So I arrived home from work today and checked my post, and sure enough sitting there, in my mailbox, was the latest issue of Game Informer – the 200th issue no less.  In honour of their 200th issue, the team over at Game Informer decided to publish their list of the top 200 games of all time, so I thought I’d share some of the results with you.

Don’t panic, I’m not going to list all 200 with their reasoning, you’ll need to buy the magazine if you want that, but I thought I’d pull out a couple of highlights…

So, let’s begin at the beginning…  The top game of all time, the ultimate in gaming, the best there ever was?  Read on to find out…

Taking the top spot and pushing out all the rest was, from 1987, arguably unsurprisingly, The Legend of Zelda.

I realise there may be many cries of “Oh but we’ve come so far since then!  What about X, Y or Z?!” but they make some pretty good points in their justification.  As they stated, the Legend of Zelda is responsible for the creation of many lifelong gamers, not to mention future game developers.  This blast from the past may seem primitive in its style now, but it provided the starting point for many future developments, and for the 80’s it was pretty impressive! Shigeru Miyamoto can rest easy knowing that he did indeed create a level of greatness in the gaming industry that others could at that time barely aspire to, and that many have since credited this game as their inspiration.

So what else made it?  In their top 5 are others such as Super Mario Bros (#2), Tetris (#3), GTA III (#4), and Half Life 2(#5) – all very well known and pretty well respected games – it’s almost enough for me to have another bash at Half Life 2, which if I’m honest, never really grabbed me.  “But,” I hear you wail, “where is Mass Effect?!?!”  I know, I know, that was my response too!  So I scoured the lists, I turned page after page until I found it, and they do indeed bill it as “one of the greatest interactive tales we’ve ever experienced” but sadly, and clearly in an horrendous misprint, it only comes in at number 58!!  Despite my now clear disagreement with their positions, I read on anyway to see what else they had come up with…

Perhaps somewhat oddly, given their reasoning for Zelda winning overall, Ms Pac-Man made it into the top 10, whereas Pac-Man itself was held back at a mere 52nd place.  The various Final Fantasies pretty much all made it in, with FFIII the best of the bunch apparently at #8.  The various Mario games all seemed to rank pretty high, with good ol’ Sonic not getting a look in til #34.  Otherwise there are very few surprises, though one or two did make me raise an eyebrow…

Perhaps the biggest shocker personally (other than ME’s clearly incorrect placement) was Batman: Arkham Asylum.  Yes, I know it’s Batman, and yes, I realise to those who are not very discerning that automatically makes it super cool, and yes, the graphics were fantastic, but dear lord the gameplay is shocking.  One button takes out 5 enemies, and to me, that’s just not what this sort of game should be about, so seeing it at #104, above the much loved (by some) Borderlands for instance was a bit of a surprise.  Modern Warfare 2, for all the hype, only made it in at #181, and Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was in the top 20!?!

So there you have it, a very brief summary of a very lengthy article.  I have no doubt that others will have their opinions on where things should or should not have been included, and which games should have been higher than others, so buy the magazine, read the full article and feel free to let me know what congratulations or exclamations I’ve overlooked, but don’t think you’ll change my mind on poor old Shepard…

Immersion is one of the greatest goals every game tries to achieve. It is more obvious in what I call character based games. When you play Gears of War, you feel you are in Marcus Fenix’s shoes. When you play MGS4 you feel the drama of the dying hero as if it were your own. In Modern Warfare 2, every drop of blood on the screen makes you worry and get cover.

But it is also true for impersonal games; that is, the ones whose focus is not on characters. It is easier to notice it when I replace the word immersion for involvement. When playing Lumines or Tower Bloxx for example, you feel involved in the game: frustrated after a mistake, excited when a new level is reached, defiant when the score of a friend is beaten. Note impersonal and casual games are not the same thing at all. Chess is impersonal as are, heroes aside, most RTSs: replace one Zealot for another, there’s no difference at all. All sports games are like that too, with the exception of modes like EA’s Be A Pro.

Now, there’s a multitude of factors that contribute to how immersive a game is. I recently mentioned one talking about Demon’s Souls: challenge. A challenged player is an involved player. There’s also the connection between player and game at the fundamental design level: some people like puzzles, some like shooters. I will not get in the merits of each one, but if you like a type of game, you will be more into it. Style also plays a big role: when graphics and sound suit the game and your mood, they also improve immersion. In fact, I would say immersion is the reason behind most graphical updates in the games industry. From polygon count and texture size to shaders, in the search for immersion graphics chips are always evolving to provide better and more artistic or realistic visuals.

