VOA新闻杂志2024--American Teenager Becomes First Human to Beat Video Game Tetris

American Teenager Becomes First Human to Beat Video Game Tetris

A 13-year-old American boy has become the first person ever to beat the popular video game Tetris.

The young gamer, Willis Gibson, completed 157 levels of Tetris before the game technically¹ surrendered.

Gamers call this kind of ending a "kill screen." The Tetris program had no more plays to make and so it crashed, freezing the video game.

Gibson lives in the Midwestern state of Oklahoma and goes by the gaming name "Blue Scuti." He can be heard repeatedly shouting "Oh my God" on a video recording² as he beat the game.

"I can't feel my fingers," Gibson says in the video.

Gaming experts had long considered Tetris unbeatable. This is partly because the video game does not have a clear ending point.

Tetris came out in 1984 and quickly became a worldwide favorite. Its creator, Alexey Pajitnov, was a computer programs engineer at the Russian Academy of Sciences in the former Soviet³ Union.

During the game, players move and join together seven different shapes of falling blocks. The goal is for players to fit the blocks together to form solid lines inside a box. The blocks fall faster as players progress through higher levels of the game.

On December 21, Gibson reached level 157 and dropped a final piece into place. This caused a single line of blocks to disappear and the game to enter a permanent freeze.

"This is unbelievable," Vince Clemente, CEO of Classic Tetris World Championship, told Reuters news agency. "Developers didn't think anyone would ever make it that far and now the game has officially been beaten by a human being." 

For some time, gamers have known Tetris would eventually reach an ending point and technically shut down. But in the past, only a computer program could force such a game-ending shut-down.

Other fans of the game were quick to share Gibson's excitement. Classic Tetris World Champion Justin Yu – who goes by the name fractal161 – declared in his own video, "He did it, he did it!"

Tetris chief executive⁴ Maya Rogers joined in the celebration. She said in a statement it was fitting⁵ Gibson had beat the game just ahead of 2024, when Tetris was entering its 40th anniversary.

"Congratulations to 'blue scuti,'" Rogers said. She added that the "extraordinary" event "defied⁶" any previous known limits of the game.

Gibson uses a "rolling" controller playing method popularized in 2021. It permits players to operate the controls in different ways to be able to keep playing longer to reach higher levels.

Words in This Story

defy⁷ – v. to do something considered very difficult or impossible

1 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

5 fitting   

n.[pl.]设备，家具，配件，试穿；adj.适合的

参考例句：

• I'm going to a fitting tomorrow.明天我要去试穿新衣。
• The President's address was a fitting end to a bitter campaign.总统的讲话为一场激烈的竞选运动适时画上了句号。

6 defied   

不服从( defy的过去式和过去分词 )； 公然反抗； 蔑视； 向…挑战

参考例句：

• He defied his opponents. 他公然反抗他的对手们。
• The vastness of space defied comprehension. 外层空间的茫茫无垠让人无法弄清其究竟。

7 defy   

vt.（公然）藐视，使成为不可能，挑，激

参考例句：

• If you defy the law,you may find yourself in prison.如果你不服从法律，你就可能会坐牢。
• Criminals defy the law.罪犯无视法律。