At just 13 years old, Willis beat Tetris: he would be the first human to do so in nearly 40 years since the game's release

At just 13 years old, Willis beat Tetris: he would be the first human to do so in nearly 40 years since the game's release

It's on our mobile phones, on consoles, and on computers. Tetris is officially the most adapted game in the world, being available on no fewer than 65 different platforms (according to a Guinness World Record set in 2010). But despite its popularity, the game, which was released by the Nintendo Entertainment System in June 1984, was never a hit.

This unprecedented feat was accomplished on December 21 by Willis Gibson, a 13-year-old North American from Oklahoma. On one The video was shared Tuesday on a YouTube channel under the name Blue Scuti, the teenager shows the last 38 minutes of the match. “Oh my God!” the young man repeats in the video. “I can't feel my fingers.”

On the screen, I had just “cleared” one of the rows of blocks when the game crashed. The image indicates level 18 (although this is due to a software error, as the young man was already at level 157) and several minutes ago the score froze at “999,999” points (the maximum value the marker can show).

In theory, a game of Tetris could last forever, The New York Times explains. For years it was thought that the game's level cap would be 29, but a new generation of players has been testing the limits in recent years, unlocking new achievements.

Willis Gibson now holds one of those feats. For decades, players have “beat” Tetris by hacking its programming. And only one Artificial intelligence robot accesses kill screen (At this point it becomes impossible to continue playing due to limitations in your programming), I reached level 237 before freezing.

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As far as we know, the teenager is the first person to reach this point in the game in its original version. That is, using hardware similar to the one the game was originally run on when it was released.

The young man, who has been participating in Tetris competitions since 2020 and is considered one of the best players in the United States, told the New York Times that he was attracted to the game because of its “simplicity” and that he has no interest in modern games. In a typical week, he devotes about 20 hours to playing Tetris.

By Chris Skeldon

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