The Tetris World Record: Reaching Level 157 and the Game Crash

TLDR; A Tetris player sets a world record by reaching level 157 and triggering a game crash, marking a turning point in the Tetris community's record chase and leading to new challenges and possibilities for the game.

🎮 The Unbeatable Barrier

Willis sets a new world record by reaching level 157 in Tetris, triggering a game crash, and achieving the biggest milestone in 34 years of Tetris history.

The game's goal is to assemble falling blocks to clear complete lines, with the fastest speed reached at level 29.

Thor Aackerlund was the first to reach level 30 using a technique called hypertapping.

🏆 Breaking Records

Joseph Saelee broke the level world record by reaching level 31, leading to a progression of world records up to level 95 by EricICX.

The introduction of the rolling technique significantly advanced the game's progress.

🌟 Game-Changing Techniques

The rolling technique, invented by a player named cheez, allowed players to reach button mashing speeds over twice as fast as the quickest hypertappers.

This technique led to a flurry of new records in the Tetris community.

🌈 Color Glitches and Challenges

The game experiences color glitches beyond level 138, making it difficult for players to see and progress further.

Efforts were made to reach glitched colors, with EricICX achieving it in a tournament match and reaching level 146.

⚙️ The True Killscreen

At very high levels, the game's code becomes inefficient, leading to a glitch where the game switches from reading instructions from the code to reading the RAM as if it were code, ultimately leading to the true killscreen.

🎯 Race to the Crash

Players, including Blue Scuti and Fractal, aimed to reach the game crash, with Blue Scuti setting a new level world record and coming close to triggering the crash.

🔬 New Milestone and Challenges

Efforts were made to avoid the game crash, leading to the construction of tool-assisted speedruns (TASes) to simulate avoiding potential crash triggers.

The ultimate challenge would be to beat level 255, representing a new milestone for the game.

👾 Rebirth Screen

Beating level 255 would signify the rebirth screen, where both the player and the game emerge triumphant together, representing the ultimate final achievement of the original game.

🌠 Future Possibilities

The game crash has opened up new possibilities for the Tetris community, with players considering speedrunning the crash, going for efficient game crashes, and exploring new challenges in the game.