I finally got my first GM! Had a bit of a kerfuffle around 700, too, nearly did me in with nerves & slowed me down quite a lot. The S9 on there was from back in July, when I was playing on keyboard. The cat jumped on me around level 300 & slowed me down quite a bit. The next week I switched to stick, and, well, I've literally never played anything with a Japanese arcade stick before. Took some getting used to, but I'm finally proficient enough to beat the game for real. Now to go for a sub-12 time!
After a while of potential close attempts, finally got my GM. And I got it on an X360 controller, to boot!
Playing a bit more TGM1 again to try to get better at long-term stacking, and to have something respectable to show off if people ask me to demonstrate my Tetris... got another GM, a little faster than last time: GM @ 13:09:43
Congratz and welcome ! That was approximately my first hit on the TGM series at the end of 2004. Keep the effort ! in 8 years you can GM every where !
Trying to get below 12:00 myself on my PCB with a stick. This is my best so far. I really think directional buttons would be faster for me though. What are the rules regarding records on PCB but using a Hit Box-style controller?
There is no rule. It is both PCB and Emulator ranked here. You can have stick, keyboard, paddle or whatever... But you must play on a game which runs at the normal speed, whatever the framerate or inputlag.