dreams come true

[wasmachstdugern]

I played tetris for years as a kid and recently picked it back up after watching "the king of kong" and learning about twin galaxies. i went there and found i could beat the records on the SNES tetris/dr. mario and was close to tetris on NES so here i am to improve.

i stick to what i know- NES and SNES (tetris/dr.mario). I am in the high 700,000/29 range on NES and 450,000/29 range on SNES. i had no idea forums like this existed and am looking for someone to help me find the right level of primer for someone my level.

thank you all for existing!

[Kitaru]

Nice, another kill-screen capable player steps out of the woodwork.  You may be interested in the Tetris & Dr. Mario records thread at Tetris Concept.

Those are some solid scores; I'm not sure what advice there is to give.  Would you say you mostly use the built-in piece move speed, or are you more of a rapid tapper? If the former, I can give a rundown on the movement mechanics in NES/SNES Tetris to make sure you know of all the tricks available:
1) When a piece is active in the playfield, pressing and holding left/right for ~1/4 of a second starts autorepeat. Autorepeat moves the piece at a rate of 10 times a second.
2) During the delay before the next piece enters the playfield, autorepeat "momentum" does not increase. However, whatever momentum was left over from the previous piece can be used on the upcoming piece by holding left or right before it enters the playfield.
3) Momentum does not reset when you release left or right; you can stop a piece on a specific column or even let a piece fall straight down and still hold onto autorepeat momentum for a later piece. The only thing resets the counter to zero is tapping left/right during active time.
4) Pressing left/right against an obstruction (i.e. playfield walls or contents) completely skips the ~1/4 second initial delay. One use is to buffer the act of sliding a piece under an overhang (e.g. you hold left/right against the stack and the piece slides under the notch as soon as it falls to the correct height), but you can also use this rule to set up momentum for the next piece.

[wasmachstdugern]

thanks a lot. that response was more enlightening than i would like to admit. i have never been consciously aware of momentum but i think i know what you're referring to. one question: does the momentum work the same for both NES/SNES? they certainly don't feel the same...

PS I am going to make the thread you mentioned my new home BTW...

[Kitaru]

I think that's how it was for most NES players for a very long time -- an understanding for the feel of the overall clockwork rather than having seen how the cogs fit together. I think the latter is helpful in enumerating all the techniques that exist and proving how they work, but the former got several people to max-out scores just fine.

The rules and timings for piece movement are the same. The thing that sets SNES apart is the adjusted delay lengths and a new pre-gravity period for every piece.

NES's entry delay is 10-18 frames (1/6~1/3 second) depending on how how far up in the field the last piece locked, and the line clear animation is an additional ~20 frames (1/3 second).

SNES's entry delay is (I think fixed, not variable) 25 frames (~2/5 second), and its line clear animation is similarly 26 frames. Every piece is visible for 12 frames (1/5 second) before it starts to fall (unless you press down), but is not actively controllable for the first frame it is in the playfield. Still, those 11 frames of control before gravity turn Level 29 from a kill-screen to something slightly manageable -- well, sort of.  Spectre is still tapping like a madman to make his 347 line record, and non-tappers are stuck in the last few rows of the playfield before things start to get unmanageable.