TGM3 for PC? Would be awesome to buy if it existed.

With the source to TI available (surely Arika still has it?), it wouldn't need too much work to make a good PC release, worthy of being bought.

1) control support. support Keyboard, XInput, and DirectInput. Detect known controller types. For XInput, have presets for fightsticks and pads. For DirectInput, detect well known controller types. By enumerating the number of buttons, axes, and pov hats. various controller types can be easily detected. PS3 wired controllers, for example, show up with axes x,y,z,and z rotation, a pov hat, and 13 buttons. if this configuration is detected, the game knows it's a ps3 controller, and which button is which. ps2 converters will usually show using rx and ry instead of z axis and z rotation, and either a pov hat and 12 buttons, or 16 buttons. Allow custom manual remapping for all directinput controllers anyway. ps4 controllers can be natively detected and supported similar to xbox ones.

2) remove worldreverse. custom mapping allows working around this anyway.

3) translate japanese text.

4) add online logon and leaderboards with replay viewing. replays will simple send a seed and the sequence of input, and be validated server side. This will make cheating them nearly impossible, for little effort. TI collects no entropy during play that i'm aware of, at least that affects anything for a gameplay standpoint. Instead of 3 letter initials and button code, use login and password. Keep exam system. Count a ragequit as a grade of 9 for purposes of exam system. Allow offline play without login, to not have stats tracked. Add achievements for online play. Store the best replay, and the one where you earned your current qualified grade for every player.

5) add online multiplayer, if possible. Rules may need slight modification to work with asynchronous play (game only ends with a top out, add hurryup solid garbage to prevent playing forever)

I'd easily pay $20 for that as a digital download. Heck i'd even pay 40. The online leaderboard feature would be the killer reason for the app. Show the world that you are a grand master.

 

Is TGM3 engine using any idiosyncraties related to its CPU or GPU ?

 

It uses some GL shaders that used to only work on ATI cards, but current nvidia drivers support them too.

It uses openGL, and the windows opengl drivers for intel cards fail to support an extension used for vsync, as well as not supporting the shaders needed for the fireworks.

So the main issue of the port is creating something that will work on intel integrated graphics.

Even an intel ATOM with hyperthreading paired with a real graphics card can run the decrypted game as is. It runs too FAST with a GMA and an atom.

 

It "wouldn't need too much work" on the code, but it'd still need:

1) Paying what is almost certainly an extortionate fee for a global Tetris license for PC (assuming that this is even possible and Ubisoft haven't locked some sort of exclusivity deal for the immediate future)

2) Convincing TTC to agree to a massive U-turn on their policy of recent years by allowing the release of a game where a significant part of it uses non-guideline gameplay

3) Having ARIKA or any other publisher agree that a TGM3 port would be somehow more profitable than pooping out a half-assed game like Tetris Ultimate (which I strongly doubt, given that the mass-market tends not to go for "hard as shit" in games they buy very often), and would therefore be worth the effort of porting off WinXP Embedded, debugging, and adding netplay, along with points 1) and 2).

I'm sure everyone on here would pay $40 for TGM3 if it saw even a basic PC release - some people on here have paid several hundred dollars for it already. But that's still a total proven market of at best like $2000 unless you can show that your average joe on the street would be interested. And even with a great business case TTC would most likely never let it happen because they're hell-bent on ensuring the only legit versions of Tetris to see the market are all shite.

 

Guise Guise... Tetris Ultimate iz da ultimate Tetris u shud play et. iz gr8. (sarcasm)

 

I agree the licensing is the big hurdle here. Was only making the point that development would be cheap. Digital distribution would also be cheap. And piracy could easily be made unattractive. And it would probably be cheaper to make then tetris ultimate, and less buggy.

And, well a lot of people think Jin8's promotional exam video is awesome. Henk himself shows it off to people all the time, as I recall. And many free games on the net that get played a lot actually get very difficult fast.

That said, i do think some mode between easy/normal and master should exist. maybe something that tops out at 20G at level 900. That video is awesome, but it is also intimidating and does cause people to lump the game into "totally ****ing impossible for non asians". and even back in the days of tetris DS, it was commonly called "broke tetris" because of infinite spin. So i think there is a market for something more hardcore, but more fair overall. ARS is simple and (mostly) intuitive, while SRS seems intuitive at first, but rapidly gets confusing as the speed ramps up. Most people who disapprove of "broke tetris" would probably enjoy TGM if they gave it a fair shake. And if SRS never got started, i think TGM could have really taken off in the west, as it improves most of what is actually wrong with older tetris games, while maintaining a fair challenge.