LOS ANGELES (CN) — Competitive arcade gamer Billy Mitchell, known for his high scores on Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, has reached a confidential settlement in his defamation lawsuit against Twin Galaxies, the video game database that stripped Mitchell of his world records in 2018.
The settlement was announced in LA County Superior Court on Thursday morning — three months before the lawsuit was set to go to trial — during a hearing to determine whether Mitchell and an attorney for Twin Galaxies would face sanctions for misconduct during discovery.
Mitchell appeared in court wearing his trademark black suit with an American flag tie and handkerchief. When asked to comment on the settlement, he said only: "I'm sorry, I don’t know you."
David Tashroudian, Twin Galaxies' lawyer, declined to comment as well, except to say that "everyone’s excited after four years" to see a resolution in the case.
The terms of the settlement have not been made public.
Mitchell achieved a certain degree of fame after appearing in the 2007 documentary "The King of Kong." The movie follows Mitchell and another gamer, Steve Wiebe, as they compete to set new Donkey Kong records and challenge the validity of each others' high scores.
In the film, Mitchell is portrayed as something of a pantomime villain — an antagonist to Wiebe, the film's everyman star. The movie follows the two as they compete to set new Donkey Kong records, and challenge the validity of each others' high scores.
Since the 1980s, the company Twin Galaxies has kept a database of video game high scores. The database has become so well-respected that Guinness World Records effectively outsources its video game records to Twin Galaxies. In other words, Twin Galaxies' records often become Guinness World Records.
Mitchell appeared high on the Twin Galaxies leaderboards of several classic games, including Donkey Kong, until 2018, when several figures in the retro gaming community raised concerns that Mitchell may have set Donkey Kong records on a modified arcade cabinet.
After a monthslong investigation, Twin Galaxies found that Mitchell's two high scores of just over a million points — one set in front of the "King of Kong" cameras, the other set at a mortgage brokers convention — were tainted because they were not played on an original unmodified Donkey Kong arcade cabinet.
Mitchell was stripped of his records, and he was banned from Twin Galaxies' leaderboards. Guinness, after its own investigation, later reinstated Mitchell's Pac-Man and Donkey Kong historical records (in other words, records at the time which have since been bested) in 2020.
Mitchell sued Twin Galaxies in 2019 for defamation, alleging the company's investigation pre-ordained by its new owner, Jace Hall, who bought the company in 2014.
"Twin Galaxies, under its new ownership, did not act as an impartial arbiter, but rather as a biased observer intent on generating publicity and internet 'clicks' by accusing Mitchell, the most visible of all video gamers, of cheating," the complaint read.
It was one of several lawsuits Mitchell filed against various people as part of the controversy, including a defamation suit filed against YouTuber Karl Jobst.
Adding to the mix, Twin Galaxies filed a countersuit against Mitchell in 2021. In its filings, the company accused Mitchell of being involved in a conspiracy with the Twin Galaxies' original owner, Walter Day.
"Billy Mitchell and Walter Day engaged in a decades-long fraud to manufacture value for Old Twin Galaxies and the Twin Galaxies Score Database," the cross-complaint read. It called three of Mitchell's Donkey Kong scores fake and accused the pair of conspiring to puff up their own reputations — and the value of the score database.
"Both Billy Mitchell and Walter Day knew that these score performances were fake, but still included the scores on the Twin Galaxies Score Database," the filing read. They did so, Twin Galaxies argued, "because of their need for self-aggrandization, their avarice, and their desire to create perceived value for the database so that they could one day sell Twin Galaxies and the Twin Galaxies Score Database and take the money for themselves."
Mitchell claimed to have at least 25 witnesses who watched him set various high scores — but new evidence last year may have tipped the case in favor of Twin Galaxies. Fellow video gamer David Race, a competitor of Mitchell's, posted photos on Facebook of Mitchell at the mortgage brokers convention, in front of what appeared to be the classic Donkey Kong arcade cabinet.
A close inspection of the photo revealed a tallish red joystick — and not, as many retro gamers pointed out, the original stubby and short black controller. Race said the photo revealed a "glaringly non-original joystick."
Litigation in the lawsuit dragged on for years, and relations between the two parties soured as both accused the other of misconduct.
Twin Galaxies accused Mitchell of "deliberate and egregious discovery abuse throughout the course of this litigation by lying at deposition and by engaging in the spoliation of evidence with the intent to defraud the Court." The company asked the judge to impose monetary sanctions on Mitchell.
According to Twin Galaxies, Mitchell had claimed — falsely — to have received a plaque by Namco, the Japanese-based maker of Pac-Man, naming him the “Video Game Player of the Century.” Mitchell then either created a fake plaque or doctored a real plaque in order to back up his claim, the company argued.
"Plaintiff has created fake physical evidence that he is refusing to produce," a court filing by Twin Galaxies read. "He has used others in an attempt to create evidence and to secrete it away. And he has lied in discovery."
But Twin Galaxies' own lawyer, David Tashroudian, faced misconduct claims of his own after he improperly contacted two witnesses in the case — prompting Superior Court Judge Wendy Chang, who's overseeing the case, to consider referring him to the State Bar for discipline.
In a written declaration filed last week, Tashroudian admitted to the inappropriate behavior and asked the judge's forgiveness.
"I have debased myself before this Court," he wrote. "I have allowed my personal emotions to cloud my judgement. I was upset and frustrated by what appeared to me to be the purposeful fabrication and hiding of evidence."
In his declaration, Tashroudian also took aim at Mitchell.
"The facts support [the] defense and now Plaintiff realizes that," the lawyer wrote. "He also realizes that he has dug himself into a hole by lying in discovery."
"I do not say that lightly," Tashroudian added: "The outlook is bleak for Plaintiff so I am the target now. Plaintiff is chomping at the bit to see me referred to the State Bar and relent."
The court was scheduled to hear arguments on both motions for sanctions on Thursday morning. Instead, a settlement was announced.
Both Tashroudian and Mitchell appeared relived, shaking hands in the hallway. But no one appeared more pleased with the end of the case than Judge Chang, who told the parties during the short hearing: "Oh my word. Can I tell you how happy I am?"
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