Tetris World Speed Record Broken

[Steven Bogos]

Tetris World Speed Record Broken

Japanese player Keroco manages to blast through 40 lines in a dizzying 19.68 seconds.

We at The Escapist think we're pretty good at Tetris, but hardcore Tetris speedrunners like Japan's Keroco leave us mere mortals in the dust. Keroco has recently smashed the Tetris speed record, using the preferred open-source cross-platform Tetris clone for competitive speedrunners: "NullpoMino [https://code.google.com/p/nullpomino/]". Keroco managed to finished the game's "40 line clear" mode in just 19.68 seconds. Be sure to check out the video to the right, which, contrary to what it may look like, is running at normal speed.

Tetris is the game that put Nintendo's original GameBoy on the map, originally being designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. NullpoMino has a variety of play modes, including classic marathon, versus battle and clear mode, the last of which being the most popular for speedrunners such as Keroco.

The video is kind of mesmerizing to watch, and it's amazing when you look into some more of these hardcore Tetris players and just how fast and efficiently they can clear the screen.

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of The King of Kong, a documentary detailing the battle for the world Donkey Kong record, but there's actually a similar documentary out there on the life of competitive Tetris players, called Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109910-Tetris-Championship-Documentary-Could-Be-Next-King-of-Kong].

All I can say is, these guys must be really good at packing suitcases.

Source: Rocket News 24 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UWYgus0MWE]


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[Thaluikhain]

What? That's played at normal speed?

...

I can't imagine how much practice it'd take to get that fast.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Is this 'Keroco' human or some sort of quantum computer designed for the sole purpose of sorting blocks and sent back in time to shame us mere mortals?

Plus this isn't technically Tetris so I'm not counting it Gotta have them Soviet tuneskis for it to be Tetris.

 

[Pink Gregory]

That's all well and good, but can he play fast enough to induce an epileptic fit?

 

[Aeshi]

Sorry, I blinked and missed what was happening.

 

[RJ 17]

What? That's played at normal speed?

...

I can't imagine how much practice it'd take to get that fast.

Holy god, I just watched it a second time after reading your comment because I thought it was played in fast-forward. But you're right, watching the timer at the bottom it's all played in real-time. That's.......that's just obscene. The guy clearly isn't human.

 

[Fat Hippo]

"Excellent!"

No fucking shit, game. No fucking shit.

 

[CUnk]

I don't even understand the technique involved in doing something like this. It can't be just normal Tetris thinking at 100x the speed. There has to be some muscle memory involved -- like speed runs. Obviously they are being shown the next 6 blocks rather than just one but I still don't see how you could analyze them that fast.

I suppose they could be getting the same blocks in the same order every time but then that would make this much less impressive and not worth crowing about.

 

[2HF]

How depressing is it to know that you'll never be this good at anything ever?

Very, for about 5 seconds, then you remember it's Tetris and are impressed then you move on. Thank god for that cause I'll never be that good at anything ever.

 

[krazykidd]

What you don't know . Is that the player has the ability to slow down time .

 

[MiskWisk]

Truly he is blessed by the almighty Tetris God [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alw5hs0chj0]. May his glory shine down upon us all some day.

 

[halfeclipse]

I don't even understand the technique involved in doing something like this. It can't be just normal Tetris thinking at 100x the speed. There has to be some muscle memory involved -- like speed runs. Obviously they are being shown the next 6 blocks rather than just one but I still don't see how you could analyze them that fast.

I suppose they could be getting the same blocks in the same order every time but then that would make this much less impressive and not worth crowing about.

the blocks are colour coded, and their starting orientation is constant, and what block is produced is only partly random. After that certain blocks placed in certain positions produce certain shapes ideal for another block. There's a bunch of memorization going on followed by an awful lot of twitch.

 

[lacktheknack]

Mein Gott.

The only thing keeping me sane is that this is the fastest they have to offer. This is the cream of the crop.

That said, I'd still be terrified watching an "average" speedrun among the enthusiasts.

 

[Vrach]

I don't even understand the technique involved in doing something like this. It can't be just normal Tetris thinking at 100x the speed. There has to be some muscle memory involved -- like speed runs. Obviously they are being shown the next 6 blocks rather than just one but I still don't see how you could analyze them that fast.

I suppose they could be getting the same blocks in the same order every time but then that would make this much less impressive and not worth crowing about.

the blocks are colour coded, and their starting orientation is constant, and what block is produced is only partly random. After that certain blocks placed in certain positions produce certain shapes ideal for another block. There's a bunch of memorization going on followed by an awful lot of twitch.

That's all well and good, but that game is going at such high speed, even if you knew by heart where everything should go (which I suspect becomes somewhat true with all the memorization), you still need to handle more than 5 blocks every second. That's just insanity.

 

[Yuuki]

The only way I think this is possible is that he's building a mental visualization of what the bottom rows are looking like. There is only enough time to glimpse the color/shape of the block as it appears at the very top frame, at that very moment he must decide where to put it and what the result of that placement will be.

Or maybe he's managing to look at the entire screen using zero-vision i.e. not particularly focusing on anything, just using peripherals to look at everything at once (and somehow assessing/absorbing that information instantly).

You know what, screw it, I don't even know how this is possible :S

 

[Souplex]

As someone who's pretty amazing at Tetris, I feel inadequate.

 

[TwiZtah]

That man must have so much Tetris syndrome that he can't function in society.

 

[Domogo]

That's all well and good, but that game is going at such high speed, even if you knew by heart where everything should go (which I suspect becomes somewhat true with all the memorization), you still need to handle more than 5 blocks every second. That's just insanity.

Insanity? SPARTA!

and I feel like that really counts as an OT post right?

OT: So many speed runs are just like this, although to be fair 5 pieces a second is pretty freaking epic TBH.

 

[BartyMae]

Is there any proof this was actually legit? I mean, I could slow down my game to like 25% of its normal speed and probably beat this with a little practice, (and the speed up the footage to be 4x - and with no mouse cursor, it'd be pretty hard to tell). I mean, I guess it's kinda hard to confirm this sort of thing, but...

 

[King of Asgaard]

Seems like the God of Tetris was kind to this mortal.

Spoiler

OT: Holy hot damn, that was awesome. And I thought my reflexes were fast...