
Bizarro World: World Record Tetris (2007) - rinesh
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2007/08/19/bizarro_world/?page=full
======
Thiz
When windows 95 came out, I got hooked on solitaire. I played for hours till I
could finish it under 100 seconds, then to 90s, 80s, 70, and 60s. It was
really hard to finish it below 50 seconds but once I got to 49s then that was
my mark. Hard to do but got some games done under 50 seconds and then suddenly
I got a lucky shot with all cards in an easy setting which I finished in 37
seconds. My own world record.

I considered myself the fastest mouse mover of all universe.

~~~
joezydeco
You will definitely have a bit of fun with this, then:

[http://mrdoob.com/lab/javascript/effects/solitaire/](http://mrdoob.com/lab/javascript/effects/solitaire/)

Drag the mouse for great victory.

~~~
lotharbot
Passed this around my family. Everyone who remembered the game got great joy
from it. Then my autistic four year old insisted "MORE CARDS! MORE CARDS!
BOOOOOOM!"

You, sir, have made my day.

~~~
joezydeco
Awesome!

------
blatherard
Should probably add (2007) to the title.

Four months later the previous record holder, Harry Hong, took back the title
with a 4,988-line run (about 5x Lori's run), which remains the record to this
day.

~~~
soperj
Seems kind of strange that suddenly this guy goes from 600 pts to almost 5000.
It's also weird that his total points from marathon mode was 9,999,999.

~~~
ksmiley
Not too weird. That's just how high the score counter goes. You can keep
playing after that, but the number stops going up. (source: I've gotten that
score myself. (although I paused every hour or so when my arms fell asleep, so
that disqualifies me from submission))

------
hnal943
The article mentions King of Kong, which is great. But I think the better
documentary on this whole scene is Chasing Ghosts. It's a broader look and
really gives you a feel for the type of people involved in this scene. Makes
it even more surprising that this lady was a world record holder, if only for
a little while.

~~~
Donzo
Better still is "The Ecstasy of Order," a Tetris documentary. I'd hate to
spoil it but the conclusion really is unbelievable. I bought the download on
Amazon for like 4 bucks or something. Definitely worth checking out.

~~~
boyaka
[http://www.hulu.com/watch/429491](http://www.hulu.com/watch/429491)

~~~
maxmem
Thank you!

------
gregoire
There's a documentary about the best Tetris players (on NES): "Ecstasy of
Order: The Tetris Masters"[0].

It follows one man's journey to gather the best Tetris players in the world
for the first "Classic Tetris World Championship", as well as the preparation
of the players, who try to break a new record, or to reach the unattainable
level 30.

If you like obsessive people and want to learn more about the boundaries of
Tetris, I recommend this documentary.

[0]: [http://watch.ecstasyoforder.com/](http://watch.ecstasyoforder.com/)

------
freshyill
I don't claim to be a pro, but Tetris got a heck of a lot easier when they
started letting you spin your pieces infinitely once they hit the bottom. I
maxed out levels… then lines… then the score on the Nintendo DS in 2006 or
2007. There was a bug in the game, however, that wouldn't let you save scores
above 99,999,999, which was kind of a bummer after a game that took up about a
month's worth of commutes.

------
post_break
Her score on twin galaxies.
[http://www.twingalaxies.com/scores.php?player=44371](http://www.twingalaxies.com/scores.php?player=44371)

She's been destroyed by Harry Hong though.

[http://www.twingalaxies.com/scores.php?scores=14856](http://www.twingalaxies.com/scores.php?scores=14856)

~~~
3rd3
Harry Hong is a beast:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umt4ZESWSeQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umt4ZESWSeQ)

~~~
michael_nielsen
You may enjoy this game, from Jin8 (much, much faster):

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jw...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jwC544Z37qo#t=227)

It gets particularly incredible at the 5:10 mark.

~~~
jMyles
I've never been able to understand how this video is possible. I want to see
where his eyes are looking - I'm assuming pretty much always at the block
queue?

~~~
spbaar
Yes, and the different tones of the bloops indicate the next piece.

------
adolph
See also Evets Kainzow:

[http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/21/apple-co-founders-
tet...](http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/21/apple-co-founders-tetris-
fueled-nintendo-power-exploits)

------
futuravenir
I scored 1 in beginner Minesweeper. (And 2,3,4,5 etc) It was clearly very
lucky. I think it involved something like the initial click and 2-3 others. It
was a really fortunate board.

I just checked Minesweeper records and the best they have is 3. Why is my name
not up there in
lights?[http://www.minesweeper.info/wiki/World_Record_History#Offici...](http://www.minesweeper.info/wiki/World_Record_History#Official_Records)

~~~
lotharbot
The 3 second record was unofficial in 1992. The 1-second record has stood
since 1997 (and is officially unbreakable.)

The expert record of 32 is really impressive. I can't finish intermediate in
32.

