“someone needs to get fractal161 on green building tetris someday” by Ellie F. '28

This is a follow up to my first Tetris on the Green Building blog: https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/the-holy-grail-of-hacks-returns/

Also, the code for Tetris is now open source for you to make your own Green Building displays!! Check it out here: https://github.com/Nevin-Thinagar/17×9-Tetris

The first Video Game Orchestra (VGO) social I ever attended back in the fall of my first year was intended to be a Mario movie watch party. Somehow, we ended up watching a Tetris tournament twitch stream instead (and some of the VGO exec members were modding the chat??) Some kind soul explained to me that the person we were watching, this “fractal161” guy, was actually a Tetris world champion. And also VGO’s principal cellist. 

Over the next year, I got to know fractal, who also goes by Justin, better. He arranged Remix 10 from Rhythm Heaven Fever for VGO, and I got to do vocals and play the rubber chicken for it. I and the rest of the orchestra were obsessed, and we often sang through the entire piece, sound effects included, before meetings. At our most recent post-concert social, we watched (and sang) it again, thoroughly confusing our newer members.

At the end of last year, Justin tragically passed away (from MIT) (by graduating) and VGO was forced to forge ahead with no Tetris world champion in its ranks. Unfortunately, this was also the year that Green Building Tetris reemerged. 

After witnessing the hack for myself, I sent off a video to the VGO Discord. Justin quickly responded with a mix of disbelief and betrayal that people would revive Tetris “WITHOUT ME?????[sic]” and expressed his opinion that this event was “genuinely the second reason i would ever consider meng[sic]”. The rest of VGO reacted with the appropriate heart and sobbing emojis. But when I learned he’d be back on campus to watch the VGO concert, I started plotting. 

When I was setting up an interview with the Tetris hackers, I broached the topic of having Justin play Green Building Tetris. Soon, I was able to send some contact info to Justin, and the rest was out of my hands. 

A few weeks later, Justin announced that he’d be playing Saturday night. So, after a chamber group rehearsal for a piece from Hollow Knight: Silksong (it was Red Maiden if you know ball), we headed over to the Green Building to watch. While we waited for them to set up, we talked about Tetris and philosophy and watched the anvil being played as a musical instrument. 

Then, Justin started playing, and we settled in to watch. He had some handicaps: hard drop only worked once so he was “saving it”, there were a few dead pixels, and one row of rooms in the Green Building had their lights on. Still, he overcame, and made it all the way to level 10, a world record for Green Building Tetris!

Enjoy the gameplay and our sparkling commentary :)