When Blocks Fall into Place - An interview with Jonas Neubauer

Attempting to get a World Record in anything takes a ton of focus and usually a ridiculous amount of practice. Every now and then though a record happens without meaning to. This was the case for Jonas Neubauer (NubbinsGoody), who was attempting the clear 100 lines category for Tetris on the NES. At the end of this attempt, it was pointed out by a viewer on Twitch that he had just beat the top time for 300,000 points.

At this realization, Jonas seemed to be completely astounded, leaving the room in excitement.

The video spread like wildfire following some press, particularly one that pointed out the feat by Kotaku. Not long after submitting his accidental 300K points run though, he got the record he was going for.

This was a more casual affair. He’s chatting with viewers, relaxing, and when successful just shrugs and says, “We’re just going to get World Records now.”

After this monumental display of Tetris mastery, as well as his previous achievements, we had to track him down to find out what makes him tick.

Note, we highly recommend familiarizing with how Tetris NES works through two documentaries. Otherwise, a lot of lingo Neubauer mentions could be challenging to comprehend. Check out the Ecstasy of Order and The Story of Tetris by the Gaming Historian. These two histories will also depict a solid image of the culture surrounding Tetris and the business side of getting the rights for distribution.

Tell me about yourself. Where did you grow up? What sort of paths have you taken so far in life?

 “I’m an ‘81 kid, had two older brothers, they played Atari 2600. I watched them play a lot of Atari, but I was too young to participate. The NES was the first time I picked up a controller and learned how to play myself.”

 “I skipped Super Mario Bros; I think The Legend of Zelda was my first game that I was decent at. Specifically, I got into Tetris when I was 8 or 9-years-old. I really took that all the way, going down into the rabbit hole.”

 Neubauer’s career didn’t really have the spectacle that his gaming life did.

 “I grew up in southern California. I was in real estate finance for 11 years. Always went back to Tetris, just kept picking it up off and on. For the last 5 years, I’ve been a bar manager at a local brewery called Strand Brewing.”

 Have you stuck to the NES version of Tetris?

 “I’ve slightly experimented with other versions, but I’ve just always had my NES console, so I just always went back to that one.”

 “I think it’s the mechanics of Tetris NES are just right in a sweet spot for me. Pieces are tough to get over, but not as tough as the Game Boy version. I played a bit on Game Boy and the controls felt a little clunky. The NES version didn’t have a lot of extra features; it didn’t level out in speed like the Game Boy Color does. I think it was Tetris DX where you could just play it for 14 hours. So being on the NES, all kinda worked out in the right ways.”

 We then mentioned the popularity of getting a maxed out score on Tetris, something that Harry Hong was credited for being the first to record that achievement.

 “I’ve been maxing out Tetris NES live on the Twitch stream. I’ve gotten three back-to-back-to-backs twice and that’s tough. It’s a nerves check. You have to battle RNG; that’s a half hour of Tetris. Doing that is one of the things I’m more proud of.”

What’s the balance between random elements and pure skill and reflexes?

 “The only thing you have for the feedback on the NES is the piece distribution and the score. So those are the only things you have to work with for the RNG.”

 “I think we’ve been playing it in the dark.”

 “There’s a huge RNG component, naturally. I have a couple programmer buddies that have hacked a rom that’s given us some more metrics. So if you go to my channel and watch me play, there are a ton of other little metrics that give you feedback. It’ll count your average drought (how long it takes before getting a long piece) and once you’re ready for a Tetris, there’s a counter that starts.”

 “Once you’re ready for business, this algorithm calculates based on Tetris-ready, so it’ll calculate how long it takes before I get a line. On average, that number should be about 7, because there are 7 pieces. It’s just an interesting feedback tool. I’ve maxed out when that thing is like 7.5, so that’s kind of a tougher game.”

 This is the type of information that becomes incredibly useful for someone playing at such a high level.

 “Maybe there’s this confirmation bias every time you max out that maybe you got an easier game, like if on average your fourth piece was a line. So now we can look into the guts of the system, of the RNG god. I feel like I’ve seen the face of RNGesus. If I maxed out, I want to know if that was an easy or a hard game. Now we’re kind of able to see that.”

 To make things even more interesting, there are some hacking the rom to adjust those random elements.

 “One of the things we’re looking at is a way to adjust that RNG. New versions of Tetris have bag randomizers where you’re guaranteed a line every 14 pieces, so our buddy UltraMegaMondo is programming an RNG dial, so we can set it to say getting a line every 10 pieces on average, which is a real tough game. You could easily go 60-70 pieces without a line and it puts you in this survival mode. Put yourself back into regular RNG, it’s like there are lines everywhere, so we’re looking at it as a training regimen.”

What’s the thought process when playing? What sort of strategies do you employ?

 “My philosophy on it is pattern recognition. I don’t do the centre well, cause I’ve always grown up building on the well on the right. The NES version favors the well on the right, just based on the rotation mechanics. So just those few frames you pick up from that mechanic, makes it easier to get over to the right than the left. You can build a little higher and still be able to score a Tetris. So that’s why I build on the right. Then, just on pattern recognition that’s something I’ve really honed in.”

