Tetris limits surpassed by 13-year-old boy

A 13-year-old named Willis Gibson, also known as Blue Scuti, has achieved a remarkable feat by becoming the first person to reach the technical limits of the classic puzzle game Tetris. This breakthrough happened during a live stream on December 21, where Gibson encountered Tetris’s elusive “kill screen,” causing the game to crash on level 157 of the Nintendo Entertainment System version.

Traditionally, Tetris was thought to have its highest achievable level at Level 29 since its design by Soviet engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. At this point, the game’s iconic blocks fall at a speed that makes it difficult for players to maneuver them to the sides, leading to a rapid stack-up and game-over.

However, a “kill screen” occurs when a player progresses so far in a game that it crashes due to a glitch in its code.

This is distinct from reaching Level 29, and professional gamer Thor Aackerlund initiated the quest for Tetris’ kill screen in 2010 by discovering a way to reach Level 30 using a technique called “hypertapping.”

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Over the years, players developed various techniques, with some reaching Level 148 by November 2023. Notably, an AI called StackRabbit found that a modified version of the game crashed at Level 237 after completing more than 3,100 lines. Research later revealed that the kill screen could be triggered on the unmodified version at Level 155.

During Gibson’s attempt in December, he missed a crucial move that would have triggered the glitch but continued playing, ultimately reaching Levels 156 and then 157. In a remarkable turn of events, he triggered the glitch after completing 1,511 lines during his play-through of Level 157.

YouTube channel aGameScout stated that “This was the first time ever where instead of the game beating the player, the player had beaten the game.”