I don't see why they'd do that. Really, I don't see why they've got the IP thing. I understand why they wouldn't bother putting the money in to translate it and release it in places outside of Japan, but I don't see why they'd stop anyone willing to just soldier on with the Japanese text. If people are willing to put up with not understanding things to play it, I say they should let them.
ahem... some guy named Alexey Pajitnov was asked a question in an interview... GSUK: What do you consider to be the definitive version of Tetris? AP: I'm not sure if it's still available, but Tetris Zone from Blue Planet Software. It accommodates all the rules in the bible. Before that, we considered the original game to be the best standard.
What is it with the "official" guys regulating licensee products so much, then remaining so oblivious to the rule implementation status of a product (TDS - T-spin inclusion - Henk Rogers), or even the availability of a product (TZ - Alexei Pazhitnov)? Sure different people in the company might handle different matters, but still.
i can see pajitnov being out of the loop, but you're right, that was pretty crazy that rogers didn't know about t-spins in tds, especially since he indicated playing the game in that same interview.
My running theory is that they're too distracted by their giant piles of money to pay too much attention. Every now and then, when they feel like they should "take things to the next level", they meet and spend a relatively small amount of time making half-assed poorly conceived plans. Then, they go back to their giant piles of money and let other people try and make their hideous vision a reality. Well, maybe that only applies to Henk Rogers. I'm sure he's the single person who has made the most money off of tetris, and possibly his wife is the second. And Pajitnov actually tries to make other non-tetris games the rest of the time. I'm not just saying this because I don't like Henk either. If you consider the Tetris Worlds whistleblower thing, it's very obvious he had a very hands off approach 7 years ago, and his additional millions of dollars has surely only made him lazier. Does anyone else remember his interview in Edge magazine where the dude plays himself off as a god of game design, and he mentions plans of making some figureskating action game because girls are an untapped market? That sounds like an awesome idea. Where's our figureskating game Henk? The world still needs it and with the DS there has never been a more viable platform for it. The self-described "Master Game Designer" has done jack shit since he started milking tetris.
cmon guys, no need for this kind of discussion. FYI Alexey, Henk and the rest of the members of TTC are apart of most designs of Tetris products whether its internal or from licensees. ALexey was with us in the design part of Tetris Zone... Henk knows T-spins especially in DS, he's the one that created it
I was talking about how Henk didn't know that T-Spins were in Tetris DS. Henk's words from Tetris from the Top: "And if people catch ondo you know what a T-spin is? No, it probably doesn't exist in this product." "The T-spin is a new move we introduced in Tetris Battle. I don't think Yamagami used it in Tetris DS, I'm not sure, but it's not one of the things in Mission." [TTC actually introduced T-Spins three years earlier in The New Tetris, right?] and he noted later on: "The only complaint I have is that when I play somebody online, it's hit or miss. I could get a slow player, or a weak player. We have uneven games, and that's a problem." So a lot of us have trouble with this interview because of Henk's ignorance of his own ideas. I mean, he's all about T-Spins, but if he had played against other players online in Tetris DS, and he didn't realize that T-Spins were in the game, then we can deduce that he still must be going for Tetrises. He hasn't adapted to the very rule he created, and I for one think that's pretty fucked up.
this is one of those situations where a space completely changes the intended statement. i'm assuming you meant to say that they were a part of the development. and i disagree strongly. i'd say this "kind" of discussion is pretty important for those of us who feel strongly about the game.
kbr420, I'm not being mean for the sake of being mean. I have sources for all of it: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/spec ... rtid=11267 After its release, Henk Rogers has no idea if Tetris DS included t-spins. http://www.blueplanetsoftware.com/news_edge.html In 1999, Henk Rogers declared Blue Planet Software "more than just a Tetris Company," specifically mentioning a figure skating game. In 8 years, nothing of consequence (un-tetris related) has been released by BPS. http://www.mobygames.com/game/tetris-worlds In 2001 for the release of Tetris Worlds, Henk Rogers chose to credit himself as Master Designer. Why the title "Lead Designer" wasn't good enough for him, the world may never know. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ACS25DTI In 2004, one of Tetris Worlds's programmers blew the whistle on the game's flawed development and Henk Roger's incompetence in particular. Unfortunately, this article was on the FatBabies.com website, which is now defunct, so instead you'll have to view this archived PDF. http://www.greatergoodradio.com/?p=59 In a 2005 interview with Greater Good Radio, Henk Rogers revealed that when Blue Lava Wireless was sold to JAMDAT for $137 million dollars, he and his wife personally pocketed $50 million each. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6181946.html Quite recently, Pajitnov revealed his ignorance over whether Tetris Zone, a game released less than 1 year ago, was actually still sold. http://www.gdmag.com/archive/sep06.htm It's not free, but the September 2006 issue of Game Developer Magazine has an interview with Pajitnov where he displays fairly strong ignorance of the TGM series. --- Henk Rogers could be a great guy in real life. He is certainly fiercely passionate about Hawaii and the University of Hawaii in particular. That's great. But he demonstrates a distinct lack of passion for Tetris (not to mention game development in general), taking the game far less seriously than many of the top players would like. Alexey is definitely a very likeable guy, as he radiates happiness in his interviews. He is passionate about puzzle games, coming up with novel designs to this day. However, he has clearly lost passion for the game of Tetris, having even described his current involvement with the game as strictly work not pleasure. I don't doubt these guys are nice people in real life. I don't doubt these guys still love Tetris in their hearts. But they have definitely lost their passion, and seeing people without passion running things makes us, the passionate players, sad.
