2024 will probably go down in gaming history as the year in which two groundbreaking milestones were achieved in Tetris. After one gamer “played through” the classic, another managed to get even further. WinFuture.de
The year began with Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson virtually playing through the original Tetris on the Nintendo NES console. It got to the point where the limited hardware combined with the software could no longer process the saved games. This was followed by strange discoloration of the game graphics and finally a complete crash, which means that the game is officially considered to have been completed. 16-year-old Michael “dogplayingtetris” Artiaga has now reached an even greater milestone in the classic NES Tetris. To do this, however, he had to use a slightly modified version of the original software, in which the code was adapted so that the infamous crashes no longer occur.
In an impressive live stream, Artiaga became the first player to exceed the legendary level limit of 255 and reset the game to the slow level 0 – a so-called “rebirth” that was previously considered almost impossible. After over 80 minutes of play and 3,300 rows cleared, Artiaga achieved this feat in front of hundreds of viewers on Twitch. Despite the exhaustion, he continued playing for 40 minutes and finally reached 4216 lines and a new record score of 29.4 million.
For a long time, it was considered impossible to overcome level 29, as the blocks at this stage fall so quickly that it is almost impossible to control them in time. But thanks to techniques like “hypertapping” and the even faster “rolling,” players are now able to control the blocks more precisely and continue playing beyond level 29. However, the game reaches technical limits at higher levels. Graphical errors appear from level 138, and from level 155 the risk of the game crashing due to calculation errors increases.
Artiaga also had to overcome the challenge of level 235, which, due to a programming error, lasts over 810 lines and is displayed in a hard-to-see shade of green. After 20 minutes of concentrated play, he was able to overcome this section and celebrated: “I saw the light”. Michael Artiaga, who has already won the world championship title in classic Tetris twice, said that this success is the biggest in his career so far.
Despite his enthusiasm, after the marathon game he said he never wanted to play Tetris again – at least for now. Whether anyone will be able to achieve a “double rebirth” or even longer play times remains to be seen. The year still has a few months ahead of it.
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