Gaming record: First person completes Tetris

A New York teenager became the first person to play the video game “Tetris” completely – and then returned to the starting level. However, he uses an adapted version that offers the same gaming experience, but crashes less often and also contains fewer programming errors or works around them.

The 16-year-old, who works under the pseudonym “dogplayingtetris,” needed a good 80 minutes to get past the final level of 255 in a live stream on the Twitch platform. To do this, he uses the classic version of the game, i.e. the version for the Nintendo NES game console released in the mid-1980s.

The counter then jumped to level 0. In the second run he made it again to level 91. Important limitation compared to many previous record attempts: He played with a modified version that prevents the crashes that Tetris is notorious for at higher levels.

“Tetris” with its blocks of different shapes falling from above is a classic. The game also became popular because it was included with the first widespread portable game console, the Gameboy. The goal is to push the blocks to the left or right so that there are no gaps. Full rows disappear, incomplete rows remain and finally clog the screen: Game Over.

For decades it was considered almost impossible to get past level 29, where the blocks fell so quickly that normal button movements were no longer fast enough. But in recent years, players have developed techniques with names like “hypertapping” and “rolling,” in which experts press the controller’s buttons or roll their fingers extremely quickly.

This made it possible to get well above level 29 – but then it turned out that even bigger problems arose later. For example, in the levels after 138, where the blocks sometimes have unusual color patterns, which sometimes make them difficult to recognize. From level 155 onwards, the probability that the game will crash when dismantling entire rows increases. That halted previous record-breaking runs, such as that of the 13-year-old player with the pseudonym “BlueScuti,” who crashed “Tetris” to level 157 in January.

For 16-year-old “dogplayingtetris,” the “Tetris” software code was now adapted so that he didn’t have to worry about this risk of crashing. However, the game still offered challenges for him: at level 235 you have to complete 810 rows in order to progress. In addition, the dark green blocks are harder to see than in other levels.