[HN Gopher] The Revolution in Classic Tetris
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The Revolution in Classic Tetris
Author : irtefa
Score : 168 points
Date : 2021-03-27 01:34 UTC (21 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| cortesoft wrote:
| I think about this a lot with regards to learning to program. I
| learned to program as a kid in early 90s, with no internet. I had
| a bunch of books I got from the library, and figuring things out
| meant looking in the index of a bunch of books to find the topic.
| I ended up making up my own version of a lot of fundamental
| programming things because I didn't happen to read the chapter
| that had that bit, so I needed to solve it myself.
|
| I used to be really nostalgic about this, and worried that "kids
| these days" never get that experience of having to figure
| something out entirely on your own.
|
| Now I have started to think kids can do so much more and learn so
| much more these days. I could have learned so much with the
| effort I had to put in to learn the basics. I could know so much
| more than I do now if I had the internet as a kid!
| prerok wrote:
| I somewhat agree but there is a lot to be said about
| "reinventing the wheel", while you are learning. Not only do
| you get to a solution, you also consider other approaches and
| discover why they don't work, or work as well.
|
| Having "a" solution at your fingertips all the time also
| decreases your critical thinking of whether that solution is
| really the best in the problem space you are working at.
|
| I think that the best of both worlds, what I usually try doing,
| is that you think about a problem, try to analyze how you would
| solve it and only then look up the solution.
| mypalmike wrote:
| I agree. Learning to program on my own in the 80s by writing
| things like text adventures, I had to figure out things like
| parsing and sorting myself, with no idea that these were
| common problems with known approaches. Nowadays I lazily
| reach for answers on Google most of the time when I encounter
| a problem that is novel to me. I'm pretty sure I'm dumber now
| because of it.
| daniellarusso wrote:
| Meh.
|
| I would argue you have an evolved critical thinking skill,
| and can easily determine why the Stack Overflow answer with
| the green checkmark is not always the correct solution...
|
| AND, you know what to actually search for in Google to get
| your answer.
| mdm_ wrote:
| I used to watch Jonas and Heather's Twitch stream every night for
| a while back in 2019. I had no idea he had passed away, only a
| year older than me :-(
| simlevesque wrote:
| It is super sad. He was pure kindness.
| enneff wrote:
| I really enjoyed watching both of them on stream. They were
| so warm and fun and seemed to have a great community of
| friends around them. It's heartbreaking to hear of Jonas'
| passing. My heart goes out to Heather and his family and
| friends.
| fartcannon wrote:
| I breaks my heart. His VODs are still on twitch. Lots to see if
| you'd like to enjoy their banter once again.
| yesenadam wrote:
| Watching this video helped me appreciate those Tetris world
| championship videos a lot more! There's a lot more to it than
| meets the eye.
|
| The Classic Tetris World Championships Explained
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RaqVGzhQTM
| xmprt wrote:
| The crazy thing is that the Classic Tetris scene has really
| blown up a lot (partially as a result of that video) to the
| point that that video is outdated.
| colordrops wrote:
| What has changed since then?
| input_sh wrote:
| "World championship" was basically a bunch US players and
| one dude from Canada. That changed in 2018, with players
| from Europe and SE Asia adjusting to the NES version to
| compete. In other words, it went from one player managing
| to get max score on the qualifying day to like 7 IIRC.
| chupasaurus wrote:
| CTWC Europe was created in 2015, although it's for PAL
| version which differs by FPS and DAS speed.
| daniellarusso wrote:
| So, is it more advantageous to play at 50Hz or 60Hz?
|
| Or does that matter?
| simonlc wrote:
| The PAL version was adjusted for the fps change, so while
| the game looks the same it plays very differently because
| of just a few values. It was only recently that the first
| person in the world EricICX maxed out the PAL version.
|
| Here's an in-depth article that explains the consequence
| of these changes to tapping.
| https://tetris.wiki/User:Kitaru
| stainforth wrote:
| I think the "hold a piece" dynamic of the Tetris with friends
| is such a good addition that it should be the official
| version? Agree or disagree?
| stanislavb wrote:
| If you fancy playing the classic Tetris, you can give a go to
| https://www.goodoldtetris.com/
| PebblesRox wrote:
| It's just not the same for me without the music.[0] Although my
| favorite soundtrack was actually the Welltris one.[1] Ah,
| brings back memories of when I had all the flags of the former
| USSR memorized.
|
| [0]https://youtu.be/NmCCQxVBfyM
|
| [1]https://youtu.be/RJEyqLK7HwU
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| You might enjoy this version, recounting the history of the
| USSR to the Tetris tune:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8
| jamiek88 wrote:
| Wow! Finally one that feel exactly like how it did as a kid.
|
| Thanks for this! I had to force myself to quit the game and
| leave this last comment before bed!
| hivacruz wrote:
| Tetris is such a great game. I still play it daily when I'm
| bored. But I can't play without hard drop and ghost piece
| nowadays.
|
| I like Tetris Sprint, where you have to do 20 or 40 lines the
| fastest you can.
