The Former King of Kong: Wes Copeland Talks Donkey Kong, Billy Mitchell, and How Did He Get So Good

In light of the recent decision by Twin Galaxies Adjudication to remove Billy Mitchell’s records from the site, Twin Galaxies sat down with Wes Copeland, former Donkey Kong world record holder, to talk about the decision, his thoughts on the saga, and his plans for the future of the Donkey Kong World Record.

Cutting right to the core of the issue, we asked Wes what were his thoughts on the final decision revealed today. “I will always support decisions that promote a fair and honest scoreboard. I think that some are puzzled over the total removal of Billy's scores, including the perfect Pac-Man, as the circumstances regarding this total removal were different than the Todd Rogers case.”

When asked how he would have gone about deciding this matter, his thoughts mirrored those of Jace Hall, current owner of the site and the driving force behind making sure everything is done as by-the-book as possible, explaining that he would do things “Exactly the same way. Though some believe the database should stand as a 'historical record, previous incidents with TG and other leader boards such as MARP show that it can oftentimes be very difficult to leave people asking 'which scores can I trust?' I think that's a key distinction between TG and DKF. Twin Galaxies went much farther with punishment than DKF did.”

Copeland has been following this controversy for years now, and he has always had his own thoughts on the matter. We asked whether his thoughts on the matter had changed over the years, especially in light of Twin Galaxies changing hands and the introduction of the new Adjudication System implemented, as well as his thoughts of the new way people can bring disputes to light. “I've been following this since 2014, though others such as Hank Chien were involved for far longer than I was. Even before Jeremy Young's evidence came forth, I was convinced the games were MAME just based on the statistical analysis alone. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd see the day the scores were pulled from TG. I was initially highly critical of the dispute system, especially in the Todd Rogers case. I didn't think it would amount to anything. I now see that TG does indeed value credibility of legacy scores on their leader board. My main criticism of the dispute system is the forum software itself. I believe if the dispute threads were more Reddit-like, where posts themselves could be up voted and down voted, important information would float to the top and personal attacks would be down voted to oblivion.”

With the dust still settling on who exactly has earned what records, we asked Wes whether he ever plans to throw his hat back into the ring and challenge Robbie Lakeman for his Donkey Kong record. His response was as simple as it was emphatic, “I will take the DK record again.”

We asked Wes whether he saw another potential rivalry between himself and Robbie, much like the old days between Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe. “It's great to have as strong of a competitor as Robbie. He has shown what kind of scores can be put up on the game, and things like that make you realize that you can keep pushing yourself harder. Iron sharpens iron. Without Robbie I wouldn't be the player that I am today. When I got my 1,218,000 score, for a little while I really did think it was unbeatable... but that's because I closed my mind to new ideas. You really learn most when you have the student mindset, and it's great to be a student again. I've sparred with Robbie in live competitions many times in the past, I'd be open to it again at some point.”

What exactly drew him to Donkey Kong? What about tips for any future budding record holders out there? “I've been playing DK since autumn 2013. During the summer of that year, I started going to a newly opened local arcade to play my favourite game: Defender. Shortly after, I learned all the local competition was on Donkey Kong. I played in a tournament at the arcade and came dead last with a score of 19,000 points. I vowed I would do everything I could to reach the kill screen, and after two months I was able to pull it off. After that, I had the drive to keep playing and getting better, so I did. That eventually progressed to breaking the record four times and being the first player to hit 1.2 million on arcade hardware. DK skill progression is like a ladder ... you can't instantly be at the top, you have to climb your way up. First you make it to level 5. Then you make it to level 5 on one guy. Then you get a kill screen. Then you get 900k. Then a million. Then 1.1 million. Then 1.15 million. Then 1.2 million. Then you're ready for the record. Each of those steps has so much learning involved, and you will relearn how to play the game many times over. It's all part of the skill progression of this game.

"Today," he continued, "we consider games like Chess and Backgammon to be classics. I truly believe in 100 years people will look at highly random yet skill-intense games such as Donkey Kong with the same view. It takes experience to build enough intuition to predict what's coming next. When a basketball player wants to practice free throws, they don't go out on the court and play a whole game. When we want to improve our DK, we don't play whole games either. Load up a Level 5 save state on MAME, and when you die, play the area you died at five times in a row without dying before you move on. Only burn the good into your brain.”

We asked Wes his final thoughts on the matter, whether he was confident in the decision and how he felt about Twin Galaxies ongoing endeavour to clean up some of the more suspicious records laying hidden amongst the rest. “There are still plenty of fake scores that need to be rooted out from the database, but Jace Hall is the best person in the world to be at the helm of Twin Galaxies.”

You can read the full breakdown of the Billy Mitchell decision here, and can see the full Adjudication thread with the final decision, here.

(Banner image of Robbie Lakeman, Billy Mitchell and Wes Copeland from hardcoregamer.com)