~~~
futuravenir
Woohoo! Tied a world record!

------
tempestn
My favourite Tetris was the BOWEP (Best of Windows Entertainment Pack) version
that came with .. Windows 3.11 was it? Or 95? One of those. I would regularly
wrap the score starting at level 10. Unfortunately it doesn't run on 64-bit
Windows, and I find it's not smooth enough in a VM to be the same experience.
Have considered trying to get it running in DOSBox, but haven't gotten around
to it yet!

~~~
dmoo
I have fond memories of playing this in 2 player mode where I played both
players with each hand.

~~~
tempestn
Ha, good idea! New motivation to see if I can get it running!

------
DanBC
> A very pregnant photographer is lying on the floor underneath the table,
> shooting Lori as she plays. The flash is right in her face.

Wow, that sounds sub-optimal.

------
zerohm
I kept thinking, if Day thinks this girl is good, he probably hasn't seen
this...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwC544Z37qo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwC544Z37qo)

Be sure to watch the credits.

------
thumbtackthief
Simpsons did it. [http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/6dbqbm/looks-like-
homer-p...](http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/6dbqbm/looks-like-homer-played-
much-tetris)

------
franzb
Here's a short video with Lori Baker and Andrew Gardikis (Mario Bros record
holder): [http://www.destructoid.com/boston-globe-weaves-a-long-
tale-o...](http://www.destructoid.com/boston-globe-weaves-a-long-tale-of-
intrigue-love-and-tetris-39203.phtml)

~~~
b0b_d0e
No one seems to have mentioned this yet, but as of the end of June, Andrew
lost the world record to Blubbler [http://smb-
leaderboards.wikia.com/wiki/SMB_Leaderboards_Wiki](http://smb-
leaderboards.wikia.com/wiki/SMB_Leaderboards_Wiki) Also, sometime earlier this
year, andrewg decided to retire from speedrunning and get his life back on
track, but it looks like since his world record was beat, he is back at making
attempts to get the world record
[http://www.twitch.tv/andrewg1990](http://www.twitch.tv/andrewg1990)

------
ilitirit
If you like this kinda stuff be sure to watch this:

[http://watch.ecstasyoforder.com/](http://watch.ecstasyoforder.com/)

------
munificent
Tangential, but can anyone place her accent? It's really unusual. Maybe she
was born in Texas and then moved to the West Coast as a kid?

------
lotharbot
Related: [http://www.ivghof.com/index.php](http://www.ivghof.com/index.php)

The International Video Game Hall of Fame

------
yread
Be sure to read to the end!

------
pestaa
Lovely article, thanks for the repost.

------
danelectro
Well, if you all are into old games vs PC other than just Tetris, there's
always Acquire which was originally a 3M board game from the 1960's. That was
when I played it as a young teenager in the Academic Games Club at our
interesting high school.

It's a financial game, but better and faster than Monopoly, the highest
performer (best investor/player) still wins, but at least everybody makes
money, hell everybody starts with capital. Each the same amount of capital,
how often do you see that :-)

Growth stocks are involved, with bonuses (which can almost be regarded as
follow-on rounds adding to exits, until game-end liquidation) rather than
dividends. Quite easy to learn

In the '70's, it appeared for the Apple and the Commodore PET. There was also
a slightly more modern DOS version which was from Avalon-Hill, the successor
to 3M for their games:

[http://www.webnoir.com/bob/sid/acquire.zip](http://www.webnoir.com/bob/sid/acquire.zip)

There is also another version from Bill Humphrey, the 1966 playing rules are
in a DOC file within this ZIP (tailored to his PC version):

[http://www.webnoir.com/bob/sid/acquire2.zip](http://www.webnoir.com/bob/sid/acquire2.zip)

Each player also is issued an information card you will need for proper
financial planning:

[http://www.webnoir.com/bob/sid/acquirecard.htm](http://www.webnoir.com/bob/sid/acquirecard.htm)

The numbers on top in the blue header are the size of the hotel chain. The
upper number (low $) in each cell is the share price for the named chains in
the left-hand cell. The middle number (high $) in each cell is the bonus
amount for majority holder of the named chains upon exit/liquidation. The
bottom number (not-as-high $) in each cell is the bonus amount for second-
majority holder of the named chains upon exit/liquidation.

Here's an alternate:

[http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/44033/acquire-3m-version-c...](http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/44033/acquire-3m-version-
colorful-and-easy-read-informat)

and another:

[https://megacquire.com/zencart/images/Six-Info-Cards-+-Lg-
Ca...](https://megacquire.com/zencart/images/Six-Info-Cards-+-Lg-Card.jpg)

and another:

[https://megacquire.com/zencart/images/Enlarged-Info-
Card-B.j...](https://megacquire.com/zencart/images/Enlarged-Info-Card-B.jpg)

While I was looking for my original 3M hard copy edition to bring to my local
makerspace for the young board gamers I did find a better user vs PC version
from G.C.Crawshay, also DOS but have confirmed it will play in WinXP or Win7
if you have a 32-bit PC:

[http://www.george.crawshay.com/cgi/products.pl?game=Acquire](http://www.george.crawshay.com/cgi/products.pl?game=Acquire)

Naturally it will play from a bootable DOS floppy as well. Some are surprised
when you can fire up any old surplus PC having a floppy drive and it works
ideally without having to have a working HDD in the system. No mouse either.
USB floppy drives work too.

EDIT: I believe the floppy will also play on a 64-bit PC

------
bobwise
Day comes over to shake her hand. Lori is laughing as Day declares her "the
greatest Tetris player in the world," then turns to me to add, "And I must
say, she's also the prettiest."

Maybe if gamers didn't think it's ok to casually objectify female gamers there
would be more women playing and it wouldn't be such a big deal that this
player was a woman.

