Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PLUS

Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 is the second arcade game in Arika's TGM series. Shortly after it was released Arika offered a free upgrade to a PLUS version, which among other things introduced the popular T.A. Death mode. The game is often abbrieviated "TAP" (The Absolute Plus).

Normal
Normal mode behaves just like Master mode in gravity and speed timings, but stops at level 300. At levels 100 and 200 a special item block (also found in versus play) is given to the player. "Free Fall", which moves all blocks in the field down through holes (like gravity being turned on) is given at 100 and "Del Even" which clears every other row throughout the field is given at 200. The credit roll challenge is a slow 20G, but playing through it is not required for a "Clear" and no additional points are gained by completing it.

Speed Timings
The unit for gravity is G (rows per frame), as a fraction with a constant denominator of 256. This means G = Internal Gravity/256. For example, at levels 90 through 99, the gravity is 64/256G, or 1/4G.


 * RAM Locations
 * 06064BF1: Current internal speed value (16-bit)
 * 06064BE0: Current Lock Delay value
 * 06064BE1: DAS counter

Master
Master mode is Arika's upgrade to the original Tetris The Grand Master gameplay and behaves very much like that game. One of the most important differences is that the speeds continue to increase throughout the 500–999 levels, similar to but not exactly like 0–499 of T.A. Death (below), as opposed to topping off at TGM's 20g mode speed. Also, a hard drop that doesn't lock was introduced, improving sub-20g play by giving birth to the Zangi-moves. The ranking system is also much less forgiving and former TGM Gm class players will find themselves struggling to make S7 or even finish for that matter. Perhaps the most infuriating addition to the Gm qualifications is an invisible challenge during the credit roll where pieces disappear immediately after being locked; topping out results in rank M. Arika is currently hosting a video showing a Gm performance: tgm2master.

Grade Recognition System
Each time lines are cleared, a hidden parameter ("Internal Grade Points") will increase. When this parameter reaches 100 or more, it will reset to zero and another hidden parameter ("Internal Grade") will increment by one. The table below shows the correspondence between "Internal Grade" and the actual Grade displayed on the screen. To encourage faster and more efficient play, the "Internal Grade Points" will continually drain away, potentially back to zero, for every frame of gameplay that the player has control of a tetromino and doesn't have a combo going. The decay rate is dependent on the player's current "Internal Grade" and is shown on the table below in units of frames per point.

The number of "Internal Grade Points" awarded is dependent on 4 other variables:
 * Number of lines cleared: a 4-line clear is generally worth more than a 3-line clear and so on.
 * "Internal Grade": a higher "Internal Grade" generally means less points.
 * The line clear's position in a combo. Note that tetrises are an exception to this. They will score the same number of "Internal Grade Points" regardless of their position in a combo. Just like the CO medal, clearing 2 or more rows will increase the combo, while singles will merely maintain the current position.
 * The player's Level after the line clear.

The following formula determines the "Internal Grade Points" awarded by a particular line clear. The "ceil" indicates that when the Combo Multiplier is applied to the Basic Amount, the game rounds the multiplication up.

Awarded Grade Points = ceil(Basic Amount x Combo Multiplier) x Level Multiplier

The Basic Amount is determined by the player's current "Internal Grade". Also shown is the decay rate mentioned above. For example, internal grades 20 through 22 could be thought of as S4-, S4, and S4+, but TAP does not display these differently.

Depending on the number of rows cleared and the current size of the combo, a different combo multiplier is applied to the grade points.

Finally, depending on the level, one of four level multipliers is applied to the awarded grade points. This equals 1 + floor(level / 250), or equivalently a value from the following lookup table:

Eg. At level 555, Grade 1, clearing 2 doubles in a combo, the first and second doubles respectively will be worth: ceil(12 x 1.0) x (1 + floor(555 / 250)) = 12 x 3 = 36, ceil(12 x 1.4) x (1 + floor(558 / 250)) = 17 x 3 = 51

This is a complicated system that may be difficult to understand, but it ultimately boils down to encouraging the player to play fast and go for tetrises. Further interesting observations about the grading system are as follows:


 * Immediately following a grade increase, the grade points are at 0. There is therefore nothing to lose from building the stack higher, until you clear a line.
 * From level 750-999, a tetris will always increase the internal grade.
 * The level multiplier is significant. When you enter section 700 and the music changes, it is a good idea to stack the screen high in order to clear more lines after level 750. Combined with the previous observation, 2 tetrises will get you 2 "Internal Grades" instead of only 1, doubling your rate of progress.
 * Combos aside, even though 2 singles are worth much less than a double, and 4 triples are less than 3 tetrises, 3 doubles are actually worth more than 2 triples.

