Is there a way to start out at a difficulty level beyond level 9 in the NES version of Tetris? In the Gameboy version, there was a code that was activated by holding down on the d-pad while starting the game that was pretty much like selecting levels 10 through 19 instead of levels 1 through 9, as the tetriminos fell at those speeds (at level 2 the pieces fell like they normally would at level 12, at level 6 they fell like they would at level 16 etc.). However, the scoring was the same.
It's scored the same as starting at levels 0-9, so it's not good for anything beyond practice anyhow. It's not really mandatory in NES, you can max from 9 without much (if any) disadvantage -- perfect transition of 726k vs. 753k. Level 9 is longer but lets you get away with more high-stacking shenanigans, while Level 18 is shorter and has a slight edge on scoring potential but much more strict in terms of placement restrictions (and as such, how many skimmed lines you'll likely be forced to take in practice).
