About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2024)
LIFE The Times, Gainesville, Georgia lgainesvilletimes.com Weekend Edition-January 5-6, 2024 3B 13-year-old becomes first to beat Tetris — by breaking it Willis Gibson via AP In this image taken from video, 13-year-old player named Willis Gibson reacts after playing a game of Tetris. Gibson, who in late December became the first player to officially “beat” the original Nintendo version of the game. By breaking it, of course. BY DAVID HAMILTON AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO — The falling- block video game Tetris has met its match in 13-year-old Willis Gibson, who has become the first player to officially “beat” the origi nal Nintendo version of the game — by breaking it. Technically, Willis — aka “blue scuti” in the gaming world — 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. And beyond. It's also a very big deal for players of Tet ris, which many had long considered unbeat able. That's partly because the game doesn't have a scripted ending; those 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. Until, that is, Willis managed on Dec. 21 to trigger a kill screen on Level 157, which the gaming world takes as a victory over the game — something along the lines of push ing the software past its own limits. The makers of Tetris agree. “Congratu lations to 'blue scuti' for achieving this extraordinary accomplishment, a feat that defies all preconceived limits of this leg endary game,” Tetris CEO Maya Rogers said in a statement. Rogers noted that Tetris will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year and called Willis' victory a “monumental achievement.” It's been a very long road. Early on, “the Tetris scene people didn't even know how to get to these higher levels,” said David Mac donald, a gaming YouTuber who has chron icled the gaming industry for years. “They were just stuck in the 20s and 30s because they just didn't know techniques to get any further.” Level 29 posed an especially tough roadblock because the blocks began falling more quickly than the in-game controller could respond. Eventually players found ways to make progress, as Macdonald chronicled in his detailed video on Willis victory. In 2011, one got to Level 30 using a technique called “hypertapping,” in which a player could rhythmically vibrate their fingers to move the game controller faster than the game's built-in speed. That technique took players to level 35 by 2018, after which they hit a wall. The next big thing came in 2020 when a gamer combined a multifinger technique originally used on arcade video games with a finger positioned on the bottom of the con troller to push it against another finger on the top. Called “rolling,” this much speedier approach helped one player reach Level 95 in 2022. Then other obstacles arose. Because the original Tetris developers had never counted on players pushing the game's limits so aggressively, bizarre quirks began to crop up at higher levels. One particularly difficult issue arose with the game's color palette, which traditionally cycled through 10 easily distinguished patterns. Starting at level 138, though, random color combinations began to appear — some of which made it much harder to distinguish the blocks from the game's black background. Two particularly devilish patterns — one a dim combination of dark blues and greens later dubbed “Dusk,” the other composed of black, gray and white blocks called “Char coal” — proved taxing for players. When combined with the strain of increasingly longer games, which could run 40 minutes or more, progress slowed again. It took a Tet- ris-playing AI program dubbed StackRabbit to break that logjam by helping map out just where players might happen across a glitch resulting in a kill screen, and finally beat the game. StackRabbit, which managed to make it all the way to Level 237 before crashing the game, ran on a modified version of Tet ris, so its achievements aren't strictly com parable to those of human players. And its findings weren't immediately applicable to the human-played game, either. But its runs clearly demonstrated that game-ending glitches could be triggered by very specific events, such as which block pieces were in play or how many lines a player cleared at once. That let human players take over the task of mapping all possible scenarios that could cause such crashes in the original game. These typically resulted when the game's decade-old code lost its place and began reading its next instructions from the wrong location, generally resulting in garbage input. A massive effort spurred by StackRab bit's experience eventually led to the com pilation of a large spreadsheet that detailed which game levels and which specific condi tions were most likely to lead to a crash. That's what compelled Willis to make his run for the record. Yet even he appeared shocked when he crashed the game at Level 157. In his livestream 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.” Hiker rescued after falling down Adirondack mountain peak BY MICHAEL HILL Associated Press Forest rangers successfully res cued an upstate New York hiker who survived a frigid night on a rugged Adirondack mountain peak trapped above a cliff, after she slipped and fell hundreds of feet down from the summit. “I thought I might have froze to death. There were like 45-mile-an- hour winds up there,” veteran hiker Hope Lloyd said Wednesday about her recent ordeal. Lloyd, 46, was solo hiking on the day after Christmas when she lost her footing at around 5:30 p.m. near the top of South Dix Mountain. Lloyd and state rangers said she skidded several hundred feet over steep snow and down a slippery rock slab. She was heading straight toward a cliff but was stopped by a small spruce tree. “That's the only thing that saved me,” Lloyd said in a phone inter view. “If I was a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right, I wouldn't be here right now.” Conditions were treacherous on the 4,060-foot mountain, one of the Adirondack High Peaks, with heavy rain