An American teenager has become the first human to beat the classic computer game Tetrisforcing him to create a failure that ends the game, in a feat so far only achieved by artificial intelligence.
Willis Gibson, a 13-year-old gamer known as “Blue Scooty,” managed to reach the “death screen” of Nintendo’s version of the famous “puzzle,” while other players followed his progress online.
“Oh My God!” Willis shouted repeatedly toward the end of a more than 40-minute video posted on YouTube this week.
A news anchor called out a 13-year-old after he downplayed his achievement of beating Tetris, telling him to “get out” and that beating the game is “not a life goal.”pic.twitter.com/1GsnWJksP3
— Dexerto (@dexerto) January 4, 2024
“I can’t feel my fingers,” He said breathlessly.
That excitement contrasted with the previous 35 minutes of play, in which the Oklahoma teenager remained nearly motionless as he quickly slid his fingers across the controller.
“No human has ever done it before,” said Classic Tetris World Championship president Vince Clements, according to The New York Times. “It’s basically something that everyone thought was impossible until a few years ago.”
Addictive game
The brainchild of a Soviet software engineer, Tetris is a simple but highly addictive game in which players must rotate and manipulate falling blocks of various shapes to fit together and form solid lines within boxes.
Once a line (or two, three or four) is formed, it disappears, leaving more space – and time – to mix up the next blocks.
The pieces decrease rapidly as the player progresses through the levels until reaching level 29, which was long considered the end of the game and the point at which the figures move too fast for human reaction.
For some time, gamers know that there is a point where the code fails and the game stops, but only one other computer is able to reach it.
All this until December 21, when Willis was at level 157 and replaced him with a piece that made the line of blocks disappear and freeze the game.
Tetris CEO Maya Rogers joined the celebration, telling the exclusive portal popsci.com that it was a worthy achievement ahead of the video game’s 40th anniversary in 2024.
“Congratulations to ‘Blue Scooty’ for achieving this extraordinary feat, a feat that defies all preconceived limitations of this legendary sport,” he said in a statement.
hg/dw/arm/mel
You may also be interested in | on video
Super Mario Bros. Celebrating 35 years of innovative mechanics and nostalgia
(TagsToTranslate)Tetris
