Looks like the idea is to implement a cellular automaton with a different ruleset on top of Game of Life (using so called metapixels), and then use that to implement a CPU.
This is similar to the Wireworld computer. I liked this quote on its website:
"The design was done by David Moore and Mark Owen, with the help of many others, between 1990 and 1992. It’s a testament to our modesty that it was not until September 2004 that we wrote up our work."
I'm impressed how well the huge GOL pattern runs in Golly, but it's not clear where the actual Tetris board is on it. Not many of the metapixels are live at a time so there's a lot of zooming in and out to see what's going on.
Surely there should be a way to do this without so many layers of abstraction?
I guess the concept of control is too hard, but it should be possible to simulate blocks properly falling on top of each other.
This was just the first submission to the contest. You could easily win by coming up with a smaller way to emulate WireLife. I look forward to your submission next year!
TC guarantees the simulation of any program a different TC can run, that would include Tetris. It does not include any UI or UX experience, so you definitely COULD simulate tetris, but you might not get an easily understood UI.
Another amazing game-of-life machine is the digital clock: https://copy.sh/life/?gist=f3413564b1fa9c69f2bad4b0400b8090&... - it's a bit less CPU hungry too