Nicole Wiebe doesn't utter a word over the course of our 45-minute round-table interview. To be fair, no questions were addressed directly to her. And even if she had adopted the role of the long-suffering wife for this Tuesday morning session, it's hard to blame her. There are those who marry into celebrity for the fame and fortune; and there are those who are thrust into the limelight. In Nicole's unique case, a documentary film crew knocked on her door seeking to make a movie about her husband, a former Boeing employee and currently a middle-school history teacher, who as it happens had recently become the world's Donkey Kong champion.

That would be Steve, who was seated between Nicole and me and sporting his trademark baseball cap and smile for this session--which was bizarre even in the world of press junkets. There are a few light-hearted jokes at Steve's expense. Someone makes a crack about his child-rearing skills, referencing a scene from the film--funny in retrospect--in which Steve ignores his young son's tortured cries of "poopy pants!" in order to finish the "game of his life." This wasn't an instance of mere late-night gaming hyperbole, as it turns out. The run was recorded for posterity by Wiebe himself, complete with its backing soundtrack of his crying son, and turned over to the Twin Galaxies records board as a candidate for the highest-scoring Donkey Kong game of all time.

And of course, there was that scene in the film (Nicole's first hint of the absurd life that comes along with being married to the world's Donkey Kong champ) in which two Twin Galaxies representative made their way into her suburban Redmond, Washington home, against her wishes, to inspect the machine on which her husband made Donkey Kong history. A perfectly reasonable occurrence when, as is the case with Steve, you've unknowingly put your fate in the hands of a guy who still refers to himself professionally as "Mr. Awesome," though few people these days echo the sentiment about the world's self-proclaimed Missile Command champ. He had procured the second DK machine for Steve.

All of these references, of course, zip over my head, since I have yet to see The King of Kong. So I've largely surrendered the question-asking to the other reporter present, a writer from a videogame magazine who has seized the opportunity with the reckless abandon of a crazed ape hurling barrels down a construction site toward some pot-bellied Italian plumber below.

He's happy to have become a part of the continuing story, no matter how minor. Since publishing a review of the film, he's become the recipient of all manner of feedback, including messages from Billy Mitchell--the long-haired restaurant-chain-owning gamer whose Donkey Kong record Wiebe overtook, and who, at least in the context of the film, comes across as something of... if not a villain, than certainly an overzealous antagonist. After the screening later that evening, I have a brief talk with the film's producer, Ed Cunningham, who relays a story about a critic from a prominent national publication who fielded a nearly 2-hour phone call from Mitchell after having run a story on King of Kong. After our interview, Cunningham took the videogame reporter aside to "untangle" some of the echo chamber he had met with after publishing his own review.

We talk for a moment about the proposed cinematic adaptation of the documentary that Cunningham is working on with Kong director Seth Gordon, who was seated to my right. I refer to it as a "dramatization," and Gordon answers back quickly that they couldn't have made this story more dramatic if they had tried. Fair enough. The first time I saw a trailer for the film, my friend turned to me, as it wrapped up with Mitchell's final quote: "Everything I say is controversial. It's like the abortion issue." She was convinced that we had just had just watched a preview for a mockumentary and got a bit irritated when I tried to convince her otherwise.

I understand. Like American Movie, everything about the King of Kong trailer would suggest to most people that it had been fictionalized; surely this Billy Mitchell character couldn't be a real person. This is a theme that continues throughout the film, with characters like the grownup version of the outcasts from John Hughes films. It also doesn't seem unreasonable to imagine that certain moments may have been taken out of context to enhance said drama, which is exactly the reason Mitchell has been placing those phone calls.

But I need to point out that at the time I spoke with the film's creators, Mitchell was still loudly announcing that he hadn't yet seen the film. Everyone who had been featured in it and who had actually taken the time to watch King of Kong was generally satisfied with the way they were portrayed, and perceptions of Mitchell among people in the classic-gaming community didn't begin with the first screening of King of Kong. (That said, after having checked the flick out and spoken with Wiebe, Gordon, and Cunningham, I wouldn't be adverse to running a Q&A with Mitchell.)

