A 16-year-old Texan is making video game history: He was the first to master all 255 levels of the classic Tetris. The record was streamed live on Twitch.
A 16-year-old Tetris player from Texas has made video game history. Michael Artiaga, known under the pseudonym “dogplayingtetris“, was the first person in the world to conquer all 255 levels of the cult classic Tetris. The teenager reached the historic milestone in an 80-minute live stream on the Twitch platform. The portal “Ars Technica” had previously reported on it.
The two-time world champion in classic Tetris made it to the so-called “rebirth”, the point at which the game starts again after level 255. After this round, Artiaga played another 40 minutes and achieved an impressive high score of 29,486,164 points. In total, he cleared 4,216 lines during his record attempt.
To set this record, Artiaga used a modified version of the game. This prevents crashes in higher levels that can occur in the original version. Despite this adjustment, the teenager had to overcome enormous technical hurdles.
In level 235, due to a programming error, the blocks are displayed in dark green and can hardly be distinguished from the black background. Artiaga was the first player ever to successfully complete this level.
For a long time it was considered impossible to get past level 29 in Tetris. The speed of the falling blocks seemed too fast for human reflexes. But the development of new gaming techniques such as “hypertapping” and “rolling” has pushed the boundaries of what is possible. These techniques allow the controller’s input buttons to be pressed up to 20 times per second. This allows players to control precisely even at extremely high speeds.
Artiaga’s achievement now represents another milestone. He has proven that it is possible to complete all programmed levels of Tetris. After his record, the exhausted teenager jokingly declared that he never wanted to play Tetris again – at least for now.