BREAKING: Billy Mitchell Had A Pac-Man Kill Screen At Funspot Last Night

This was one of those times in life I wish I could be in two places at the same time. We had a goddamn Pac-Man kill screen just a couple hours north of Boston last night but there was no way to get up there in time.

On the 20th Anniversary of Mitchell’s perfect Pac-Man score, he decided to mark the occasion with a repeat performance. So he traveled to the fabled Funspot arcade next to Lake Winnipesaukee to pull it off and hard-core gamers showed up to support the Genius of the Joystick.

If you live in a cave and don’t know who Billy Mitchell is, he plays the villain in one of greatest documentaries ever made, THE KING OF KONG A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS. KING tells the story about the cut-throat competition between two guys for the record high score on the arcade version of Donkey Kong. It might not sound like the topic that grabs you by the yarbles but once you put it on, you’re sucked in by the classic good vs. evil story and are soon telling everyone within earshot about it.

I just recommended it online a couple of weeks ago.

It ‘stars’ the aggressive, abrasive, controversial Mitchell and the typical nice guy you wish would grow a pair, Steve Wiebe. There’s disputes, controversy, favoritism, allegations of cheating, and a level of dorkage on display that adds a surreal layer to it all. Just watch it.

Looks like Billy could use a little bump in the PR department. A legend like this should have at least dozens of people turn out for a motherfuckin’ kill screen. Maybe he needs to drum up a little controversy. Like adding “as controversial as the abortion issue” in his bio or something.

Either way, shout out to Billy Mitchell. Four decades of battling juiced-out gorillas and mute ghosts for gamer glory. May all your kill screens have interested parties.

Also, this photo should have won a Pulitzer.