The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Has anybody else seen this? I watched it the other day at a film festival here. It' s a really well-made documentary.

Notice how the best classic arcade gamers are a bunch of old guys? I' m sure there are tons of teenagers with much faster reflexes that could take him. The only reason he held on to the title so long is because no one even wants to play Donkey Kong, let alone play competitively.

It looks like an interesting documentary though. I like examining extreme behaviour.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Yeah, but most of those guys were teenagers when they started playing. Plus, is a teenager gonna be better at playing guitar than some old guy who' s been playing for fifty years? Only once in a very rare while.

I did go back and play some Donkey Kong after watching the film. It' s an incredibly frustrating game with very finicky controls. For example, you have to be so precisely aligned with a ladder to climb up it... most games these days have more forgiving control.

ORIGINAL: Agent Ghost

I' m sure there are tons of teenagers with much faster reflexes that could take him.

Reflexes, sure. Focus and patience? Hell no.

Reflexes, sure. Focus and patience? Hell no.

The best players in any genre are in the 16-25 range. Adults have a higher attention span but it makes no difference if they' re too slow. Any competitive gamer regardless of age has the focus and patience, the difference is the reflexes and experience.

I remember seeing an interview from one of the top StarCraft player. At the time he was close to 20 years old and he was saying that he couldn' t win 1st place anymore simply because he didn' t have the reflexes of guys just a few years younger.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

I want to see this, but it is an extremely limited release and is not playing at a theater near me.

As far as Agent Ghost' s comments go, I guess a fair test would be to see who can play a game like Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter the best. That' s total reactionary stuff there, no patterns to memorize, etc. All skill and reflex. I don' t necessarily think reflexes at a game decrease with age UNLESS you take a break from playing it. I still kick all sorts of ass at Super Monkey Ball. LOL @ your comment about him being the best because nobody wants to play Donkey Kong anymore. That' s hilarious (and probably true)!

Yeah, but most of those guys were teenagers when they started playing. Plus, is a teenager gonna be better at playing guitar than some old guy who' s been playing for fifty years? Only once in a very rare while.

I would say a guitar is different than competitive arcade. Guitar is moslty expericence and muscle memory. Experience always counts for a lot. When I say a teenager would be better than an adult I' m talking about two experienced gamers.

I guess a fair test would be to see who can play a game like Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter the best. That' s total reactionary stuff there, no patterns to memorize, etc. All skill and reflex.

It would be an interesting experiment. Old School vs. New School. Assuming both age groups have experience, I would place my money on the younger guys.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Do you think they' ll have this on DVD or the internet in a year or two, Im sure itll never come to australia :\

[IMG]http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/4130/newsigba8.jpg[/img]

Slanted and omits facts and events to villainize Billy M. Michael Moore would be proud.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

I think it' s coming out on DVD in early January.

Slanted and omits facts and events to villainize Billy M. Michael Moore would be proud.

As for villainizing Billy, it definitely puts him in the role of the guy you want to root against. But a lot of Billy' s image problems are his own fault. He goes on and on about the only place you can really prove your skills being live in person in head-to-head competition, and you can clearly see in the film that he actually has a pattern of avoiding live head-to-head competition, at least during the past few years. I like Billy but he should be more respectful to his competitors and be gracious that he has some people who can compete on his level. Instead he comes off looking like he has poor sportsmanship, especially when he won' t even say hello to Steve.

As far as Michael Moore, he' s retaliating against the slanted, fact-omitting Fox News empire and all their scumbag pals like Limbaugh and Coulter. Don' t start a fight if you can' t handle people fighting back.

Thats the thing though, Billy retook his record live. In an EGM interview even Steve said the movie portrayed him wrong. As for the restaurant scene he eventually did go in and even introduced his family, which Steve said in the EGM article.

As for fox news, we all know its fact omiting garbage, but moore is fact creating garbage, both are wrong. I dont trust fox because they support bush, and I dont trust moore because he supports Hillary.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

I checked Billy' s new high score on Twin Galaxies, and it was set this past June... I' m sure the postproduction on the film was completed by then, so it wasn' t intentionally omitted. But where did Steve' s live high score from the Funspot event go?

I' ll check out the EGM article! One thing' s for sure, this battle for DK supremacy is going to be going on for quite a while now.

I bet I could beat both Billy and Steve at X-Men vs Street Fighter. Virtua Fighter as well (unless it' s parts 3 or 4, neither of which I care for too much).

I would say a guitar is different than competitive arcade. Guitar is moslty expericence and muscle memory. Experience always counts for a lot. When I say a teenager would be better than an adult I' m talking about two experienced gamers.

Yes and no.

Listen to a fantastic guitarist in the span of his life. There' s a learning stage where his talent gradually increases as he builds muscle memory, and adds to his repertoire. However after a certain point, the reflexes begin to slow and so do the songs. I' d think that the point where a guitarist starts to slow down in their art is further in their lifespan than most pro gamers, but pro gaming is a relatively new sport/art/hobby/whatever. There aren' t enough " old" competitive gamers to really study that in any great detail.

Playing guitar from memory has a lot to do with increasing finger dexterity, and having decent muscle memory, but one of the most challenging things for my reflexes (which are pretty decent) is playing freeform blues improv, or following someone else' s lead in a song I don' t know. It requires you to anticipate where a song is going, consider from multiple options what would sound best, remember where to place your fingers, and then comes the actual transition and pick or strum. All of that usually within the span of about a half-a-second.

Needless to say, I' m piss-poor at improvisation. I have issues multitasking, so I find it incredibly difficult.

Nothing against competitive gaming, but there' s a difference between fine-tuned twitch reflexes, and processing something quickly and efficiently, drawing a conclusion and then taking action.

As far as Michael Moore, he' s retaliating against the slanted, fact-omitting Fox News empire and all their scumbag pals like Limbaugh and Coulter. Don' t start a fight if you can' t handle people fighting back.

The age of objective journalism is far behind us. You' ll get five-finger -ahem-... screwed... from both sides if you really look to mainstream media for your information, whether you take the liberal or conservative flavor is entirely up to you.

The age of objective journalism is far behind us. You' ll get five-finger -ahem-... screwed... from both sides if you really look to mainstream media for your information, whether you take the liberal or conservative flavor is entirely up to you.

There' s a very important difference between journalism, as in " the news," and documentary filmmaking. In journalism, there is an ethical obligation to objectivity, which Fox News has betrayed and in so doing they have damaged the reputation of all news organizations.

Documentaries on the other hand do not have a responsibility to objectivity. They are more like essays, which deal with nonfiction issues -- real life situations and people -- but they have a subjective point of view and basically an argument they are trying to prove or a point they are trying to make.

The age of objective journalism is far behind us. You' ll get five-finger -ahem-... screwed... from both sides if you really look to mainstream media for your information, whether you take the liberal or conservative flavor is entirely up to you.

Further adding to this, Hunter S. Thompson once said that it was scientifically impossible to report impartially on a subject. His explanation was the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, in other words, as soon as you observe an event, you change it, or in this case how you report it.

Also, Donkey Kong is still a b***h after all these years.