Robin is a classy guy, he was always a nice person to be around. Can't believe it's been almost 20 years since I've seen him. Always thought his name was cool, 'Mihara', sounds like some Japanese Shotokan master or something.
Mihara means three fields (or meadows). Your version sounds cooler though.
One of my very few regrets from that experience was not getting to know you better. outside of your after party in hollywood, im not sure i ever really even spoke to you. my mom got to know your dad in tampa a little, but im not sure if we met there. i just got in contact with a guy, trey harrison, who said he met you in texas (where he said you took it easily) and had great things to say about how kind you were, and how you helped him, talking with him about tetris. he is now an amazing player (or his youtube run is).... too bad he never won a regional. (2nd in Miami and 3rd in Tampa) anyway, tune in for my follow-up article. im gonna trash you a little
if youre on facebook, hes on there. thats how i talk with him. his score on youtube is the 801,000. he said he knows a kid named jonah that is even better than he. neither one has gotten to level 30 though..... that was your high as of 1990 right? still your high?
Yeah, it's been a really long time, but when NES tetris reaches a certain level (29), the pieces drop so fast that even if you're holding the d-pad left or right, the piece hits the bottom before it can go to either side of the screen. You have to overcome this by hypertapping the d-pad with your thump the necessary number of taps to place the piece in the column you want to drop it onto. It looks near epileptic to do this, but it's the only way. I got so used to doing that, it became 2nd nature. If you watch the NWC video on youtube, you can see me doing this, as it helps on earlier levels as well to be able to get the pieces to the column you want more rapidly. Save .1 second here, .1 second there, next thing you know, you can place a few more pieces than the other guys. 999,999 is pretty easy to get if you can hold out past level 29. It's been far too long, but I think I saw level 31-32 or so. It's got to be at the very edge of human ability, not at the speed, but at the control setup and NES Tetris design. On iminlikewithyou.com, for example, I can play hideously fast (on a kb no less), that makes even NES Level 29+ look tame.
Some of the high-level japanese players use custom loosened joysticks so they can "hypertap" as you put it, there are some sick youtube videos of physical play with hands in the picture.
not to downplay that guys game (im assuming its the "invisible tetris" video you speak of), but in that version, and as well as the "new" tetris party, you can flip pieces and even move them after they hit the ground. he also can see 3 pieces ahead instead of just 1. level 31 or 32 (on NES) has to be the most impressive feat ive heard of. 29 looks rediculous to me. i remember thinking i was king when i could get a few tetrises on 19....... thor you have got to be the only person alive that can say 999,999 is pretty easy (and mean it). i want to see you vs. this jonas person before you die.
I'd play him on iminlikewithyou.com, but I haven't played NES Tetris in almost two decades (other than meeting the guys at the expo, that was a blast!).
The controls are the limiting factor on NES tetris. IILWY you can easily play 2x faster than level 29 NES speed.
Robin - unfortunately the ability to flip pieces after they've hit the ground is considered to be part of the "standard" set of Tetris rules currently. I find it a little too forgiving, and on Tetris DX (the first game I remember including that feature) I can max out the level count and get about 1500 lines and a few million points (it's scored identically to the older versions of Tetris).
i peeked at that site and didnt see tetris. is it set up where you could play against someone and others could watch? even if you cant, i want to make this happen. i dont know if you saw it, but either trey or jonas was calling you out to make a video on you tube (in the text). i think you need to represent. this could go down as the greatest match ever. like andy beal vs. the pros.... so thor, do you think ambler's claim of reaching 6.5 million on normal settings is really possible? i cant imagine more than low 5s
i peeked at that site and didnt see tetris. is it set up where you could play against someone and others could watch? even if you cant, i want to make this happen. i dont know if you saw it, but either trey or jonas was calling you out to make a video on you tube (in the text). i think you need to represent. this could go down as the greatest match ever. like andy beal vs. the pros.... so thor, do you think ambler's claim of reaching 6.5 million on normal settings is really possible? i cant imagine more than low 5s
On IILWY, go to 'Blockles' and then select 'No Items', or look for no items games. Anyone can join/play
As for 6.5 Million. The score keeps going up as the levels progress, so maybe a perfect or near-perfect game? Meaning no wasted lines, and maximum speed. Someone obsessed could probably do that. During the tour, when absolutely nobody had the cart besides Nintendo, I hit 3 million first, then was the only player to clear 4 million in the tour. It was hellishly difficult to get that extra couple of tetrises in there, but for sure, I never had a perfect game. It's well-known now that NWC Tetris has patterns based upon the mario time or something, that repeat predictably. If someone were to always get the same Mario time, then plot out the perfect way to lay out the pieces, I could see that happening. This may sound odd, but as for NWC Scores, I couldn't have cared less after it was over.
