i have been poring over these videos for the last few hours and am wondering if anyone else has an opinion about which is the most impressive. i think the most impressive performances are: 1) thor's level 30 max out with the neighbor knocking. especially notable considering the pressure he was under to prove what he had previously claimed to have done. no one else has done this as of yet, despite billions of games of tetris having been played. not only this, but he knowingly passed up a max out at the end of the video so he could keep stacking and make a center well in an effort to reach level 30. gutsiest. tetris. maneuver. ever. 2) buco's level 26 max out! acordfing to alex kerr's (kitaru) calculations on how quickly a possible mix out could be scored, this is the closest that has ever been done with verification. color me impressed. 3) david vullich's LEFT SIDE WELL max out. imagine playing level 19 with an extra line or two at the bottom and that is what this guy did the whole fucking time. well played sir, well played. 4) harry's level 18 max out. why not his second, level 19 max out? this was the first time it had been done officially, and not knowing if it was possible or not makes this an even sweeter max out. 5) i don't have a number 5. they are all admittedly incredible i their own right. i was hoping you guys could give some of your own input and help distinguish the max out from one another. what was particularly intriguing about one or the other? are there things you find compelling about any of them other than these i have mentioned? could you enlighten me?
Re: most impressive 999,999s this list is about right. I would add harrys 19 as well, most especially its first 109 lines. I would also add the very difficult to watch cell phone video level 19 of Jonas. just had a lot of craziness going on.
Re: most impressive 999,999s i watched harry's 19 and remember it being one of the most unforeseeable games i ever witnessed, so yeah i guess that's a good 'un, too. i wish we had videos of more people playing less than max out score so we could see just what brilliance they possess. i know i learned a lot from watching other people play, not just max outs, but other games as well- especially this one. i would like to see more people post video of them playing normal, everyday games so we little people can learn from it, too. i know alex and don post twitch videos once in a while and i love observing, but i want more!
Re: most impressive 999,999s Thor's video with the neighbor's knocking at the door is one of the most impressive videogame related video I've seen so far
Re: most impressive 999,999s I think starting on level 19 and maxing it out trumps any maxout starting lower. We could probably all agree on that. After that, each successive level earlier that you max it out is more impressive, but then comes the relative incidence of I blocks - the fewer the more impressive. So it's possible that say a level 26 maxout could be equally as impressive as a level 28 if the I block incidence was sufficiently different. I'm not sure about the left vs right wall issue - building on the right, if you're used to it, could be construed as a bit easier only because you can build slightly higher on the right side. On the other hand, you have to be more careful not build too high on the left. So it's kind of a trade off. So, perhaps aside from elevating the level 19 starts to the most impressive, it would be hard to arrive at an agreeable formula for which maxouts were more difficult. There would have to be some formula involving number of lines at maxout and relative incidence of I blocks. But then you have the issue of relative incidence of S and Z, which make things harder generally.
Re: most impressive 999,999s so low!?! the 4th ranked game ever played seems pretty high to me! i am really excited to see the other game you mentioned in the high score thread though- it may supersede one of the ones on this list when i see it. these are subjective opinions anyway... i am glad you joined the forum BTW!
Re: most impressive 999,999s what about kitaru's 999 999 ? Not because of the game itself but because of the context: reaching the max out without playing the game for decades.
Re: most impressive 999,999s that's a great point but i didnt know that when i made the list. i know he is yonger than everyone else that seems to be on here. when did you start playing kitaru?
Re: most impressive 999,999s Not to downplay Kitaru's achievements or anything (cause he's clearly one of the best), but as far as my experience goes, I started playing in 1993, ten years later in 2003 I can recall breaking 600,000 only a handful of times, and my highest being 825,000 just once. Can't say I improved much between 1993 and 2011, I really only took off once the movie buzz started, took much needed advise from the greats, watched lots of video and played countless hours. All this to say I credit my strong play to the time spent between Jan 2012 to the present, before that I hadn't even played the game for about 5 years. So with enough practice (like David Vulich) anyone can become incredible at this game. In my opinion someone can do really well if they put the time in, but not necessarily because they have played since the 90s.
Re: most impressive 999,999s @ wasmachstdugern Very soon, my youtube channel should be back up with loads of 'non-max out' games. Take a look if you like, hope anything on there helps. http://www.youtube.com/user/louieskouie
Re: most impressive 999,999s @louie- thanks man! i would love to watch them! i have a similar story though- i played as a kid, got some 800ks a few times cause i was lucky, then took it off until december of last year. i teach so i have the summers off and am playing pretty much every day for at least an hour and getting 600-800ks daily. i credit this improvement mainly to watching the greats as you mentioned. i think youre correct about putting the time in- if you want it you could get it... -but- i am not certain everybody could be good at it. sometimes you gotta have a little bit of talent, especially if your goal i s a max out (like mine is). i am not sure just anybody could do that.
Re: most impressive 999,999s I think I agree with what Louie is saying. But, to answer the question: disregarding some minor, incidental play, I basically started with NES in May 2010 -- a handful of months before the first CTWC. On the broader scope, I've been playing various Tetris games "seriously" since maybe December 2006, when I started to pick up TGM. (The first TGM1 score screenshot I have is a 1 or S1 from May 2007). Louie's mention of leveraging the community and existing videos really resonates with me. I think that forums and video sites help connect us to a training mentality that would have once come from arcades or the neighborhood -- geographically local scenes within which one could accelerate their growth by observing and discussing the game. I don't know where I'm going with this post anymore, but that's what I wanted to say.
Also, I believe Ben Mullen's max-out should be up there in the top five. Considering his *thousand* one-away games, getting it finally was a little anti-climactic, but still pretty epic. Also, I remember it very clearly due to the Crown Royal and Pepsi, and the fact that I achieved over 900,000 for the first time ever on the very same day. By the way, thanks for agreeing with me, Kitaru! I find also a lot of inspiration helped me along the way, if it wasn't for Alex Kerr, Ben Mullen, Harry Hong and a long, long list of others helping, pushing (and hating) along the way, I would have given up long before I maxed out back in March.
I think I've watched all the max vids out there ....I think luck does play a factor, although minor in how early the max occurs...But I also think Thors lvl 30 max is the most impressive.(gutsiest)..I like watching Jonas' vids...He seems to pull off moves and tucks from nowhere ..(most creative).......Also Kitaru and Mullen have great max vids too ! they are good examples of having patience, and evaluating risk/reward....Also Quaids pictures are impressive...lol....That being said...ALL the max vids are pretty cool......!!
true good sir. in hindsight it seems this thread may have been too callous a way to offer up what i really wanted to talk about. despite me singling out only a few maxouts to be celebrated i know each and every one is special in its own right. i do not mean to take anything away from someone who earned it.
