Considering i usually hit grade 1 at level 200, i can't even see myself making the 300 time requirement without getting at least a grade of 1. Now i'm wondering if it's even possible to do that with a TAS.
I did this in Shiromino's G1 Master mode, which is a recreation of TGM1: Holy moly, that screenshot is huge. I skimmed a bunch of singles and made some intentional mistakes to make me skim singles. Slamming pieces down quickly is a must because of the line clear delay and piece entry delay. You CAN do this with a Tetris, but your margin of error greatly decreases with higher line clears. Overall this isn't too hard.
As the fastest people do level 300 under 3:30 they have 45 seconds left to make all their tetris into singles and some doubles. Does not sound to hard.
Well i must be missing something, because it feels like i'm playing fast, get many tetrises, and i still miss that first time checkpoint... it's the only one i ever miss.
Do you want to show a video? Most likely culprits: - stalling at 99, 199 and 299 -> add a line clear as quick as possible - having to low of a stack -> you should in general about have the field filled - too many singles -> try to have a funneled well and clear with I and L pieces
shiro is not giving warnings at x99, that's not helping. things i've noticed that kill my time. 1) getting forced into an overhang. it always seems to happen when the pieces are falling really slow too. You either slide a piece under, which wastes seconds, or eat a single to fix it, which also wastes a second or two. 2) the instant i get within range of a section stop i end up stuck using a j or a z to clear, which needs a few more clears to fix. either that or my stack is too flat and i literally can't clear a line for 3 to 5 pieces. And if i set up for a two wide, i have to eat about 3 singles to get back to mid screen tetrises. 3) getting denied I and L pieces when i have the stack up high, and having to take multiple singles and doubles to not top out.
Shiromino is not meant to give warnings at x99 in G1/G2 modes. You have to pay attention to the level counter just as you have to do in real TGM1 and TAP. 1. It can be difficult to avoid overhangs sometimes, so always make sure that your stack is partially flat. 2. Don't be afraid to skim a few singles. Try having your Tetris well situated so that it opens as a 2-wide and becomes a 1-wide as you get farther down the screen. This will give you more leeway for skimming singles without having a messy stack. 3. The tapered well that I mentioned in (2) should take care of this. Do not let yourself get into a situation in which an I piece is mandatory for survival.
i could have sworn i've heard that levelstop alert when playing tgm1 modes before. i guess i've been spoiled by other clones that were inaccurate in including it. i do skim when needed, and when the column 9 is deep enough, only a z causes trouble, but it seems that often the pieces just don't want to fit right. is shiro's rng correct? i got 5 S pieces within 6-10 pieces at one point in the game. i was able to slam three of them over to the left wall cleanly at the time, and shudder to think of what that would have done to my stack if i couldn't have. i know eirsts tgm1 randomizer is arcade accurate. the issue is that fairly often to keep the playfield high i end up having to place an I vertically on the right in column 9 or 8 to leave space to put stuff in the rest of my stack, and then i can't skim until i build back up past it and when i do ahve the 2 wide combo setup i often end up sticking an I in column 9 because the field isn't high enough, and thee's nowhere else i can put it and have room for my next piece. so what i'm taking away from this is 1) anything is better than getting caught at any of the first 3 level stops, except trashing my stack. 2) once i pass 300, i shouldn't need to keep the stack as high as pieces will be dropping faster than 1g most of it, but should transition to 20g play. 3) better to platform and eat a single than to actually fix an overhang before 300. 4) i need to figure out the deep dark secret of pyramiding while leaving places for O pieces, and do it early.
Don't be afraid of singles. If you do not have like 5 years experience taking an obvious single is probably the right move. From what you have written so far I think you should focus to just play cleanly. Let the stack lean to the left side, avoid mistakes, avoid piece dependencies, avoid situations which force overhangs and if something goes wrong clean up within the next pieces even if you need to play slower for a moment.
In regards to your 2) there, I'd say keep the stick at the very least half-full until about Lv250. The later into the 200's the better yet once the game's speed ramps up, you'll no longer need to stack to high.
