Jewelry Master is a new puzzle game from Mihara, the creator of the TGM series. Though it is not Tetris by any stretch of the imagination, it borrows a lot of general mechanics from TGM, resulting in a smooth playable and unique experience. It's lots of fun so try it! It is currently in a free beta, and will eventually be available to Western markets. Details on how to play the beta and much more are available on the wiki! http://www.tetrisconcept.com/wiki/index.php/Jewelry_Master Keep checking back as I'm sure we'll add lots more info over time. My original post....
Come one people, I know we've got a few tetromino game threads going on right now. But this one is not just any shitty java puzzle game. It's made by the creator of TGM! Did I mention you can freely download it right now? You just need a login to play it. You can apply for the beta... There's 5000 spots and I'm pretty sure some are still left. Online rankings! With downloadable replays! Though it plays more like Cleopatra's fortune than Tetris.
Problem: The only "English" button that I could see goes to the main page, not to an English version of the same document. So is the beta available only to people who know Japanese?
Not really... I'm in. There are 2 links in the body of the page. The first is for registration, the second is for downloading the program. http://hg.arika.co.jp:8081/JM_test/service/Login http://hg.arika.co.jp:8081/JM_test/JM.zip Registration is asking for your email and username respectively. Your password will be mailed to you.
There are actually two separate HTML forms on that page: The top one consists of two text fields: YUUZAA ID (User ID) and PASUWAADO (Password) and one button: ROGUIN (Log in). The bottom button is a separate form: YUUZAA get-on record (User registration). User registration links to another form. It has two fields MEERUADORESU (Mail address) and Expect expect YUUZAA ID (Desired user ID), and one button Submit trust (Transmission). At the bottom: "** There are times when time is required for the indication of the completion picture." (Does this mean CAPTCHA?) Rough translation of the next page after "Submit trust": The request was submitted successfully. An e-mail was sent to verify the registration. Button: Return to log-in form Once you get the e-mail and log in, the buttons are "Edit user information" and "Log out".
Thanks tepples, I'm at work and wasn't able to be more useful. Can't wait to get home and play more... I only had time to play a couple minutes before I left.
OK, I've downloaded the game. All pieces are T multiminoes (multi-color T tetrominoes), and they move like in TGM3. Blocks are either squares or jewels. Gravity is "cascade" style, applied after landing. Making a line across the screen with all blocks (no jewels) clears any whole piece that intersects that line. Sometimes jewels change color, and sometimes they pop. I have no idea what makes this happen. I'm sure that the program's built-in (Japanese language) manual explains it better, but the program appears not to let me copy the text to the Clipboard in order to paste it into Babel Fish. If you open pack0.dat in an audio editor, at 16-bit 16000 Hz (Intel format), the second half is nearly perfect TGM series sound effects (albeit at +2827 bias). And I finally understand what kind of "metallic" sound the IRS effect is supposed to be: it's a "Schwing!" EDIT: 2827 is 0xB0B. Is this some sort of cheap crypto, where 0x0B is added to each byte of the .dat file when it is written and subtracted when it is read?
When you "enclose" a group of jewels, their colours combine additively. This usually means you get a big group of white jewels. If you enclose a group of jewels that is all the same colour, they clear for massive points. The best way to get a feel for it is by watching the top replays. Lose a game and then press right to get the world rankings. Press enter over a score to watch the replay. I think the point is big jewel combos, and not chain reactions, though like I said I've barely played the game. Cleopatra's Fortune is another puzzle game that uses this enclosing concept.
after few play, i'm not really sure, but enclosing more than 1 jewel with manual lock will combine them resulting of more jewel into the playfield instead of just exploding them...
You know what other game uses the "enclosing concept"? Go! Also, the TGM series grades players very similarly to go.
OK, I'm officially a klutz. Not only do I misdrop in Tetris, but I misdrop in real life. I routinely get spam written in Japanese, and by mistake, I flagged the confirmation e-mail for reporting as spam. Ten minutes later, I sent an apology e-mail ("sumimasen-deshita") using English plus machine translation to Japanese. I hope I'm not in deep trouble now.
People, this game is awesome. I could be playing TAP on my Astro City cabinet but instead I'm playing this. I'm not saying it's better, but damn is it ever fun. I know I can't possibly be the only one enjoying it... Let's talk about all things Jewelry Master. For starters: As a chalenge, can anyone fill the entire bottom row with white diamonds? If there's a useable technique for doing that, we could get insane combos by repeating the process.
"since you can't clear lines beneath gems, any blocks you have between your gem set and the bottom is wasted space" you mean blocks on the same row as gems? you can clear blocks on rows beneath gems. edit: this just in, mihara just got ranked "JM" in death. /watches replay. my suspicions were right! he didn't clear the red top line, and he got JM. i'm going to try that today. edit again: translated from mihara's blog-- "When 40% or more of the jewel which is acquired above S9 is the diamond, it probably will put out, is. 30% or more it probably will put out M for the reference, is. Because the score system is adjusted with the next version, inspecting the current score ring, [ru] is not completed the pattern which becomes truly meaningless."
Interesting game. I manage to get an S3 rank (245 jewels, level 757)(I'm a few place after Needle in the ranking (~125) !) without any training, wich is good, considering the fact that I didn't touch a single puzzle game for a while now. But I don't know how to I did that, wich is bad. It seems I triggered three huge combos.
Ok guys, I've edited the first post for a better introduction. wiki wiki wiki http://www.tetrisconcept.com/wiki/index.php/Jewelry_Master Pretty instructions on how to play the beta contained within.
The jewels combos are quite difficult to set up, especially when you have to keep an eye out for your structure as well at the higher levels. I often find myself so obsessed with packing more jewels together that I put myself into some really dangerous positions.
Notice: A new version of the game will become available for download on the 30th. The scoreboard will be reset, and the old version will become disabled. Just in from the scrolling marquee at the bottom of the title screen.
