Need NES Tetris Tips

[Blink]

Just started on this game yesterday, and its way tougher than I previously thought.  

I watched Kitaru's DAS demo video here

but I'm still confused on when my DAS is fully charged and when it isn't.  Sometimes I think it's charged and try to use it but the piece doesn't make it to the wall in time.

I've been having some success tapping everything (yes everything) but it's soo tiring lol.

Does anyone have any tips?  Is side gapping better than middle gapping?  What strategies work well, and is there a certain height I should stay below?

[iphys]

The DAS in this game has always confused me too.  You're so quick you might be better off just tapping.  I think the autorepeat is 6 frames, and that's probably how fast you tap anyway.

If you're going for a maximum marathon score, your odds of achieving a highscore are theoretically highest starting at level 9, but some people start higher I think either because they want to stay used to playing at higher speeds or minimize the amount of lines they'll need to get a highscore (and minimize the odds of screwing up somewhere along the way in the process).  A maxout starting at level 19 is renowned as the hardest, so do yourself a favour and start lower.  The other benefit of starting at a lower level is you can safely stack higher to maximize the number of I pieces you can use to score tetrises.

NES Tetris is basically the left/right reverse of GB Tetris because of the way the pieces spawn and rotate, so you'd probably want to stack on the right and tetris on the left side of the screen.  Personally I recommend stacking for tetrises in the middle at high speeds, because if you miss getting an I piece to the wall you are totally screwed.

[Kitaru]

The DAS in this game has always confused me too.  You're so quick you might be better off just tapping.  I think the autorepeat is 6 frames, and that's probably how fast you tap anyway.

For Blink, I think I'd agree. Tapping all the time is probably a bit tiring, but I think that's what someone with such a killer tapping speed should be doing when they're uncertain DASing will cut it for a given placement.

Also, I had him do the Hudson Shooting Watch clone in Flash a while back, and he was getting scores in excess of 10hz. That means that he can match or exceed the DAS without managing charge. However, it is definitely worth keeping in mind that these were very different conditions than holding a d-pad (as opposed to having a dedicated key to mash at with a thumb and finger) and having to mash out high rates at a moments notice.

If you're going for a maximum marathon score, your odds of achieving a highscore are theoretically highest starting at level 9, but some people start higher I think either because they want to stay used to playing at higher speeds or minimize the amount of lines they'll need to get a highscore (and minimize the odds of screwing up somewhere along the way in the process).  A maxout starting at level 19 is renowned as the hardest, so do yourself a favour and start lower.  The other benefit of starting at a lower level is you can safely stack higher to maximize the number of I pieces you can use to score tetrises.

Not so. Starting levels 17 and up are better. 9, 11, and 18 are the preferred starting levels. (source, additional data)

NES Tetris is basically the left/right reverse of GB Tetris because of the way the pieces spawn and rotate, so you'd probably want to stack on the right and tetris on the left side of the screen.  Personally I recommend stacking for tetrises in the middle at high speeds, because if you miss getting an I piece to the wall you are totally screwed.

Right, most of the pieces trend one cell to the right compared to other games, whereas the I and O retain their typical alignment. Tetrising on the left wall can be a bit dangerous at times due to the right-handed rotation of the I-piece, though. If you want to start your stacking on the right, I'd say still do at least 2 columns of stacking on the left. With a 2-wide partition of the stack on the left, you can wall finesse and easily throw the I-piece in the 3rd.

