Maxout

A maxout is when a player reaches the score cap. This is also known as a counter stop (カンスト kansuto).

Maxouts by game

Tetris (Sega)

Tetris (Sega) was the first official Tetris game to have a defined score cap, set at 999999. By January 1989 the first maxout had been achieved on Easy difficulty by SPREAM-DIG.

In February 1989 SPREAM-DIG repeated the feat on Normal difficulty, and by March maxouts had been recorded on at least 10 different machines. Subsequently the focus switched to reaching the maximum score in the fewest lines, and by August maxouts had been recorded within 600 lines on both Easy and Normal.

The discovery of the power-on pattern allowed players to achieve faster maxouts by planning line clears in advance, ultimately leading to a route that could achieve a maxout in under 100 lines.

It is said that Bloxeed was maxed out at the location test, leading the developers to increase the difficulty.

The Sega Ages re-release gave the player the option to change the maximum score to 9999999.

Tetris (Game Boy)

As with the Sega arcade version, the maximum score is 999999.

It is not known when the first maxout occurred due to the difficulty of score tracking before the Internet, but given the calibre of players it is hard to envision it not occurring in 1989 or 1990. A video exists dating from 2006, while J.O's high score page has reported a max out score going back at least to 2004.

Tetris (NES, Nintendo)

The maximum score is 999999. Because of the game's unique speed curve and levelling system, maxing out the Nintendo NES version requires not only survival skills but also line clearing efficiency, as it is nearly impossible to score significantly after reaching level 29.

The PAL version has a different speed curve, and as a result, no known maxout exists.

Other games with score caps

Games with maximum score 99999

• Tetris Giant

Maxed out by Koryan.

Games with maximum score 999999

• Tetris 2 + Bombliss
• Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss
• Super Tetris 3
• Tetris Plus

All of these have been achieved and videos exist. These are considered relatively straightforward.

• Tetris & Dr. Mario

No known maxout exists. A maxout would require a significant number of lines cleared at level 29 speeds, which is not impossible (games with nearly 100 line clears at level 29/30 exist).

Games with maximum score 9999999

• Tetris DX

Maxout scores have been attested. Known maxouts include a game by Koryan in 2813 lines in 1998.

Games with maximum score 99999999

• Tetris X
• SuperLite 1500 Series: The Tetris

According to an interview with one of the developers of Tetris (WonderSwan Color) a person left their PlayStation on for a year in order to reach the game's maximum score, but which game it was is not specified.

• Tetris Plus 2

Maxout scores have been attested.

• Tetris DS
• Puyo Puyo Tetris

Maxout scores have been attested in Endless mode.

Games with maximum score 999999999

• Tetris (WonderSwan Color)

It is unlikely that this score has been reached legitimately due to the incredibly large number of lines that would be required, but a TAS exists that takes advantage of perfect clear bonuses.

Games with score rollovers

Both the Atari arcade version and the Tengen NES version rolled the score over after 999999. For the Atari arcade version, since score is retained between credits it is straightforward to reach 999999 by credit feeding. The Tengen NES version, on the other hand, rolls the score over to 100000 after 999999. Many players have been able to roll over the score in that version several times.