My TGM Recording...

[cdsboy]

[MODDED]

[tepples]

Suggestion: Figure out what's stopping Lockjaw from linking and play the shit out of its Death speed curve, possibly with a longer lock delay. This starts you out at 20G.

[DIGITAL]

The sub-20g speed can be a bit unpredictable when the field is too low. I'd suggest building the middle higher and keeping the whole field generally high. You'd be able to build faster and have a "20g" like environment where you are able to predict where pieces will land. Also, when faced with a misdrop, plug the hole and build over it (if you didn't cover the right column I mean). Keeping the middle and left side high is your top priority.

[cdsboy]

ok thanks for the suggestions

[colour_thief]

Wow. You're clearly a solid player getting only Tetrises until lvl 250 or so, but you haven't learned any of the TGM tricks. All the sudden your TDS skills become unsuitable and you're unable to cope. It felt to me like you were handling the speed just fine (in terms of pieces/sec), but you just didn't know any options of where to put your pieces once the gravity increased. This was because your screen was too flat. Build higher in the center, it won't hurt.


I'd recommend playing 20G which I think you could see coming. http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif But it's true! Don't even worry about playing 20G quickly, just learn the general mechanics and structure of play. Pieces have to be able to flow from the center. You'll learn to love pieces scraping along the bottom of the screen before long. http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif If you get frustrated, just cut back to regular play again, but try and build similarly. You'll be surviving to 500 before you know it.


20G code:

Down (eight times), C, B, A, Start.


Use it! And honestly you're much better than I was when I first started playing TGM, so you can totally do it.

[caffeine]

i wouldn't say really to make to the middle high, just as long as it's safe. a middle can be safe and not look like a pyramid. in short, i wouldn't worry too much about the middle so long as you mind it and keep it safe.


also, you have to learn how to initially rotate L/J to their letter orientation-- which is important most of the time when maneuvering over a lot of surfaces. lastly, start preparing for 20g early on. that's all i got.


edit: ct posted as i was, so maybe i'm overexaggerating the middle-tall thing-- i'm not the expert.


when i was learning tgm the first time i went with the 20g only thing and got discouraged, quiting shortly after. second time i just played regular 20g, and it held my interest a little longer.

[colour_thief]

Yes, you don't have to build high in the center, just higher.

[Ken_P]

That's very similar to the way I played when I started playing TGM about a year ago. I wish I knew about this group back then! I had to figure out all that useful stuff about building the middle high on my own. It'll take a while, but you'll get used to it. Also, play as much 20G as you can. It'll be maybe a few weeks before you're even comfortable doing it for more than a few seconds, but you'll get the hang of it. Before I learned to play 20G, I would usually get to S3 or S4 and then loose control once the gravity got to be too much. Once you get the basics of 20G down, you should be able to blow past that mark pretty quickly. Good Luck!

[Amnesia]

Hé hé.. http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif
Listen the Death Master!

[cosmonaut]

ok i'm kind of jealous. is there any TGM type game i can play on a mac that isn't Lockjaw?

yours,

cosmonaut

[DIGITAL]

Perhaps the Mac port of Heboris?


I've recently seen Syoboris on the heboris uploader and have been wondering what it is specifically. Another expansion variant for the mac I suppose?

[cosmonaut]

is there an easy way to get the mac port of heboris?

[colour_thief]

Syoboris is an entirely new SDL-based effort for Mac. It's very early and primitive right now.


Sorry cosmo I'm not a Mac guy and can't really help you. http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif

[PetitPrince]

How did you record it ?


Camtasia slows the game, making it easier, and Mame produce really huge (too huge for me :s ) .mng files.

[caffeine]

camstudio's (http://www.camstudio.org/default.htm) open-source. and any screen recording program will slow down a computer if it can't handle it. with faster computers, you won't experience slow down.

[cdsboy]

I did use camtasia. It slowed it down. But just by a bit. Also i was running tgm in zinc not mame. that might be the differnce. When using camtasia i find it helps to set a fps to record not let it choose its own. Oh and cosmo, i have to mac version of heboris if you pm me an email i'll send it to that.

[PetitPrince]

Ah so you're using zinc. I forgot how power-demanding Mame was. Works like a charm now. You guys will see my videos soon http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif .

[Rosti LFC]

This thread is holding hope for me. My internet is down until christmas due to moving house, so I've been playing TGM because I have no wifi.

I can hit S3 in under 6 minutes, but then it sort of goes downhill.

Usually I'll just screw myself up with misdrops, or a lack of knowing the rotation, until I slowly cling on to life at the top of the screen before dying around level 500.

Either that, or I mess up early, and spend too much time rectifying it. I'll get well past level 500, but be on S2 or something.


When my internet gets up, I'll try downloading one of those programs nd putting some videos up. I was intent on looking for some ways to record screenshots, and you guys have solved it for me http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

[DIGITAL]

The guide here (http://www13.plala.or.jp/TETRiS_TGM/kouza/index.htm) is extremly useful for learning how to deal with the various situations in TGM, particularly 20g.

[cdsboy]

The guide here (http://www13.plala.or.jp/TETRiS_TGM/kouza/index.htm) is extremly useful for learning how to deal with the various situations in TGM, particularly 20g.


exilent! now only if it wasn't in japanese....

[cdsboy]

Update:

I've been playing a lot of Heboris, TGM Death. I just manage to get to level 248 so i can see some inprovement : ). The things you guys said to do defidently helped.

[PetitPrince]

Here's mine's (http://bsixcentdouze.free.fr/tetris/1/default.htm) (due to some of my host's retriction, I had to split the file in several part. You can join them with the batch (.bat) file included. Sorry mac-user :/ ).

