Casino News / Editor / 13 February 2008 / Leave a comment

Casino Anorak recommend you get down to the cinema...

HOW many poker players began their gaming careers playing video games?

Online poker means you may never have played a live game. You have always played online; more at home clicking buttons than touching actual cards.

Is that how it began, sitting at home playing your Atari, a Nintendo or shooting things at the amusement arcade?

Does online Texas Hold 'em poker have more in common with Space Invaders and Donkey Kong than card games?

The Casino Anorak recalls sunlit days in the arcade. And notes a new film called The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

"The King of Kong' is an uproarious, unsettlingly observant and romantically biased documentary on the golden years of classic gaming. The film presents the viewer with a depiction of aging men trying to defend their glory days through combat waged on arcade games, sweetened naturally by the subculture's glorious predilection for social awkwardness," accoriding to FilmJerk.

The plot - and, yes, there is one: "A middle-school science teacher and a hot sauce mogul vie for the Guinness World Record on the arcade classic, Donkey Kong."

And:

"In 1982, LIFE Magazine assembled the worlds greatest gamers for a photo shoot that would become the centre spread of their 1982 Year-In-Photos edition. Billy Mitchell, who would later be named the Gamer of the Century, was one of the invitees.

"Mitchell, the World Record holder on Centipede, had been tracking the score on Donkey Kong, and knew he could take that title as well. In front of the 20 best gamers in the world, Billy scored 874,300 points, a record many thought would never be broken.

"In 2003, 35-year-old family man Steve Wiebe, after losing his job at Boeing, found solace in Donkey Kong. Steve stumbled upon Billy Mitchell's record online, and set out to break it. He began perfecting his game every night after his wife and kids went to bed, and not only surpassed Billy's record, but ended up with a thought-to-be-impossible 1,000,000 points.

"A tidal wave of media coverage followed, and Steve Wiebe quickly became a celebrity in his hometown of Seattle, WA. He also rediscovered his love for teaching, and regained the respect of all who once doubted him. Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, FL, Billy Mitchell hatched a plan to reclaim his fallen Donkey Kong record."

Watch the film. Play the poker. Relive the moments of youth well spent...

Tags: Donkey Kong