The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The Battle For Donkey Kong

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

I finally had a chance to watch last year’s excellent documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”, directed by Seth Gordon and produced by Ed Cunningham, about the rivalry between reigning champion Billy Mitchell and his challenger Steve Wiebe for the world record high score for the classic arcade game Donkey Kong.

Here’s the trailer for the film. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a while.

Even after the film was released, the battle for the Donkey Kong championship still continues. For the latest high score news visit Twin Galaxies, which is featured in the film and has been keeping the official scores for many popular games since 1981.

The documentary also generated a bit of controversy over how certain events were portrayed in the film. Josh Modell of The Onion A.V. Club recently conducted separate interviews with Billy Mitchell and the film’s creators Seth Gordon and Ed Cunningham to try to clear up some of the issues presented in the film.

Scott Beale
Scott Beale

Scott Beale founded Laughing Squid in 1995 in San Francisco and is currently based in New York City. When not running the blog, Scott can be found posting on Bluesky and sharing photos on Instagram.