"Rebirth: Beat all 255 Tetris levels for the first time
A 16-year-old has managed to get through all 255 levels of Tetris – and thus achieved "rebirth". After that, it starts all over again.
Shortly before success: "dogplayingtetris" at the last lines of level 255
A new milestone in the world of Tetris: after the original NES version was played to the point of crashing for the first time at the end of last year, someone has now survived all 255 for the first time. The 16-year-old streamer Michael "dogplayingtetris" Artiaga achieved this feat in a livestream documented on YouTube.
It took "dogplayingtetris" 80 minutes to complete the "Rebirth" – this is the point at which level 255 is defeated and the game switches back to level 0. Artiaga then continued to play before the game finally ended with a score of 29,486,164 points.
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Modified version of Tetris
According to a report by Ars Technica, Artiaga was playing a modified version of Tetris that does not crash at certain levels. In the original NES version, these crashes end the successful run of professional players under most circumstances: In this version, there are various triggers that can trigger a game crash or "kill screen". In addition to certain conditions, they all require a particularly long playing time: The first crash trigger is at level 155.
In the modified version, it is somewhat easier to play beyond this point. A particular challenge in the modified Tetris version is level 235, which displays blocks in dark green. This makes them difficult to distinguish from the background. According to Ars Technica, Artiaga became the first Tetris player to beat this level in May.
Last December, player Willis "Blue Scuti" Gibson managed to play the original NES version of the classic game until it crashed for the first time. The 13-year-old American is the first person to achieve this – Previously, only an AI had managed to play Tetris for so long. After his record, other Tetris pros also managed to play the classic game until it crashed.
Level 29 as the upper limit – that was once upon a time
For a long time, level 29 was considered the limit of what was possible in the original NES version of Tetris – the falling stones simply moved too fast for the NES controller to be able to counteract them in time. In 2011, a Tetris player managed to reach level 30 for the first time with small and fast vibration movements of his fingers. This world record at the time moved slowly until players discovered a new way of making even faster inputs on the NES controller.
This is a technique known as "rolling", which is demonstrated in the video by scene Youtuber David "aGameScout" Macdonald. Players place the fingers of one hand on the buttons of the NES gamepad and "drum" the controller from below with the fingers of the second hand to press the buttons against the second hand and thus trigger inputs. According to Macdonald, this new input method allows up to 20 inputs per second and quickly set records, enabling players to get close to records previously only achieved by AI.
(dahe)