I'm currently your newest member and I need your guidance!

What's happend with swedish people ?

After the France, I think it is the most representated country in Europe..

 

Tetris Advance was only released in Japan, so not many people here will have played it. Magical Tetris Challenge has at least one fan here, mainly due to its alternative approach to multiplayer.

Finally, someone at around my skill level! Many players seem to do best in that trance-like state, but it can be very hard to get there...

lj-scores.txt is only currently created with the PC version. If you can get a picture of the debrief screen in the GBA or DS versions, then that should be fine.

At the very least, you should develop a basic stacking skill with a one-cell column at the side to make tetrises. Most players here recommend stacking "tetris right" with both ARS and SRS. Some games lead to "tetris left" being better. The main deciding factors are the initial spawning positions, and the way that the I tetromino rotates.

Which rotation system you eventually try to master depends on what you will be playing most often. Some people here stick to one rotation system, sometry to develop a "working understanding" of 2 or more.

I can't really answer this question, as I don't use them very often, but apart from learning one or more "openings" (similar to the way that some people learn Chess openings), the only real thing you can do is learn to recognise them.

Again, this mostly comes down to preference. There are some settings that you can use to develop specific skills, if you feel that you need it.

I personally use a gamepad, as it's what I feel most comfortable with. It may help to reduce "tetlag" if you're used to playing on a handheld. I can play on keyboard, but I generally don't because I find it uncomfortable.

Other than reading the entire forum? Sadly, the information tends to be spread out among several threads, and it's not always eaasy to find, even when searching

Upload the image somewhere, then post a link to it.

The invisible roll is absolutely unforgiving. And it's not Nintendo that has made the most unskilled of beginners feel like experts. That blame lies with some guy called Henk Rogers. He's the person who created infinite spin, SRS, and the "random generator" bag system, and then masterminded the utter failure of Tetris Worlds. Other people can rant at length about this.

Most of the prevailing strategy comes down to the length of the line clear delay. If you're using LJ, then you're likely using a line clear delay of 0, where as oficial games will ahve anywhere from less than half a second (TDX) to 1.5 seconds (Gameboy Tetris). If you're trying to clear a target number of lines as fast as you can, then you want to have as little line clear delay as possible. With a line clear delay of more than about 0.2 seconds, then tetrises will be faster, but with no line clear delay, you just want to make the lines as fast as possible, and try to use as few pieces as possible. 100 is ideal, but anything below 105 is good. For 180 seconds, again, you want to lose as little time as posible to delays. If there was no bonus score for clearing tetrises, then the line clear delay would still dictate that they are a better strategy.

With Tetris DS? Definitely not, because its line clear delay is about 0.7 seconds. With no delays and DAS set to as fast as you can handle, then the limit is probably about 120 tpm. The speed merchants around here either use the keyboard for increased kpm, or a stick to reduce the delay between thinking and acting.

Try doing the "20x9" speedstack, were you ahve to make as solid 20x9 block with an empty tetris hole down the side. You should try to consistently get at least 15 rows done, or all the way if you can. LJ can recognise how well you do at this. Once you can get all the way to the top, then you can try training speed. There is a thread in the records board for it.

VSHG or HRAP3. Assuming that they ever come back into stock at Play-Asia...

This is a tough question to answer. I struggle to play without it, but others here have learnt to not need it.

Weeks? Try years... I'm only just learning to rotate in both directions, and I still rotate the wrong way at times...

Stacking consistency is probably the most important thing. Trying to reduce kpt has been heavily debated in the past, and is probably only worth it if you're usually above 4 kpt. Learning to rotate in both directions will help with this. Training pure speed will likely not help you much until your stacking skill improves.

It's peripheral vision, combined with using your other senses. The PC version of LJ (a feature that hasn't made it into the handheld versions yet) has piece sounds that tell you what the next piece will be, an idea that was inspired by the TGM series. In both games, the I is very distinctive, so you can plan to leave yourself somewhere useful to put it. In LJ, the O is also distinctive.

