Judge sides with arcade gamer in dispute over terms of settlement with Twin Galaxies

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Competitive arcade gamer Billy Mitchell's lawsuit against Twin Galaxies, an organization that maintains high scores, ended earlier this year with a confidential settlement. It left many in the tight-knit community of retro games wondering: had Mitchell won? Had Twin Galaxies caved to his demands?

Since the 1980s, Twin Galaxies has maintained leaderboards, a list of the highest scores, for a number of vintage arcade games like Donkey Kong and Pac Man. Mitchell, who gained infamy for his appearance in the 2007 documentary "King of Kong," which portrayed him as a pantomime villain, has at times sat atop those leaderboards. But in 2018, several people accused Mitchell of setting two Donkey Kong high scores, each one of over a million points, using an arcade emulator — not the original arcade machine. After an investigation, Twin Galaxies agreed that the scores were tainted, removed Mitchell from all its leaderboards and banned him from them in the future.

Mitchell sued Twin Galaxies in 2019 for defamation, accusing the company and its owner, Jace Hall, of not acting as "a biased observer intent on generating publicity and internet 'clicks' by accusing Mitchell, the most visible of all video gamers, of cheating." Twin Galaxies countersued Mitchell, accusing him of engaging in "a decades-long fraud."

Litigation dragged on and grew increasingly acrimonious, as each side accused the other of misconduct and "discovery abuse." Finally, in January, three months before the case was set to go to trial, Mitchell and Twin Galaxies reached a settlement, the exact terms of which remain confidential. But the statements posted by the two parties hinted that there may have been some disagreement as to the exact terms of the deal.

Hours after the settlement was announced in court, Mitchell proclaimed, on Instagram: “Today, January 16, 2024, Twin Galaxies has reinstated all of the videogame world records that I achieved in my career, effective immediately... I am relieved and satisfied to reach this resolution after an almost six year ordeal and look forward to pursuing my unfinished business elsewhere" — likely a reference to other defamation lawsuits he's filed.

Twin Galaxies posted its own, somewhat enigmatic statement, saying in the seventh paragraph, "Twin Galaxies shall heretofore reinstate all of Mr. Mitchell’s scores as part of the official historical database on Twin Galaxies’ website."

Notably, Mitchell's scores were not to be included on its main leaderboard, but on a new historical leaderboard that acts as a snapshot of top scores from ten years ago. That point was driven home by YouTuber Karl Jobst, whom Mitchell is also suing for defamation, and who posted a video titled, "Billy Mitchell Lost His Lawsuit," comparing the historical leaderboard to the "Wayback Machine." In the video, Jobst posted what appears to be an email from Hall where the Twin Galaxies owner states that Mitchell is still banned from the organization's competitions, and that the site's main leaderboards would not be including Mitchell's scores.

Twin Galaxies' attorney David Tashroudian underlined that point on Thursday when he said, "A lot of cheaters are included in that historical database."

This, apparently, was not what Mitchell thought he was getting. He filed a heavily redacted motion for the court to enforce the settlement agreement, saying that Twin Galaxies and Hall had breached the agreement "on at least two occasions." In response, Twin Galaxies lawyer wrote in a court filing, "Twin Galaxies did not breach the agreement by telling Karl Jobst that Plaintiff was still banned."

On Thursday, Mitchell's attorney asked Superior Court Judge Wendy Chang to allow Mitchell to publish two separate paragraphs from the settlement agreement, clarifying some of its terms for one and all.

But Tashroudian insisted that Mitchell really had been banned from his client's official leaderboards.

"Our position is that we couldn’t lift the ban," Tashroudian said. "At some point, Mr. Mitchell can submit scores for adjudication," he added, saying that the agreement provided certain "avenues for him to come back into the fold."

The judge said she found that confusing.

"You’re making very subtle distinctions that I don’t see," Chang said.

Tashroudian explained that after the settlement was announced, the company was "absolutely raked over the coals" by commenters on Twin Galaxies' message boards over the perception that the company had caved in to Mitchell.

"Which may explain why you have a different position," Chang said. "I think it's a fair assumption that the intention was to at least allow for the possibility for the plaintiff to submit his scores. To me, that implies that he was not banned."

The judge said she wasn't there to adjudicate the actual terms of the settlement; she had simply been asked to allow Mitchell to publish — on social media, presumably — two separate paragraphs of the settlement agreement. Mitchell had also asked for some sort of retraction, but during the hearing, Mitchell's lawyer, Anthony Ellrod, said that in lieu of a retraction, his client would accept an order that "no further comment on settlement agreement be made."

Chang agreed to Mitchell's requests. Another request, to have Twin Galaxies pay $9,000 for Mitchell's attorneys' fees accrued during the most recent motion, was taken under submission.

Both parties declined to comment after the ruling.

Follow @hillelaron