|
| There is a lot of competition around this too. A great website to
| play is Jstris: https://jstris.jezevec10.com
| vgb2k18 wrote:
| > Months later, he noticed something strange. "It was just
| blowing up," he said. "I don't know why. The views just kept
| climbing and climbing and climbing." Soon there were spin-offs.
|
| Other than "It went viral" or "because the YouTube algorithm",
| was there a specific reason ever noted for this? I found this
| part of the article was the hook that got me interested in
| reading more, however I didn't find the answer further down.
| willhinsa wrote:
| > After a few seconds, the longed-for rectangle arrived.
|
| Another way to describe it would be a long-four rectangle :)
| jamesgreenleaf wrote:
| A furlong for a longed-for long-four won't last for long.
| pimlottc wrote:
| I think you mean a furlough. A furlong is 1/8 of a mile.
| jamesgreenleaf wrote:
| No, the wordplay works with variations of the words "for"
| and "long".
|
| The "furlong" etymologically means a "furrow length" which
| is what you could call that spot everyone sets up for the
| narrow tetris block.
| suzzer99 wrote:
| I can't imagine the Tetris dreams these guys must have. I got
| obsessed with it for a couple weeks and it never stopped playing
| in my head.
| daniellarusso wrote:
| I recently watched the Tetris documentary, Ecstasy of Order, and
| although it is a few years old, was very interesting and
| entertaining.
|
| http://watch.ecstasyoforder.com/
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| The game I wish would make a comeback is the original Tetris
| Attack. It's probably the best PVP puzzle game of all time, and
| not the easiest game to get right due to timing issues.
| hubblesticks wrote:
| Right with you on this! Spent so much time playing "T-Attack"
| (as we called it) I would see the shapes behind my eyes when I
| would go to sleep. My brother and one friend still dust it off
| every year to see if we've still "got it". Would love a
| comeback on this.
| nayuki wrote:
| I love Tetris Attack / Panel de Pon / Pokemon Puzzle League!
| Superficially it looks like Tetris, but the mechanics are way
| deeper. There are many combos you can make. More importantly,
| you need to make chains to do meaningful damage/scoring.
| Whereas in Tetris you are at the whim of the random incoming
| pieces, in Tetris Attack it is up to you to create order from
| the random field, and players at different skill levels will
| take an identical field and process it totally differently.
| darkwizard42 wrote:
| I too stumbled upon Classic Tetris through the Youtube algorithm.
|
| I've watched almost all of the 2019 and 2020 world championships
| and the game is just played so well with so much energy. It's
| really a simple game and the players are just SO fast at
| understanding the combinations and when to "burn" lines to set up
| more valuable Tetrises.
|
| Incredibly surprised that Joesph lost but it was a REALLY REALLY
| close game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isbvQVngnXA)
| untoxicness wrote:
| > I too stumbled upon Classic Tetris through the Youtube
| algorithm.
|
| To me this aspect was the most fascinating point about this
| article. I cannot shake the feeling that the algorithm
| "decided" for many individuals how to spend large amounts of
| their time.
| path411 wrote:
| In some ways we have already hit the singularity. Some random
| ML has changed the lives of thousands of people to play
| tetris. Imagine the other similar situations. It's very scary
| to me that people live their lives inside such tightly
| controlled "algorithms".
|
| Then throw on the human element how Google gets to ban
| certain topics from the algorithm and it just feels
| dystopian. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel?
| [deleted]
| gourneau wrote:
| If anyone wants to play Tetris Effect Connected in co-op mode, I
| am looking for Tetris friends. Hit me up at josh@gourneau.com
| jamesgreenleaf wrote:
| > To [hypertap], he developed a unique one-handed grip: with his
| right thumb on the control pad, he flexed his right bicep until
| his arm shook, pressing down with each tremor, about fifteen
| times per second.
|
| Did anyone else do this for other games? I used to pull this move
| all the time in those mario party style games where you had to be
| the first to press a button, or had to tap the most in a certain
| period of time.
| fearthetelomere wrote:
| I didn't really realize what the quote was talking about until
| you mentioned mario party. That brought back memories.
|
| Looking at the sibling comments, it's kind of cool how a lot of
| people arrived at the same pattern intuitively.
| Firehawke wrote:
| It's the method I've used for at least 30 years for rapid shots
| on a non-turbo controller. I most commonly used it to unlock
| the secret Arcade difficulty level on Gradius 3 SNES, but I
| used it before that point.
|
| I was a bit surprised to see that was a semi-secret technique!
| brailsafe wrote:
| I did this as soon as I picked up Tetris for Gameboy again
| about 3 years ago.
| scythe wrote:
| I tried doing it for column-climbing in the Flash game 'n' on a
| number of occasions, but I gave up because fast column-climbing
| requires accurate taps and also it hurts.
| RupertEisenhart wrote:
| I definitely did something like this for column-climbing on
| occasion, and also tapping shift with fingers from two hands.
| But yeah n was more about accuracy.
