Steve Wiebe

Steve Wiebe
Born Steven J. Wiebe
(1969-01-03) January 3, 1969
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Residence Redmond, Washington, U.S.
Nationality American
Education University of Washington (B.S., Mechanical Engineering; 1991)
City University (M.Ed.; 2004)
Occupation Competitive gamer, school teacher, musician, basketball
Spouse(s) Nicole
Children 2

Steven J. "Steve" Wiebe (/ˈwiːbi/; born January 3, 1969) is an American two-time world champion of the video game Donkey Kong, most recently holding the title from September 20, 2010 to January 10, 2011 with a high score of 1,064,500 points. Wiebe was the first person to achieve over a million points in a public game, with a score of 1,006,600 on July 4, 2004.[1][2][3] He is one of the primary subjects of the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.[4][5]

Wiebe lives in Redmond, Washington with his wife Nicole, and has a daughter, Jillian, and son, Derek. In addition to his competitive gaming pursuits, Wiebe currently teaches math at Redmond High School. He has been interested in music from an early age.[6]

Media appearances

Wiebe was interviewed about the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and on G4's Attack of the Show. He also voiced his own cartoon character on Code Monkeys in the episode "The Great Recession". He also appeared as "Jim" in the film Four Christmases, which was directed by Seth Gordon, the director of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. In 2011 Wiebe made a cameo appearance in Gordon's film Horrible Bosses as Thomas, Head of Security. In 2015 he had a credited role in the Adam Sandler movie Pixels as "DARPA Scientist".

Like his Donkey Kong rival Billy Mitchell, Wiebe was also put in a TOPPS Allen & Ginter baseball set, which is featured in the 2009 edition of the baseball product.[7]

He is also now in the TV series Sneaky Pete on Amazon Video. He played Stephen Davidson in episode 1.

Timeline of Wiebe's and the Donkey Kong high score record

  • On August 19, 2007, at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, Wiebe scored 695,500 points while Twin Galaxies Founder Walter Day served as the official referee.
  • On March 6, 2008, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Wiebe played in front of a fluctuating crowd of 1,900 party attendees in the TAO Nightclub in the Venetian Casino during Microsoft's MIX08 event. During that attempt, Wiebe achieved two scores: first scoring 929,800 points and reaching the kill screen and then 579,300 points on the second try. According to Twin Galaxies records, this is the sixth time someone had reached the "Kill Screen" during a public gaming performance (He and Billy Mitchell each did this three times). Again, Wiebe performed under the supervision of Twin Galaxies Founder Walter Day, who noted: "Possibly the biggest challenges Wiebe had to overcome were the loud nightclub music, the chaotic environment and the late hours."
  • On July 17, 2008, Wiebe made his third attempt to break the Donkey Kong high score at the Twiistup 4 event in Santa Monica, California, but was unsuccessful on two consecutive attempts, scoring 340,500 and 466,100 points. For reference, rapper Eminem's top score is reported to be 465,800.
  • In October 2008, at the 2008 E for All Expo, he scored 1,000,200 in front of a large crowd. This was only the third time a million-point score had been achieved in public.
  • On April 24, 2009, Wiebe temporarily took command of the Donkey Kong Jr. title, eclipsing both Mitchell and previous record holder Icarus Hall with a score of 1,139,800 points. This was later passed by Mark L. Kiehl with a score of 1,147,800.
  • On June 2, 2009, Wiebe reached a score of 923,400 points at E3 2009 during his first attempt that day. On his second attempt, he reached 653,700. A third attempt was interrupted by a brief power failure. After power was restored, Wiebe made a fourth attempt in which he reached 989,400 points before the kill screen ended his final attempt. These attempts were broadcast online via G4TV.
  • On February 17, 2010, Wiebe recaptured the Donkey Kong Jr. high score title with a verified 1,190,400 points, beating out previous record holder Mark Kiehl. Twin Galaxies Founder Walter Day served as the official referee. On April 19, 2010, Mark Kiehl again recaptured the Donkey Kong Jr. high score with a verified 1,253,000 points. According to Twin Galaxies Wiebe has currently the fifth best highscore in Donkey Kong Jr. with 1,190,400 points.
  • On September 20, 2010, Wiebe regained the title of Donkey Kong champion, verified by Twin Galaxies through a DVD recording of play on August 30, 2010, with a score of 1,064,500 points. With the 2018 removal of Billy Mitchell's score from its leaderboards, Twin Galaxies recognizes Weibe as the official first million-point record holder with this score.[8]
  • On January 10, 2011, Wiebe lost the title of world record holder when his previous high score of 1,064,500 points on Donkey Kong was beaten by plastic surgeon Hank Chien's 1,068,000-point high score. The attempt took two hours and forty-five minutes.
  • On February 2, 2018, the current world record of 1,247,700 was set by Robbie Lakeman.[9] According to Twin Galaxies Wiebe is currently rank 12 in the highscore list of Donkey Kong with 1,064,500 points.
  • On April 12, 2018, Wiebe was recognized as the first person to ever reach a score of 1,000,000 points. This title was granted by Twin Galaxies after the same organization performed an investigation into Billy Mitchell, the previous record holder. Mitchell was found to have used either hardware emulation such as MAME, or to have otherwise modified his evidence for submission. He was subsequently stripped of all records submitted to Twin Galaxies. While MAME is acceptable for use by Twin Galaxies, it requires a different set of guidelines and submission process, and is listed on a different leaderboard. Mitchell claimed a high score submission for the original Donkey Kong arcade hardware, meaning that playing on anything but a non-modified Donkey Kong arcade cabinet is strictly forbidden.[8][10][11]

