If you're familiar with the arcade scene, you're more than likely aware of Billy Mitchell. Having held multiple world records for Donkey Kong and Pac-Man arcade machines, video game database Twin Galaxies accused Mitchell of setting his scores on modified hardware. Twin Galaxies believed that the scores Mitchell earned were impossible to achieve on standard arcade machines, which then removed his scores from the site and banned him from competing on competitive leaderboards in 2018.
Mitchell followed up these accusations by suing Twin Galaxies for defamation back in 2020, a legal battle that has been ongoing ever since. However, just a few days before the case was set to go to trial once again, Twin Galaxies has announced that it has restored Mitchell's previously removed scores to the historical database of Twin Galaxies following a confidential settlement.
In a statement released by Twin Galaxies earlier today, it acknowledged the expert opinion of Dr. Michael Zyda – a Professor of Engineering Practice and the Founding Director of USC's Games Program who spoke on behalf of Mitchell – who claimed that the scores posted could be possible on unmodified arcade hardware if it was malfunctioning due to the degradation of certain components. You can find Zyda's full report here.
Twin Galaxies openly and publicly takes note of Dr. Zyda's expressed expert opinion in regard to providing a method by which the videotape content in question might have been produced.
Twin Galaxies has also explained that it has removed the original dispute thread from the website, as well as all "related statements and articles" regarding the matter. Despite all of this, Mitchell's scores have not been reinstated to the Twin Galaxies online leaderboards, and there is no word on whether his ban has been reversed.
Mitchell himself also made a statement via his personal Twitter account following the settlement, explaining that he is "relieved and satisfied to reach this resolution after an almost six-year ordeal". He also claims that he's looking forward to "pursuing my unfinished business elsewhere", possibly in reference to ongoing lawsuits against YouTuber Karl Jobst, and tells his fans to "never surrender".
Regarding those particular lawsuits, Mitchell has sued Jobst a total of three times. The latest legal action took place in November 2022, after Mitchell claimed that two of Jobst's videos were defamatory, and demanded $450,000 in damages. Now that Mitchell's attention is fully undivided, we can probably expect some news about those lawsuits over the coming months.
