] Site [Guinness Book of World Records]