It should be noted that none of these details matter if the player can stack quickly and cleanly.


 * RAM Locations:
 * Internal Grade: 06079378
 * Internal Grade Points: 06079379

The M-Roll
Although it is possible to continue increasing the "Internal Grade" beyond 31, the displayed Grade will stop at S9. In order to achieve the M and Gm Grades, certain conditions must be met in order to activate a special credit roll at level 999 (often called the "M-Roll") where the tetrominoes become invisible as soon as they are locked. The conditions for the "M-Roll" are currently believed to include at least the following:

Topping out during the "M-Roll" results in the M Grade. Surviving the entirity of the "M-Roll" results in the Green Gm Grade (a green line is displayed on the ranking screen). In addition, performing at least 32 lines reward you of the Orange Gm Grade. The ranking priorize orange on green even if green Gm time are faster.

sources:

TGM+
This mode features speeds similar to the original TGM, with one important gameplay addition to keep the game interesting: rising garbage during play, as in Sega's Bloxeed. An internal counter is incremented every time a tetromino is played without clearing lines; once this counter reaches 13 - floor(level / 100), a row of garbage rises from the floor of the playfield, and the counter resets. The garbage follows the fixed pattern shown below, looping every 24 rows:


 * RAM Locations:
 * 06064C30: Number of tetrominoes played without line clears
 * 06064C31: Position in garbage sequence

There is no grading system, medals, or ranking system in this mode. If you reach level 999, the credit roll will start, but locked tetromino don't disappear. Surviving this roll is not required to see "Excellent!" message.

Speed Timings

 * Gravity speed timings are the same as those of Master mode.

T.A. Death
This is possibly the most famous mode ever featured in a TGM game. A video originally called Death 800 has floated around the Internet under the name Tetris Japan Finals, making the TGM series famous throughout the world. It is a video of a player breaking level 800 on death mode. This video is very popular and was singlehandedly responsible for introducing most western players to the TGM series. (People with a recent version of Flash Player can view this video on YouTube. ) Arika currently hosts a much better Gm rank Death Mode video: Death-Gm05.

Ranking
The TGM1/Master ranking system is absent from the screen although both M and Gm grades are achievable. Level 500 is the turning point: Gm is awarded at 999 regardless of time or score. The game does continue through the credits, but winning or losing at that point has no effect.
 * If you reach 500 with a time greater than 3:25:00 the timer will stop, the credits will roll and you are given an "Excellent!" but no grade. (the level 500 background is not shown)
 * If under (or equal to) 3:25:00 at 500 the M grade is achieved, the level 500 background is loaded, and the game will continue to 999.

Timings
Though Death Mode has a fixed gravity of 20g, there are 4 other timings that shape the flow and speed of play.

Some repurcussions of this are that there is no time penalty for clearing singles instead of tetrises from level 100 through 299. Also, with such a low lock time, the possible places you can put a piece are reduced again, becoming a subset of what was once possible in 20g.

Doubles
Doubles is a two player cooperative mode that puts both players in one well that is 14 units wide instead of 10. In TAP, it is selectable from the menu. In TGM2, it was accessed one player holding down the start button on his/her side while the other player pressed the other start button to join in. In TAP, one credit pays for both players!

Each player has a separate level counter, and both players must reach level 300 for the win. Though the level counter does not stop at every x99 as in standard modes, the final 299 does require a line change to 300. If one player reaches 300 before the other, he enters 20g for the rest of the game. It is quite difficult to survive for long with 20g in such a wide well, so winning requires a fine degree of coordination between the players so that they reach 300 synchronously.

Versus
The versus mode in TAP works in a very similar way to that in it's predecessor, TGM. Each player has their own field, and clearing two or more lines in their field will cause garbage lines to be sent to the bottom of their opponent's field. Unlike the multiplayer modes in other Tetris games, the garbage holes correspond to the location of the line clearing piece. This means that the usual playing style of the series, of leaving a column down the right for Tetrises is not as beneficial, because if both players do it then any garbage sent will line up with the opponent's Tetris hole. Alternating sides, or using other pieces to clear lines will send garbage that is more difficult to the opponent to clear. Oddly enough, the versus mode in Bloxeed' and Dreamworld's DuelTris worked in a similar manner.

