When have you completed a game completely? When you’ve completed the story and gotten all the achievements? The original game Tetris, released in 1989 on the NES console, ‘ends’ as soon as the computer can no longer handle it. The blocks then fall so quickly that the console’s 32 KB of RAM becomes too full. The game starts to stutter, the blocks start to look strange and eventually the screen freezes.
Game over!
It had already been possible for an AI player to reach that end, but flesh-and-blood humans were not quick enough. Until the end of 2023: 13-year-old American Willis Gibson became the first person ever to crash Tetris. That happened when he reached level 157, after 38 minutes of furiously pressing buttons.
In the video below you can see Gibson in action, immediately after his performance he says: ‘I can’t feel my fingers anymore’.
Even shorter:
- Playing outside? Think again! The teenager has indicated that he now wants to become the best in Super Mario Bros.
- The day after his achievement, Gibson was congratulated by video from Alexey Pajitnov, the Russian creator of Tetris.
- There are still records to be set: the final screen should already be reachable at level 155.
Willis is far from the only teenager immersed in gaming. Is it healthy for your brain? And do computer games make you aggressive?
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