NES Tetris level 19

Hi there I'm having troubles with this level - I think I'm not the only one though xD The point is that when I look videos of other players, I feel their pieces go down slower than mines, I don't know if it's just an impression or if there are some well-known tips to survive. I've read about DAS and studied this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aew60kovOgw
Are there other things I should know or I just have to practise?

 

i am still attempting to master it, too, so take my advice and comments with a grain of salt...

the things i have learned:

1) you must always know where that next piece is going to go even before the previous one is down. already be pushing the d-pad when the piece comes out if at all possible. sometimes you lose DAS charge for whatever reason and you should practice tapping to get better at it in the real game situations. other great players on here suggested to me i practice on B type levels 19-2, 19-3, and 18-5 to get better and i saw an almost immediate return on my investment.

2) play more on 19 than on 18 or at least a close split. i start every session on 19 and will not switch to 18 until i get between 300-400k, which usually takes me a while. when i began doing this warmup on 19 a few months ago i wouldn't switch levels until i got three 100k games first. you may need to adjust your expectation according to your skill set, but for me i noticed playing more on 19 helped the most.

3) on 19 don't be afraid to burn! in my opinion it is impossible to play 19 like 18 and keep stacking so high. learn all the tucks, (when you leave an awkward hole or space in the stack waiting for a particular pieces to fill), burns (when you purposefully leave a well covered for a split second to get rid of an awkward piece or when you need to waste a line or two to get rid o a bad piece), and spins (cool little last second twists you can use to sneak pieces in places you wouldn't think they'd normally fit) as well, especially Z and S spins.

4) kitaru also mentioned to me once that i needed to be more wary of the left side of the stack since it is harder to maneuver pieces to that side since all the blocks come out oriented one space closer to the right than the left. you may have noticed already how much easier it is to get pieces to the right side than the left- this is why. also, become more familiar with just how high the stack is on the left, when you can get pieces over there and when you can't, and learn that even though a piece may fit well on the left, it may leave a gap or hole you can't hope to fill.

5) play. play again. play more. keep playing. etc., ad nauseum.

6) i learned A LOT from reading through the posts and threads here, too, especially the NES type A thread believe it or not. check it out.

good luck sir and welcome to the forums!

 

Thank you for your tips! I'm sure they'll come in handy
I've read a bit of the thread you linked and I think I've found the problem... I'm playing PAL Tetris!! And I've just discovered that it's faster, isn't it? xD

 

I thought on old video games PAL versions were slower than NTSC/JAP because they were in 50Hz and not 60

 

The PAL version "maxes out" at level 19 just as the NTSC version does at level 29. The game was rebalanced to account for the FPS change between the PAL and NTSC versions.

Even though the PAL version theoretically should be slower, the difference of speed is negligible when pieces are dropping at 1 frame per second.

 

you're playing PAL?!? you're screwed then. that game is designed differently. your level 19 speed is like our level 29 speed but your scrolling action is faster than ours to balance it out.

 

That settles it xD And I was thinking to be such a noob!
I'll convert myself to the right version soon

 

I've got a real PAL NES... I think I'll switch to an emulator. Thank you for pointing that out

 

Dudes, don't talk him into playing NTSC Tetris...

We still have nudes to get.

 

Does anyone have a reliable way to get spins to work every time at 19 speed? I will sometimes have a gap where it's obvious that I can do a T-spin or S/Z spin to fix my mistake, and I'll try to time my spin, but it only works 10% of the time on 19 (vs 100% of the time on a lower speed). Does it come down to learning the exact timing with 1 button push, or to use a few rapid taps?

Also, on 19 I used to have trouble with tucks to the right, whereas tucks to the left didn't give me any problems - kinda weird. I am thinking the timing with spins is slightly different than the timing with tucks, since I probably press the A/B button at the same time I'd be hitting L/R for a tuck, and I usually fail the spin.

 

all i can say is wait longer. it seems that it more of a hit, then flip rather than simultaneous (at least when i make it work)

 

My initial (and probably wrong) thoughts on this: My spins on 19 are about 50%...if I'm recalling in a more rose-tinted fashion. I believe the timing is "at lockdown," if you will, as opposed to the cell before. There's seemingly a larger window for tucks, as you can press at least a cell before lockdown for your desired directional move and, depending on the stack, you can press even earlier.

As far as a timing for me with spins, I try to time a single press just about at the "thud." If my understanding of all this is wrong, well...better lucky than good, I suppose.

 

this sounds exactly correct

 

Yes, because the slide is bufferable and the twist is not.

For slides, every cell in the stretch of wall you're trying to slide under adds another two frames of lead on the timing (assuming 19 speeds, of course). It's actually preferable that you hold against the wall rather than tap at the exact height of the notch. Buffering by holding into the wall leaves you with 10~11 frames on the counter. On the other hand, timing things exactly is a tap shift as opposed to DAS, and will expend all of your momentum.

For twists, you must land the input exactly in the two frame window that the piece is on that elevation -- last row fall, and before locking. There is no analogous mechanic to DAS for rotation that allows the input to be buffered.

tl;dr: For slides, it's preferable to lead the input, and the timing window scales with the height of the wall you're sliding under. For twists, leading is not an option -- the input must be exact.

(For any music gamers out there, two frames is the same timing window as a JGreat/Perfect in beatmaniaIIDX. For non-music gamers, the top players can hit this window on more than 80% of the notes. Here is someone hitting that window 99 times in a row on an entry-level song while doing a joke/side-game goal.)

 

Kitaru - I would swear that spinning an S or Z clockwise has higher probability for me than spinning counterclock wise, even though both work. Is there any technical justification why that would be, or is any difference just in personal perception?

 

Personal perception or preference.

 

I just freaking smash my controller with the thumb as fast and hard and meaningful as possible. The more aggressive I am, the more success I have

 

this.