|
| (Hey scythe, brocerious here!)
| bfdm wrote:
| Oh absolutely. It's that smasher skill to edge out an advantage
| when the only real limit is input speed. Made those later
| "press X repeatedly to survive!" quick time type things super
| easy.
|
| Man I miss gaming.
| ineedasername wrote:
| I hated those quicktime events... yeah I saw the point of
| having a high quality pre-rebdered video with a gameplay
| element, they were just so tedious. I can't stand it when
| games still occasionally use the "quick, mash this button!"
| approach, though it is thankfully not as often these days
| nickpeterson wrote:
| Depending on the game I always liked to change my hand position
| and flutter my index and middle finger on the same button. Not
| so sure how many hits in a second but much easier on your
| fingers.
| orblivion wrote:
| I don't know about fifteen times a second but yeah definitely.
| flobosg wrote:
| Takahashi Meijin, a former Hudson Soft executive, was famous in
| the 80s for being able to mash a button 16 times per second:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ4lmAFB7d4
| hkmurakami wrote:
| came here to post this!
|
| He was a minor celebrity, (or a major celebrity for kids back
| then) and was a staple on network TV shows and commercials.
|
| https://youtu.be/OtraMSOgsnU
| simonlc wrote:
| Apparently its a tradition that Koryan brings one of these
| devices to the CTWC after party and everyone competes! Sadly
| I dont know the best scores.
| jorgechavz wrote:
| a
| iscrewyou wrote:
| Tekken games. This is how I win Tekken games.
| csours wrote:
| I did this for old Amiga games, some of them had unlimited
| projectiles, you just had to click really fast.
| alisonkisk wrote:
| How does the bicep flex help you press the button faster?
| throwaway81523 wrote:
| It makes your hand tremble like you've got the DT's. By
| gripping the controller the right way, the vibrations click
| the button at higher frequency than you can click it the
| normal way.
| Firehawke wrote:
| Not to mention the bicep muscles are going to be stronger
| and easier to do the vibration with than ANY muscle in your
| hands.
|
| At least, that's the way I figured it out-- by locking my
| hand and lower arm muscles tight, then using the strongest
| muscle in my arms (the biceps) to do the actual work.
| ycombinete wrote:
| I've always used this method for decanting things in the
| kitchen. Like ketchup stuck in a bottle, flour out of bags,
| sifting flour etc.
| dalmo3 wrote:
| As a kid I'd compete against classmates over who could start-
| stop a stopwatch the quickest. I don't think anyone who didn't
| use that technique (which was just instinct really) had any
| chance.
| Foobar8568 wrote:
| I was doing something familiar when playing Track&Field on Nes.
| jonwinstanley wrote:
| For Track and field, you put your finger in your school tie
| and rub over the button as fast as you can. That's the
| official way to play hahaha
| path411 wrote:
| I guess I was spoiled, I had the mat for track and field.
| Although that always had it's special quirks to get to go
| fast too
| avereveard wrote:
| I used it probably since California Games II and one of the
| last time in cookie clicker; now that I'm older I can feel the
| strain doing it for prolonged periods, and moved to games that
| have a somewhat slower input pace requirement.
| klyrs wrote:
| Yeah, but like, not in such a controlled fashion and I could
| never go for long... like a sibling post, I use it for
| controlled flow in powders & shear-thinning fluids
| bentcorner wrote:
| I can kind of control it but my arm gets sore if I sustain it
| for long periods.
|
| It definitely is useful in Mario Party (and occasionally
| Street Fighter) and pretty much destroys anybody in my family
| when it comes to the button mash minigames.
| misterkrabs wrote:
| This article is so well written - I watched the videos they were
| talking about and it wasn't nearly as exciting. I just want Jacob
| Sweet to describe videos to me now.
| TwoBit wrote:
| Chess has been big lately and I feel that as a game it's far more
| rewarding and scalable than Tetris. The mastery curve of chess is
| very long and doesn't ceiling like twitch games do.
| mssundaram wrote:
| https://archive.is/vusox
| _rpd wrote:
| tl;dr: some people are really, really into tetris. Nerd porn,
| and not in a good way.
| flobosg wrote:
| Not Classic Tetris, but Tetris 99[1] and the Tetris: The Grand
| Master series[2] are also worth checking out if you are into
| competitive Tetris.
|
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm6t5IKVGsM
|
| [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMjbnvZMck
| simonlc wrote:
| While the term "Classic Tetris" usually refers to NES Tetris,
| it can also mean any pre-guideline game (modern tetris).
|
| Tetris The Grand Master has actually been part of The CTWC for
| a few years. My favorite is from CTWC 2017, one of the craziest
| finals in Tetris ever. Round one starts here:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0xTEkejOtI
| mrzimmerman wrote:
| This was such a beautiful article. I was just talking to friends
| about programming for predicting chess and poker games and then
| this came up which was felt very perfect. It just makes me
| appreciate the human mind that much more.
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(page generated 2021-03-27 23:03 UTC)