Why it issues: Aggressive Tetris has existed for many years, however the evolution {of professional} play has accelerated dramatically lately. Simply 9 months after a 13-year-old turned the primary particular person to “beat” the sport, Tetris champions are discovering extra methods to achieve its theoretical endpoints and hit once-unimaginable milestones.
A two-time Tetris world champion not too long ago turned the primary particular person, with out machine help, to activate limitless play by finishing stage 255 within the NES model, inflicting the sport to restart at stage 0. This accomplishment considerably raises the theoretical limits for high scores.
The feat took 16-year-old Michael “dogplayingtetris” Artiaga round an hour and 40 minutes, throughout which he cleared 3,300 traces. After celebrating, he continued for one more 40 minutes till his run ended at stage 91, setting a brand new file rating of 29.4 million factors.
35 years after its launch, @dogplayingtris simply turned the primary particular person to get the NES Tetris rebirth. He made all of it the best way to stage 255, then the sport wrapped round and restarted from stage 0. pic.twitter.com/Igwa2fIrmJ
– SummoningSalt (@summoningsalt) October 6, 2024
Artiaga’s achievement wasn’t nearly taking part in till the sport restarted. It represents years of analysis and innovation by Tetris lovers.
From the NES model’s launch in 1988 till 2011, it was believed that clearing stage 29 was unattainable as a result of the controller’s directional pad could not transfer the blocks quick sufficient. However new button-pressing methods finally allowed gamers to shoot previous stage 100, revealing cracks within the recreation’s code – by no means designed to deal with play past stage 29.
Past stage 138, glitched shade schemes typically make blocks troublesome to see, and the sport turns into extremely crash-prone after stage 155. With assist from AI instruments, Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson reached a “killscreen” crash in January, changing into the primary human to “beat” the sport.
The one caveat in Artiaga’s run is that he used a patched “crash-resistant” model of the sport. Nonetheless, NES Tetris’s crumbling codebase hid one other impediment – the degrees began getting longer.
Any Tetris participant understands that every stage lasts 10 traces, so 255 ranges should not add as much as 3,300 traces. Nonetheless, after stage 219, the sport can not precisely observe the participant’s progress, and the discrepancy lengthens subsequent ranges. This error and the colour glitch finally culminated in stage 235, the place Artiaga spent round 20 minutes clearing over 800 traces of practically invisible blocks.
Excessive-score contests have seemingly entered a brand new part, as skilled gamers can theoretically play patched variations indefinitely. Nonetheless, some will proceed to discover whether or not a human participant can dodge the various potential crash factors and obtain “rebirth,” because the post-255 loop known as, on an unmodified model of the sport.
