Enlarge / Mitchell only obliquely addressed many of the accusations made against him in a lengthy conversation on The East Side Dave show earlier this week. (credit: The East Side Dave Show)

Over the weekend, Donkey Kong Forum moderator Jeremy Young removed competitive video gamer Billy Mitchell’s highest claimed Donkey Kong scores from the forum after presenting credible evidence that these scores were achieved via MAME emulation rather than on actual arcade hardware. Mitchell addressed those accusations publicly for the first time on an episode of The East Side Dave show recorded Tuesday (subscription required).

After a long and meandering conversation about his career both before and after The King of Kong documentary helped raise his media profile, Mitchell did acknowledge that “the film footage that [Young] has… shows MAME play,” referring to the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Such footage would be potentially susceptible to manipulation via stitched-together recording of game inputs, and it would go against Mitchell’s claims that his scores were recorded on actual arcade hardware.

In practically the same breath, though, Mitchell tried to cast some doubt on the provenance of the footage Young used in his analysis. “I contend that if he gets the original tape or he gets the original room shot, he will see that what I say is true,” he said. “I’m not disputing what he says is true, what I’m disputing is that I want him to have the original tape.”