 

that was exactly what was going through my mind when I got the "flawless drumming" achievement on Rock Band (hit 100% of the notes on Expert with Drums). figures that it'd be the time AFTER I tried endlessly on 29 Fingers that I'd get it. in short: go with the flow. you'll get better more quickly that way than if you intentionally aim for a certain grade or above.

couldn't agree more.

doesn't count if it's Rock Band (or similar) at home. you're gonna need to be in public for this to help at all. however, playing DDR at arcades might help get over the "anxiety in public" thing.

everyone has their "trigger". mine is exertion, and it's effects are actually quite noticeable when I play DDR at the arcades (if I can keep up long enough).

 

Hi there Ai !

I don't think it will hinder your skill progression. If you focus your attention at TGM, you'll eventually play without it, because you de facto won't need it .

It is. In multiplayer TDS, it will save you some time, and time is vital. In single player, you'll find that some vital move are unavailable with only one kind of rotation.

TGM games will force you to get a higher TPM.

Peripheral vision + color recognition.
Try not to recognise every piece at first, but only a few important one (like the I and the T). So whenever a light blue (TDS) / red (TGM) blob of color in your upper screen, you can instantly know you've got an I incoming. After a while, you can extend this technique to other pieces. (okay, that technique sucks with shirase 1000+ where there are no color at all, but we are both nowhere near that level).

Rosti once wrote a T-Spin guide. Don't try to do T-Spin Triple though: except if you are really an expert, these kind of moves are too time costly to be effective. T-Spin Double are however very good move and you don't have to build crazy setups to have some.


I also wrote a TGM Guide aimed toward beginners.

 

Generally this is a misconception. TGM's 20G is the ghost function. =]

 

There is one problem with colour recognition, which is why I try not to use it: ARS and SRS ahve fundamentaly colours, and if you are very used to one colour set, changing can cause some misdrops. This is especialy noticeable with ARS and SRS, as the green piece in SRS is the S, but in ARS it's the Z. I actually had to check that before typing it as well...

 

Choose the red pill.

 

It's great to see more replies!

Thank you for taking your time to post such a detailed reply. And it's to good to see that I'm not the only one having a hard time! ^_-

By the way I played Tetris Worlds for the GBA for a few hours. The game is really bad! Bad concept, irritating music, no highscores, no customization possibilities and the list goes on. On the other hand I was pleasently surprised with the great game that Tetris Advance is.

Right now I really want to see how I fare in games such as TGM, Heboris and the likes, but I'll try to improve a little before I do that. Also thanks for pointing out to use the search function of the forum! I didn't think about that for some reason.

Also I read a few interesting articles concerning Henk Rogers. He clearly doesn't have a good reputation among the tetris fans... And while reading about him I stumbled on this hilarious video from GameSpot on how tetris has been broken since they introduced infinite spin in Tetris Worlds. LOL!

Thanks for the links. As far as I know I only have t-spin singles occasionaly and most of the time purely accidental.


Right know I'm focusing on rotating with 2 buttons and upping my overal game. When that's gotten a little better I'll look into t-spin doubles. And TGM looks like a fascinating game series that I will be playing in the near future.

 

I've been playing some Octomania recently. This puzzle game doesn't even have falling pieces, but it does use a rotate mechanic. I was immediately able to rotate in both directions, so it seems in some way that this is a general skill that can carry seamlessly to many games.

 

Agreed, but that doesn't mean that you'll be able to carry it seamlessly to many games. =P


For some reason, I can't seem to get used to rotating in both directions in either Puyo Puyo or Lumines...though that might partially be the fault of the control scheme, one of these days I'll have to fix that.


Regardless (and back on topic), it is a vital skill to know for 20G ARS (i.e. TGM/TAP past level 500), so it's a good thing to teach yourself now while you're still learning the ropes. =)


~EI

 

For Lumines, I find that control type B (X and square CCW, O and triangle CW) is the best one to use, as the default type A (X and O CW, square and triangle CCW) just feels extremely stupid.

 

The last few days I've been trying to play with 2 buttons and I'm not yet used to it unfortunately and it's pretty frustrating.


I wanted to ask again if it's really this simple or are there different ways to use both buttons?

It just doesn't feel right to me at the moment, but maybe I just need to get used to it.


