I did it by pressing up-left-down-right, repeating each direction as many times as possible. That's the worst part - knowing that your carefully calculated playthrough is actually no better than someone just pressing the keys in a set order.

Ran your strategy 162 times with autoit of which the following blocks came by: [128]: 150 times, [256]: 36 times, [512]: 13 times, [1024]: 0 times. Anyone else a good suggestion for an optimal "blind" strategy?

Perhaps I had a little bit of luck. But this shows you can easily get to 256 with little dedication. After which you can start to puzzle things together.

Also about your autoit "analysis" 36 + 150 + 13 != 162

Well, when it reaches a 256 block, it also reached a 128 block, so some games count for 2 or 3 blocks.

That's true. :)

Anyway managed to get to 1024 + 512 + 256 after that without random button mashing.

UUDDLRLRBA