Personal life

Steve Wiebe at the Kong Off 3 event.

Wiebe was born in Seattle, Washington to Ryan and Sandy Wiebe, and has a brother, Ryan Wiebe, and sister, Cathy Lowell. He attended Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington. He played for the school's basketball and baseball teams and also played the drums for the school's symphonic and jazz bands. Wiebe graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1991. From 1996 to 1999, he worked at Boeing as a testing and analysis engineer; and from 1999 to 2001, he worked at the Bsquare corporation in Bellevue as a software testing engineer. In 2004, Wiebe earned a Master of Education degree at City University of Seattle.

In December 2009 he released a Contemporary Christian album titled The King of Song.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Gurwin, Gabe (April 16, 2018). "Banned 'Donkey Kong' player Billy Mitchell plans to prove he didn't cheat". Digital Trends. Retrieved April 19, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Official MAME Submission Guidelines". GameSpot. 2017-02-09. Retrieved 2018-04-13. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  3. ↑ "Dispute Decision: Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong & All Other Records Removed". GameSpot. 2018-04-12. Retrieved 2018-04-13. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  4. ↑ Bierly, Mandi (August 23, 2007). "Steve Wiebe's Game Plan". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  5. ↑ "Steve Wiebe, 'King of Kong,' on Living the Dream". New York Magazine. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  6. ↑ Gordon, Seth (2007).The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Picturehouse/New Line Cinema
  7. ↑ "24 - Steve Wiebe". The Trading Card Database. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
  8. 1 2 McCumbers, Alex (April 12, 2018). "Dispute Decision: Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong & All Other Records Removed". Twin Galaxies. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  9. ↑ Wong, Kevin (2018-02-09). "Embattled Donkey Kong Record Holder Billy Mitchell Wants To Clear His Name". GameSpot. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  10. ↑ "Official MAME Submission Guidelines". GameSpot. 2017-02-09. Retrieved 2018-04-13. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  11. ↑ "Dispute Decision: Billy Mitchell's Donkey Kong & All Other Records Removed". GameSpot. 2018-04-12. Retrieved 2018-04-13. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  12. ↑ Plunkett, Luke (December 31, 2009). "The King Of Kong Moonlights As The King Of Song". Kotaku. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.