Earlier today I managed to get TGM working on Zinc thanks to PetitPrince's links. I managed to last for about 6 to 7 minutes with an old Logitech WingMan Precision gamepad in the few games I played. Playing with the keyboard strains my hands because I'm not used to playing with it anymore. I think the highest rank I obtained was 2 around the 250 mark. At higher speed one clearly can't afford having trouble with the rotating of the tetrominoes. I now have even more respect for those getting a GM rank after experiencing how difficult it really is.


By the way INFINITE SPIN FTL!!!


I'm also pretty curious about the progress one makes. Currently I've been at about the same level for a while. In the beginning making progress wasn't this difficult.


How about you guys? Did it take a lot of hard work and a long time to get were you are now or are you just genuises at the game? Will anyone get at the top with the right amount of hard work? And why are so many Japanese people very good at this game? Those are currently some of the questions I have.


Similar games I've been playing recently are Puyo Puyo, Dr. Mario and Tetris Attack (Panel de Pon). Does being good at this sort of games have any correlation with Tetris?


I'm off to watch some football/soccer now.

 

Nobody is simply a genius at the game. All the best players work for it. It comes easier for some than for others, but nobody gets a free ride. And yes, I think just about anyone can, say, get Death GM with enough practice. There are a lot of good Japanese people at this game, because arcades are dead in the rest of the world... Japan has a lot of motivated players, within close proximity, playing Tetris in arcades for many years now. It's really an atmosphere that promotes growth and skill development. We do what we can with TC, but it's really hard to compare to their Tetris culture.


Oh, and I'm afraid skill doesn't carry over all that much between puzzle games. I play a lot of puzzle games, and I find certain basic things carry over... stuff like rotating both directions, general chain pattern recognition, and DAS techniques. But that stuff will only give you a slight advantage starting out. To get skilled at other puzzle games requires a prolonged experience with them.

 

Given that I have spent less than hour playing Death mode, having more hours clocked isn't saying much.


Personally, I am not ready to consider te TGM serioes until I can get 90 tpm. I'm currently only at 70...

 

Hi Ai.


I started playing Tetris with TGM1. Id had about 20 goes on the gameboy version in the early 90's but i never really enjoyed the game. I got inspired to start playing by watching the Arika finals TAP death mode vid on the net, it looked so much more fun!


I felt progress was slow for me. I used to play alot of 2D Shooters and I was used to having consistant patterns to learn and I always knew what was coming and i could plan head, but the random improvisation needed to play Tetris was something i wasnt used to. After the first few weeks I was getting to level 300-400 pretty consistantly but the sub-20G kept killing me, i just couldnt handle the speed. From then on I practiced in 20G mode using the code and just practiced and practiced at it. On and off it took me just over a year to get GM rank. I had weeks when i would make absolutely no progress at all no matter how much I tried. I nearly gave up and quite few times, but I really wanted to get good at Tetris and I wanted that Gm rank so badly I just stuck with it.

 

You forgot about (read: probably didn't hear about the option to change lock delay from Infinity to Classic in) Tetris: New Century!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkmBYjfPXjk

 

To tell you the truth, I think I prefer infinite lock delay to none at all. But a reasonable limit is best, of course.

 

Ive been playing TGM earlier today. I got rank 1 at the 270 mark and lasted till 317. When the stack gets too high Im unable to keep up. You really need to have good reflexes at that point, but unfortunately I lack experience at the moment.


Ive also been playing around in Heboris UE which seems like a very cool application. A lot of game modes and a very professional design. Texmaster will be next.

I hope I have what it takes to become a lot better. I've made it my goal to achieve the GM rank in TGM in the future. And thanks for explaining why the Japanese are better at tetris. No arcades where I live either. And I finally understand your signature!

Tried 20G in TGM right now and its scary. So there also three buttons in TGM? I didn't realize that. Well thanks for pointing that out.

Youre right the fact that you cant turn it off is what breaks the tetris game. I think you can turn off infinity in Tetris Advance too!


So I keep reading about TAP, Ti, Death, Master etc. Can I read about the details of each mode somewhere in the wiki or should I just search the forum?


And thanks for those who shared their personal experiences!