I believe that at some point in each persons life everyone has felt like the Character Stevie Wiebie in the documentary; “The King of Kong, A Fist Full of Quarters”. His portrayal as a person who always comes up short and can never reach a substantial goal is a current theme in many screenplays. The documentary initially takes place in the early 1980s and during a time when arcade videogames were extremely popular.
Stevie Wiebie appears out of nowhere to pose a serious threat to an extremely cocky Billie Mitchell. In contrast to Stevie, Billie is an extremely confident and attractive individual who believes that for him to lose is a topic that is unheard of. After setting the record in the popular arcade game in the year 1982, Billie’s record is challenged by newcomer Stevie Wiebie. Stevie appears in 2005 after being let go from his job at Boeing. The character of Stevie forces him to always succumb to the belief that he is a constant failure. He is unable to fully complete or excel at any one task and is more of an underdog.
Since Stevie is an underdog and steps up in a passionate way that is unlike his previous demeanor. One day, he is reading the news when he notices the high score for the game, King Kong. He then films himself as he shatters the world record that is held by Billie Mitchel. He sends the tape to a company called “Twin Galaxies” that is a well-respected group that keeps the high scores for video games.
Billie hears of his record being broken and then the story progresses to depict Billie in scenes where he appears to be very cocky, displeased and simply immature. Billie sends a person he is teaching to check out the system that Stevie used to get the high score. The person he sends is Brian Kuh who he is also teaching, how to be a great gamer. The story then becomes more complex when Brian realizes that the person who made Stevie’s game system does not like Billie Mitchel at all and is a previously known enemy. This causes people to suspect that Stevie’s system is rigged and he takes a trip to a public arcade to prove that he really did get the high score in an honest way.
Although Stevie does not reach 1 million points he does break Billie’s old score of 874,300. Billie responds to this by sending a video of him reaching over 1 million points. This causes great controversy and gamers are angry towards Billie, believing that he is a hypocrite. Fans and gamers are displeased with Billie since throughout the whole documentary he was claiming that Stevie’s score was not legitimate. He claimed only games played in public where others could witness were truly legitimate.
At this time Stevie continues his newly found exceptional skill by proving to the entire public again that he can excel at this videogame. While in the mean time Billie does not agree to go head to head with Stevie to prove that he is better. In a bold move Stevie takes a trip to Florida where Billie lives to face him head on. This creates a tense climax and crowds gather in excitement to watch Stevie perform. Although, Stevie doesn’t surpass 1 million points, he is hailed as a triumphant victor over Billie, and the group Twin Galaxies credits the highest score to Stevie since he came out and proved his ability.