and areas of deep snow and slick ice, according to Ranger Jamison Martin. Temperatures were in the low 30s on the summit, located roughly 100 miles north of Albany. “It's basically what we call hypo thermia weather: wet, cold, just the mix of those things. It's a bad combo,” Martin said in a video detailing the rescue. Lloyd is an experienced hiker who has climbed all 46 Adirondack High Peaks, twice. But she was exhausted and felt it was too peril ous to move from her spot because she might slip again and start slid ing toward the cliff. Even with her headlamp, it was too dark and foggy to see. She phoned for help. Lloyd had an emergency blanket and kept herself moving in place as much as possible to fight off the cold. Martin and another forest ranger reached her by 1:30 a.m. — about eight hours after her fall. They gave her warm liquids, food and dry clothing and soon helped her bushwhack back to the trail. They reached her vehicle at 6:30 a.m. The resident of South Glens Falls, New York, suffered some scrapes and bruises but realizes it could have been much worse. “I feel extremely grateful. Extremely grateful,” she said. “I just want to hug everybody.” Mike Lynch Adirondack Daily Enterprise via AP Three snowshoers descend from the summit of Cascade Mountain in the Adirondacks, March 14, 2011. KITCHEN INSPECTIONS: DEC. 28-JAN. 3 Times staff reports The following are among the food service establishments inspected by the Hall County Environmental Health Department. Food service establishments are given a letter grade that coincides with a percentile: “A” (90-100), “B” (80-89), “C” (70-79), “U” (69 and below). Inspections (and their frequency) of a food service establishment are conducted based on risk categorization. The risk type is deter mined by the menu items served, the food preparation processes performed and the pre vious food safety history in the food service establishment. A new food service establishment that has never served food must score 100 (A) to receive a food service permit to operate. When a restaurant changes ownership, a new food service permit must be issued. To be issued a permit for a change of ownership, the establishment must score a 95 (A) or above with all foodbome illness risk factors and public health interventions in compli ance. Permits must be posted in public view at all times. Establishments with drive-thru windows will also be required to have the top one- third of a copy of the most current inspection report visible through each window allowing customers to easily read the score, date of inspection and establishment information, in addition to the copy posted inside the estab lishment. Copies of the rules are available at the Hall County Environmental Health Office. The rules and regulations are also available online at dph.georgia.gov/ environmental-health-inspections. To register a complaint against a food service establishment, contact the Hall County Environmental Health Department at 770-531-3973. JAN. 3 Subway #24720 Location: 4977 Lanier Islands Parkway, Buford Score: 98, Grade: A Inspector: Brittney Trif G Sisters Restaurant & Kettle Corn Location: 6986 McEver Road, Suite A, Buford Score: 95, Grade: A Inspector: Brady Bowen Blimpie Location: 4949 Lanier Islands Parkway, Suite 110, Buford Score: 100, Grade: A Inspector: Brady Bowen Jojo’s Gourmet Lemonade Location: 400 Shallowford Road, Suite 700, Gainesville Score: 100, Grade: A Inspector: DeShayla Bush JAN. 2 Branch House Tavern Location: 5466 McEver Road, Flowery Branch Score: 98, Grade: A Inspector: DeShayla Bush The Oaks at Braselton Location: 5373 Thompson Mill Road, Hoschton Score: 95, Grade: A Inspector: Kobi Sisengchanh Lightway Recovery Wellness Center Location: 6593 McEver Road, Flowery Branch Score: 100, Grade: A Inspector: DeShayla Bush Phoenix Senior Living LLC Location: 1929 Friendship Road, Hoschton Score: 94, Grade: A Inspector: Kobi Sisengchanh Marco's Pizza #8229 Location: 7380 Spout Springs Road, Suite 400, Flowery Branch Score: 97, Grade: A Inspector: Kobi Sisengchanh Caroline's on Main Location: 5518 Main St., Flowery Branch Score: 100, Grade: A Inspector: Adetayo Adewolu DEC. 29 Loco’s Deli Location: 601S. Enota Drive, Gainesville Score: 96, Grade: A Inspector: DeShayla Bush DEC. 28 Chili’s #558 Location: 669 Dawsonville Highway, Gainesville Score: 100, Grade: A Inspector: Brady Bowen Five Guys Burgers & Fries Location: 1122 Dawsonville Highway, Suite 100, Gainesville Score: 100, Grade: A Inspector: Brittney Trif FROM IB Oversoul southern China, the Meis- han hog has been selec tively bred for more than 5,000 years. Known for its superior taste, the hog is considered “one of the oldest, if not the oldest, domesticated pig breed in the world,” according to the Livestock Conser vatory. Allred described its meat as more of a delicacy. “There’s now 1000 reg istered Meishan pigs in the U.S. and I have three of them on my property,” Allred said of his Meis han breeding program. “They're a slower grow ing breed. Their meat is a lot dark - almost red like beef. Some people say it's kind of like the Kobe beef of pork.” In addition to grilled and raw oysters imported from around the U.S. and Canada, Allred said Holden Oversoul's menu will offer a whole variety of dinner options: Meis han pork and beef entrees alongside produce grown on his farm, and burgers. Allred said the restau rant, which could employ between 10 and 20 peo ple, at first will serve din ner five days (and brunch one day) a week. Eventu ally, he plans to start serv ing lunch as well. “I'm pretty excited,” Allred said. “I've gotten to meet some people in the community ... they're all really excited to see something like this come to Demorest.” Demorest Mayor Jerry Harkness said he expects the new business to become a thriving addi tion to the expanding downtown area. “We're thrilled to have someone come in and invest in our community,” he said. Scott Rogers The Times Chef Jamie Allred visits his new restaurant location Wednesday, Jan. 3, which is still under renovation in downtown Demorest and projected to open in March.
