CNN
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A 13-year-old Oklahoma boy finally seems to have almost achieved his goal. Impossible: He won Tetris.
Willis Gibson is believed to be the first human gamer to reach level 157, nearly 40 years after the release of this classic video game.
“I feel like I’m going to pass out. I can’t feel my fingers,” Gibson said after his feat caused the game to suddenly crash. video It was posted on YouTube on Tuesday.
“When I started playing this game, I never expected the game to crash or even win,” Gibson wrote in the video’s description.
Gibson’s 38-minute viral video of the game, posted under his “Blue Scuti” screen name, only adds to the nostalgia for the addictive and enduring game. made by Soviet engineers It was popularized in 1984 with the Nintendo Entertainment System.
To date, over 200 official variants of Tetris have been released on at least 70 systems. world record According to Guinness World Records. The mobile version, developed by Electronic Arts and released in 2006, sold 100 million times, making it the third best-selling video game of all time, according to a magazine. Hewlett-Packard report last year.
From GameScout/Youtube
Screenshot of Willis Gibson’s record-breaking Tetris game livestream
The author himself says that he fell in love with this game as soon as he created it.
“I couldn’t stop playing this prototype version because combining shapes was so addictive,” Alexei Pajitnov told CNN in 2019.
After its creation, Tetris spread rapidly and has such enduring power that it transformed the story of its Cold War beginnings into a story. movie For Apple TV+ in March.
“It hooked us in an almost pristine state,” said Victor Lucas, a gaming expert on the TV series “Electric Playground.” “Frankly, it goes beyond video games like checkers or chess. It’s just one of a juggernaut of playing experiences that any human being can instantly understand and be hooked on forever.”
01:23 – Source: CNN
“Tetris” goes from game to movie
The game is simple. Manipulate and combine falling blocks of different shapes to create solid rows. As the level increases, the speed at which blocks fall increases.
Other video games today feature plot lines, hundreds of characters, cinematic visuals, and even travis scott live concertSome experts say Tetris’ simplicity is why it has remained popular for decades.
Tetris remains the same, Over the decades, the way it’s played has evolved. Until 2011, players believed that level 29 was the highest level possible, as it featured the game’s fastest speed.
“Games are so well designed and appeal to so many generations of gamers that people are literally finding new feats to accomplish,” video game expert and consultant Scott Steinberg told CNN. , discovering the scores to achieve and the challenges to overcome.” “It always presents many new challenges that even the masters find difficult to tackle.”
Tetris’ staying power stems not only from the game’s difficulty, but also from its simplicity.
Once the level 29 barrier was broken, players began to reach higher and higher levels in tournaments such as the Classic Tetris World Championship, using techniques such as “hypertapping” and “rolling.”
Gibson placed third at the 2023 World Championships. And while Mr. Gibson is a record-breaking human gamer, the AI playing Tetris manipulated his parameters in the game, allowing him to reach level 236 in 2021.
A game that’s simple, elegant, incredibly approachable, and fun for all ages and ages, even in an era when some video games “cost as much to make and look as good as many Hollywood movies” has more to say. context,” Scott Steinberg told CNN. “Sometimes simpler is better, and the best games stand the test of time.”