Rif-Raf's training post

Thread in 'Strategy' started by Rif-Raf, 10 Feb 2015.

  1. Hi guys,

    As expected, I'm getting quite serious about Tetris with the arrival of my Japanese Candy Cab.
    (Playing on my type X Ti, 'cause unfortunately, my TGM 1 PCB arrived yesterday... and does not work...)

    So, with great ambition about this game, I'm starting a daily training (roughly 30 min to 1h) to improve over time on this fantastic series.

    The main aim of this topic is to become a “diary” about my personal training, and follow the improvements over weeks to help future casual Tetris player (like I am currently) becoming TGM speed daemons.

    I'll impose myself some "limitations" for my evolution on TGM series:

    - I'll exclusively use ARS (no matter what, I’ll stick to that statement).
    - I'll train on TGM1 until master grade obtained (my personal target is to become GM before July, ie being ranked below 100th western GM –according to this forum hall of fame on TGM1), then switch to TAP
    - I'll then train on TAP until Master on master mode is obtained and GM for TAP Death is obtained (can take quite a few years...)
    - Then train on Ti (by that time, hopefully, TGM4 would have been released :p ).

    I don't know if playing the games chronologically is a good thing, but I personally consider this as a natural way of evolving. I am quite used to arcade games, and I know that it’ll imply solid and regular training, and will take years to achieve the above mentioned objectives.


    Febr, 10th 2015:

    So far, I'm qualified 5 on Ti (50 games played so far on master mode, last 5 games were 5/5/4/5/4), and S1 on TGM1.

    The first wall I'm meeting is the first acceleration around lvl 250-300. I notice a drastic (well, at least for me) increase of game's speed in both fall time and lock delay that leads to quick gameover for me.

    After quite a lot of gameovers between level 320 and 380 I found out couple of things:

    My hands are not able to follow my brain so far:

    I'm visionning lots of great players videos and try to figure "where I'll put that Tetromino" for the next move, and I noticed that my brain is capable to follow their pace, being "right" 80% of the time (above lvl 700, that become quite messy though).
    But I have some major issue placing tetrominos where I want to put them (a clear lack of technical gameplay), due to several things I’ll have to modify in my gameplay:

    - No pyramid shape, meaning sliding tetrominos is quite hard
    - Lack of IRS move meaning that tetrominos are stucking themselves in holes before being correctly placed.
    - The well is becoming quite messy around lvl 250, meaning I can not build a proper pyramid form, as I am already struggling filling holes.


    I'll try Texmaster this evening to see if it's best, if not, I'll find a proper build of TGM1 for Mame (not piracy, as I pocess the original pcb, even if it's not working... sic...)

    I stopped playing “normal TGM1 master mode” to have training exclusively on 20G mode, in order to adapt myself to the maximum speed of the game, and make that speed level "natural" to me. So far, I improved a little bit, but I can not attain lvl 100 on 20G mode for the moment. I daily play sessions of 15min to 30min on 20G mode in order 1) to play fully concentrated the whole games, and 2) avoid being discouraged by this game mode :p

    I’ll post videos of my “best training session” to have some visual description of all this text ^^

    Feedbacks and tips are gladly welcome!

    PS: I’ll also try to avoid getting mad, as I suddenly see “tetrominos falling” at work… xD
     
    Kitaru likes this.
  2. I think playing the games chronologically is a good thing for a new player, but for the sake of your sanity (and actual enjoyment) I wouldn't advise sticking to it religiously. Switching to TAP is a good way to mix things up when you're starting to hit a brick wall with TGM1, and in particular Death is a great way to train 20G ARS (and also best TGM mode...). Likewise Ti adds a bit of variety when you're stuck with TAP, though the gameplay mechanics are bit more different between the two games. The games all complement each other well enough that playing a sequel doesn't destroy your ability in earlier games in the series, though at the same time if you were to start at Ti and work backwards you'd probably get pretty frustrated with the limitations in the older games.

    Definitely try and do the bulk of your practice for each game chronologically, until you feel like you're proficient with it, but I think if you hold out on Gm for one game before moving onto the next one you'd quite possibly commit sudoku in frustration before getting to TAP, let alone Ti :p
     
    Kitaru likes this.
  3. Hi, thanks for your reply ;)

    Well you're right, adding fresh air could be good sometime !
    By playing chronologically I wanted to say that I'll focus my training on games chronologically, but you're right, I'll probably also play other games of the series time to time, to avoid frustration and getting bored ;)
     

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