~~~
nilkn
This is just a random thought, but it does occur to me that a lot of effort is
expended in discouraging guys from objectifying women, but little to no effort
is expended in doing sort of the opposite: encouraging women to objectify
guys.

I've never really thought about it before, but maybe the most natural solution
is to just level the playing field rather than trying to get a big group of
people to stop doing something that they more or less naturally do. We're
definitely seeing this happen with celebrities and big budget movies, for
instance. Nobody's stopped objectifying women, but they have started
objectifying men more than ever before, at least as far as I can tell. I've
heard more about Chris Pratt being hot this week than I have about any female
celebrity, for instance, including his female costar Zoe Saldana.

~~~
ordinary
_This is just a random thought, but it does occur to me that a lot of effort
is expended in discouraging guys from objectifying women, but little to no
effort is expended in doing sort of the opposite: encouraging women to
objectify guys._

That's because the people who think objectification of women is bad tend to
also think objectification of men is bad. Those people don't want to live in a
world of ubiquitous or or even just balanced objectification; they want to
live in a world with _none_.

~~~
nilkn
I don't think ridding the world of all sexual objectification is even remotely
realistic. It's human nature to do it, and you're not going to change human
nature. Are you going to make it illegal?

~~~
ordinary
Culture modifies human natural behaviour in all sorts of surprising ways. You
cannot tell out of hand which behaviours are natural (whatever that means) and
which are cultural. Why are women's appearances scrutinized to much greater
extent than men? Is it because our culture* discourages male objectification,
or because it encourages female objectification?

Even if it _is_ natural, that doesn't mean it's desireable. That's just an
appeal to nature.

While laws are an extreme method, they're routinely used to better ourselves,
and even more often to better others. It's worked for (what we currently
consider) undesireable behaviours like theft, smoking in public places,
environmental pollution, seatbelt wearing, illegal parking, murder, and
looking funny at cops. That's a pretty varied list, so why wouldn't it work
for sexual objectification? I don't think we _should_ use such a drastic
approach, but it's not ridiculous, either.

_____

* Cowardly assuming we're all in the West.

~~~
nilkn
> Is it because our culture* discourages male objectification, or because it
> encourages female objectification?

Both. There's still a lot of latent homophobia throughout the US. What I mean
by that is that there are many folks who are decidedly pro-gay-rights, but
still feel uncomfortable around the sexualization of the male gender.

There's one thing I'm interested in: happiness. What's going to make the most
people happy? Many laws that are morally prescriptivist, like those banning
gay marriage, end up just oppressing people because it turns out gay marriage
is perfectly fine and doesn't harm anyone.

I don't believe open displays of sexuality are harmful to anyone so long as we
don't have double standards and we do exercise good judgment. So the idea of
outright banning them by law does indeed seem completely ridiculous to me.
It's just as ridiculous to me as banning gay marriage or banning porn or
banning prostitution.

The reason we do have double standards is precisely because we've been led to
believe over generations that the sexualization of men is wrong. Because many
men haven't learned to be comfortable with their own gender, homophobia has
been able to flourish for decades. It's gross when two guys kiss, right? Of
course it is--you can find millions of people who will agree with you because
they've carefully been hidden from that their entire life. Banning
sexualization and sexual objectification will just lead to future generations
who are even more incapable of coping with the realities of human sexuality in
ways that aren't immensely harmful to many people.

