Teen achieves first NES Tetris “rebirth,” proves endless play is possible

Michael "dogplayingtetris" Artiaga, 16, became the first player to roll NES Tetris past Level 255 back to Level 0, a feat called "rebirth," during a roughly two-hour livestreamed session. He cleared a total of 4,216 lines and scored a record 29.4 million points before topping out. The run used a modified version of the game that avoids the crashes that ended Willis "Blue Scuti" Gibson's earlier 1,511-line, 157-level performance. Artiaga also cleared Level 235, where a glitch kept the level counter stuck for 810 lines.