From here we get to the other facet of immersion I want to talk about: controls. No matter what game you are playing, connecting to it requires controlling it without trouble. You only get into Tetris when you learn how to move and rotate the pieces the way you want, you only appreciate Geometry Wars after getting used to moving the ship with the analog stick, you only feel like Sam Fisher when pulling all his moves gets easy, you only enjoy Fifa 10 when passing, dribbling and shooting becomes second nature.

Over the years, games became more and more complex. And with game complexity came complex controls. The Atari had 1 button. The NES had 2. The Genesis had 3. In the current generation, both PS3 and 360 have 4 face buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, 2 shoulder triggers and 2 clickable analog sticks. And I am not counting dpads, select and start buttons.

Most gamers are used to it. Hell, controllers could have more buttons and that wouldn’t be a problem, not to me. But with the last generation of consoles, we saw a big move in the opposite direction coming from Nintendo. The Wii has less buttons and makes up for it trying to detect something everybody knows how to do: move and point. When I first heard about it, I was very interested, both as a gamer and as a robotic perception researcher. To me, that meant games would become even more immersive, shooters would feel even more realistic.

It is curious that while it is true the Wii controllers increased immersion, that change did not affect most hardcore games. Nintendo correctly (from a business perspective) focused on using the more approachable controls to bring a new crowd to the video games era. And it worked very well for them.

Nintendo’s approach was so right that others have been following it ever since. After the success of the Wii, many game platforms started exploring new and more natural input methods. Touch screens and accelerometers became very popular.

But we will soon reach a new apex. Something I personally have been waiting for since I started studying computer vision. And Microsoft is the one about to pull it off: no controls. No buttons at all. If you haven’t heard of Project Natal before, go check it out. It is awesome.

The idea of a vision system in games is not new, the PS2 had the EyeToy. But there were many technical limitations: from sensor capability (one still eye won’t give proper perception of depth for example) to processing power, as robust computer vision algorithms require a whole lot of processing. Project Natal solves these problems in a very interesting way: a single camera is used for “texture” detection. And instead of stereo vision, they achieve 3D perception with a depth sensor. As for the processing power, Project Natal’s device features a custom processor, which is certainly there to reduce the load on the 360 hardware.

Like Nintendo did, Project Natal’s first efforts will probably aim the casual market and bring more gamers to the table. But that does not change the fact that immersion in video games will take a big leap. Imagine playing Lumines by grabbing the blocks and rotating them with your hands. Or simply using your empty hands to select your playlist. Wouldn’t it be cool? Heck, in Minority Report Tom Cruise needed cool glowing gloves to do what we are about to get with our bare hands. The future is here, my friends.

Anyway, as the number of buttons get close to the limit, after all we only have 10 fingers, new input methods are here to stay. I don’t have a Wii. But I will need a bigger living room when Project Natal becomes available.

See you space cowboys…

Corría el año 1987 cuando medio mundo se sorprendía ante uno de los videojuegos que iba a convertirse en todo un clásico. Tetris era su nombre, y en la publicidad que acompañaba al juego se decía que venía directamente de la URSS. El videjuego Tetris se ha convertido, junto a Pacman, Galaxian, o Space Invaders, en uno de los iconos de la informática lúdica. Muy poca gente no conoce su existencia, y en cuanto se ve una ficha del juego, enseguida se le reconoce su origen.

Su origen

Alexei Pajitnov en la actualidad

El nacimiento del juego resulta curioso por la forma, y sobre todo el lugar, en el que ocurrió. Es uno de los pocos ejemplos de videojuegos creados en la Unión Soviética que traspasaron las fronteras de dicho país (y de que forma…). Su creador es Alexei Pajitnov (en ocasiones transcrito como Alexey Pazhitnov, en cirílico Алексей Пажитнов), un ingeniero soviético especialista en inteligencia artificial que trabajaba en el Centro Informático de Dorodnitsyn, en Moscú, perteneciente a la Academia

Rusa de las Ciencias de la Unión Soviética.

Pajitnov basó el concepto del Tetris en otro juego, los puzles de Pentominós. Estos puzles consisten en rellenar una determinada superficie rectangular y plana con piezas compuestas por 5 cuadrados unidos por sus lados (de ahí su nombre, Penta=5). Pajitnov era un entusiasta de este juego, y decidió hacer algo parecido a los Pentominós pero en un ordenador. Para ello redujo las piezas de 5 cuadrados a 4, cambiándoles el nombre por el de Tetraminós. Además, le añadió un efecto de gravedad que es la clave del juego.

