Man vs Snake

Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler
Directed by	Andrew Seklir Tim Kinzy
Produced by	Andrew Seklir Tim Kinzy Christopher Murphy Richard Gomes David Seklir
Starring	Tim McVey Dwayne Richard Enrico Zanetti Walter Day Billy Mitchell Tina McVey
Edited by	Tim Kinzy Andrew Seklir, ACE
Music by	Jess Stroup
Production company	Playland Pictures
Distributed by	Filmbuff
Release dates	Worldwide: June 24, 2016
Running time	93 minutes

Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler is a 2016 documentary film directed by Andrew Seklir and Tim Kinzy. The film premiered on September 27, 2015 at Fantastic Fest Film Festival, followed by a Canadian premiere on April 17, 2016 and a worldwide release on June 24 of the same year. The film follows players as they try to accumulate a billion points on the 1982 arcade game, Nibbler, a feat first achieved by Tim McVey in 1984.

Synopsis

In the 1980s, Walter Day founded Twin Galaxies, a video arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa and established the Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard to track and record video game high scores. After garnering notoriety in various video game magazines of the day, players start traveling to Ottumwa to compete for world record titles. Among the players who visited Twin Galaxies, was Tom Asaki, a undergraduate at the State University of Montana in Bozeman. Tom Asaki competed on Ms. Pac-Man and later was the first player to attempt a billion point score on Nibbler, a relatively obscure game with two unique properties: Firstly, the score counter has nine digits and rolls over, meaning it is theoretically possible for a player to achieve a score in excess of one billion points; secondly, the game's mechanics allow skilled players to take short breaks during play, meaning that it is feasible for players to marathon a gaming session for several hours or even days. Walter Day got Rock-Ola Manufacturing Company, the manufacturer of Nibbler, to agree to award a free cabinet to the first player to reach or break the billion-point mark.

In the summer of 1983, Ottumwa native, Tim McVey, encounters Tom Asaki at Twin galaxies during one of his record attempts and impulsively tells other arcade patrons watching the Nibbler marathon that he will achieve a new high score. Encouraged by Walter Day and friend Billy Mitchell, McVey makes seven attempts over the next several months in the hope of achieving the billion-point record. In January of 1984, Tim McVey spends two consecutive days playing Nibbler and finally achieves a billion-point score. Although he could have continued playing, McVey decided to quit and go home. Over the next several months, McVey becomes a local celebrity, an official civic day, Tim McVey Day, is named in his honor and he is presented with a key to the city by the mayor of Ottumwa in a ceremony that is covered by the local news media. McVey's score is recorded in the official Twin Galaxies scoreboard and he becomes one of their luminaries, with his Nibbler session is regarded as legendary in the gaming community.

In the 2000s, McVey learns that an Italian native named Enrico Zanetti claims to have beaten his score in the September of 1984, shortly after McVey had achieved his record. Zanetti was inspired by Tim McVey's billion-point score which had been published in Italian video game magazine, Video Giochi. Zanetti recalls that the Nibbler cabinet was located in a family owned cafe, Bar Grillo, which had a small collection of arcade video games. News footage from an Italian TV station demonstrates Zanetti breaking the score and the subsequent celebrity he received. While McVey acknowledges that Zanetti may have legitimately beaten him, Day claims that, because no one from Twin Galaxies witnessed the event, Zanetti's score is invalid. Zanetti himself is unphased, content just to know that he achieved the score. Nonetheless, McVey decides to beat Zanetti's score and purchases a Nibbler machine of his own.

McVey practices on the machine in anticipation of beating the score at MAGFest, a live video game event, where he is scheduled to compete head to head with another Nibbler champion, Dwayne Richard. At the event, Richard's cabinet malfunctions, disqualifying him from the event. Meanwhile, despite Mitchell and Day's support, McVey becomes physically and emotionally exhausted and decides to quit prematurely.

A few months later, in February 2009, Richard submits a video to Twin Galaxies depicting him achieving the new high score on Nibbler. For a brief time, Richard is celebrated as the new champion, until McVey notices that the respawn time on Richard's video is significantly shorter than average. A subsequent investigation finds that a replacement part Richard used to repair his circuit board after it malfunctioned has caused the game to overlock without damage, giving Richard an unfair advantage. Amidst speculation that he knowingly exploited the glitch, Richard withdraws his score from consideration.

McVey makes several more attempts to reclaim the high score, each of which he live streams online; however, friends, family, McVey's physical condition, and McVey's own personal frustration-- such as the death of his father and his desire to give Nibbler the same credibility afforded to other arcade classics-- sabotage his attempts. Ultimately, he decides to make one final attempt with only his wife present. After his wife feeds him a bowl of macaroni and cheese -- which McVey's mother attempted to do after his first victory in 1984 -- McVey feels reinvigorated and achieves the new world record on Nibbler.

In the wake of McVey's victory, Walter Day has a change of heart and declares that Twin Galaxies will begin grandfathering in old scores, as long as there is sufficient news documentation to prove their validity. As a result, Zanetti's high score is recognized and Twin Galaxies presents him with a certificate in recognition of his achievement. As a result of the publicity surrounding McVey's multiple attempts to retake the Nibbler score, Nibbler becomes a cult success on the retro gaming circuit, and players around the world not only beat McVey's record, but begin to achieve exponentially higher and higher scores.

Production

The directors of the film, Andrew Seklir and Tim Kinzy, discovered Nibbler and Tim McVey's billion point high score while working together editing Battlestar Galactica. Seklir and Kinzy first visited McVey in 2008, and once the filming began, they intended for a high score competition in 2009 to serve as the film's climax, but instead found the scope of the story growing. The directors found some in the classic video game community initially reluctant to talk to them after how members such as Billy Mitchell were portrayed in 2007's The King of Kong. The production undertook a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in September 2013, raising $61,440, this contributed to animation costs and generated publicity for the film. The film premiered on September 27, 2015 at the Fantastic Fest.

Reception

Critical reception for the film has been positive. Man Vs Snake received positive reviews from IGN and Ain't It Cool News, the former of which wrote that "Man Vs. Snake is a lot like King of Kong, though not quite as good, lacking that film's many memorable moments and quotes. But it’s a fine documentary in its own right; an emotional rollercoaster that will make you happy and sad and pleased that a guy like Tim McVey is out there, nibbling dots and avoiding his tail, all the while striving for his dream." A reviewer for the SyFy Channel's gaming website also drew comparisons to King of Kong, commenting that Man Vs Snake was "not only the best retro arcade/Twin Galaxies related documentary film since the King of Kong, it is far better than Kong in almost every way."

Awards

• Best Documentary at Fantastic Fest (2015, won)
• Best Documentary Feature at the Calgary Underground Film Festival (2016, won)
• Best Editing at FilmQuest (2016, won)

See also

• Golden age of arcade video games

External links

• Official website
• Man vs Snake at IMDb
• Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler at Rotten Tomatoes