Tenager claims to be first to beat Tetris

[Juan F. Ramirez]

"An Oklahoma teenager is believed to have become the first human player to beat Nintendo's classic video game Tetris, 34 years after its release.

Willis Gibson posted a video on his YouTube channel of the moment he reached level 157, causing the game to crash"

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67871775

[equinox]

OK LET ME RUIN CHRISTMAS HERE

1. You can't "beat" Tetris. He has allegedly reached a "kill screen" (like we are familiar with from Pac-Man).
2. "Nintendo's classic video game Tetris" is an awful remark. Give Alexei Pajitnov a kiss. Or Mirrorsoft. Or whatever else you can invent. Nintendo has done lots of great work but this one didn't originate there.
3. There are huge Nintendo emulator scenes so if this was possible I'm sure they would have worked it out long ago. <-- THIS is the killer point

anyway well done kid, you wasted half your life and hurt your fingers, you are an honorary programmer

I used to enjoy playing the Czech game (by Fuxoft, or Frantisek Fuka) "TETRIS 2" with my sister. That was fun times. Once we had grown out of Bubble Bobble.

[ParadigmShifter]

NES version is considered the classic version though (even though it didn't have stuff like buckets for pieces so you get all pieces in a jumbled up order before it picks new pieces from the bucket - which is now "official" rules).

Mirrorsoft's "deal" for 8-bit micro versions was pretty shady IIRC?

Also the rules of the game weren't really written in stone at that point so conversions could wing it/do what they wanted e.g. rotating/sliding pieces after they collide with something etc. could vary. The NES version is considered the "classic" implementation though.

Article says AI managed to reach that level (so it was known about previously) but he is first human to do so so kudos to him.

As the article says previously level 29 was considered impossible for humans to pass but they managed that a while ago with hypertapping.

I'm sure more modern official versions won't crash on that level, maybe he should try some of those next.

The classic Tetris world championships are played on the NES anyway.

EDIT: SJOE is obvs more fun than Tetris anyway since it also has piece rotation but adds the cascading clears from Columns And I got to wave 31 once - without hypertapping or even pausing! [/s]

[equinox]

Mirrorsoft's "deal" for 8-bit micro versions was pretty shady IIRC?

Don't know how true it is (nobody does?) but it was USSR times so there may have been a bit of double-flogging. arf!

[ParadigmShifter]

There's a good documentary about it and I seem to recall Mirrorsoft doing some shady stuff unlike Nintendo.

One of the guys involved did some kind of murder/suicide thing, so was a dick obvs.

EDIT: Double murder, wife and son, what a Bas**rd.

Documentary is here anyway

[equinox]

i'm cracking up that you edited your text to amend the bastardness of the murder suicide. A really bad one would be Klax.

In about 2003 when I first had to learn C# and .NET, my "hello world" was Tetris (in Windows Forms). Anybody want it? I dunno if I can even compile it any more. The Speccy relevance is that I took the 99 challenge levels out of Fuxoft's "Tetris II" on the Spectrum, and put them into my Eqtris. Anyone who has a morbid love of ancient Windows games may contact me for the exe file. In fact you can have source code since it's 20 years old and was awful to start with. We only embarrass ourselves. At least I did a good GUI.

hmm I do miss playing thta stupid game with my sister.

[akeley]

Tetris is definitely not a "Nintendo game", no matter how "classic" the NES version is.

[TMD2003]

I used to enjoy playing the Czech game (by Fuxoft, or Frantisek Fuka) "TETRIS 2" with my sister. That was fun times. Once we had grown out of Bubble Bobble.

I had to look it up to see if Tetris 2 ever had a release here. You had the Outlet disc with it on, right?

[equinox]

I had to look it up to see if Tetris 2 ever had a release here. You had the Outlet disc with it on, right?

No. I was never an Outlet subscriber but I got most of the good stuff on the nudge-wink network. (Oh hell it was Miles Kinloch. He copied them for me. If the Outlet guys are still alive I will consider paying them.)

I got a lot of Czech stuff (Proxima etc.) from somewhere, I can't recall. May have been PROXIMity to the demoscene. I remember thinking "Kliatba Noci" was absolutely ace (it is) but having no idea how to play it. And also getting various Czech puzzle games, there was that strange 3D Sokoban, and the molecule one that I think was based off the Amiga. The best Czech Spectrum game is of course TOWDIE (it's Czech Dizzy), extremely fun and cool.

When I writ my Tetris experiment on the PC, I was able to find Mr Frantisek Fuka's actual web site (he's well known in his own country) and he gave me permission to use the Tetris 2 challenge levels. So I did.

[equinox]

P.S. Has anyone managed to play 8- or 16-bit two player games consistently over HTTP? I know about 10-15 years ago I had a way to play Super Mario on the SNES with my mate -- it lagged a bit but we would swap over, every life lost. It was really fun. Yet the other day I tried to get Sonic 1 working with somebody and it wasn't happening. I don't want to change my ****ing firewall. Why is this not easy in 2024?
love,
a guy who has installed SQL Server
but misses Tetris II

[TMD2003]

I got a lot of Czech stuff (Proxima etc.) from somewhere, I can't recall. May have been PROXIMity to the demoscene. I remember thinking "Kliatba Noci" was absolutely ace (it is) but having no idea how to play it. And also getting various Czech puzzle games, there was that strange 3D Sokoban, and the molecule one that I think was based off the Amiga.

Do elaborate on that last one.

When I writ my Tetris experiment on the PC, I was able to find Mr Frantisek Fuka's actual web site (he's well known in his own country) and he gave me permission to use the Tetris 2 challenge levels. So I did.