Gordon tosses out a few ideas they've been kicking around for the feature adaptation for the story. The concept involves following King of Kong's subjects after the release of the documentary. Maybe the documentary crew will be featured in it, following the players around. How's that for meta? "So all of this could be in the film," jokes the reporter across the table. Wiebe, when asked, jokes that he wants Mark Hamill to play him. "Pre-Empire, naturally," I add, in attempt to score a few nerd points.

The fact is that nothing really ended with the completion of King of Kong. If anything, the release of the film has compounded the competition between Wiebe and Mitchell. Late last month, Mitchell claimed to have recaptured the world record during a live game at a retro-themed mortgage broker convention. The day we conducted our interview, Wiebe would attempt to re-recapture his record, after a screening of the film and in front of a packed house at a Dave & Busters in Times Square.

As we sat in the movie theater, Wiebe was a floor below us "warming up," a process that involved getting to the game's kill screen--the point when the Donkey Kong game runs out of memory. Weibe is one of only three people in history who have ever reached the 22nd level, racking up a ridiculously impressive score of 946,500 in the process. After the movie ended, Cunningham announced this to the audience, adding that if Wiebe should get to the screen again in his post-warmup run, he'll have become the first person in history to have done so.

We exit the theater, after an audience-wide Q&A that includes Gordon, Cunningham, and Nicole Wiebe. As we arrive at Dave & Buster's, downstairs from the movie theater, Wiebe is well into his second game. He's separated from the packed house of film crews, industry folks, and well-wishers by a velvet rope like the ones separating our party from the rest of the Dave & Buster's arcade. The flat-screen monitors, normally reserved for sporting events, are dedicated to the action on the Donkey Kong screen.

Wiebe, meanwhile, is remarkably calm under the pressure, and when he loses his last Mario, having scored less than half of what he did the game before, he shakes it off, saying, "That wasn't my best game." Maybe not, but a quick glimpse at the screen reveals the cavernous gap between his latest score, 481,500, and the next highest on the Dave & Buster's Donkey Kong screen: 7,650. That's third place; Wiebe's 946,500 warm-up score is in first, naturally.

Photographers snap shots of Steve and Nicole from all angles, and representatives from the newly-formed Steve Wiebe Fan Club ask the gamer to pose for shots with their newly printed S.W.F.C. t-shirts, a request that perpetual good sport Wiebe happily obliges.

A week later, as the film entered into wider release, I had a chance to catch up with Wiebe and discuss the film, the record, and, of course, the long-suffering wife.

You guys just got back in on Friday?

I got back in--I'm losing track of the days. I got back from Austin on Monday.

You were doing more press out there?

Yeah, and I go to Minneapolis on Wednesday. I've been to New York, LA, Austin, and now Minneapolis, in a week. I'm home right now, painting the house. It's been taking me about a month.

When are you going back to work full-time?

I startup teaching again in a month.

What happens to the kids when you guys travel?

Both of our parents are in town, so they switch off.

Your parents were in the film a bit. What has their reaction been to this whole thing? Did it change when they saw the movie?

My mother and mother-in-law cried during certain parts of the movie. Before the movie came out, they didn't really understand the whole thing. They did a little bit, when I started going to tournaments, but when I was just playing in my garage, I don't think they knew what I was doing. I didn't really go into detail, and they weren't telling me to "go get 'em!"

The reactions to the movie have all been pretty positive, thus far?

Yeah, everyone who sees it seems to love it.

It's only playing in four cities right now, but have you gotten to a point where you've been recognized on the street?

I had it in the airport, a couple of times. I was flying to LA, and a couple of guys that worked for CNN.com recognized me. After a screening in New York, we went to get dinner, and one of the waitresses recognized me. There have been a handful of times.

When you initially set out to break the score, what kind of reaction did you expect? You thought you'd get your name on a Web site and that would be it?

Yeah, on the Web site, and the gamers would acknowledge it, it would go in the Twin Galaxies book, and that would be it. I never saw the "Guinness Book" or the movie coming into it at all.

So you really just set out to break the record for peace of mind?

Yeah, I was just trying to find something that I could accomplish, without needing anybody else's help.

Up until that point in your life, what had your background with the game been?