After the NWC was over, I think I only played NES a handful of times. I was more into Genesis and shortly after, SNES. After that, I got really into fighting, cars, and girls. I pretty much dropped off of the earth as far as games were concerned.
If I were to go back to NES Tetris, it would take some time to get the coordination to a usable point. Holding those little controllers is nostalgic, but just feels odd nearly two decades after I put them down.
PM me, we'll hook up on IILWY. It's a little nuts at first, but it gets better. There are a handful of elites on there (maybe 2 or 3), that can hit that epic speed. Don't bother with Item play, it perverts Tetris.
ill definitely hit you up for the IILWY thing soon. if you are really saying that you are down to play him, then ill try and contact him through trey. if he hasnt played this epic version, maybe a few months of practice would be fair. or maybe he would have a preferred version. sounds to me like your IILWY version may be a better test of who the superior player is.
ill be in touch. sounds like fun
- robin
p.s. twin galaxies is missing your name i believe.
Yeah, I got into MMA before it was coined 'MMA' Was on lots of Anadrol + Testred + Creatine, and just having fun with Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Pankrate, and so on.
What's Twin Galaxies? Yeah PM me when you want to jump on IILWY, I'll give you a quick tutorial and tips on that version.
i dont believe the pattern is solely based on mario. i may be wrong, but i would get the same pattern every time (with like 4 dark blue pieces to start) except when i had to break in rad racer. its been a long time though, so i could be wrong.
anyway, thor this is from twingalaxies.com....
Twin Galaxies is the world authority on player rankings, gaming statistics and championship tournaments, with pinball statistics dating from the 1930s and video game statistics from the early 1970s.
As the electronic gaming industry's premiere statistician, Twin Galaxies preserves the history of gaming in a historical database, which documents the historical milestones of the electronic gaming hobby as it evolves into a professional sport.
Founded in 1981, Twin Galaxies grew from modest origins as an arcade chain operator to gain recognition as the "official scorekeeper for the world of video game & pinball playing," invested with the authority to verify "official" world record high-scores and crown new world champions.
The Twin Galaxies scoreboard was the creation of Walter Day, Twin Galaxies founder, who, on June 6, 1981, embarked on a series of business trips that took him through 15 U.S. states in 4 months. Though his role as a traveling salesman was the focus of his trip, Day's real passion was to visit as many video game arcades as possible and record the high scores he found on each game.
Ten thousand miles and one hundred arcades later, Day, on November 10, 1981, opened his own arcade in the sleepy Midwestern town of Ottumwa, Iowa. It was called Twin Galaxies and its tranquil existence was altered when, on February 9, 1982, Day's growing database of high score statistics were made available to the public as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard. As the organizational center of competitive video game playing, Twin Galaxies received immediate recognition from the major game manufacturers of the day: Atari, Midway, Williams Electronics, Universal, Stern, Nintendo and Exidy, in addition to support from RePlay Magazine and Playmeter Magazine-- the two premier coin-op publications of that era.
Twin Galaxies' role as the scorekeeper grew in importance as "player-rankings" became a major focus of the media. As the pioneer in ranking the top players, Twin Galaxies was called upon to bring the superstar players together for many well-publicized contests and media events. For example, On November 8, 1982, LIFE Magazine visited Twin Galaxies to capture sixteen of North America's best players in a group photograph. Two months later, on January 9, 1983, ABC-TV's "That's Incredible" came to Ottumwa, Iowa, to film nineteen of the worlds best players competing in the first-ever video game world championship.
Then, on March 19, 1983, players from around North America came to Twin Galaxies to join representatives of Atari, the Amusement Game Manufacturers Association (AGMA), RePlay Magazine and Video Games Magazine as Iowa Governor Terry Branstad acknowledged Twin Galaxies' role as the official scorekeeper and crown Ottumwa, Iowa as the "Video Game Capital of the World."
As Twin Galaxies continued to rank top players, the first national video game team was formed to represent the United States, made up of a select cadre of the very best talent. Called the U.S. National Video Game Team, Day was the founding team captain and issued international video game challenges to Japan, the United Kingdom and Italy, even hand-delivering proclamations to their respective Embassies in Washington, DC. Eventually, the team toured the U.S., Europe and Asia during the 1980s.
By 1985, Twin Galaxies had enjoyed major media coverage in LIFE magazine, Marvel Comics, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Stern Magazine, the Washington Post and nearly 100 TV appearances, including ABC-TV's Entertainment Tonight and NBC Nightly News.