 “I also employ other strategies and fold new elements into the game. It’s like if you picked up a golf club and went out and had golf swing thoughts like, “I’m gonna keep my head straight.” So then I think about building an efficient Tetris without a lot of excess, so I’ll try to get as close to a perfect clear set as I can. So if I forget that, then I start building inefficiently, but then I get that golf swing thought back into my head. It’s all about the Tetris for NES scoring.”

Is there anything in your day-to-day life that you think playing Tetris has affected?

 “It’s a weird misconception that people get about the game making one more organized. I do think that what Tetris forces you to do is make a ton of quick decisions. It’s almost like being a marathon runner, you get this stamina for making decisions on the fly. For example, in social situations it can be exhausting to pick your way through all of these different hesitations. So I can socially interact with anybody and not get that exhaustion. It is exhausting to pick through all of these social etiquettes, especially at the bar, I can approach any group.”

What sort of personal connections have you made through Tetris? What about gaming in general?

 “The tournament organizers, the people around the CTWC (Classic Tetris World Championships), the director of Ecstasy of Order. I usually just get to see them once a year, but I’ve started hanging out with a few of those people more often, especially the ones that live around my area. One of my closest competitors and rivals, Harry Hong, we’ve hung out outside of the tournaments. Tetris is a fun, welcoming, not-so toxic community.”

 “I think people see other gaming communities and see the rivalries. Even with the Donkey Kong (arcade) community and the Fistful of Quarters and how adversarial that was. If the Tetris community has a new score popping up or a new player, usually we’re pretty supportive.”

 A lot of those higher level Tetris players are coming to Twitch now. “Twitch is interesting, especially with the popularity of the tournament in recent years. It’s kind of nice to see, because you only get one tournament a year and some people want to see more matches and involve themselves with the scene a little more and now you can do that through streaming.”

 “The community has went kind of cross-platform, there used to be this contention between people who play games with hard drop versus soft drop or old versus new. We’ve sort of bridged that gap and now we’re sharing an audience.”

What did it feel like to hit those records?

 “I’m pretty raw to it; it’s usually been about points. So, when I used to practice for the tournament, I’d put down the game for about 8-9 months and then pick it up to practice for a couple months. With the popularity of the Twitch channel, I wanted something a little more fun to do. Some of my viewers were also speedrunners. They got me into all of these obscure categories that none of the high level Tetris players really cared about. So I got my timer set up to see what I could do.”

 ‘I think their enthusiasm feeds back into my enthusiasm. When people are watching and having and good time and they want me to go for the gold, I buy into it and it’s been a lot of fun.” “Speedrunning is addictive too. You got that timer button and you think you can beat your last time. With Tetris speedruns, there’s no guidance, no video you can watch to find the perfect thing, because of those random elements. It’s not like doing clips through a wall or screen wraps. So I kinda brute forced it.”

What are thoughts about the shift from chasing high scores in games to achieving faster times?

 ‘I think both of those styles of play are wonderful. I don’t really care about the shift, as long as there is a difficult goal to obtain. I think speedrunning came out of this need to make video games harder. It was kind of a fightback of the casual nature of gaming these days. Obviously game designers are trying to appeal to a wider audience, but I miss those really tough games.”

 “I think that’s why games like Dark Souls really resonated with people, because they’re like ‘Finally, a game I can brag to my buddies about beating’ instead of ‘Did you also casually progress through Skyrim like I did?’ Speedrunning is this personal goal post that people set up, because they miss that feeling of genuine, raw accomplishment. That’s what I really liked about doing speedruns.”

What does your practice look like? Is it playing as much as possible or a certain frame of mind?

 I usually practice with higher speed, usually that just means level 19 on NES, but you could do a Game Genie code that starts you on level 29. If you play an hour of that, the pieces seem to fall so slowly. It’s like in baseball, swing three bats in the on-deck circle and then going into the batter’s box and having that speed available. As far as my practice sessions go, it’s that raw warm up.”

 “On the mental side, I don’t really do the focus thing. I’ve found that I have a ton of success if I go into it with a positive mindset. I’ve been playing Tetris for a while, so if I’m in a bad mood or something, its crazy how harder that game is with a stressed mind.”

 “The focus just comes. Focus comes from practicing. It’s all about having a good time and letting the game come to you.”

Where do you see yourself going from here? What sort of goals do you have?

 “I think one of those records was already beaten, so maybe I’ll try to go after that. It was kind of the new Wild West, I saw an easy frontier and ran to it. The new thing for me is having fun, so whatever this new goal is or interactive experience with viewers turns into, and have a good time while people are watching, that’s what I’ll do.”

 “Twitch will absolutely be a big part of that. There are these little mini tournaments that a friend of ours hosts, so people Skype into her private server and play head-to-head called the Classic Tetris Monthly. There are these little off-season endeavours that we can do.”

 “Even now, I do this thing once a week called Not Tetris, where we just play a newer version or something else. I played Portal for the first time doing that. One of the best things about being on Twitch is being a part of these speedrunning communities.”

 Since this interview, Neubauer has dropped down from the top spot, at least on the Speedrun leaderboards, but it’s likely that he’ll pursue them again in the future. At the end of the day, Neubauer just seems to like challenge, embracing them for pure enjoyment.

 Find him streaming on Twitch as NubbinsGoody.