Can you think of an effective way to convince arcade owners to buy Ti or even TAP machines for their locations? It has to be cheaper than DDR.
Other than "I'd personally put more money into it playing it than you get on all your other machines combined" I can't think of anything. I don't even know of any arcades near me though. Unless you include the tiny ones occasionally tagged onto cinemas and bowling alleys, that only ever seem to have Outrun and Time Crisis.
On the one hand, it would be great because it'd allow a lot of people to discover TGM... On the other hand... It would be giving free sales to an evil company that is already waddling in its own feces/money... And moreover, it's a botched version of Tetris that braindead japanese people fell in love with and decided to call god... Call its bugs features... Call the gameplay elements that are designed to make you insert more coins "innovative." Oh I am feeling so blas today.
And it'd be one heck of a lot better than Atari/Midway's ancient arcade version. Arika, or Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood? In what way? At least it lets you turn off SRS and Inf and it doesn't have the playing forever exploit.
Personally I couldn't in good conscience recommend TGM to a Western arcade. It just wouldn't be profitable. TGM1 is cheap but wouldn't truly excite anyone. TGM3 might do ok but I don't imagine it would get a fast return on it's investment. TGM2 is a better pricepoint, but the game is pretty harsh and would frankly scare a lot of people away. Maybe you could somehow turn a profit by installing TAP in an arcade with a strongly established hardcore clientele, but there are very very few of those left. I've never seen anyone play at a high level in anything other than fighting or music games in an Western arcade. Could you elaborate on this? What specific bugs are being called features? And the game doesn't let you continue, so I don't get what you mean by calling TGM a credit feeder. The fact that the best Japanese players can crack out a MasterM or S13 on demand should be enough to prove that the game is in no way unfair.
At least 2 and 3 have "normal" modes that stay halfway easy for 80-some lines. Even 1 would be an improvement on the Atari version.
THANK GOD!!!! i mean, who on earth would want to play like this? it's like totally slow, and it's like...not ARS
TGM has the grading system as a measure of prestige... Anyone who wants to get to the top, and there are many of them, will inevitably play hundreds of games... This is just the way arcade games are marketed, and the end goal isn't really to make a hardcore game for people to play, it's all about selling more machines, getting people to gather up around the machine to watch the pros, and getting more people to put coins in. They also make each installment harder than the last so players don't lose interest once they become Masters... That's why Arika is "evil" -- just like capitalism is "evil" -- so not really evil, just not worthy of god status Oh and the bugs... Well, not really bugs, more like non-intuitive undocumented discrepancies that players have to learn through trial and error... Going back to the evil conspiracy idea, the likely reason ARS is still around is so people can't practice at home. If it wasn't for that, TGM would probably be much closer to SRS!
They're only as documented as the moves on Street Fighter are. And the kicks make a lot more sense than the SRS ones. And isn't it just logic that the games are hard, and have a grading system to encourage self improvement? I mean, who would make an arcade game with the intention of not providing an incentive to play. Arika is not being capitalist and evil. They're not exploiting players. Maybe if they could release a version of Ti for home use and they're choosing not to it would be different, but my understanding is that TTC have placed it so that it is not under their jurisdiction to do so. Ultimately people play TGM in the arcades because Arika have made a game which is superior to all of the home versions of Tetris. Otherwise they'd have little reason to play the game at all.
I disagree with you on many points, but now I see where you are coming from. Players don't "get bored" playing the game. Even when they reach the highest grades, they strive for greater consistency and faster speeds. Would you stop playing TDS just because you were the top rated active player? Players like 777 are still pushing the limit of TGM1. As for your complaint that the game is hard... If it caused unskilled players flooding a machine with credits for a brief period, never to play the game again, you might have a point. But instead it encourages players to stoically return again and again to try and improve at the game over an extended period of time. It's pretty much the ideal arcade game design.
Just to throw my two cents in and to stress what ct said...consistency is central here. If the game was unfair, as in having mechanics that does not allow consistency, I would agree that perhaps the game really is evil. Simply being hard and having a high learning curve to achieve consistency does not make a game unfair.
ARS is completely consistent. It's simple rules are counterintuitive in a few places. (the asymmetry with the L and J piece is the main confusing one) but the alternative of SRS is MUCH worse in that regard. The TGM series is unique in that it is hard but fair. The simple rotation system and wallkick rules allow the game to remain pure. The TGM series is the true and official sequel to Sega Tetris, with all it's problems removed. Atari tetris is completely unfair. You need mad joysticck tapping skills to get anywhere once the speed ramps up, and it gets too fast to be playable at a rapid rate. (don't think that just because the rainbow meter is maxed that it cannot get faster!) And those random bricks are as unfair as it gets, turning your perfect stack into one with nowhere to put your current piece (but only some of the time). It was designed to be a quartersucker from day one. TGM grabs quarters in a different way. By allowing you to beat the game in 15 minutes, but leaving room for improvement, they ensure that even experts will continue to insert quarters, and not tie up the machine forever. If there are any arcadess lefft in your area that are not dead, it would be worthwhile getting a game form this series in, and someone who is good showing off the awesomeness of the game. TGM is dated, but has a VERY usefful demonstration mode that goes a long way to explaining the greatness of the game.
