Miracle of „Rebirth” in Tetris Becomes a Reality. Player Finally Accomplishes a Feat That Seemed Impossible Without AI
Tetris was completed for the second time, this time by another impossible feat: „rebirth.” Along the way, youtuber Michael “dogplayingtetris” Artiaga broke other records.
Tetris was completed for the first time in history – or second time, depending on the interpretation. Michael "dogplayingtetris" Artiaga has reached the mythical "rebirth" in the iconic puzzle game as the first person in history.
For context: a year ago we reported on the feat of then thirteen-year-old Willis "Blue Scuti" Gibson. The American reached level 157, where the falling blocks' speed is so great that the game forcibly shuts down. Thus, he effectively finished Tetris... in one of the several theoretically possible ways.
Rebirth and several records 346 levels later
As we wrote on the occasion of that record, there is one more "ending" that fans know about. Similar to other games originating from 8-bit consoles, the code of Tetris has a maximum value of 255 (in practice 256, because 0 is also counted). This solution is responsible for, among other things, the chance that even 100% accurate attacks miss their target in the first generation of Pokemon, the maximum amount of Rupee in the first The Legend of Zelda, etc.
In the case of Tetris, similar to, among others, Pac-Man, this translates to the maximum number of levels. After reaching level 255 the game returns to the first level. Hence the colloquial term for this phenomenon as "rebirth".
Of course, this requires avoiding the "ending" reached by Blue Scuti, so dogplayingtetris had to play on a modified version of the game that can handle levels beyond 157. Artiaga finally ended the game after a "rebirth" and reaching level 91 for the second time, which de facto meant level 346.
As a side note, dog also set a new score record: 29,486,164 after 90 minutes of play. The previous best score was 16,248,080 points, which also gives the YouTuber, among other things, the record for the biggest point increase compared to the previous record holder.
Is crash dodge the next goal?
This doesn't mean Tetris fans have overcome the last impossible challenge. Youtuber Summoning Salt points out that even the original version, in theory, enable you to avoid the crash through the so-called crash dodge. In theory, because it requires you to "dodge" on almost every subsequent level from 157 to 255 to avoid the game forcibly shutting down.
Such a challenge almost certainly exceeds the capabilities of any human. Another thing is that the two previous "endings" also seemed to be beyond human reach. I'm sure there's a player out there who's crazy enough to at least try to get this Tetris trophy too.
