The story so far: Steve Wiebe, a high school science teacher from Washington, challenged Billy Mitchell to the Donkey Kong world record. After trouncing Billy's score, Steve is mortified when a mysterious videotape shows up moments later with an even higher score by Billy Mitchell that puts him back at number one. Conspiracy theories fill the forums - did Billy cheat and fix the tape? If he's so good, why doesn't he play Steve Wiebe in person? Why won't he meet Steve during the current Donkey Kong tournament?
After a no-show at the restaurant, that evening Billy shows up at the arcade and hovers nonchalantly at the entrance with his wife. Steve Wiebe sees him and says hello but Billy seems to be psyching Wiebe out and merely mumbles something to his wife about not wanting to spend too much time around 'certain people'. (People have pointed out that Mitchell isn't the villain the King of Kong film perhaps makes him out to be - he never insults anyone, he merely presents himself as a supremely confident person - but it's hard to deny that he looks threatened by Steve Wiebe and is afraid to play him at Donkey Kong).
A slightly rebuffed Wiebe sees Mitchell wander around for a while before leaving (not before having a glance at Steve's score mind you). If Mitchell is trying to mess with Steve's head it seems to work as his score gets worse and worse on the fourth and final day. Walter Day obviously feels bad for Steve and organises a small ceremony and later writes him a letter as an apology for any early unfairness on Twin Galaxies' part and offers Steve their highest respect, inviting him to submit a videotape any time he wants to.
Billy Mitchell never plays Steve Wiebe at the contest and Wiebe returns home once again in second place. This is the end of the story. The fight is over. It never happened. Steve takes his wife and two kids back to Washington and plunges himself back into teaching high school science, trying to put the past behind him. But there's always that Donkey Kong machine in the garage if he gets bored...
At the end of the King of Kong documentary Steve does beat Billy Mitchell's score and once again takes the crown. On August 3rd 2006 Wiebe scores 1,049,100 in his garage, trouncing Mitchell's taped score of 1,047,200 and officially placing him as the best Donkey Kong player in the world. Sometimes it pays to stay up late playing video games.
Head Referee Robert Mruczek resigned at Twin Galaxies on December 31st 2005 - he was just burned out. He probably got sick of sitting through 48 hour video sessions to authenticate scores. A post of his on the Spyhunter007 website says although he has resigned as referee, he intends to concentrate more on beating his own scores and will continue to frequent the Funspot arcade.
The curtains close. The lights go up. The movie is over...
However, that's not where the story ends. Between the time of the theatrical release of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and its debut on DVD, on July 13th 2007 Billy Mitchell attended the Florida Mortgage Brokers Association's 80's Themed Convention and set a high score of 1,050,200, placing him yet again as the King of Kong and pushing poor Steve Wiebe back into second place. This event was witnessed by senior referee Todd Rodgers from Twin Galaxies, filmed, and the boards verified by Nintendo.
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