Comparing top NES Tetris strategies from Pro Tetris Players in 1989 vs 2020, using the Nintendo Power Magazine. Check out the archived article here: archive.org/stream/Nintendo_P... Jonas Neubauer's Tetris Lessons: • Jonas Tetris Lessons
Getting screenshots is hard enough at level 0. These would have been actual analog film screenshots, so every one would cost money. Hopefully they’d have two TVs so they could play without having a large camera rig in the way. But still, getting the dropping piece just right to illustrate what they want to show is not trivial.
@@JasperJanssen No doubt they put code in to freeze those particular situations when making the diagrams. Trying to take an analog film shot of the moving image would be virtually impossible. But amusingly, since only the Nintendo developers has the original code, only they even had the technical resources to create something as simple as that short pamphlet on Tetris.
I think the biggest flaw with the NES version that inhibited the formulation of advanced strategies is the cathedral taking off at only 120k points. So as a kid we assumed that was the outer limit of what was possible... so the attitude was, "wow, there's a flying saucer just sitting on the launch pad, and the cathedral takes off, I guess we broke the game... let's just move on to the next title"
Yeah, I get the impression by the magazine's tips that Tetrises were expected to be this really rare thing, only possible on the very early levels, and that even getting a triple would be a major victory. The weird thing is that almost all of the example images show properly developed right wells set up for indefinite Tetrises and skimming. If you ever eventually find the game developers, it would be an awesome interview question to ask them what their personal high scores were while coding the game!
@@aGameScout I think Nintendo Power was targeted at young kids, and at that age, they weren't really expected to figure out how to stack well at any speed. The reward animations are the same way. More "hardcore" players would be plenty motivated by the score counter anyway, which goes up to the "impossibly" high 999,999.
@@aGameScout I don't know about Tetris devs but this one time I had to develop a platformer with a classmate in an advanced programming class. We spent so much time testing the game that we can easily beat most people we've shown the game to. And that's with a modern game engine and programming language. I can't even begin to imagine the amount of testing done in 6502 assembly. The devs must have been pros.
Doigt I reckon the 999999 limit and the fact that the level counter breaks specifically at level 30 (but 29 works fine) show pretty clearly what the devs thought the approximate limits of human achievement were.
Its a dumb nitpicking. Considering the time when these tips made, i suspected that they played the higher speeds tactics on lower levels to have time to record it properly. To get to a certain situation the might have preferred to play on the lower levels, to build up to that situation. I suspect that the guides were meant for kids to read. To a kid who just picked up the game, i can imagen that level 10 is already fast
Before I found the tetris world championship on youtube randomly, I wasn't aware going for a tetris was the strategy! I didn't even know burning 4 lines simultaneously was called a tetris! So yes, that is absolutely solid advice for 1989 :D
Hey David, the Howard talking in the book is Howard Phillips Nintendo’s first game master. It was his job to play all the games Nintendo made and to make sure the American public would find them fun. Great big story did a video about him if you want to learn more about him.
Since I grew up with Game Boy Tetris and had that issue of Nintendo Power (one of three I ever owned), I was astonished to learn that Nintendo was the only one who called them "Tetrads" and not "Tetrominoes."
NICE. This was super fun and full of hilarious little moments! Great job as always Scout, love the more frequent content, your video ideas have been great, looking forward to the next one!
@@matheuscabral9618 Why would someone writing a guide for a game that just came out try to optimize for the goals of some competition that would start 20 years later?
@@davidp.7620 just because competition started 20 years later it doesn’t mean that starts were only useful 20 years later, the goal of the game has always been getting a high score
This is becoming my favorite Tetris channel with the consistent uploads...hope the CTWC will promote your videos...you've got some great content that the wider Tetris community should be aware of.
Great video! The tips were pretty hilarious at times especially at 5:29. The Nintendo Power Magazine's tips for 'Advanced Players' is just a far cry from now. You are a Tetris Master if you get a score of over 10000. *slow clap x3* Out of all of your CTM videos, I could guess you stated at least 5 Level 31 plays. Pretty amazing how we progressed pretty far from how the developers actually imagined it to be. That might also be the feeling of Alexey Pajitnov as soon as he went home from the CTWC 2018. Imagine what he felt in the finals.
