A sixteen-year-old individual emerges as the first person to engage in a game of Tetris.
A 16-year-old gamer makes history by conquering Tetris: He becomes the first to finish all 255 stages in the legendary Nintendo game Tetris. For a long time, anything beyond level 29 was thought to be unattainable.
A 16-year-old named Michael Artiaga, known online as "dogplayingtetris," managed to achieve what no one else had, completing Tetris and returning to the start in a streamed session on Twitch. He completed level 256, taking approximately 80 minutes to do so in the NES version. As soon as he reached level 256, the counter reset to level 0. On his second attempt, he reached level 91. Notably, unlike many previous record attempts, he used a modified version of the game that avoided the crashes that Tetris is known for at higher levels.
Released on the Nintendo console NES in the 80s, Tetris is a classic game featuring blocks of different shapes falling from the top. The objective is to move the blocks left or right to fill gaps. When complete rows disappear, incomplete ones remain and eventually fill the screen: Game Over.
For decades, it was thought to be nearly impossible to surpass level 29, where the falling blocks are so fast that standard button movements aren't fast enough. However, in recent years, players have developed techniques like "Hypertapping" and "Rolling," which allow for extremely fast button presses or rolling fingertips across the controller.
Eliminating crashes
While these techniques helped players go beyond level 29, they discovered even bigger obstacles awaited. For example, in levels beyond 138, blocks sometimes have peculiar color patterns that make them challenging to distinguish. Additionally, from level 155 onwards, the probability of the game crashing when clearing complete rows increases, which halted previous record attempts, such as that of 13-year-old player "BlueScuti," who crashed Tetris at level 157 in January.
However, "dogplayingtetris" was not affected by crush risks as the software code for Tetris was modified. Still, the game presented difficulties for him; for instance, on level 235, he had to clear 810 rows to proceed, and the dark green blocks were challenging to discern against other levels.
The number of record-breaking attempts that were halted due to crashes in Tetris at higher levels is significant. With the modified software code, the number of obstacles faced by "dogplayingtetris" decreased significantly, allowing him to progress further in the game.
