Introduction To Michael Cara
My name is Michael Cara. I'm 16 years old. I live in Alicante, Spain and am my school's only honor student. Just like every other honor student, am I highly intelligent, but I'm not what you'd call perfect at all. My appearance could've been better, to start with. I'm pale. I've black hair. I wear glasses. I have bad skin. Oh, and I'm chubby. No six pack, sorry girls.
Nobody's ever called me handsome in my entire life (not even my mother!), but fortunately people don't pick on me either, nor do they make fun of my not-so-perfect looks. My insecure peers say that I look like I know what I'm doing, and I do. I suppose that that's the reason I'm not a victim of bullying, as most of my fellow nerds are.
I don't follow the latest trends, but I do have style. I always wear a blazer and I ever carry a small suitcase around. I like the professional look they give me. I call it Michael Swag... I know, not very original, but trust me, there's more than enough original stuff that I can tell you about me.
First of all; I couldn't care less about my future career. Personally, I don't need to be a business man. My family and teachers expect me to though, and the latter say that I have way more potential than the average student, so I might choose that path anyway.
Yet I wouldn't mind doing something ''less'', such as cleaning toilets or waiting tables - I'll be grateful if I manage to get a job at all, considering today's high unemployment rates! No, seriously, I wouldn't mind a job in an ice cream store or pizzeria. I don't dream of fame or wealth... I don't even dream of a beautiful wife and a loving family! All's good as long as I'll unravel the greatest mystery of all time...
The Tertis Code.
Cracking The Tetris Code has been my quest ever since I first played the incredibly addictive arcade game. Seriously, my life hasn't been the same ever since... Haha, please don't think that I feel like a brave-hearted paladin now! A life changing experience isn't necessarily an exciting one. I think that others would percept my life as rather boring, to be honest.
The main reason for that is; I don't socialize much. I've never had a girlfriend, and I don't have many guy friends either. I mean - I do have people to sit next to during classes and in the school's cafeteria... But the conversations I have with them are mostly about homework, and how they want to copy mine!
I don't mind though, I don't feel lonely. I might have the time to make real friends later down the road; currently I'm a man on a mission, and for now my mission comes first. If I have to sacrifice some teenagers' bullcrap, so be it. I don't have to go to the cinema, swimming pool, or the central park...
I actually hardly ever go outside. As soon as I come home from school, I head straight to my room, close the curtains and start up my old Windows 98 computer to play Tetris. That's been my daily routine for five years now, and I've come far, FAR in the game, further than anyone else ever has.
The 10 top places on the highscore list are all mine. I find it quite funny to look at - number 1, MiCara, number 2, MiCara, number 3, MiCara... It goes on and on!
I'm on level 18 now, and I estimate that it's the last level in the game. Eventhough 20 or even 25 levels would make more sense, I simply know no one could ever pass 18. I hate to sound full of myself, but I've been training hard since eleven and I'm pretty much the best Tetris player the world has ever known. My highest highscore could be in the Guiness Book Of World Records, it's 24,985,873,082.
Is that impressive, though? Not really.
It's a nice score, but it we would be speaking of impressive if I had cracked The Code, and I still haven't. Neither have I made much progress, if I can be true to myself...
Still, he lack of advance isn't due to my attitude. I have worked out various theories, but none of them proved to be right.
My first and favorite theory, was that there was a code in the colors. That, if you managed to build the perfect 'Tetris wall' (which means placing all the bricks perfectly) and memorised the positions of all the different colors, I'd see a drawing, or something else that could help me further. For example; every color could stand for a coordinate, letter or number or something.
I made my first attempt when I was 12. I was a very experienced player by then and I made a perfect wall in the first level. After every correct row, I paused the game so that I could write down where every color was located.
Then I redrawed the thing, but I saw nothing but a strange drawing, to my dissappointment. No clear picture, just random colors.
But no-one had told me that Tetris would give its secrets away easily. When I started out on the project I had expected a Rembrandt, but this maybe was a Picasso... If you know what I mean. Not all forms of art are equally easy to fathom!
So, instead of turning my back at the drawing, I studied the thing more closely, searching for symbols or patterns... which I couldn't find. But I couldn't give up just yet, and soon I tried to give every color a certain letter.
Absolutely no word or sentence I could find made sense. I tried every combination possible and used every single letter of the aplhabet. It yielded nothing but serious headaches!
After four weeks of working with the footage for at least seven hours a day, I couldn't do it anymore. It simply was no use. I realised that IF Tetris' secret laid within the placement of the bricks, it'd be even more complex than I had thought it would be, and certainly more complex than I was capable of to solve.
I decided to put my brick theory aside and try something different first. I mean, Tetris200, the Tetris game I play, is a huge game if you want to record every single detail. It has 15 different games - speaking of the combinations you have to make with the bricks - and, as I've mentioned before, at least 18 levels!
You could make something massive out of that, you could make every unique level a different symbol, number or letter! The Da Vinci Code's childsplay compared to what I'm trying to unravel here!
So. That first theory was beyond my power at the time and I think it still is now. I decided to quickly move on and I started to focus on the sounds in Tetris. I could dream the electronical beat that plays in the background, I always notice how it changes a little every level, and I know the bleeps that play when you finish a row by heart. Naturally, I wot the sounds of failing as well...
Knowing the sounds wasn't enough for me, though, I decided to analyze them on a completely different level. I used my Physics project to study Tetris' sound frequencies. Without the school's equipment, I could've never done it after all...
Unfortunately, my second hypothesis was another fail. I got an A for my project, but didn't find anything unusual or significant. But my quest didn't end there, I didn't know what to do for a while, but I never lost courage.
Unexpectedly, something completely different popped up into my mind. The message in Tetris perhaps WASN'T cryptical... eventhough there was only a slight chance of my new, radical theory being true, there was no way I could hold back on it.
What if - I wondered one night, that first legendary night I had just reached the 15th level - what if the message was given away for absolutely free... To the first person that finished the entire game?
In my enthusiasm, I pressed the wrong arrow button and my block ended up in the wrong gap. Shortly after, I lost again, and I immediately closed the game to check Wikipedia... My assumptions were confirmed - no one had ever finished Tetris200 yet, and if I tried hard enough, I would be the first to unlock its secret message or code.
So. I did try. And I'm still trying present day. Actually, I've been trying it for a few years now and sometimes I begin to wonder if it's even possible to complete the game... It must be, though. If it weren't, the game developers would have to work on the game eternally - you can't finish making a game that can't be finished by the player!
That's what I keep telling myself whenever I feel frustrated or desperate about still not having solved the mystery of Tetris. A stupid mistake is easily made, you know - either because it's late and I'm tired or just because the bricks falling so damn fast.
I tend to feel like finishing Tetris is similar to achieving perfection. Eventhough the puzzles aren't extremely hard, you need to be quick-witted to succeed, and you need great reflexes as well.
Now, the average human being develops those skills relatively toillessly, but there's a problem.
The quality you need most, can't be taught, it's something you have to be born with.
Unlimited dedication.