All of the four single player modes can be played in Versus mode. The first player picks a mode, and starts as if playing alone. When the second player pushes their respective start button (assuming there is a credit) they will be asked if they want to challenge the other player. If they choose 'yes', then the other player will lose their game, "Here comes a new challenger" will scroll across the screen, and versus mode will start in whatever mode the first player was playing in. Normal, Master and Death use their respective speed curves for each player. TGM+ mode has garbage rising automatically from the bottom, in the same way it does on single-player. To prevent unwanted versus games, the first player can press their start button, which will cause "no more challenger" to display on the opposite field. Pressing the start button again cancels this effect. If a second player starts while "No more challenger" is displayed, then it will skip the challenge menu and go straight to the mode select.

For versus there is a default target level of 200, and a default time limit of 2:40:00. The target level can be changed in the game setup (in 100 level increments), with the time increasing or decreasing by 1:20:00 for every 100 levels. If a player tops out their field, then they lose. If neither player tops out their field in the allocated time limit, then the winner is the player with the highest level. If a player reaches the target level then the game ends and they are declared the winner. By default, the overall winner is the first player to win two games. Again, this can be changed in the game setup.

Items
Each player has a green bar to the side of their field. With each piece placement, this bar increases slightly. When the bar is filled, the next piece the player receives will be an item piece. The shape of the piece is retained, but the appearance of the individual composite blocks will be different, depending on the item. The piece is placed normally, and the item is used automatically when a line containing part of the item piece is cleared. Again, Bloxeed was the inspiration here. Many of the powerups, like the 16 ton weight, and the delete even, are based around the ones in Bloxeed. But unlike in Bloxeed, DuelTris, and Tetris DS, the entire piece counts as the item, instead of just one block of it.

Items can be turned off by each player holding their respective start buttons as Versus mode is initiated.

Scoring
Unlike the first game in the series, score is completely unimportant in this main game modes. The only mode where score counts for anything is Normal mode. The algorithm is actually different from from the previous version TA, with an added reward for fast play among other changes. The equation is:

Score = ((Level + Lines)/4 + Soft + (2 x Sonic)) x Lines x Combo x Bravo + (Level_After_Clear)/2 + (Speed x 7)

Where:
 * Level is the current level you are on.
 * Lines is the number of lines you just cleared.
 * (Level + Lines)/4 is rounded up.
 * (Level_After_Clear)/2 is rounded up. Importantly, Level_After_Clear is different from (Level+Lines) for edge cases like reaching 300 in Normal mode, 500 when being torikan-stopped in Death mode, and reaching 999 otherwise.
 * Soft is the cummulative number frames during which Down was held during the piece's active time. Note that this means manually locking pieces already on the ground will increase the Soft value by 1.
 * Sonic is the size of the single greatest sonic drop during the piece's active time. Note that this is non-cummulative.
 * If the previous piece cleared no lines, Combo is reset to 1. Otherwise and its Combo value is:
 * Combo = (previous Combo value) + (2 x Lines) - 2
 * Example: A double-triple-single combo will have combo values 3, 7, and 7 respectively.
 * Bravo is equal to 4 if this piece has cleared the screen, and otherwise is 1.
 * Speed can be no less than 0, and is otherwise equal to:
 * Speed = Lock Delay - Active Time
 * Where, Lock Delay is the number of frames of lock delay given out for that particular level, and Active Time is the number of frames the piece was active (which is a minimum of 1).

It should be noted that Normal mode multiplies line clear scores by 6. Also, the player is given a time bonus of 1253 x Seconds where Seconds is the amount of time in seconds, rounded up, that the clear time is below 5 minutes.

Codes

 * Item Mode: When selecting either Master or TGM+ mode, hold B and C, then press Start while "READY" is still on-screen. The "NEXT" text should pulsate to indicate that the code was entered correctly. This code causes item blocks to appear like in regular 2-player versus mode play, only all attacks are sent to yourself.

The following codes should be entered at the title screen.

Key: L = Left, D = Down, U = Up, R = Right
 * 20G Mode: DDDDDDDDCBA
 * Big Mode: LLLLDCBA
 * TLS Mode: ABCCBAACB