Comparing Donkey Schlongs
Posted on | May 16, 2008 at 11:01 pm | Comments Off
I finally got a chance to see The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters tonight. Fabulous. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll kiss two bits goodbye. The story of champion Donkey Kong player Billy Mitchell vs challenger Steve Wiebe is a tale for the ages.
Though I did play a lot arcade games back in my youth, I don’t have an overriding sentimentally for them. I prefer to follow the latest technology instead of getting hung up on retro stuff. I did have a fondness for the likes of Centipede and Galaga back in the day, but I never really got that good at them. It just took too many quarters to become competent. And Donkey Kong was one of those games that I would try every once in a while, but it was too hard and frustrating and repetitive, and I never got very far. (Of course, I did get into its “sequel” Super Mario Brothers, when the NES home console was released. Oh boy, did I get into that.) I like home games better than arcade ones because you can really concentrate on them without worrying about running out of time or money. And you don’t have to go anywhere to play them. (Unlike some people I know, I don’t have any arcade games in my basement.)
So it was really interesting seeing this whole subculture of these people who are into these retro games generally and the whole Donkey Kong rivalry specifically. What a scary group. The slickster tie-wearing champion Billy Mitchell reminds me somewhat of an (ex)friend of mine with his competitive but dismissive spirit. The challenger Steve Wiebe is the kind of schlubby underdog hero family man that anyone can get behind. When his taped high score is invalidated by the powers that be due to an alleged technicality, while Billy’s taped high score is accepted, you really get drawn into the emotional currents of the story. You don’t have to be familiar with the games involved, or even gaming in general, to appreciate this well-told documentary. It’s a story for the ages. Or at least for our particular technology and competition-obsessed age. And at 83 minutes long, the movie does not overstay its welcome. The DVD even has some updates of important events that happened after the film was released. This is an ever-evolving story, apparently.
So, instead of playing Grand Theft Auto IV this weekend and having Niko whack another Albanian loan shark, watch this movie and see what a whole other segment of the gaming community is like. As alternate universes go, this one’s a dozy.
Okay, off to go play some more GTA4…
Latre.
Jogging Update: Yeah, I haven’t jogged in many weeks. I’m still fighting off some weird illness that really surfaces when I get overheated. Hopefully I’m on the downside of that and can start running again soon. But I’ve thought that before.
Also, Steve would have us believe that he is in “Europe” and that he may not be able to keep up with the consecutive blogging competition that we’re in. (Hey, who’s the Billy and who’s the Steve in this contest?) I think he’s just trying to trick me again. He obviously has a lot of stock photos from his previous overseas trips, and he’s posting them from the comfort of his California home.