Announcing the Tetris Max High Score Contest, October 14

[LaPorta]

The 21 thing is BS. Shouldn’t be that way. The only reason it passed in the 80s was because the federal government said whatever state didn’t raise their drinking age to 21 wouldn’t receive federal highway funds.

It should be 18.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Any laws aside, I really just don’t have any interest in drinking. Just don’t see the need to.

 

[Phipli]

Any laws aside, I really just don’t have any interest in drinking. Just don’t see the need to.

Not going to continue distracting from the thread, but drink isn't just about getting drunk, but the flavours of many alcoholic drinks are incredibly complex and interesting. UK drinking is primarily social. The pork pies are as important as the beer.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I get that.

At least some of you guys will have one advantage though - I’m going to have to get up early on a Saturday, and I am NOT a morning person

 

[LaPorta]

Any laws aside, I really just don’t have any interest in drinking. Just don’t see the need to.

I have probably less than ten glasses of wine a year. No big deal.

 

[CC_333]

I don't drink, largely because I've seen the bad side of what it does to people (alcoholism does very ugly things to people!)

Consequently, I will probably never drink, and I have very little tolerance for others that do so in my presence unless I know them well and trust that they won't overindulge (beer is the drink of choice for most of my drinking friends and acquaintances, but I've met a few who prefer other things, usually some sort of wine).

Be that as it may, I might consider tasting a nonalcoholic wine or beer at least once out of curiosity, if the opportunity ever arose, though I'd never actively seek it out myself because, again, I'm not into it.

As for the drinking age being 21, I don't particularly care at what age people drink, as it's their decision to do with themselves what they will (for better or worse), so long as they do so responsibly and, for those who are old enough to legally drive a car, not drive while intoxicated (this is a leading cause of fatal traffic collisions in the US).

</rant>

c

 

[LaPorta]

...and by no big deal, I meant that if others have no alcohol at all...it's no big deal.

 

[bigmessowires]

One feature that I sometimes wish Tetris Max had is a "preview" that showed where your piece would land if you dropped it from its current position. It sounds stupid, but sometimes I can't tell exactly how the piece is lined up, and I accidentally drop it one column left/right of where I intended. Back in the 90's when my friends were constantly playing the game at college, a friend had a specific taunt he'd use whenever somebody made this error. Unfortunately it's not fit to repeat here.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

It does take a bit of getting used to but I’m fine playing without it now. The main modern feature I miss is being able to hold a piece in reserve - although that would make things a bit easier.

 

[bigmessowires]

After several days of concerted practice, I've only been able to reach the minimum high score threshold once, and that was thanks to a lucky 10000 point bonus. I need to install a tetris coprocessor in my brain.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Is that the 20,000 threshold or the old 30,000 one?

 

[LaPorta]

One feature that I sometimes wish Tetris Max had is a "preview" that showed where your piece would land if you dropped it from its current position. It sounds stupid, but sometimes I can't tell exactly how the piece is lined up, and I accidentally drop it one column left/right of where I intended. Back in the 90's when my friends were constantly playing the game at college, a friend had a specific taunt he'd use whenever somebody made this error. Unfortunately it's not fit to repeat here.

That’s what your “semi-fast” drop key is for. I used that when I wasn’t 100% sure, then when I was I’d fast drop it.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

How high have you gotten so far @LaPorta?

 

[bigmessowires]

That’s what your “semi-fast” drop key is for.

jaw drop... I completely forgot that existed.

 

[bigmessowires]

OK this is serious now, I'm getting annoyed that my scores have been so low, and I spent several hours tonight in practice drills. I feel like I'm getting better, and yet I still struggle to get much past 100 rows. I've been setting the start level to 10 so I can get more time practicing at the highest difficulty without needing 10 minutes to get there in every game, working through levels 1-9.

There are some "moves" that are probably obvious to anyone who's played the game much, but that are still gratifying. My favorite is dropping a piece in such a way that it looks like it will create a cavity, it looks like a mistake, but it immediately completes a row using the blocks from the top section of the piece so that the cavity is immediately re-opened. Also I prefer dropping a 4x1 on its side when I can - I've watched a lot of people play the game and not many people think to do this, they all keep it oriented vertically.

You can queue up keypresses while a row is being cleared and the animation is playing, and they'll immediately be applied to the next piece once the animation is done. Since you know what the next piece is, this can be a big help at level 10 speeds. This isn't something I intentionally programmed, it's just a side-effect of how the Mac handles keyboard input.

The game was originally developed and tuned on a Mac LC I, 16 MHz 68020 with a 16-bit bus. Tomorrow I'll try to find the closest-performing machine to that in my collection and see if it makes any difference in my scoring struggles.

 

[jmacz]

This is like Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky movies where he has those training montages before the final match.

 

[joshc]

This is like Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky movies where he has those training montages before the final match.

Someone needs to capture video of @bigmessowires practicing Tetris and put the Rocky theme tune over it. And add lots of 70s/80s video effects.

 

[Phipli]

Someone needs to capture video of @bigmessowires practicing Tetris and put the Rocky theme tune over it. And add lots of 70s/80s video effects.

Bonus points for fitting the Eye of the Tiger lyrics to the Tetris theme.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

As a native son of the City of Brotherly Love, I fully endorse these Rocky-inspired ideas. Just make sure you close out the montage w BMOW looking out from on top of the Art Museum stairs, gotta be done properly!

crazy how the skyline has changed!

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

Or instead of the Philadelphia Art Museum, it would be permissible to substitute something similar, like BMOW running up Lombard St. and doing the arms up stance at the top overlooking San Francisco