Blockbox

Version 8.2.3-Build20081031-1584

New features

- In a multiplayer, when the end results are shown, "xx wins" is renamed to "xx winstreak". At the bottom you will see: "xx wins" <-- This shows the total number of wins in the current gamesession. Is handy for playing, for example, "first to win 15 games".

- In a multiplayer game, when you die (or win), it now shows your average TPM.
Also, when you are dead or snooping and other players are playing, you see the average TPM of the players still playing

 

hmm, i've tried the game several times only to have my computer crash at some time on each try. I'm playing with a gamepad through joy2key. i do have the latest java(6update10). i really don't know what else to report. another totally unrelated java-based program i used to use would often crash my pc in the same way which leads me to think it is a java problem. any other ideas?

 

If another java program also crashed , it's maybe something on your pc which causes trouble. Which browser are you using? I recommend using FireFox, if you already don't use it.

Its not a joy2key issue as more Blockbox players are using it

 

yeah, i'm using firefox already. i just tried uninstalling all previous java updates, etc. and freshly installing the newest, but still no luck.

 

i did some testing on TDS, Tetris Zone, and Tetris Online. all 3 games allow soft drop to carry over from one piece to the next, which can be seen by holding down soft drop when playing in sub-20G. however, you can only lock a piece with soft drop in TDS, and it has to be pressed after the piece lands. so if you're playing 20G in TZ or TOJ, the soft drop key might as well be unassigned because it does absolutely nothing.

i personally prefer the TDS approach, because i think it's optimal for using a gamepad. if you're soft dropping a piece and you want to lock it, it's faster to release down and press it again than to release down and move your thumb to press up. if you're playing on a keyboard, it's actually probably faster to soft drop with one key and lock with another, assuming your fingers are covering both keys. still, i don't see the harm in allowing TDS-like handling of soft drop, which really can't hurt anybody, and it would allow gamepad players to lock a bit faster after soft dropping.

TDS doesn't handle 20G any differently from sub-20G as far as soft drop behavior is concerned. because it only locks if you press it after the piece has landed, if you hold it down then only the lock delay for the first piece will be canceled. so it works the same way Kitaru described hard drop in 20G. in fact, with SRS i think soft and hard drop can have specific rules which don't need to change when the gravity changes. their behaviors are consistent from 0G to 20G. the same "repress" protection that prevents double-hard-drops and lock-on-land soft drops also prevents double-locks.

edit: "however, you can only lock a piece with soft drop in TDS"
reworded: of the 3 games i tested, only TDS lets you lock with soft drop (hard drop locks too).

 

hard drop, soft drop, and firm drop rules.

ARS: firm drop always drops, never locks, no protection. soft drop always locks, unless gravity is greater than 1g, and down has not been released since the last piece locked. Hard drop, if it existed, would probably lock when held, but would have protection.
SRS: hard drop locks on press only, and has NO protection. You cannot buffer a hard drop during line clear (tested on tetris ds) Soft drop only locks when PRESSED during lock delay, and has no protection (tested on tetris DS). Firm drop, if it existed, should follow ARS rules.

 

Well i dont' have a TI machine, so I was going by everything i had available to me.

I suspected that TI might have implemented srs differently, and would allow a single lock by pressing UP and holding during non-active time, but i figured that the guideline games outside of Japan were a greater authority on SRS, and they are all i have to go on.

SO while every other SRS game i've tested has it that way i described, it seems Arika handles SRS a bit differently. I know it's I kick priority order is different, as imy tests do not match jagos results.

 

the thing is that Blockbox includes some modes that are nonexistent or very different in Ti, which doesn't make it a strict Ti clone. it's really up to Deniax to make it as close as he wants. we know that 8-way control isn't in Ti, but it helps some people to play faster in 40 lines and multiplayer. things like initial hard drop may allow for faster play too. maybe these things shouldn't exist in modes that emulate TGM modes, and if it were up to me, i wouldn't allow them there.

if Deniax wants some Ti specific information, he just has to ask. i'm sure by now he knows there are some big differences between tetris games, even between games that use variants of the same rotation system.

 

Which is why I implemented essentially the TDS approach in Lockjaw: the first frame of soft drop always locks if the piece has landed; subsequent frames lock only if soft drop locking is turned on (e.g. for ARS simulation). In any case, soft drop doesn't carry over to the next piece unless ARE is longer than DAS (approximating the Master 900 criterion), giving the player time to let go.

I guess that's why SRS is better than ARS on a gamepad in less than 1G. With ARS, you have to press up+down, which is a lot harder on a gamepad than on an arcade joystick.

And there's the point. Just because rotation system (entry orientations and Rotate Left and Rotate Right behavior) is conflated with lockdown (Up and Down behavior) in Arika's games doesn't mean it has to be everywhere.

 

Tetris Advance (J) (the one that looks like Tetris DS, not Tetris Worlds GBA which was released in North America) had an option for "Super Rotation System" on/off.

 

I broke the game.

(For those of you who don't see it, consider my grade)

 

Hopefully this week, I will be able to have implemented the new preview pieces background view shown below: (Don't pay attention to the colors of the pieces)

 

Im also adding background colors when you reach level 100, 200, etc

 

Ok, I 'm going to need your input guys, for the "level indicator" (single player only)
Which of the 4 designs you think will be the most playable ?

http://gluttony.gamepoint.net/choosebackground.jpg

 

Definitely not the 3rd one (counting left to right).
I'd say 2nd or 4th.

 

2nd or 4th.

But I'd like to playtest them before making my final decision.

 

Ah !

2 and 4 as well..