An Exclusive Interview with The King of Kong (GBA)

Donkey Kong champ and documentary star Steve Weibe talks the competitive world of coin-ops.

by John Gaudiosi on Thursday, September 06, 2007

Family man, middle school science teacher and Donkey Kong master Steve Weibe.

Steve Weibe is just an ordinary guy who has always been extraordinary when it comes to playing the classic arcade game, Donkey Kong. While there are plenty of people who are good at gaming, not many of them end up starring in a gripping documentary film that Hollywood movie studio, New Line Cinema, (which is bringing Gears of War to the big screen), has optioned it for a big screen dramatization. But gamers don't have to wait that long to experience this entertaining tale of two Donkey Kong players. Picturehouse Entertainment is releasing the documentary, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, in theaters beginning August 17.

Weibe has said that he was always pretty good at Donkey Kong. Growing up he used to go over to his neighbor's house where they had a tabletop version of the game. He said his best score there was 285,000, but he didn't master the game until college. In 1989 Weibe bought his own machine and put it in his fraternity house. That's when he started racking up scores of over 500,000. Later, he brought the machine home to his parents house and started topping scores of 700,000. It was in 1991 that Weibe first beat the game and made it to the kill screen.

"When I did that I didn't know anything about the records or how big of an accomplishment a kill screen was," said Weibe. "When I got there, I thought there was something messed up with my own machine. I didn't know it was a universal bug."

Weibe and son bond as they practice diligently in the family's garage.

As anyone who watches The King of Kong documentary will learn, the kill screen is that point in a classic videogame (long before there were actually stories with endings) where the game ends and the screen's graphics become all distorted. Weibe achieves a kill screen in the documentary at Fun Spot, the Florida arcade that is home to the largest collection of classic games in the country. It's also home to a large number of nerds, which becomes evident when watching this film.

That machine that used to be in his fraternity was sold for $250 later on so Weibe could buy an electric drum set for a band he was in, but years later, he found out about the record and decided to buy another machine. That's when the movie's action picks up.

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Classic NES Series: Donkey Kong

Classic NES Series: Donkey Kong
  • GenrePuzzle
  • Release Date06/07/2004
  • PublisherNintendo
  • DeveloperNintendo
  • ESRBE - Everyone