I played when it came out in '81, through the 80s. in 1990, I bought my own Donkey Kong machine and had it in my fraternity. I first got to the kill screen during that time. I did it twice, but I didn't know why the game had ended. I thought that was really bizarre. I kept the machine for a few years, and then sold it. In 2000, I went online and found the score on the Twin Galaxies Web site. I went out to buy another machine.

In the '90s, when you initially got to the kill screen, did it occur to you that you might be one of the best Donkey Kong players in the world?

I was wondering. I played for a long time, and I don't remember anyone getting anywhere near those scores of 900,000. At the same time, i didn't think it could be that special. But it turned that not many people other than Billy and I can play at that level. There are a few other people that are a few hundred points behind us.

What was your record from those days?

I got 967,000.

That would have been the record at the time.

Yeah, that would have been the record, if I would have know it or recorded it.

What about Donkey Kong has stuck with you for all of these years? Is it just the fact that you're really good at it?

It was always a favorite of mine, because it had the four different screens, which was kind of unique for games back then. The graphics were also really cool, and I liked the simplicity of it--the one button and the joystick. I wasn't into the Defender-type games. I was playing Pac-Man before that, but when Donkey Kong came out, I pretty much stuck with it. When [Donkey Kong] Jr. came out a year later, I played that, and those became the two games that I focused on--and maybe a little bit of Galaga.

By the 90s, those games were pretty dated. Had you moved to more advanced games at all?

I wasn't playing anything more advanced--I wasn't interested in the newer stuff. My friend was in another fraternity, and he had a Donkey Kong machine over there. I remembered loving that game, and a few months later, I got my own.

Did you ever get hassled in the frat for spending so much time with the game?

No. There were five or six of us who were playing as much or more than I was. We had a fun little club.

I was at the event in New York, when you were trying to break the record, and it seems like you're getting into the 900,000s pretty routinely now.

Yeah. I usually get 500,000, at least, and depending on the breaks, I may get into the 800-to-900s. In LA I was four boards away from a kill screen, which I should have had, but I got kind of lazy. It was a great crowd; I was at bar, and there was a big screen. They were drinking and partying, and I was just playing Donkey Kong.

It's funny; you were kicking yourself because the second attempt in New York was in the 400,000s, but that's still a phenomenally high score by most standards.

Yeah, that's still one of the top spots overall. If you look at the standings after me and Billy, there's another score of 800,000, and then maybe a 700,000, and then maybe a 500,000. So that's probably top five or six.

I was checking out the screen after you got the 400,000, and the next spot on the list was something in the neighborhood of 2,000. do you have any idea what the average score for a Donkey Kong game is?

When I think of averages, I'm thinking of the people who are really playing it a lot. They're probably in the 80s-to-100,000s. That's the really good players. The third elevator is what really kills them. Anyone who rarely plays it will probably not get past the first screen, unless they've invested a few quarters--more than a few--but even then, they're probably not going to last more than a couple of minutes.

So, according to the books, you are currently the top record holder for both live and taped games.

Yeah. In "Guinness 2008," they have the taped score, and my live score at 985,000 is still the current record. Billy reportedly got a higher live score, but it's still being verified. He did it late July, at some mortgage brokers' conference. They want to look at the tape he recorded, but Walter said that they're just doing the paperwork on it. It's just one of those things, where you have the two top competitors going at each other. It's like tennis--McEnroe and Connors, battling back and forth. That's what this has become.

So this isn't going to let up any time soon?

No, I don't think so. I might have to take a break for a while, because school is starting, and I won't be able to be gunning for the record, like I would have to in order to get it. But yeah, it's going to be a lifetime battle.

Are you prepared to make that commitment?

You know, I don't think I'm going to revolve my whole life around it. When it works out, I'll go for it, but there's so many things I'd rather do.

Is your wife prepared to make that commitment?

No, she's not. I'm definitely not going to sacrifice family time for this.

What did she say when you originally brought the machine home?

She was fine with it. She didn't understand how wrapped up I was going to get in it. She didn't mind, and I was kind of surprised. She allowed me to have it, but she didn't see this coming.

That scene in the film when the guys from Twin Galaxies edge their way into your garage to check the machine seemed like the moment when it all changed for her.

Yeah, that's where she said, "This is going somewhere that I don't want to be."