Yes, finally, the Kill Screen

Let it be known that anyone interested in 8,000 words about Billy Mitchell, the world champion of Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Burgertime, and many other arcade games, need look no further than the July issue of Harper's, where an article about such appears. Perhaps you are thinking: but my Harper's subscription ran out and since it's now August the July issue is long gone from stands! This is true. Which is why the article is available HERE AS A PDF.

And my apologies for being about six weeks behind on my mostly non-operative blog. This article was many years in the making, and was begun long before I wound up working on King of Kong. (BTW: King of Kong fans, rejoice! There is another whole dimension to the competitive classic gaming realm to be found here.) But the article came out while I happened to be out of the country getting married! This was also many years in the making and even more exciting, and so Billy Mitchell appearing in Harper's sort of snuck past me. But don't let my momentary inattention fool you: this is likely the most readable and entertaining look at the metaphysical implications of competitive Pac Man yet to appear! Slate's endorsement: "Best Culture Piece" of the month. And for whetting appetites, here is a special bonus feature slide show:

Billy in Top Form

Level 256

Galaga's Kill Screen (the profundity of which will become clear on page 4 of the article)

The Holy Grail

Comments

[craig d. adams]

Nicely done, that article was a truly excellent read!

As someone who enjoyed the 'King of Kong' film and occasionally reads Harper's, it was an unexpected treat to revisit the world of Billy Mitchell in this in-depth story. Perhaps it's my bias as a videogames enthusiast and developer, but I found this article stood tall even among the usually high standards at Harper's, and as videogames journalism it's as good as anything I've ever read. On the surface it's a well told story that nicely captures the idiosyncrasies of the major players in this peculiar niche-world, but you went above and beyond anything I had previously seen with fascinating descriptions of the interior logic of these playspaces, the conflicting ideologies of competitive play, and the vivid, ego-less 'white space' that these players are endlessly seeking. Transcendent!

c

[DJ]

The article's description of the pac-man kill screen:

"as the program runs out of code and the entire right side of the screen is engulfed by senseless symbols."

is wrong. The program does not "run out of code", but instead draws 256 "fruit" plus 7 blank spaces. The author of the article could have at least done *SOME* research before making up a reason for the split screen.

[Ginsu Victim]

web design company:

You really need to do some reading up. Why would the current world record holder need to make an edited tape, especially when he obliterated that score LIVE? That tape wasn't even a submission, it was a bounty. Anyone who could beat that score at Funspot would collect $10k. Steve Wiebe failed to collect. He has also failed to produce a score of 1 mil live.

[Evan]

Joshuah, I read this first thing when I got my copy in the mail, and I was gripped from the opening. I took a break and found out who wrote the article, and I saw it was someone from the Weekly! Great job on the article.

[web design company]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wiebe That man is a hero. I know Fistful of Quarters is a bit biased, but still, this guy is much more hardcore and a lot less of a douche. p.s. The tape that mitchell used for his Donkey Kong score was bs, you can easily see places that are edited.