I was a Nintendo Power kid growing up, and I can say their tips weren't always spot-on. Whenever I got stuck and NP couldn't help me, I called my cousin.
Around 8:40, I think Howard meant to emphasize flat placements, because placing pieces horizontally (without rotation) generally results in a flatter playing field.
I agree, I think that statement was included to encourage newcomers to think about the pieces a bit differently in order to flatten the stack. I've noticed that beginners sometimes settle into a rut where they place every L/J piece in letter-orientation because it's easy to see that it "fits" on the stack, but that often produces very jagged stack surfaces with sheer vertical faces (bad accommodation due to stack rigidity, likelihood of producing 3+ deep channels that require I-piece, etc.). Knowing how to properly use the 3-wide or point-down stances of L/J is just marginally more complex; entry-level players under time pressure frequently miss those placement choices even if they would have resulted in a more appropriate fit for this and the next piece.
8:30 Alternatively, you could make the galaxy brain play: rotate right once, send it to the far left. Sticking out right over that gap, leaving 3 empty blocks beneath it. Then just dead drop that T right in the center. Don’t rotate, just tap left once and let it drop.
To be fair to Nintendo Power, this was the VERY FIRST guide in a game the west had never ever seen before, so as an intro guide to the new medium of home video games, this isn’t too bad or condescending.
Note: he mentioned this at the end, GameScout is a very understanding person, but it just goes to mention that if you’ve never owned a home console and have never seen a game like this, lvl 3 could be considered mindmeltingly fast.
I wouldn't really expect the Nintendo Power tips to be "pro strats" though. Just some advice to help new players perform better. I am a casual player and yeah lol, "lower" speeds are pretty fast for my skill level. I was surprised at how advanced some of the tips in the later sections were, in fact.
The second page wasn't talking about the hole for the tetris, it was talking about that if you need to stack hight you should do it on the sides because you will have so much mobility/space in that way
It's not really fair to compare the strategies of '89 to today. I feel like you're forgetting what Tetris actually was in '89. The point Tetris was not to get points, any more than points were your objective in Super Mario. The point of Tetris was to survive for as long as you could. By '89, points were a relic of arcade games that didn't really serve a purpose for most console games. Certainly playing for points makes sense for competitive Tetris, but that's not what the game was sold on. When Tetris came out, we weren't competing with our friends scores, we were competing with their levels. That's why Howard is unconcerned with scoring tactics (and consequently why his high score isn't very impressive by competitive Tetris standards) because he's giving players strategies to keep the game running for as long as they can. If there is any concern over points, the assumption is probably that the longer you play, the more points you earn, so the points will take care of themselves.
Not quite. I remember playing on Gameboy Tetris as a 7-8 years old and going for Tetrises was a thing even then. Only surviving was at the later levels then, but people knew and wanted to score high.
No, but that's the great thing! You get to see how the field has evolved, that's the point. What were the expected limits, and how did players first start out? But it is true that the magazine was targeted towards children, so, there's that.
Really nice presentation comparing the stacking strategies from 1989 to the modern era. Pretty nice advice to give to new players since they would probably not be familiar with the game itself. Overall, video is well made! Btw, I disagree with not wearing a shirt. Rash guards are meta for swimming, even in water parks. :DD
5:43 i know you arent doing these video anymore, but if you at some point will again, please, please, please add more parts like this, i love this part so much
Yay, I know who Howard is now. Harry to me looks like a different with hair. This channel made me the DAS tetris player that I'm today. Nightly training still continues for me to defeat my best of 250k. As always, appreciate and love the content Scout. Also Quaids comment in the audience, "Wake me up when this gets interesting." Always get a chuckle from that.
Haha, yeah...Howard was a legend back in the day. Recently, a certain public figure got flack (again) for sporting a bowtie only to change once someone mocked it. My first reaction was "what's wrong with bowties, anyway?" and the two people who always come to mind: Bill Nye and Howard Phillips.
an arguement for the center well is post-kill-screen play, where you mostly line out, but might build for a center well. shifting smaller pieces to the sides feels easier while rotating the long bar (as you probably dont have more than 5 or 6 lines built) in the center seems the easiest.