Caffeine, thanks for the links, I never knew he said that. I only say this from things he's told us when DS was in dev. I understand where u guys are comin from, and to tell you the truth, they are still very passionate about the game and its brand, I know I am. Let me say this, they aren't developing the game for us top players...that is something that I myself don't like. They are trying to bring in new players and meet the market of the casual gamer. If it was up to me, DAS would be near instant, generation would be 0, etc... Oh another thing, someone mentioned Henks love for Univ. of Hawaii, we are actually having a Tetris tournament there for the next two weeks. If anyone of you are UH Students (i dont think anyone here is though) go check out http://www.tetriscup.com
For the record kbr420, I think you're alright. It's nice to know at least one tetris employee can relate to us and have some understanding of what skilled players want. Tetris Zone, love it or hate it, you've got to respect that it tries to appeal to stronger players. I just wish that those in charge were interested in more than increasing the market share by appealing to the lowest common denominator. You call that passion, but to the rest of us it looks like a money grab. larger audience = more $$$ tight gameplay = passion for the game The 2 are not mutually exclusive, and they should learn that.
I have no qualms about paying more money. If the Tetris game is good enough, I'm quite happy to pay more money for it than I would have to with other games, providing the levels don't become extortionate. For me the largest failing with Tetris DS and the newer Tetris games is the abuse of move reset in the lock delay to allow infinite rotation and movement, even at 20G. I've yet to read one review of a Tetris game that implements it that thinks it's beneficial to the game, and I don't either. Step reset or finite lock delay is the way to go. I believe Tetris Zone implements the latter, which is good, but I'm unable to play it, so I'm not certain. I understand what Mr Rogers says about Time-Attack, but if you're going to have a time attack mode, you could make gravity zero, and it'd have a similar effect. Tetris DS doesn't even have a time-attack mode as such, and still implements the infinite rotation. The only mode which could be seen as similar to time-attack, the multiplayer, actually has it removed after you've been keeping a piece active for more than a few seconds. For single player, I believe the TGM Master Mode is the style of gameplay that should be incorporated into all games. Something that only the really good players can actually complete, unlike Tetris DS Marathon, which requires very little skill in comparison.
IIRC, Zone limits the number of times the lockdown count can be reset, but still uses move/rotate-reset in all modes.
you're right. from the TZ support page: "For Marathon and Challenge modes, up to 15 movements or rotations are allowed before Lock Down immediately occurs. For Master mode, up to 10 movements or rotations are allowed. For Sprint mode, an infinite number of movements or rotations are allowed." fortunately Tetris Zone master mode has decreasing lock delay (move reset) as you advance through the levels. i think this is a step in the right direction. i don't think you would like TZ marathon much it's pretty much TDS marathon minus levels 16-20 plus a questionable scoring system (it doesn't matter what kinds of line clears you make as long as you do something good at the end of each level).
It's actually worse than that. Unless the scoring system has changed since the game was released (haven't played for quite a while, so I wouldn't know) it's actually best to clear singles up until the end of every level. The idea is to exploit the chaining reward -- if you chain together two singles, you get bonus points for the second, but no bonus lines. So yeah, it's a scoring system in which you're actually encouraged to clear singles. (Except at the end of every round, where you try to set up a TSD or whatever.)
doesn't matter what type of line clear it is. it could be singe-double, tetris-triple, as long as it doesn't go over combo 1
Ah, but if you clear only singles you get 50 bonus points for every two lines cleared. If you cleared only tetrises, you'd get 50 bonus points for every eight lines cleared (edit: sixteen, actually -- forgot that zone effectively treats a tetris as an eight line clear). So to maximize your total combo bonus, you have to stick to clearing singles.
