> > I'm curious to understand how Billy Mitchell "knows" that 90% of Pac-Man boards in > > the world are one version, versus another version. > > Let's say that there's a hypothetical person named 'Millie'. Millie chases arcade > game world records, and has done so for several decades. Her entire personality and > public persona are built around this little universe - well, except for the parts > that make her a liar, cheat, and amoral, narcissistic weasel. > > After several years of public scrutiny and ridicule over recorded gameplay of hers > showing that she cheated on a score submission by using an emulator and videotape > editing rather than original hardware and skill, Millie feels the need to stage a > comeback. After all, narcissists need the attention of others in order to live; > without it, they have nothing. > > So, as the latest in a string of attempts to make everyone forget about her unethical > past, she convinces a well-known retailer of classic arcade games - who happens to > have a streaming video presence - to publically state that there's a second version > of a game on which she once held a world record on his channel. That'll build her > credibility for sure, even if it wasn't the game that led to the dispute that sealed > her fate as conniving scum. > > Now, given that the game in question has been around for 42 years and is arguably the > most popular arcade game of all time, you'd think that if there was a second version > of it out there it would already be public knowledge. Certainly, you'd expect the man > who is the classic arcade game retailer with close to a half-century in the trade to > perhaps know this, but he appears stunned - on camera, no less! - by Millie's > revelation. > > Does this sound conspiratorial? Perhaps so. But Millie's manipulative, and still has > some friends in certain corners. Mr. Retailer may be one of those friends; he may > also just be indifferent to events or simply gullible. It's hard to tell. But Millie > also has a number of legal entanglements related to her past scores taking place in > the courts at present, and anywhere she can have someone make her appear to have > anything approaching even the tiniest bit of trustworthiness is, in her mind, > something that can only bolster her legal defence and redeem her in the eyes of the > public. > > Also, Millie's last name is Bitchell.