The 13-year-old gamer Willis Gibson recently became the first person to ever “beat” the NES version of Tetris. While it has no win condition, the game breaks down at high levels, eventually crashing. Willis, known as “blue scuti,” is the first human player ever to reach that point.
Tetris player finally reaches NES version’s kill screen
As AP reported, Willis hit Tetris’ kill screen on Level 157, well past the point it was designed for. At level 29, the blocks start falling faster than the game processes controller inputs. It took until 2011 for a player to hit level 30, and players wouldn’t reach Level 95 until 2022. At level 138, the game starts throwing unusual color combinations at the player. This, combined with the amount of time it takes to get there, created another obstacle in the decades-long quest.
Fans could only make progress with the help of an AI called StackRabbit. It pushed a modified version of Tetris all the way up to Level 237, where the game finally hit a kill screen. The AI allowed players to map out all possible scenarios that could cause Tetris to crash.
This project inspired Willis to make his attempt, though even he was shocked to finally break it at level 157 on December 21. The teenage gamer almost passes out when it finally happens, hyperventilating and clutching his temples.
Tetris CEO Maya Rogers later congratulated Willis in a statement.
“Congratulations to ‘blue scuti’ for achieving this extraordinary accomplishment,” said Rogers, “a feat that defies all preconceived limits of this legendary game.”
