The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Directed and written by Seth Gordon. Recommended by Mr. Jampol. The documentary starts with a clip of Billy Mitchell, a huge fan of video games, talking about how video games are meant for relaxing after a tiring day. He then goes on about competitive gaming and how you have put a lot on the line to win. It then cuts to Steve Wiebe, another gamer, who talks about how gaming is his escape from reality, where he has control. We then see another man who talks about how gaming is a healthy addiction. Which it is not. We then see Walter Day, a video game referee. He proceeds to talk about how he just wanted attention from people, and that's why he started gaming. It cuts to the author of The Master’s Guide to Donkey Kong and what he says about the games that caught the public's eye. He explains that if you want to be the center of attention, you have to be the best at a game like Donkey Kong. We see more people just talking about why they like video games and how they became famous. It then gets revealed that in the 1980s, Billy Mitchell was one of the best video game players at the time. Steven Sanders, another gamer, was also there as a contestant, but he lied about the score he had gotten. Billy and Steve become friends after this, and then Billy makes Steve confess to lying. He goes on to say that Steve is the way he is today because of him. I think Billy has an extremely high ego and sees himself as better than everyone else because he was a really good Donkey Kong and Centipede player. A lot of people feed into his ego by just overly praising him. 

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One day, Steve Wiebe wants to beat the high score of Billy Mitchell. He was very close to beating it, with a high score of 829,700, while Billy's was 874,300. Billy, Steve, and another man talk about how much skill it takes to make it past the harder levels; I won't disagree with that. I have played my fair share of video games, and most are hard to beat. I just think they are stretching it a little too much. For the next 10 minutes or so, they just talk about how video games have been their whole life and that this is what they were born to do. Then, Steve finally beats the high score that Billy made. In my opinion, I don’t like either of them. Steve ignores his kids and wife to play video games, and Billy is just very cocky and has a big ego. Now, of course, Billy is upset and angry about this because the only reason he was famous was because he held the Donkey Kong world record. Now he doesn’t. Billy Mitchell had a big fan named Robert Mruczek. He was also a video game referee. Robert went to Steve's house and took apart his arcade game. He took pictures of the inside and tried to disprove Steve's world record by proving he was cheating to give back Billy’s title. When Robert can’t find a way to give Billy’s title back, he says we can't accept the score because it was at his house and not an arcade. So now Billy has the title back. For now, at least.

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We are now introduced to Fun Spot. Fun Spot is a huge arcade museum where all the guys who have a high score in a video game go to make their record official. Steve challenges Billy for the world record at the fun spot to see who truly is the best video game player. Billy doesn’t come, and so Steve just plays Donkey Kong, and a friend of Billy is there who is another referee. He keeps an eye on Steve, which he does by literally breathing on Steve's neck. Steve doesn’t let it distract him, so he keeps playing, and he is close to taking the high score again. And he does. Steve gains the title back, and Billy can’t do anything about it. Billy isn't happy about this at all. So he sent in a tape where Billy got a million points—which I don't believe one bit that he did—and Steve now needs to beat that. Robert noticed that when the tape glitched, the score jumped up. Which means he is cheating, but they don't want to believe it. Now if I say anything anymore, Billy will probably sue me for everything I have. So if you want to find out what happens, watch the film! This is something I wouldn’t normally watch on my own, but I liked the film. IMDB gives the film a solid 8/10. I think that fits perfectly. This is all about the rise of video games. Even if you don’t like Billy Mitchell, he was still a huge help in the rise of video games. This film is something that I thought at first was weird, but it turned out to be good. It shows you the games that influenced all of today's big games. I think if you are interested in video games, this film would be 100% for you.