While The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters does a good job at portraying the events circulating the lives of Billy Mitchel and Steve Wiebe during the late 2000s surge in arcade record breaking, it obviously had to take some liberties to preserve a movie-like format. The high score of Donkey Kong did not just fluctuate between Billy and Steve between 1981 and the creation of the film, but also a third man, Tim Sczerby, who held the record from 2000 until Billy took it back in 2004. As the movie focuses primarily on Billy and Steve, it would probably be too much of a departure from the main narrative to include the parts relating to Tim. The creators of the movie also cited Tim's score to be "nearly impossible to verify."
Of course, getting the highest score on a game in the world is quite the feat, but it also has more of a meaning behind the digits. As much as this movie describes the game, it instead focuses the effects the game has on the people it spotlights. When Billy first got his score in 1982, he became a celebrity of sorts, he became known because of his accomplishment. When Steve threatened to take his throne away from him, Steve was also kind of taking away what made Billy so popular. Naturally, Billy would need to defend this, resulting in a continuous clash between the two for the score of the game. For Steve, the story was much different. He constantly came short due to his OCD, despite being really good in the fields he studies in. Steve simply picked up a cabinet of Donkey Kong one day, as a pastime to relieve stress, but noticed that he was getting close to what the record at the time was. When he first got his record, he got a taste of what Billy received back in the 80s, and to Steve, it was an uplifting experience, after being laid off from his previous job. Perhaps Steve's performance in this game is his proof that he will continue onwards and successfully in life.
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