Steve Wiebe Could Win $10,000 In Quarters

Would-be Donkey Kong champion Steve Wiebe now has some incentive to take back the world record at this year's E3 aside from bragging rights and the respect of his peers. Stride Gum has offered him $10,001 in quarters if he wins.

A Fistful of Quarters? More like a truckload. Stride Gum is trying to reach that lucrative classic arcade gamer demographic by putting its money behind King of Kong hero Steve Wiebe to take back the Donkey Kong world record live on TV at this year's E3. And by money, I mean a whole hell of a lot of quarters. If Wiebe breaks Billy Mitchell's record, Stride will give him exactly $10,001 in 25 cent coins - that should be more than enough to buy a few games of Donkey Kong.

"Steve Wiebe is an inspiration to gamers everywhere, and we believe he truly deserves the title of Donkey Kong world champion," Gary Osifchin of Stride Gum said. "This is exactly the kind of long lasting endeavor that we here at Stride appreciate, and we have full confidence that Wiebe will once again surpass the million points mark and avoid the kill screen for long enough in the process."

UGO did the math that everybody else is too lazy to do, and figured that $10,001 worth of quarters comes out to exactly 40,004 quarters. A quarter weighs .0125 pounds according to the US Mint, which means Wiebe's potential prize would be about 500 pounds worth of quarters. I would hate to have to be the dude working at Wiebe's bank that has to deposit that many quarters into his account.