As Twin Galaxies' fame spread further, Walter Day was designated an assistant editor in charge of video game scores for the 1984-1986 editions of the U.S. edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Under Day's direction, Twin Galaxies wrote the first official rulebook for playing electronic games and established the rules and standardized settings for each game. Today, this rulebook has evolved into Twin Galaxies' most well known product: Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records (ISBN 1887472-25-8), a 984-page book containing scores from players in 31 different countries compiled since 1981. A second edition, totaling 1500 pages in a two-volume set, updated with today's hottest PC titles as well as modern consoles like the X-Box and PS2, is scheduled for release in 2008.
Today, Twin Galaxies is recognized as the world's premiere electronic games referee, having judged contests and high scores submitted by console gamers, arcades and PC gamers worldwide.
Now, in its 27th year, Twin Galaxies still creates the contests, enforces the rules, maintains the records and crowns the champions on home consoles, PC-based games and arcade games.
does not knowing about twingalaxies mean you havent seen king of kong?? get on that man. its great.
Comments
For people who dont know, you can buy tickets from the Oakland event
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/nintendo-powerfest-1990-1990s-ticket/OCA901006-T9.html
Al
Mihara means three fields (or meadows). Your version sounds cooler though.
One of my very few regrets from that experience was not getting to know you better. outside of your after party in hollywood, im not sure i ever really even spoke to you. my mom got to know your dad in tampa a little, but im not sure if we met there.
i just got in contact with a guy, trey harrison, who said he met you in texas (where he said you took it easily) and had great things to say about how kind you were, and how you helped him, talking with him about tetris. he is now an amazing player (or his youtube run is).... too bad he never won a regional. (2nd in Miami and 3rd in Tampa) anyway, tune in for my follow-up article. im gonna trash you a little
Trash me all you want
level 31 or 32 (on NES) has to be the most impressive feat ive heard of. 29 looks rediculous to me. i remember thinking i was king when i could get a few tetrises on 19.......
thor you have got to be the only person alive that can say 999,999 is pretty easy (and mean it). i want to see you vs. this jonas person before you die.
The controls are the limiting factor on NES tetris. IILWY you can easily play 2x faster than level 29 NES speed.
i peeked at that site and didnt see tetris. is it set up where you could play against someone and others could watch?
even if you cant, i want to make this happen. i dont know if you saw it, but either trey or jonas was calling you out to make a video on you tube (in the text). i think you need to represent. this could go down as the greatest match ever. like andy beal vs. the pros....
so thor, do you think ambler's claim of reaching 6.5 million on normal settings is really possible? i cant imagine more than low 5s
thor
i peeked at that site and didnt see tetris. is it set up where you could play against someone and others could watch?
even if you cant, i want to make this happen. i dont know if you saw it, but either trey or jonas was calling you out to make a video on you tube (in the text). i think you need to represent. this could go down as the greatest match ever. like andy beal vs. the pros....
so thor, do you think ambler's claim of reaching 6.5 million on normal settings is really possible? i cant imagine more than low 5s
On IILWY, go to 'Blockles' and then select 'No Items', or look for no items games. Anyone can join/play
As
for 6.5 Million. The score keeps going up as the levels progress, so
maybe a perfect or near-perfect game? Meaning no wasted lines, and
maximum speed. Someone obsessed could probably do that. During the
tour, when absolutely nobody had the cart besides Nintendo, I hit 3
million first, then was the only player to clear 4 million in the tour.
It was hellishly difficult to get that extra couple of tetrises in
there, but for sure, I never had a perfect game. It's well-known now
that NWC Tetris has patterns based upon the mario time or something,
that repeat predictably. If someone were to always get the same Mario
time, then plot out the perfect way to lay out the pieces, I could see
that happening. This may sound odd, but as for NWC Scores, I couldn't
have cared less after it was over.
After the NWC was over, I
think I only played NES a handful of times. I was more into Genesis and
shortly after, SNES. After that, I got really into fighting, cars, and
girls. I pretty much dropped off of the earth as far as games were
concerned.
If I were to go back to NES Tetris, it would take
some time to get the coordination to a usable point. Holding those
little controllers is nostalgic, but just feels odd nearly two decades
after I put them down.
PM me, we'll hook up on IILWY. It's a
little nuts at first, but it gets better. There are a handful of elites
on there (maybe 2 or 3), that can hit that epic speed. Don't bother
with Item play, it perverts Tetris.
ill definitely hit you up for the IILWY thing soon. if you are really saying that you are down to play him, then ill try and contact him through trey. if he hasnt played this epic version, maybe a few months of practice would be fair. or maybe he would have a preferred version. sounds to me like your IILWY version may be a better test of who the superior player is.
ill be in touch. sounds like fun
- robin
p.s. twin galaxies is missing your name i believe.