I found his Wikipedia page a while back. It was something of a surprise (a) seeing it in English and (b) him being there in the first place, on the grounds that I didn't think a non-UK Spectrum programmer would ever have "met the guidelines for notability".

Wikipedia is a strange place. I can think of three people I was at university with who have Wikipedia pages:
Exhibit A was at the same college as me and her three years there coincided with the later three of mine, and we never exchanged a single word (on the grounds that I actually had work to do and she didn't);
Exhibit B - those of us who gathered in The Alma in the evening to drink beer and worship Iron Maiden regularly had to listen to his rants about Tony Benn and the Tolpuddle Martyrs (and apparently he did the complete opposite to the Labour party gatherings);
Exhibit C, who nobody outside the realms of academic botany or the Cambridge goth scene (who I kept at arm's length) would ever have encountered, she just happens to have the same name as Vladimir Putin's daughter (which might be a problem now...), and is probably also right on the edge of "meeting the guidelines for notability".

Maybe one day it'll be one of us...

[equinox]

Do elaborate on that last one.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/x-list?text=hexxago

I can think of three people I was at university with who have Wikipedia pages:

I'm the #1 Wiktionary editor by volume (excluding bots). You didn't think I spent all day here.

[RWAC]

The gameboy version is the best. I don't know why, it just feels right.

[equinox]

The gameboy version is the best. I don't know why, it just feels right.

It's the kind of thing you want in your pocket.

I personally really enjoy those early GB games like "Batman" and "Super Mario Land". Possibly because they really look and sound like Speccy games with a shot in the arm. (And it's not fair because they have so much less screen to scroll.) We know there's a Z80 in there. And in my washing-machine.

[equinox]

I found his Wikipedia page a while back. It was something of a surprise (a) seeing it in English

Apparently "my" picture in the "demoscene" is also me looking extremely pissed in Yerzmyey's kitchen.
lol. I'm like "there's proabbly a picture of me pissed in Slovakia... or Bracknell"

As it happens my good good friend is likely to move "back" from North America to Serbia (THAT IS VERY DEMOSCENE) so I dug up some pictures, arf, arf. Anyway yes I will certainly go see somebody in south Europe, that's much easier than bloody 8 hours on an aeroplane.
TMD if you have any judgmental feelings and/or requirements about trad Europe then you know whom to call. (Ghostbusters)

[AndyC]

NES version is considered the classic version though (even though it didn't have stuff like buckets for pieces so you get all pieces in a jumbled up order before it picks new pieces from the bucket - which is now "official" rules).

Hmm, I'd say the Gameboy version was considered the classic version, but there you go.

TAS based speedruns have actually "beaten" the NES version, by reaching the point where the level counter rolls over back to 0. It's not as interesting though, because the real skill is being able to physically control Tetris at the top speeds.

Calling it "complete" is a bit nuts, but fair play to the lad he's insanely good at the game.

[TMD2003]

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/x-list?text=hexxago

Gotcha. I have seen that one, though the mention of "molecule" made me think you meant there was some kind of Exploding Atoms game for the Spectrum before Gouldfish Games did so circa 2018. Easily the best implementation of this was on the Atari ST in 1992.

[TakuikaNinja]

To be honest, the tabloid media coverage is pretty lame as always. Go watch the detailed explanation videos from people who actually know what they're talking about:

[mjwilson]

1. You can't "beat" Tetris. He has allegedly reached a "kill screen" (like we are familiar with from Pac-Man).

I am going to disagree here I think, he played so well that he broke the game. Maybe there's no technical definition of beating Tetris but informally I think it's a perfectly reasonable description of what happened.

Or, to steal a comment from hackernews,

The game is man vs machine. The machine fills the space with blocks; the human clears space for the blocks. The machine wins when the human fails to make room for the next block. The human wins when the machine fails to deliver the next block.

[equinox]

Or, to steal a comment from hackernews,
The game is man vs machine. The machine fills the space with blocks; the human clears space for the blocks. The machine wins when the human fails to make room for the next block. The human wins when the machine fails to deliver the next block.

Okay, fine, but the reason the human always wins is that he/she can unplug it

[akeley]

Since the main theme here is "obsessive", let me pedantically point out that apparently it's possible to reach level 255, so technically he didn't totally beat the game, "just" set a new milestone

I must admit I always have mixed feelings when I read these kind of stories (speedrunning Zelda in 13 seconds or playing Pacman for 2 days straight on one coin). On one hand pushing human ability and endurance to these levels is certainly impressive, but the flipside is that it also seems somewhat unhealthy, mostly mentally. Just hope this kid will get some other hobbies/life eventually.

[Nick]

I'd like to see this teenager try and beat JSW (the attic bug version).

[equinox]

I'd like to see this teenager try and beat JSW (the attic bug version).

I've said it before and I've said it again: we didn't use to talk about "beating" a game, but maybe winning or solving it. It's become so aggressive. Having online multiplayer with raging hormonal 13-year-olds hasn't helped much. Although I guess we were mostly raging hormonal 13-year-olds back when we played Bobble and Renegade -- we just knew that we couldn't use that language because Bob's* mum would send us home with a flea in the ear.
Also the big baddie at the end wasn't your BOSS (from work) but the GUARDIAN (typo-strewn newspaper).
Anyway indeed, I watched a (harmless but racist) 1930s Charlie Chan detective film the other night, and as Chan would say: purpose of play JSW is not to beat JSW -- but JSW to beat you. AH!

* Bob = Robert from school. Not the blue bubble dragon, although he did also dislike your swearing.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

https://syzito.xyz/@selzero/111711233097295779