Attack, Chris.

I mean, who's no thought at some point home, great at this game.

And so when you sit down and you show them what good really means, just how fast you can play this game or just that accurately, you can play this game.

People always think I've lost.

You know it, you've lost it.

Now you'll never be able to do that.

And then you bring it back.

And that's the best feeling, because everybody thinks it's over and it is definitely not.

I'm James and I'm working here.

As a PhD student, I'm doing something called statistical mechanics.

But don't be put off by the word statistics.

I know it's a scary one.

I'm actually working with Roger, Professor Bully on Dhe.

We're doing some really cool stuff towards my PhD.

So hopefully by this time next year, I shall be Dr Claret, which I'm looking forward to enormously.

No, I think most people know now that I I also play arcade games.

I'm particularly I'm addicted to Tetris.

It's a very compulsive little game.

I think I just went along for a while, just playing for my own satisfaction.

By chance I posted a score on the bulletin board on the Internet on Dhe, a guy came back to me, then his name was Steve proven and he said I can answer this.

If you really scored that, then that's incredible.

That's way above the world record.

This was maybe two weeks before the World Championships, the classic arcade Games Expo in Las Vegas on.

So he invited me.

He said.

Well, you know, come to Vegas and improve it.

It was quite intense and I remember I wasn't playing my best.

I was unnerved by the whole situation.

There was a point when a guy called Billy Mitchell, who is the world record holder for Pac Man, Burger time and a whole bunch of other games, I think he's He's in the Guinness Book of Records, several times Arcade gaming and he was playing a game called Burger Time, which has never been released in the UK and he was about to complete it.

He was gonna finish the whole game and so everybody ran off towards Billy on the the place where I Waas went very quiet and I got a moment of peace and I just sat there and I played my game on, It'll came together.

Everything was just clicking beautifully.

And by the time people came back, I was only 2 200,000 points off the world record on dhe making good progress.

And I thought, I'm going to do this on Everybody came back and gather round and big, you know?

Source Been eyes.

Look, he's doing it.

He's doing it on.

My hands were dripping and wet allover.

The joystick was just wet on Duh.

I got one level short of the world record on I slipped on it.

At that speed, everything goes wrong just just like that and it's gone.

So this close this close on dso I hold the second highest official score of all time that waas 1.57 million um, on the world record is 1.63 million.

So ready class.

Well, I won.

Sorry.

Yes, that's quite important.

I went to the World Arcade Championships on like one on DSO in 1999.

I was the World arcade games Tetris champion on That is something I've been dining out on ever since, which, you know, I think it's probably got me every job interview I've ever bean for Because people just want to know how sad you are.

You know, they look at your CV, anything.

We're gonna meet this guy because he's probably got a beard down to here, you know, um so I hope I don't disappoint them.

When I meet them to be that good at Tetris, it takes ah, certain level of focus, my friends, that college used to call me obsessive James Andi.

That's true.

I I am very, very obsessive, and that helps with Tetris, But it helps with physics.

It helps with everything that I do, because you gotta have a certain amount of focus, our willingness to sit there and apply yourself.

And when it doesn't work, you've got to do it again because that there will be times when it doesn't work in both physics and Tetris on.

So this sort of obsessive compulsive, very easily addicted personality has has really defined my life.

It's it's got me where I am.

Yeah, I mean, everybody's got a hero, right?

So in 2000 and seven, I was invited to play at Nottingham's game City event on how to go the world record here in Nottingham.

And so I went down and I was standing playing at a machine that brought in especially for me on Dhe.

Going along quite well, I thought.

And then at the corner of my eye over here, I just saw this guy and I thought, No, it can't be.

Can't be.

But it was a guy called Alexey Palin off on.

He's the guy who wrote Tetris on that brought him along too.

But nobody had told me it was a complete surprise.

So next thing I know, I'm not was shaking.

I know I'm playing in front of Alexis.

I can't possibly be do this.

It'll Andi I was just I was quaking.

I was nervous and excited.

There's a real pleasure, actually.

And I don't know, I guess he meets Tetris Deeks every day.

Um, but for me, it was a fairly overwhelming experience.

I was really proud.

Andi?

Yeah, he signed my game, boy.

So this this was a gift to me from a very thoughtful gift to me from an ex girlfriend of mine, and I can't play it anymore.

But I do have Alexis signature right here.

Say thistles.

One of my proudest possessions, and I keep this on display in my house, so Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Think house, I think.

Four.