El juego fue programado en junio de 1984 en un Elektronica 60, un clon soviético del DEC LS-11 (en otro momento hablar

é de los clones soviéticos en la electrónica), con la ayuda de Dmitry Pavlovsky. El programa fue terminado en solo un par de horas. El nombre de Tetris surgió de la

unión de los  Tetraminós y otro juego del que Pajitnov era un fan: el tenis. Pajitnov y Pavlovsky pensaban crear un paquete de varios videojuegos sencillos bajo el nombre Computer FunFair y comercializarlos, algo de lo que no estaban muy seguros de cómo hacer al encontrarse en la Unión Soviética. El Elektronica 60 era un equipo profesional que poca gente poseía, aun en occidente, por lo que necesitaron la ayuda de Vadim Gerasimov, un joven de 16 años que se encargó de realizar la conversión de este juego al PC de IBM, un ordenador mucho más conocido en occidente. Esta versión de PC se extendió a través de Moscú primero, y luego gran parte de Rusia, hasta llegar al extranjero.

El lío legal

Tetrominos

En Budapest, programadores húngaros deciden convertir el juego a las versiones de Apple II y Commodore 64. Una de estas versiones llama la atención de Andrómeda Software, una empresa de software británica, a cuyo mando estaba un tal Robert Stein. Stein vio rápidamente posibilidades de negocio con este juego, y a través de los programadores húngaros contactó con Pajitnov para la venta de los derechos del mismo. Pajitnov le dijo a Stein que él no tenía los derechos de lo que programaba, ya que al estar en la Unión Soviética, el Estado era el que se encargaba de la comercialización y distribución al exterior de los productos soviéticos. Stein no pareció muy satisfecho con la revelación (negociar con Pajitnov era una cosa, y con el estado soviético otra muy distinta), y decidió hacer oídos sordos a la misma. A su vuelta a Inglaterra decidió vender los derechos del Tetris, unos derechos que él no poseía, a una gigante de los videojuegos: la británica Mirrorsoft, del grupo Mirror (editora, entre otras cosas, del Daily Mirror). Mirrorsoft comercializó el juego en Europa en la mayor parte de los sistemas informáticos de la época (Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore, MSX), y su filial Spectrum Holobyte, hizo lo mismo en territorio norteamericano.

Tetris, versión Arcade, de Atari

Vadim Gerasimov

En aquellos momentos llegó una notificación a Robert Stein por parte de Elorg, la agencia estatal soviética encargada de comercializar los productos rusos en el extranjero, sobre violación del copyright, ya que ellos no habían recibido ningún pago por el videojuego que en esos momentos empezaba a hacer furor por medio mundo. Stein termina cediendo y paga los royalties del juego a Elorg. Pasado un tiempo, aparecen en escena otros dos monstruos de los videojuegos: Atari y Nintendo. Es el año 1989 y las dos gigantes de los videojuegos negocian con Stein los derechos para conversionar el juego a las consolas, que es de donde saldrá el dinero a borbotones. El gato al agua se lo lleva Nintendo, la cual lanza el Tetris acompañando al que sería el bombazo de las videoconsolas de los 90: la Game Boy. Atari, mientras tanto, tendrá que conformarse con los derechos para hacer una versión de máquina recreativa que hemos visto en numerosos bares.

Es el año 1992, y el Estado Soviético se colapsa. Elorg desaparece, y el vacío legal es aprovechado por multitud de pequeñas empresas, la mayoría situadas en Asia, que se lanzan a hacer clones del Tetris en mil y un dispositivos distintos, principalmente llaveros y máquinas hand-helds. Hoy en día te puedes encontrar juegos de tetris en reproductores de DVD y TDT, relojes, termómetros electrónicos, cámaras de fotos, o incluso lavadoras. Prácticamente todos los ordenadores y consolas de videojuegos han contado con una versión del mismo, y ha sido fuente de inspiración para series de televisión (como Los Simpsons, Futurama, o Padre de Familia, en los vídeos que se ven en esta entrada) o para artistas más o menos frikis. Es un juego que ha creado escuela, su estilo ha sido imitado cientos de veces y han salido a la luz multitud de juegos parecidos que intentan aprovechar la sencillez y adicción del Tetris original.

Las características

El código de este juego es de lo más sencillo que puede existir. Se puede utilizar cualquier lenguaje de programación en cualquier equipo, aun siendo éste muy poco potente (he visto versiones de Tetris en BASIC del Spectrum ocupando solo una línea). Para la primera versión PC del mismo, Gerasimov utilizó el Pascal de la empresa Borland.

