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Comment by dehrmann | Hacker News Reader

I guess everyone needs a hobby, but this is a 50+ year-old man allegedly cheating at getting the high score for a 40-year-old arcade game.

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I think getting the high score for a 40-year-old arcade game is a perfectly fine hobby and a fine thing to take pride in. Certainly, if you check Twitch, record competition in single-player games draws plenty of viewership. The most popular games are somewhat less old (usually NES era and onwards), and it’s usually in the form of speedrunning rather than high score competition, but it’s the same general idea.

Cheating is different, of course. But I interpret your comment as dismissing the activity itself.

The amount of effort being put into both attacking and defending this guy, and the media attention it has received, is far out of proportion compared to the importance of the activity itself.

Do you have an "off", or "next" button? I love this story...who is right? Who is correct? What's the tech involved? How much is a reputation worth?

So much to just ignore if you don't give a fuck. Just ignore it.

"But i dont fucking want guitar lessons", springs to mind.

/h (for hypocrite :-)

We all love a little drama.

to you.

Fortunately for the rest of us, we get to decide how much this means to us, including the people running the stories and the people reading them. And we've decided it's interesting.

One of the issues is that Mitchell is notoriously litigious and has made a cottage industry of promoting himself as "guy with game world records". He has literally sued people into submission, over this exact claim, which is now forensicly validated. See Karl Jobst for reference.

Running is a much older sport, is it silly to chase running records too?

Somewhat. You dedicate your youth to being the best in the world at it, then have a 10-year window to compete. Once you're 35 (and I'm being generous), even amazing runners will have little to show for it, and the only thing they're halfway qualified to do is coach.

I think what hurts is you obviously go into it because it's a passion, but you age-out of competing so quickly. It's still your passion, but you go from being world-class to a hobbyist over 5 years.

What you just said is true for almost any sport ever.

World records are a young people's game.

Yes, I think so. What's the point?

This question is a litmus test for whether one has respect for the pursuits of others without passing judgement.

Some people try to choose hobbies that have synergies with other parts of their lives. It think that's a good strategy not just for hobbies but for everything.

I doubt that can be argued to be the case for donkey Kong though.

I think it promotes his hot sauce business.

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