"The King of Kong": A Fistful of Trivia! Quiz

Answer: Billy Mitchell

Billy Mitchell was the first gamer to achieve a perfect "Pac-Man" score in 1999. This required that Billy get every energizer, dot, fruit and monster in the first 255 levels without losing a life before proceeding to the 256th and last board. Folk singer John Farley memorialized this effort in his song "Video Game Wizard," which is featured in the movie. Mitchell's 1982 "Donkey Kong" score of 874,300 was the score that bolstered Steve Wiebe to attempt the world record.

Mark Alpiger, Brian Kuh and Todd Rogers are other competitive gamers who appear in the movie. Mark Alpiger is noted for his "Crystal Castles" prowess, Brian Kuh describes himself as a serious contender when it comes to "Donkey Kong," and Todd Rogers is shown playing "Ladybug" in the movie.

Answer: Hot Sauce

The Mitchell family has owned the Rickey's World Famous Restaurant chain since 1974, and also markets a line of hot sauces and chicken wing sauces. Billy is proud of his hot sauce knowledge and comments in the movie that "The all-around most-seasoned person in the hot sauce/chicken wing industry? Yeah. For sure. Me." Rickey's World Famous Restaurants were founded in 1955. Billy mentions in the bonus DVD footage that the first game he ever played was "Pong."

Answer: Walter Day

Originally based out of Ottumwa, IA., "Twin Galaxies" was Day's brainchild. Day opened an arcade called "Twin Galaxies" in 1981. This actually predated the "Twin Galaxies Scoreboard," which came together in 1982. "The King of Kong" reveals that Walter Day practices transcendental meditation and plays guitar in his spare time.

Perry Rodgers, Dwayne Richard and David Nelson are all competitive gamers who have been involved with "Twin Galaxies'" history. Along with Brian Kuh, Perry Rodgers inspected Steve Wiebe's "Donkey Kong" machine when there was debate about the legitimacy of the board.

Answer: Robert Mruczek

Interestingly enough, the post-script to "The King of Kong" notes that Robert Mruczek resigned as Head Referee after the events of the movie. Given that Robert himself has posted many high scores with "Twin Galaxies," he might enjoy the extra time to funnel into gaming, as he is known for his achievements on the arcade game "Star Wars."

Steve Sanders is Billy Mitchell's good friend. They met back in 1982 when Walter Day invited elite game players to Iowa for a "Life" magazine photo shoot and Sanders claimed that he had achieved a score of 3,165,300 on "Donkey Kong," which was untrue. Sanders has since become a world-class "Joust" player. Greg Bond is a competitive gamer known for his "Mappy" skills and Craig Glenday appeared in the movie on behalf of "The Guinness Book of World Records."

Answer: Mister Awesome

Roy Shildt gained the nickname Mister Awesome while playing arcade games avidly in the 1980s. He has said his specialty game is "Missile Command" and also appeared in a 1988 issue of "Playgirl." Due to Roy's involvement with Steve Wiebe's "Donkey Kong" board, Steve's score could not be accepted because there was no way to prove the board had not been worked on.

Answer: Q*bert

In the early 1980s, Doris achieved a world record on "Q*bert," and was still gunning to regain her world record title in 2005, as she neared 80 years of age. Wanting her to practice up for tournaments, Billy Mitchell purchased Doris a "Q*bert" machine for her home. Sadly, Doris passed away on October 6th, 2006 as a result of her injuries from an auto accident.

Answer: Drums and Piano

Interested in music since his childhood, Steve Wiebe mentions in the movie that he has heard over 100 songs in his head over the years and he often wakes up in the morning and notates the songs until he has time to play them on his piano. Steve is also shown playing his son's drum set during the movie, and his friend, Paul Pitkin, says "Steve is the most technically skilled drummer I've ever been around." A bonus feature on "The King of Kong" DVD features more of Steve's piano compositions.

Answer: Jumpman

Before being named for his resemblance to Mario Segali, Nintendo's landlord, the character was referred to as "Jumpman" in the United States. In Japan, he was simply called "Mr. Video Game." Interestingly, the plumber who people have come to love over the years was not originally a plumber, but a carpenter instead.

His occupation was changed to a plumber after "Donkey Kong" was released, and he was even portrayed as an archaelogist in the 1995 Game Boy game "Mario's Picross."

Answer: Funspot

Bob Lawton founded "Funspot" in 1952 after his grandmother loaned him $750 to start an arcade and miniature golf course. "Funspot" is also home to "The American Classic Arcade Museum," which features hundreds of classic coin-operated and pinball games.

"Starcade" was a video games-themed television show that ran from 1982-1984 and actually featured Alex Trebek as the host of the second pilot of the show. The "Funplex" is a now-defunct, Seattle arcade that features laser tag, miniature golf and bumper cars in addition to many video games.

Answer: Yes

On August 3, 2006, Steve achieved a score of 1,049,100. The score was verified by "Twin Galaxies" and put Steve on top for a time, but Billy Mitchell came roaring back with a score of 1,050,200 points in June, 2007 to reclaim first place. Since the release of "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," "Twin Galaxies" has instituted the rule that all million-point or greater scores submitted must be both video recorded and witnessed by Walter Day or another "Twin Galaxies" Senior Referee.

I hope you enjoyed my quiz on this excellent movie!