An American teenager mastered the video game “Tetris” for the first time

It is an event in the world of video games. After the game has captivated entire generations of players for forty years Tetris Finally, he found someone stronger than him: a 13-year-old American teenager.

On December 21, 2023, Willis Gibson became the first human to reach the end of this great Nintendo classic, in which the player must juggle blocks that fall at increasing speed, to form complete lines and make them disappear. This feat has so far only been accomplished through artificial intelligence.

In principle, the highly addictive puzzle game, developed by a Soviet engineer, has no real ending: when the machine can no longer continue, the screen suddenly freezes. This is what happened to the teenager, aka “ “Blue Scuti”, when he reached level 157, after thirty-eight minutes of effort.

” Oh, my God ““, the young man shouted when the game stopped, in a video of his game that he posted on YouTube. “I can't feel my fingers anymore”he breathes, overwhelmed with emotion.

“This has never happened to a human beforeAnd stressed The New York Times World Championship President TetrisVince Clemente. This is something that everyone thought was impossible until a few years ago. »

New technology for using the console

For a long time, level 29 was considered the limit Tetris, when the game becomes so fast that humans can no longer react fast enough. But, in recent years, a new generation of gamers has pushed the limits of what's possible by adopting “rolling” technology, which reinvents the way you use the controller on the NES console: it lets you use all your fingers instead of just one. Or two and significantly increases the frequency of stresses.

Willis Gibson, originally from Oklahoma, used this process to create his record, a few months before the game's 40th anniversary, which was released in June 1984. A feat that received widespread acclaim within the gaming community.

General Manager of TetrisMaya Rogers also congratulated the young player. “Congratulations to Blue Scuti on this extraordinary achievement that challenges all preconceptions of this legendary game.”she commented in a press release sent to Popsci.com.