What's Twin Galaxies? Yeah PM me when you want to jump on IILWY, I'll give you a quick tutorial and tips on that version.
anyway, thor this is from twingalaxies.com....
Twin Galaxies is the world authority on player rankings,
gaming statistics and championship tournaments, with pinball statistics
dating from the 1930s and video game statistics from the early 1970s.
As the electronic gaming industry's premiere statistician, Twin
Galaxies preserves the history of gaming in a historical database,
which documents the historical milestones of the electronic gaming
hobby as it evolves into a professional sport.
Founded in 1981, Twin Galaxies grew from modest origins as an arcade
chain operator to gain recognition as the "official scorekeeper for the
world of video game & pinball playing," invested with the authority
to verify "official" world record high-scores and crown new world
champions.
The Twin Galaxies scoreboard was the creation of Walter Day, Twin
Galaxies founder, who, on June 6, 1981, embarked on a series of
business trips that took him through 15 U.S. states in 4 months. Though
his role as a traveling salesman was the focus of his trip, Day's real
passion was to visit as many video game arcades as possible and record
the high scores he found on each game.
Ten thousand miles and one hundred arcades later, Day, on November
10, 1981, opened his own arcade in the sleepy Midwestern town of
Ottumwa, Iowa. It was called Twin Galaxies and its tranquil existence
was altered when, on February 9, 1982, Day's growing database of high
score statistics were made available to the public as the Twin Galaxies
National Scoreboard. As the organizational center of competitive video
game playing, Twin Galaxies received immediate recognition from the
major game manufacturers of the day: Atari, Midway, Williams
Electronics, Universal, Stern, Nintendo and Exidy, in addition to
support from RePlay Magazine and Playmeter Magazine-- the two premier
coin-op publications of that era.
Twin Galaxies' role as the scorekeeper grew in importance as
"player-rankings" became a major focus of the media. As the pioneer in
ranking the top players, Twin Galaxies was called upon to bring the
superstar players together for many well-publicized contests and media
events. For example, On November 8, 1982, LIFE Magazine visited Twin
Galaxies to capture sixteen of North America's best players in a group
photograph. Two months later, on January 9, 1983, ABC-TV's "That's
Incredible" came to Ottumwa, Iowa, to film nineteen of the worlds best
players competing in the first-ever video game world championship.
Then, on March 19, 1983, players from around North America came to
Twin Galaxies to join representatives of Atari, the Amusement Game
Manufacturers Association (AGMA), RePlay Magazine and Video Games
Magazine as Iowa Governor Terry Branstad acknowledged Twin Galaxies'
role as the official scorekeeper and crown Ottumwa, Iowa as the "Video
Game Capital of the World."
As Twin Galaxies continued to rank top players, the first national
video game team was formed to represent the United States, made up of a
select cadre of the very best talent. Called the U.S. National Video
Game Team, Day was the founding team captain and issued international
video game challenges to Japan, the United Kingdom and Italy, even
hand-delivering proclamations to their respective Embassies in
Washington, DC. Eventually, the team toured the U.S., Europe and Asia
during the 1980s.
By 1985, Twin Galaxies had enjoyed major media coverage in LIFE
magazine, Marvel Comics, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Stern
Magazine, the Washington Post and nearly 100 TV appearances, including
ABC-TV's Entertainment Tonight and NBC Nightly News.
As Twin Galaxies' fame spread further, Walter Day was designated an
assistant editor in charge of video game scores for the 1984-1986
editions of the U.S. edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
Under Day's direction, Twin Galaxies wrote the first official rulebook
for playing electronic games and established the rules and standardized
settings for each game. Today, this rulebook has evolved into Twin
Galaxies' most well known product: Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game
& Pinball Book of World Records (ISBN 1887472-25-8), a 984-page
book containing scores from players in 31 different countries compiled
since 1981. A second edition, totaling 1500 pages in a two-volume set,
updated with today's hottest PC titles as well as modern consoles like
the X-Box and PS2, is scheduled for release in 2008.
Today, Twin Galaxies is recognized as the world's premiere
electronic games referee, having judged contests and high scores
submitted by console gamers, arcades and PC gamers worldwide.
Now, in its 27th year, Twin Galaxies still creates the contests,
enforces the rules, maintains the records and crowns the champions on
home consoles, PC-based games and arcade games.
does not knowing about twingalaxies mean you havent seen king of kong?? get on that man. its great.