Thirty-four years after the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), a 13-year-old gamer broke through a longstanding barrier. Tetris, I beat the game for the first time since its release by achieving the infamous “kill screen” after a 40-minute playthrough. The teenager dedicated this feat to his father, who passed away a week ago.
ars technica report For over 30 years, the standard NES Tetris The game, released in 1989, ended with a block reaching the top of the screen, signaling game over.
But on December 21, 2023, 13-year-old gaming prodigy BlueScuti broke this 34-year streak by becoming the first person to reach the game's “kill screen.” In a game session that lasted 40 minutes and consisted of 1,511 lines, BlueScuti crashed the game beyond its functional limits.
For many years Tetris BlueScuti's accomplishment was all the more impressive because the community believed that exceeding approximately 290 lines would be nearly impossible for humans. Reach level 29 on NES Tetrisyou need to clear 230 to 290 lines depending on your starting level and the game is at its highest speed.
At this stage, traditional control methods were no longer effective, and players struggled to move their pieces to the edges of the screen. This usually causes the game to “top out” shortly after reaching this level. To break through this stage, players developed new playstyles and strategies such as “hyper tapping”. This is a method that requires a special grip that causes the finger to vibrate rapidly on the D-pad, allowing the player to move the pieces at a faster speed.
Prominent players such as Thor Aackerlund and Joseph Saelee have used hypertapping to achieve new milestones in the game. TetrisSaelee dominates the classics Tetris He competed in world championships in 2018 and 2019 and reached level 35 by 2020. EricICX reached level 38 using the hyper-tapping technique.
In 2021, a new technique was introduced called “rolling.” Inspired by arcade player Hector “Fly” Rodriguez. With this development, at level 29, players can now effectively manage their pieces even when the board is stacked up to eight rows. By August 2022, EricICX reached level 146 using the rolling technique.
BlueScuti's accomplishments are even more impressive considering the setbacks he faced during his paydays, including missing out on a guaranteed crash at level 155 and persevering through to level 157 with only a two-thirds chance of success. Blue Cutie dedicated this victory to his father, who passed away just a week ago.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News, covering free speech and online censorship issues.