[cdsboy]

couldn't you just have zipped it into a rar? then split the rar using such great files like winrar?

[K]

how is it possible for you to have problem with free.fr ?

http://jagorochi.free.fr/video/ (http://jagorochi.free.fr/video/default.htm)


i have absolutely no problem of file size limitation (10Go)

what is your ftp client ???

[PetitPrince]

couldn't you just have zipped it into a rar? then split the rar using such great files like winrar?
... why haven't I though of this before ?

/me is stupid.


how is it possible for you to have problem with free.fr ?
http://jagorochi.free.fr/video/ (http://jagorochi.free.fr/video/default.htm)

i have absolutely no problem of file size limitation (10Go)
what is your ftp client ???

I think it's more an ISP problem than an host/software problem, as I can't http upload (megaupload, yousendit, youtube etc...) anything bigger than ~16 Mo correctly.


Anyway, it's Filezilla. It says, after uploading ~20 Mo "Critical Upload Error". I'll try with SmartFTP later.

[PetitPrince]

°-_-


Bordel de cul d'vache à traire.


Okay. So while I was I trying to split the file with WinRar, I discovered that CamStudio does not produce compressed video. So I was able to shrink my ~70 MB file into a much upload-friendlier 3.31 MB one.


*sigh*


Anyway, is anyone willing to analyse how much I suck at TGM ?

[colour_thief]

What is the link?


(Maudit d'esti de tabarnac!)

[PetitPrince]

Ew. Sorry.


[Download] (http://bsixcentdouze.free.fr/tetris/TGM-S3.rar)

[colour_thief]

You've got a basic feel for 20G mechanics, which is good. What I suggest you work on:


Fill in your holes/overhangs! Yes it sucks when you can't avoid these imperfections, but don't make the situation worse than you have to. Take for example:


Level 385

|    [][][][][][][][]|
|    [][][][][][][][]|
|      [][][][][][][]|
|      [][][][][][][]|
|  [][][][][][][][][]|
|  [][][][][][][][][]|


You actually have a lot of options to fix that overhang. O, J, and L can perfectly fix the situation. Assuming the rest of your screen is pretty good (and it was when you were playing), hold out for a piece that fixes your problem.

Level 192

|[][][][][][][]      |
|[][][][][][]        |
|[][][][][][][]      |
|[][][][][][][]  []  |
|[][][][][][][][][]  |

|[][][][][][][]      |
|[][][][][][]        |
|[][][][][][][]{}{}{}|
|[][][][][][][]{}[]  | Awaiting L, J, or T for full recovery.
|[][][][][][][][][]  |

|[][][][][][][]      |
|[][][][][][]        |
|[][][][][][][]{}{}{}|
|[][][][][][][]  []{}| Awaiting T for full recovery.
|[][][][][][][][][]  |

|[][][][][][][]      |
|[][][][][][]{}{}    |
|[][][][][][][]{}{}  |
|[][][][][][][]  []  | Awaiting S or even T for full recovery.
|[][][][][][][][][]  |

|[][][][][][][]{}    |
|[][][][][][]{}{}    |
|[][][][][][][]{}    |
|[][][][][][][]  []  | Awaiting L, J, T, O, or S for recovery.
|[][][][][][][][][]  |


Ok, this strategy is maybe overkill for this speed level, but it's a good habit to develop. You fixed this situation well enough in your game, but each of the solutions above is preferable. It's always better to keep your hole towards the outside. With the pieces you got, you could have repaired it in 2 moves.

Level 341

|            []      |
|            []      |
|            []      |
|          [][]      |
|[][][][][][][][]    |
|  [][][][]  [][]  []|

|            []      |
|            []      |
|            []    {}|
|          [][]    {}|
|[][][][][][][][]{}{}|
|  [][][][]  [][]  []|


By and large you were pretty good at opening up holes, but you missed this move. You can often take a really bad situation and fix it by creating a simple line to open up the holes, so keep your eyes open for moves like this. With time these opportunities will stick out to you.


At level 380 you could have placed this O piece without any risks by DAS'ing to the far left wall, and then backtracking once. Many pieces can be placed well like this, and it's pretty fast, so learn to use this when placing pieces.


I'm sorry if it looks like I'm digging into you here. You'll notice that I gave fairly specific advice. This is because I feel you are good enough to benefit from specific (instead of general) advice.


One final word:

You played VERY slowly. Don't worry about this, and concentrate on strategy for now. Your speed will increase naturally. You shouldn't worry about speed until you can survive 20G for a while.

[Rosti LFC]

OK, my times obviously weren't as good as I thought, as I've since broken S3 in under 4:20. I've also improved enough to regularly get S4 and occasionally S5.

My problem is, once I hit level 450-ish, I'm no longer in control. I'm playing for survival, getting singles and doubles, rather than keeping on top with Tetrises.

I think I just need more practise with 20G, and getting used the rotation.

[Taratang]

Keep at it Rosti, you'll hit GM in no time http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif

[Rosti LFC]

Thanks Taratang http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

Recently I seemed to have got worse, only getting S2 and struggling to break S4. Then on Tuesday I got my form back, and I started getting S5's again. Then, from the blue I got a really good game and got well into S7 rank, losing on level 780 or something.

That gave me really good hope that I can get the TGM rank. All I have to do is get better at 20G and survive. I broke S7 at the 10 minute mark, so by my reckoning, I should easily be within the required 13:30:00 time setting. I just have to keep going at it.


Anticipating my wifi back soon, I've started playing TDS again, and I've noticed my style is definitely more TGM-esque, especially when the pieces are moving quickly.