Wiebe back on top

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - For the third time this year there's a new world record for the classic video game Donkey Kong.

Former champion Steve Wiebe regained the title from Hank Chien with a score of 1,064,500, as verified by video game scorekeeping organization Twin Galaxies .Wiebe, a teacher from Washington, last held the title in spring 2007. He lost to rival Billy Mitchell of Florida a few months later. Both Kongsters were featured in the documentary "King of Kong."

Then in March, New York's Chien outscored Mitchell with a score of 1,061,700 and became the reigning Donkey Kong champ. But Mitchell regained the title in July with a score of 1,062,800, according to gaming site 1UP.com .

Finally, Wiebe outscored Mitchell on July 31; Twin Galaxies verified the score and announced it on Monday.

"I love that everyone keeps playing and we have new competitors. It's a great rivalry that we're building up," Wiebe told MyNorthwest.com .

Wiebe has been playing Donkey Kong since childhood. His decision to amp up his skills as an adult wasn't just for his own amusement, however.

"I had been laid off," Wiebe told KATU-TV in 2008. "In college I got pretty good at 'Donkey Kong,' which I loved as a kid growing up. So I thought, 'This is one thing I can do to kind of cheer myself up.'"



The enduring game came out in 1981 when a Japanese artist created a game that featured a plumber, a kidnapped blonde, plenty of barrels and, of course, a gorilla.



"In 1981, Donkey Kong redefined video games, and Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto found themselves looking down on the industry from atop a mountain of quarters," according to Gamespot.com .



It wasn't until October 1999 that Nintendo released the arcade game as a video game by for Nintendo 64. The game was an instant smash, selling 2.5 million copies, which made it the sixth-best-selling game of the year even though it was released in October, reported the site.