Here is a diagram demonstrating the range of the O and I with fully charged DAS coming out of ARE:
[fumen]105@sb0lhb0llb0lhb0lub1lhb1ljb1lhb1lsb1ljb1lhb?1ljb1lqb1llb3llb1lJ35cbXpfANi/TASYarDprDeEFb8bD?0oo2A3iMDElsCSASo4AAjb8egb8elbMR8egboUlbMR8egbo?Ulb9egb9ejbMRoUhbMRoUjbMRoUhbMRoUjb9eib9ehbMRoU?jbMRoUhbMRoUjbMRoUhb9ekb9eMRoUlbMRoUMRoUlbMRoUd?DGAcD8enbA38eob8eobA3ac5XppAMI/dEFbcEEBVVABBoo2?A13azBFbUpCprDeEFbcEEBVVABBoo2AYAAAA[/fumen]

One last trick: It is possible to extend the range of a piece using DAS a tiny bit by tapping as soon as the second-to-last iteration finishes. Since you have 6 frames to wait for the next one to happen "naturally," you can sacrifice your DAS charge by tapping before it falls the last three rows. Since you're probably doing this to reach the wall, you can tap again against the wall to get your DAS charge back.

[Blink]

thanks guys, I guess i'll practice tapping everything for awhile.  I think this game is going to give me carpal tunnel.  Kitaru do you still have the link to that hudson flash test?

[iphys]

Oh, wow I always thought the level went up as soon as you hit 100 lines no matter what level you started, probably because I never started above 15 and survived long enough to notice.  So if you start at levels 16, 17, and 18 does the level go up starting at 110, 120, and 130 lines then?

[Kitaru]

@Blink: http://www.hu-style.com/static/flash/speci...fla_sw_game.swf should be the one. It looks like it is down from here at the moment.

@iphys: Yep, that's the one.

[zaphod77]

I've been getting the UFO on NES tetris type A for a while now.  I haven't done a max out, though.

My tips.

1) the game is biased to avoid giving the same piece twice in a row.

2) start at the highest level you can score tetrises reliably without topping out for the best score.  I'm no god, so i usually start at 7 or 8.

3) Slides are pretty easy until the speed really gets up there.

4) due to lack of lock delay, you need to keep the stack lower as the speed goes up. The better you are at tapping, the higher you can get away with starting at.

5) it may be worthwhile to learn center tetris stacking. This will allow you to stack a bit higher for tetrises if you master it. I'm rubbish at it, though. I tetris on the right.

6) to tetris well at the higher levels, you probably have to learn to manage the DAS. either that or tap like a madman.   tapping is easier on a keyboard, but emulator delay will mess you up a bit. harder to tap on a real nes pad.

7) tetrising is where the real points are in this game. If the game screws you over and doesn't hand out very many I pieces, you are just NOT gonna get the maxout anyway, so play like you ARE going to get enough I pieces.  Once you hit 29, the game is over. Not even you can tap that fast.  Starting at higher levels helps with that, though.  You need less tetrises for your maxout if you start at a higher level.

[XaeL]

if you hold down the power button on ur NES for 14 seconds when u hit level 22, ur das will become 16hz instead of 6hz

[Kitaru]

2) start at the highest level you can score tetrises reliably without topping out for the best score. ...

No, not really. As shown in a previously linked post, 9 has better scoring potential going into level 19 than starting anywhere from 10 to 15. 11 comes as a close second to 9 for scoring potential of the "slow" starting levels.

3) Slides are pretty easy until the speed really gets up there.

Slides don't really get prohibitively hard at level 19 since you can just DAS pre-load; the only timing involved is making sure you hold against a stretch of wall for the slide and don't accidentally tap early if that stretch is short.

... Once you hit 29, the game is over. ...

Level 30 has been reached before, but yeah, the game is more or less over, haha.

[mcgif]

Level 30 has been reached before (...)

seriously ?

[iphys]

If you have stuff stacked up the sides to score some lines in the middle when you reach level 29, it's just possible to reach level 30.  I suppose it also helps if you score a tetris when you're 1 line away from level 29, so that you only need 7 lines to reach level 30.

[XaeL]

cant u get to 31+ with tas

[iphys]

Assuming you could have the CPU tap once per frame, then I'd imagine you could play indefinitely with TAS, not that that would help Blink.

[XaeL]

yeah i saw a really long game that was tased

[zaphod77]

It's been TASed past level 255.