It’s the game I’ve spent the most time playing in my life and, oddly enough, the one I’ve had the most communal experience with. My friends, family and I never really paid attention to points. We were always gunning for the most lines. Unless there was a tie, of course, then points came into play.
Those of us who were better at the game did try to build as many Tetrises (Tetri? Tetresisis?) as we could, especially early on. I think my friend Ryan and I were the only people I knew who ever cracked 200 lines. I did it twice, peaking at 205. Not sure what the most points I ever accumulated in a single game was, but apparently the number may as well equate to zero to a professional. I might have played varsity ball, but those in the majors are playing a whole different game.
The new record, as of a month about, is about 40 million points, beating the previous by over 10 million. By the game’s end, the player had accumulated 4,479 lines.
If you watched even a portion of the video, you likely noticed how these players are playing: they rest a finger on the D-Pad, “drumming” the fingers of their other hand across the back of the controller. Each hit bumps the pad up into that resting finger, making a separate button press. It’s much faster than tapping with one thumb, so they can shove pieces across the screen even at speeds most humans would find ridiculous. This technique was invented by a man named “Cheez_Fish” Martinez.
So it goes.
And just an FYI, at level 255, the pieces slow down to level 0 speeds again.
Jason Kottke wrote of this innovation in 2021:
“This is a great illustration of innovation in action. There’s a clearly new invention, based on prior effort (standing on the shoulders of giants), that allows for greater capabilities and, though it’s still too early to tell in this case, seems likely to shift power to people who utilize it. And it all takes place inside a small and contained world where we can easily observe the effects.”
Since then, from what I can tell, the record has been broken fifteen more times.
Allegedly, one should consider playing Tetris following a traumatic event:
“Memory of a traumatic event becomes consolidated within hours. Intrusive memories can then flash back repeatedly into the mind’s eye and cause distress. We investigated whether reconsolidation—the process during which memories become malleable when recalled—can be blocked using a cognitive task and whether such an approach can reduce these unbidden intrusions. We predicted that reconsolidation of a reactivated visual memory of experimental trauma could be disrupted by engaging in a visuospatial task that would compete for visual working memory resources. We showed that intrusive memories were virtually abolished by playing the computer game Tetris following a memory-reactivation task 24 hr after initial exposure to experimental trauma. Furthermore, both memory reactivation and playing Tetris were required to reduce subsequent intrusions consistent with reconsolidation-update mechanisms. A simple, noninvasive cognitive-task procedure administered after emotional memory has already consolidated (i.e., > 24 hours after exposure to experimental trauma) may prevent the recurrence of intrusive memories of those emotional events.”
This was not a tral not a trial that treated those with real trauma or diagnosed PTSD, mind you.
I actually haven’t actually played good old fashioned Tetris on an NES or Game Boy in at least a decade, but during the lockdowns I became quite obsessed with Tetris Effect. It’s an old game at this point, but I would recommend to anyone that’s never played.
I’ll never break any records, but one day I’d love to play Tetris on a plastic McNugget.