Pantalla PC del primer Tetris

En un principio podría parecer que el juego no tiene final: el cansancio o la falta de reflejos del jugador son las únicas posibilidades de finalizar una partida. Pero en realidad no es así. En el Tetris existen 2 piezas, las que tienen forma de S y Z respectivamente) que si aparecen al principio del juego de forma continuada obligarán al jugador a acabar la partida, ya que estas fichas siempre dejarán un hueco que evitará la formación de líneas. Como la aparición de las piezas es aleatoria, la posibilidad de que al principio del juego aparezcan **siempre** estas fichas hasta llegar a la parte superior de la pantalla (y acabar así la partida) es de 1 entre 4×10 elevado a 81. Es una posibilidad mínima, pero existe.

En las últimas versiones del juego hay una rutina que impide que esto ocurra: cuando han salido n número de veces una pieza, automáticamente el programa se obliga a sacar otra pieza distinta.

La adicción a este juego ha acuñado un nuevo término a los diccionarios de psiquiatría: Efecto Tetris. Este “efecto” es la respuesta de nuestro cerebro a un uso prolongado de este juego. Cuando se juegan muchas horas al mismo, el cerebro aprende los patrones del juego y  aun cuando no se juega los reproduce de forma involuntaria, llegando incluso a crearse partidas virtuales dentro de nuestra cabeza en la que el jugador es el que propone nueva piezas de forma aleatoria al mismo tiempo que intenta acomodarlas a la partida imaginaria. Este efecto se ha dado también con otros videojuegos, generalmente muy sencillos e igual de adictivos (Arkanoid o Space Invaders son algunos ejemplos).

Se ha dicho también que el Tetris es un juego muy beneficioso para la mente. Personalmente dudo mucho de este tipo de estudios: es cierto que el cerebro es un músculo, pero no se ejercita con su uso como puede ocurrir con los bíceps, por ejemplo. El cerebro no necesita moverse para fortalecerse, por lo que dudo de las capacidades de estos (y otros videojuegos) en cuanto a las bondades que se suelen comentar sobre ellos.

Las primeras versiones del Tetris no tenían efectos sonoros, pero a finales de los 80 prácticamente todas tenían una  música muy repetitiva que se ha convertido en un clásico. La mayoría de las versiones tienen temas tradicionales rusos (como el Kalinka), pero el más conocido es una versión modificada del tema Korobeiniki (Коробе́йники – Los buhoneros), del que podemos escuchar aquí la versión original (cantada en ruso). A la derecha tenéis la letra de la canción (la tenéis en ruso, y no me seáis nenazas, que para algo estáis estudiando ese idioma).

Y aquí una más parecida a la del juego.

El presente

Alexei Pajitnov emigró a Estados Unidos en 1991, más concretamente a Hawai. Allí fundó la Tetris Company, una compañía dedicada a recuperar los derechos del Tetris, algo que consiguió en 1996. Con esta compañía programó algunos juegos para PC (Elfish – 1993, Breakthru – 1994) que no tuvieron tanto éxito como el Tetris original. En 1996 comenzó a trabajar en Microsoft, haciendo juegos de inteligencia para MSN y la XBox 360. En 2006 dejó la compañía de Bill Gates y empezó a trabajar para WildSnake Software, empresa dedicada a la programación de videojuegos de corte mental, donde sigue en la actualidad. Como curiosidad, y por desgracia, Pajitnov es un declarado enemigo del Software Libre.

Vadim Gerasinov vive en la actualidad en Australia, y trabaja para Google.

Robert Stein es el director del Instituto para el Futuro del Libro, una empresa dedicada al desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías capaces de integrar y sustituir en un futuro a los tradicionales libros de papel.

Mirrorsoft fue comprada en 1992 por otra compañía de videojuegos, Acclaim, la cual entró en bancarrota en 2004 y terminó desapareciendo.

Y por hoy, ya vale de hablar de un juego en el que habré malgastado horas y horas en vez de hacer algo productivo, como por ejemplo, estudiar ruso.

Пока!

URL : http://www.flashgame-girl.com/Puzzle-board/Matching-Tetris.html

Game description :

Mix and match and eliminate! Don’t let them reach the top.

Game controls :

Use Mouse to interact.

Nostarji =)

Nossa queridinha Taylor Momsen foi flagrada por aí usando uma jaquetinha bafo inspirada em ‘tetris’! Um máximo!

E vocês, o que acham?

Mt template

I’m not sure I like the ‘play game to get template’ idea – you end up with too many single color blocks. I think I’d prefer to make yay amount of Tetris shapes and then finagle them together. I have found out that the Tetris board is 10 wide by 20 high. Which means 4 inch squares will do admirably.

