I read this article by Jason Kottke about a woman who discovered she was one of the world’s top Candy Crush players (spoiler alert: she lost in the semis of her tournament) and it referenced a woman called Lori Baker who become an accidental Tetris DX world record holder:
“It’s funny,” I told Flewin. “We have an old Nintendo Game Boy floating around the house, and Tetris is the only game we own. My wife will sometimes dig it out to play on airplanes and long car rides. She’s weirdly good at it. She can get 500 or 600 lines, no problem.”
What Flewin said next I will never forget.
“Oh, my!”
After I hung up the phone, I went to the bedroom and woke my wife, Lori.
“Honey,” I said. “You’re not going to believe this, but I just got off the phone with a guy who’s in charge of video game world records, and he said the world record for Game Boy Tetris is 327 lines, and he wants us to go to New Hampshire this spring so you can try to break the world record live in front of the judges at the world’s largest classic video game tournament.”If you’ve ever been to New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee on a rainy day, you’ve probably been to Funspot. It’s one of those huge “family fun centers” with a bowling alley and a miniature golf course and a bunch of Skee-Ball games where you can spend $100 to earn enough tickets to redeem a $5 Slinky. What few people realize is that the third floor of Funspot is home to the American Classic Arcade Museum, the world’s largest repository of games from the ’70s and ’80s, the ones that launched the video game revolution. There are 180 token-ready games on the floor at any moment and another 100 in a warehouse out back, making it the Louvre of the “8-bit” world.
via Boston.com archives
She’s no longer the world record holder but still sits in 5th place. Tetris icon and 2014 Classic Tetris World Champion Harry Hong beat her a few months after her accidental attempt in 2007 but he sits in 2nd place behind Tao.
