Billy Mitchell opens King of Kong arcade

By Robert Purchese Published 21 February, 2011

In Orlando - long way from Albert Square.

Tempestuous Donkey Kong high-score champion Billy Mitchell has opened his own arcade in Orlando airport, Florida, US.

Named King of Kong, according to Arcade Heroes, the arcade borrows part of the title from 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. A strange choice, given how the film portrayed Mitchell as a slippery, unsavoury character who seemed reluctant to accept that his 1982 Donkey Kong high score had been beaten by challenger Steve Wiebe.

Mitchell's airport arcade has murals of Nintendo's famous platform game covering the walls, plus pictures of flaming barrels adorning the entrance. But bizarrely there's not a Donkey Kong arcade machine in sight.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • MrBelmont #1 1 year ago

    King of Kong was a great documentary, you got to feel for that Steve Weibe though as no matter what he did Mitchell tried to discredit him. Ended up beating him though but some other guy then appeared and beat Mitchell and Weibe.

    What out! It's the death screen!

  • cowell #2 1 year ago

    I'd buy a lustrous Mitchell wig and stars and stripes tie combo if there was merch on sale

  • Daikon #3 1 year ago

    Vintage arcade games at an airport? Now that's quite a niche market.

    "King of Kong" eh? I wonder if Billy has actually watched the documentary yet.

  • Jodo #4 1 year ago

    This is such a wasted opportunity - there are no retro machines of any kind - it's a very small selection of modern stuff which completely defeats the object of using the King of Kong branding to attract punters. This should have been an Alladin's Cave of yummy retro goodness dammit!

  • KrazyFace #5 1 year ago

    Maybe there's no Donkey Kong machines because Billy's afraid someone will come allong and show him up... again.

  • Ninja_Tino #6 1 year ago

    Yeah, I spotted this a couple of months ago when I was there. It was completely empty when I popped in but soon left myself. As mentioned, not a vintage game in sight.

  • el_pollo_diablo #7 1 year ago

    If anybody wants to see, there's a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up.

  • wizbob #8 1 year ago

    C'mon! Billy was painted as a cartoon bad guy. Without him there would only be boring story about Steve Weibe. Think of him as a kind of Boss.

  • el_pollo_diablo #9 1 year ago

    "fairly important things"

    :)

  • KrazyFace #10 1 year ago

    @introvertigo

    Well said mate. I've seen Billy in a few things and every time I see him he just comes across as a self-obsessed arse hole. I guess some people don't see anything wrong with that level of self-admiration but I find it pretty offencive just hearing him talk about himself!

  • Ranger101 #11 1 year ago

    I wish him luck and all the best - especially after both Arcade Infinity and Chinatown Fair, two of America's most popular arcade places, are shutting down this week.

    Would be cool if Steve breaks a new record at Billy's place :-)

  • spekkeh #12 1 year ago

    I think Mitchell revels in his being a self-important game boss. It's a lot more marketable than if he had another role.

  • azazel_fallenangel #13 1 year ago

    I thought Billy Mitchell made custom Motorcycles?

  • waggy79 #14 1 year ago

    Apparently he makes an almost luminous and fairly rancid hotsauce, though I've not tried it myself.

  • blackbriar101 #15 1 year ago

    Overly competitive sad bastard. I remember the documentary interview with his parents, 'Our son's a winner'. Bit of dickhead too though eh?