Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Culture

Somebody finally beat Tetris for the first time ever (but no one has ever won these super hard games)

Long live the king of Tetris, a 13-year-old

Mark Stock
By
Tetris
Wallpaperflare

They said it couldn’t be done — a teenager from Oklahoma has beaten Tetris more than three decades after the iconic game was invented. What’s more, he did it in under an hour, which is a fantastic feat for a game that’s challenged players for generations (don’t worry, there are other records to break, if interested).

To put it in perspective, Tetris was invented in 1985. After some acquisition battles, Nintendo released the game to the American audience in 1988. The victor, Willis Gibson, is 13. That means he was born 23 years after the game was released here. So why has it taken so long to triumph over this colorful and geometric puzzle game?

Recommended Videos

Anybody who’s played knows just how quickly things get tricky. One minute, you’re coasting through a slow level. The next thing you know, the pieces are falling like a downpour, and your base stack is swelling. If you don’t have a quick reaction time, you’re not going to make it very far. Cue the game over music.

Related

Green essentially outsmarted the game in record time. He reached lever 157 in just over a half-hour, only to beat the game at the final kill screen. While pretty advanced for its age, Tetris could keep up with the teen’s speedy play and reached the end of its coding. In the end, he beat the game in 39 minutes. According to NPR, the only other players to get this far were, well, not humans (it was the work of AI).

Tetris is one of the most popular games ever, having sold more than 500 million copies across the globe. One can take a huge deep dive into why the game is so challenging. The relative simplicity of the levels — from a programming standpoint — allows for many, many of them. So much so that a lot of big-time players have waxed theoretical about being able to play the game forever; every few years, an ultimate gamer would come along, reaching some new distant level but never beating the game.

For those who don’t know, in Tetris, pieces fall from the sky. It’s the gamer’s role to place them at the base accordingly, finding slots where they may fit so as to eliminate rows and keep the pile from stacking up. When it climbs all the way to the top of the screen, it is game over. Each level presents a slightly faster drop, so much so that by the time you reach distant levels, the only real way to keep up is to use your fingers to vibrate the controller buttons (or see into the future).

We may never know Green’s high score as, again, he pretty much broke the system. It read 999,999 before the game crashed.

retro video game consoles

Hardest games in the world

Most games get beaten in a much quicker timeframe. However, there are a few lingering games that, allegedly, we’ve yet to conquer. It’s all pretty unofficial, as gamers tend to be pretty private, but the following games have apparently not been overcome (at least not yet).

Bubble Bubble Revolution

This arcade game came out in 2005 and has still yet to be beaten. Perhaps it’s a software bug; perhaps nobody has the chops to slay the game.

TMNT

Some versions of this game have been beaten, but the DOS and Amiga versions are still waiting on a champ. Even the NES version was incredibly hard, so much so that a cheat was often employed to reach the end.

Dr. Mario

Another game deemed unbeatable, Dr. Mario for Gameboy, came out in 1990. Looking back, it’s weirdly prophetic, a puzzle game about minimizing the spread of a virus.

Tales of Eternia

This PlayStation game came out in the U.S. in 2001 and is a fantasy play with role-playing. It seems people on Reddit are still trying to figure out how to conquer the game.

Tetris

To beat a game

Green will not become rich from this endeavor, but he’ll get some serious street cred in the gaming circuit. While he’s taken in some dough from past Tetris tournaments, the real prize in beating the game is respect from peers and perhaps a few related endorsements down the line. And at such a young age, he will almost certainly break some other gaming records down the line. But for now, can you top his 39-minute miracle?

Into games? Check out our feature on Grand Theft Auto and five new exciting video games. Also, we’ve found deals on Nintendo Switch as well as the five best arcade bars in America. That should keep you entertained.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mark Stock
Mark Stock
Contributor
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
The best poetry books: You owe it to yourself to read these
Haven't read poetry since high school? These are the best poetry books to get your mind back in the mood
Man reading a book.

If you're like most people these days, if asked what the best poetry books are out there right now, or were asked for a recommendation, you'd have absolutely no clue what to say. But you used to. Think about it. "What do we read to our children every night?" asked Derek Sheffield, Poetry Editor of Terrain.org (and author of the collection of poetry
Not for Luck
). Right. Nursery rhymes. Which is just another name for poetry for kids.

And maybe you don't think of poetry as important in our era, given the news cycle blur, social platforms aplenty, our personal daily grinds, and the explosion of media of all types. But how do humans mark our major moments? "We still turn to poetry at the moments of greatest personal and cultural significance," said Sheffield. We rely on carefully crafted words to make sense of life.

Read more
9 classic horror movies you need to know – The Exorcist, Psycho, and more
If you're a fan of the classics, then classic horror should be on your list, including these films
Horror movie scene watching at home

Things can be pretty scary with everything that's currently happening in the world, and we're all looking for some sort of distraction to get our minds off it, even just for a little while. Instead of doomscrolling social media, why not get scared about something outrageous as opposed to something all too real?
Horror movies aren't simple, escapist fare, though. In fact, they are pretty inscrutable: Character motivations rarely make much sense, and what are those monsters even doing anyway? What media scholars call "intertextuality" -- how works of art refer to other works of art to give them meaning in specific contexts -- is important for understanding horror, in that some of these movies simply don’t make sense unless you’ve seen the ones that came before them.
If that’s the case: What are the movies you have to watch for more modern films to be legible? We’ve put together a list of the most essential horror movies ever made and justifications for their cultural relevance. Get ready to scream.

The Shining (1980)

Read more
Best Lego deals: Star Wars, Marvel, Technics and more starting at $8
Person assembling a LEGO Ideas 21319 Central Perk Building kit.

When it comes to franchise merchandise, Lego sets are probably the most fun because you get to assemble them yourself. There are a lot of options out there, from the best Lego sets for adults to the best Lego car sets; you can probably find something out there that really speaks to you. That said, Lego sets can be quite expensive, which is why we've done a bit of bargain hunting for you and discovered some of the best deals out there. That way, you can focus on buying the sets you find coolest rather than struggling to find something that fits in your budget.
Star Wars Boba Fett's Starship Microfighter -- $8, was $10
 

If you do want to introduce your kids, nieces, or nephews to Lego, then going with one of these easier mini kits is a good idea, and if they're big fans of Star Wars, then you can't go wrong with the Boba Fett Microfighter.  It comes in 85 pieces, which should be easy for most kids over the age of six, so it can reach a wide audience. Even better, it has two flick shooters, which is always a massive hit with kids who love a bit of (harmless) destruction, so they'll enjoy playing with it as much as building it. Also worth mentioning is that you could always combine it with a bunch of other kits if you want, so you can always build a fun collection over time.

Read more