Previously only bots and AI had got game to its ‘kill screen’ but Willis Gibson managed to get game to freeze with score 999999

Previously only bots and AI had got game to its ‘kill screen’ but Willis Gibson managed to get game to freeze with score 999999

A 13-year-old in Oklahoma is believed to be the first person ever to beat Tetris since the game’s release more than three decades ago.

Previously, only bots powered by artificial intelligence had forced the game, first released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), to its “kill screen”, where its signature blocks are falling so fast that the game itself can’t continue. In a video documenting his feat and posted on Tuesday, the Oklahoma teenager, known as Blue Scuti online and by his legal name, Willis Gibson, plays for roughly 38 minutes and reaches level 157 before saying, “Oh, I missed it,” believing that a misplaced block scuttled his attempt.

But he recovers, and as blocks zip downward, he says, “Please crash,” and completes another line of blocks, the mechanism for scoring points in Tetris. The game freezes, the de facto victory, and he says: “Oh my God! Yes! I’m going to pass out. I can’t feel my hands.” His score read “999999”.

  • notsorryforpartyingEnglish
    57•4 months ago

    Actually back in the day, my friend’s neighbor’s second cousin from a different school already did it

    • @LifeInOregon
      27•4 months ago

      Yeah. He went to that other school with my girlfriend in Canada. My uncle who worked for Nintendo knows all about it.

  • @legostepper
    28•4 months ago

    I thought the “oh I missed it” was about him missing the earlier kill-screen trigger on level 155, before triggering it on 157.

    • cheerEnglish
      12•4 months ago

      You’re right. He was supposed to just clear 1 line for that level but instead cleared 3.

  • @[email protected]
    26•4 months ago

    The next challenges are to get to the kill screen faster, or reach the reset at level 255 by avoiding all kill screens, which requires immense skill, but is possible.

  • @xc2215x
    6•4 months ago

    Good for them. Impressive.

  • @[email protected]
    1•24 days ago

    That’s so cool! I love that people are still so devoted to games like Nintendo’s Tetris.

    Every time I knew super Mario 64 speedrun comes out or something significant is different. I end up watching whole thing through, like there’s that new rainbow run No carpet hack, just waiting to hear about whatever New world record snags that