I will weigh in on this one only once because I have argued this endlessly elsewhere. I do not know Billy but I have know of him as I have spent time on the circuit. He seems like he could be an unpleasant person based on what I have seen and heard. Anyone who has spent anytime in competition and the arcade environment is normally aware of Twin Galaxies. If you do any type of research you will discover that Twin Galaxies and Billy had more than a casual relationship and were in fact business partners involving several things. This was not well known in the day but it was rumored that Twin Galaxies had changed considerably from the earlier days and now had problems with conflict of interest with more than Billy and the referees were not following proper procedures in verifying scores.

Billy Mitchell's reputation as a player was not sterling and there were rumors about him as well. Most of these, of course, came from those that lost to him but some came from within Twin Galaxies. Guinness World records is at fault here as well because they failed to independently verify any records and took Twin Galaxies at their word that they followed protocol to verify every score.

Okay, that being said Billy Mitchell may have cheated but at this point no one knows absolutely because all of the evidence I have seen is easily manipulated and only seen on line. Twin Galaxies is probably guilty too because they were worried that the complicated personal and business relationship they had with Billy Mitchell would come out and they would lose any credibility they had left.

Let us look at the evidence. The MAME video is compelling if you take it at face value but who knows if this is really authentic. All the proof is online and easily manipulated. The screen glitches they they claim are proof it is not a DK board also fails verification. I have personally seen the redraw issues on cabinets that have aged and it looks the same as the MAME issue.

Did he swap boards for one score? Perhaps but again no independent verification is possible because the evidence is all online and the video is grainy and possibly altered by somebody.

The real issue here is Twin Galaxies lack of true verification. In Arcade high scores you need an an actual verification by a trained referee. Not someone who personally knows the player and has a history, good and bad, going back several years. Guinness failed because they also failed to perform independent verification. Twin Galaxies, in my opinion, is just as much the issue here as potentially Billy Mitchell is. They should not be allowed to be the arbiter of these high scores until real changes come about. They need to untangle the relationships they have and get rid of the people who fail to meet muster.