5-minute listening: Teen gamer becomes first person to beat Tetris as Nintendo game celebrates 40th anniversary
- Falling-block video game met its match in 13-year-old Willis Gibson, who beat the game by breaking it
- Practise your English with our short listening exercises: play the audio linked below; answer the questions; and check the answers at the bottom of the page
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In late December, a 13-year-old gamer named Willis Gibson became the first player to officially “beat” the original Nintendo version of Tetris by making it to the “kill screen,” a point where the Tetris code glitches, crashing the game. The game celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Photo: Willis Gibson via AP
Questions
1. Who is Willis Gibson?
A. an employee at Tetris
B. the creator of Tetris
C. a Soviet software engineer
D. a gamer
2. What is Willis Gibson’s nickname in the gaming world?
A. fractal161
B. blue scuti
C. Justin Y
D. blockstacker
3. What is a “kill screen” in Tetris?
A. the final level of the game
B. a level where players can earn extra points
C. a glitch in the game that crashes it
D. a special achievement for high scores
4. Which word from the podcast means “greatly desired”?
A. scripted
B. caused
C. formed
D. coveted
5. Why was the game of Tetris considered “unbeatable”?
A. the game had a glitch that caused it to freeze
B. the blocks kept falling endlessly
C. the game required advanced hardware and software
D. information not given
6. What do blocks do as a player moves through the levels in Tetris?
A. fall more quickly to increase difficulty
B. disappear more slowly on the screen to confuse players
C. become larger to fill the box faster
D. change shape randomly to challenge players
7. Which word can replace “stacking” in the podcast?
A. arranging
B. beating
C. elevating
D. eliminating
8. Why did players originally consider Level 29 to be the end of the game?
A. The game literally stops at that point.
B. No player had ever reached it before.
C. The block speed at that level exceeds human reaction time.
D. The goal at that level is impossible to achieve.
9. At which level did Willis crash the game?
A. level 137
B. level 147
C. level 157
D. level 167
10. Which of the following most likely describes how Willis felt when he crashed the game?
A. indifferent and unimpressed
B. overjoyed and proud
C. excited but nervous
D. none of the above
11. What does “the excitement” at the end of the podcast refer to?
A. Justin Y winning the Classic Tetris World Champion
B. Willis beating the game
C. Maya Rogers celebrating Willis’ achievement
D. Tetris’ 40th anniversary
12. Arrange the following events in chronological order from 1st to 4th.
A. Tetris celebrates its 40th anniversary. ______
B. Willis Gibson triggers a kill screen and crashes the game. ______
C. The game of Tetris is launched. ______
D. Tetris players find different ways to beat the game. ______
Answers
1. D
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. B
6. A
7. A
8. C
9. C
10. D
11. B
12. (i) C; (ii) D; (iii) B; (iv) A
Script
Adapted from Agence-France Presse and Associated Press
Voice 1: The falling-block video game Tetris has met its match in 13-year-old Willis Gibson, who became the first player to officially “beat” the original Nintendo version of the game last month.
Voice 2: Willis is known as “blue scuti” in the gaming world. Technically, he made it to what gamers call a “kill screen”, a point where the Tetris code glitches, crashing the game. That might not sound like much of a victory to anyone thinking that only high scores count, but it’s a highly coveted achievement in the world of video games, where records involve pushing hardware and software to their limits.
Voice 1: It’s also a very big deal for players of Tetris, which many had long considered unbeatable. That is partly because the game does not have a scripted ending; the four-block shapes just keep falling, no matter how good you get at stacking them into disappearing rows. Top players continued to find ways to extend their winning streaks by staying in the game to reach higher and higher levels, but in the end, the game beat them all.
Voice 2: The brainchild of a Soviet software engineer, Tetris is a simple but highly addictive game in which players must rotate and manipulate falling blocks of different shapes to fit together and create solid lines inside a box. Once a line is formed, it vanishes, leaving more space – and time – to shuffle the following blocks. Blocks fall faster as a player progresses through the levels, all the way up to Level 29, which was for a long time believed to be the end of the game – the point where things move too fast for humans to react.
Voice 1: But a series of innovations over recent years have pushed the envelope, and players have found a way to keep going beyond the capability of the ancient code that sustains the game. For some time, competitive players have known there is a point at which the code bugs out and the game stops, but only another computer has been able to reach it.
Voice 2: That is, until Willis managed to trigger the kill screen on Level 157. He dropped a piece into place that caused a single line of blocks to vanish and the game to freeze. He appeared shocked when he crashed the game; in his live-streaming video, he appears to hyperventilate before barely gasping “Oh my God” several times, clutching his temples and worrying that he might be passing out. After cupping his hands over his mouth in an apparent attempt to regulate his breathing, he finally exclaims, “I can’t feel my fingers.”
Voice 1: Fellow players were quick to share the excitement. Classic Tetris World Champion fractal161 – also known as Justin Y – shouted, “He did it; he did it!” on his live stream. Even the chief executive of Tetris, Maya Rogers, joined the celebrations. Rogers also noted that Tetris will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, calling Willis’ victory a “monumental achievement”.