Thank you for sharing this! I legit thought Dana was Lady Gaga 👀 Also. Rest in Power, Jonas 🙌 Really devastated to see the face of the community suddenly passing away 😞
Gotta remember back in the old days there was no internet the best you got was a gaming magazine that came out once a month its so much easier to tetris now as you can see other people strat's.
Howard Phillips is still around at "Gamemaster Howard" on Facebook and has done some livestreams on BitFinity (Matthew Taranto's) RU-vid channel. Probably would be a cool interview since he was involved in the Nintendo World Championships and other things. As far as the tips go I doubt they were thinking about people getting to the kill screen, or even aware of it at Nintendo Power.
Dammit this just reminded me, harshly, that I've been paying for season passes to two different theme parks with water park access and I haven't been able to go, shirt be damned.
I've been watching Tetris content non-stop since I found your video on CTWC 2018. I also have been playing constantly in hopes of one day getting to compete in the CTWC! What's the best way to get involved in the NES Tetris community?
Join the CTM discord, it is the biggest online NES Tetris community and there are discussion channels for just about every topic to help you get started bit.ly/monthlytetris
@@aGameScout FYI: the link is case-sensitive, it needs to be entered as bit.ly/MonthlyTetris, otherwise it will take you to celebrityphonenumbers(dot)net. Just a heads up :)
Good stuff! How long would you say stay at level 5 for ? Till you can consistently hit 100000k? I know jonas says to move to lvl 9 once you can hit 100000k on 5. Lvl 9 is whooping me lol
tbh I forget, but level 5 is where you really just want to get stacking for tetrises down, and then after that you just gradually increase the level speeds until you have to master DAS or hypertapping. So consistent 100k on level 5 starts sounds about right
I started at 7 and would move up levels when I felt the need to push down, as long as you're being challenged you're progressing, I currently do level 15 starts and my pb is 408k been playing 2 months
@@coldclearkt very nice, have not played classic tetris since 2008 so im rusty and honestly so not even remeber what my scores were. I have been juggling between 5,8,9. I can sustain 9 for a while buy mis drop and its all over lol im playing on a emulator with one of those usb nes controllers for the moment so im not sure if that makes a difference with the lag but I do notice a delay when moving some blocks at 9. I hooked up a nes clone with the cart and it felt different was easily able to get 150k at lvl 5 a few times but do not have a dedicated tv for it yet.
I would consider classic Tetris if it had the same rotation system as modern Tetris. Also, it's a single-player game pretty much, even when you're playing against an opponent.
The mathematical name for shapes like these are indeed tetrominos (and the five-square equivalents are pentominos), but tetrad is an existing word for things that consist of four units.
Awesome vid as always! Just yesterday I searched for that other T-spin by Joseph but couldn’t find it. I said to myself, this needs a name, like counter T-spin, opposite T-spin. Or even a Saelee Spin! But why is it called a Boiler-Spin? Do you counterclockwise tap, tap left, and then a clockwise tap? I’ve never seen that J-spin by Fractal!!!
JD actually did create a less-difficult version of this spin, which is called JD-spin, where you just double-flip then tuck-spin the piece, where a Boiler is 1 rotation then 3 rapid ones, which sometimes helps with timing.
In my opinion I think you kind of missed the mark on this one to go for the memes. Despite what they might have said, this article in Nintendo Power is trying to sell Tetris cartridges to people who have never played it, especially if it was printed when Tetris came out as you said. So the audience isn't going to be familiar with anything, it's just meant to give people without the game infront an idea of some of the depth in the game so they'll buy it. That makes a huge difference when writing a fluff marketing piece vs an actual strategy guide. Those used to be sold separately :D
To clarify: proper waterslide technique not only includes being shirtless; one should remove all clothing (and expert sliders can apply a thin layer of grease or silicone-based lubricant to their entire body). You also want to make sure that you lean to the left side of the slide as the rotation of your slippery body gravitates to the right.