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Donkey Kong High Score Broken And Reclaimed Within Hours
The hotly contested high score for Donkey Kong was claimed by a new owner recently, only to be reclaimed by the original owner within a few hours.
On Thursday September 17, Wes Copeland set a high score of 1,170,500, breaking the previous score set by Robbie Lakeman of 1,158,400. Copeland's run was also the first to break 1.1 million with only one life.
Upon learning of the new record, Lakeman reportedly immediately jumped online and began streaming a new attempt at a high score. Approximately six hours later in the early morning hours of September 18, Lakeman achieved a score of 1,172,100.
Twin Galaxies, the generally regarded final word on video game high score battles, is still verifying the high scores. Copeland's score was immediately submitted, but Lakeman has not yet submitted his. As a result, until confirmed by Twin Galaxies, these scores are not yet technically official.
Donkey Kong's high score holder is frequently in flux, thanks to the popularity of the documentary covering the high score battle between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Neither Wiebe or Mitchell have held the high score for some time, but are still closely related to the ongoing battle over the game. We recently had Steve Wiebe in our offices and made him play a Donkey Kong game he was unfamiliar with – Donkey Konga. You can check out the video of his visit below.
[Source: Twin Galaxies, via Polygon]
Our Take
I wonder if Lakeman is waiting to submit his score in order to give Copeland the small victory of momentarily claiming the high score. If that's the case, I'm not sure if that's nice, or just cruel.
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