Y es que estos japoneses son la mar de graciosillos parodiando juegos…

Zombiies!

Tetris (Este me ha gustado aun más que el otro)

Saludos, Terrix.

So, today while strolling through my friends pages in LJ, I came across a poster who was/is making a Tetris afghan.  I’d like to make a ‘random’ blanket, but my brain *can’t* randomly do things, so this, with its specific shaped blocks, randomly arranged together, might just do *it* for me.

Some pictures:-

There is also this pastel one I found:-

http://pics.livejournal.com/quenbolyn/pic/000069bx/s320×240

and a link to a graph that a knitter created.

I’m thinking that I would like to make one. Maybe in purples? I have quite a few varying shades of purple. Or possibly rainbow. If I DO make one, it will take me literally years to finish, simply because after 10, 20 or more squares I’d get bored. Then I’d put it away for later and not bring it back out for months. This one took two years.

Oh look:-

Back to the subject at hand. I have some 4 inch granny squares floating around somewhere, so I have a start. Hmm… maybe I will. To get my very own template I could just play a game of Tetris and see what that gives me

NECESSITO DE UMA CAMISETA COM ESSA ESTAMPA!!!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Pode parecer um pouco irritante, ao fim de se estar um bocado a ouvir isto, mas é uma montagem bastante interessante…

Pole Position
Pong
Tetris

Tumble Jumble is a colorful physics-based puzzler, with players employed by the Intergalactic Rodent Removal Company. Defy the laws of physics to rotate and drop a variety of block-shaped rodents into containers while avoiding lasers and dangerous enemy critters.

Further amazing physics-altering power-ups will keep you on your toes! Cut-scenes and stylish vector animations reveal Tumble Jumble’s madcap storyline throughout more than 60 challenging levels. At any time you can compare your achievements with fellow Tumble Jumblers via global online leaderboards and even brag of your accomplishments via Facebook.

Further recent news from Clickgamer: top-down dungeon crawler, Zombie Dash, released to Apple’s App store last week! Priced £0.59 / $0.99. In Zombie Dash, players must stay alive by avoiding and outwitting the zombies that they are running from. Trapped in a tomb infested with undead pursuers, players must search for treasure and the all important key to the next level.

Check out the game on iTunes for $0.99!

Les debo todavía las evoluciones de la portada =/

Bienvenidos a otra edición de El Suplemento de Zuplemento (SUPdeZUP o SdZ). El compilado de tiras cómicas de artistas venezolanos e invitados internacionales; publicado gratis en línea todos los domingos.

Hemos decidido hacer los Premios Zuplemento 2009, más info: aquí.
¡visiten a nuestros patrocinantes y aliados!

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CÓMICS (algunas imágenes pueden ampliarse al ser clickeadas, duh)

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Ron y Vodka
por RAW [http://ronyvodka.smackjeeves.com]

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Die Schrödingers Katze “Preludio Mierda”
por Noiryaguara [http://decadentiacoprofaga.blogspot.com]
gia,

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Dibujitos
por Javo01 [http://javo01.deviantart.com]

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Miss Hellothere
por Rogger [http://orangerender.wordpress.com]

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Esos Escatológicos Pájaros
por Paduano [http://paduano.blogspot.com]

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Garabatos

por Casanova [http://henryhumor.wordpress.com]

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Te Tocó El Infierno
por soyellobo [http://soyellobo.blogspot.com]

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“Batman Weakpoint”
por Necrodandy [http://necrodandysouvenir.blogspot.com]

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PAX la aventurera ESPACIAL
por Pialanyt [http://pialanyt.deviantart.com]

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“Alzheimer Juvenil”
por Sergio Almendro [http://karakenio.wordpress.com]

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EXTRAS INTERNACIONALES

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Macanudo
por Liniers, de Argentina [http://autoliniers.blogspot.com]

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xkcd
por Randall Munroe, de EEUU [http://xkcd.com]

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Te invitamos a visitar nuevamente a nuestros patrocinantes:

Instituto de Diseño Perera

MaterialKit.com

Y a nuestros nuestros principales aliados web:
miniPlug.TV | La Ventana de Saouri | El Chigüire Bipolar

Hi BB Gamers,

Here is the updated of new games with OTA link & PC download link.

We would suggest you to join the facebook blackberry community for free thus you could see the update of freeappsblackberry.wordpress.com from your facebook account.

Join Facebook group for Free Apps, Games Blackberry by click at blackberry community.

 You also could share the freeappsblackberry.wordpress.com review to your friends at facebook by click the facebook share at right side or click share facebook

BBTetris 4.3

Very Nice Tetris game for the BlackBerry.

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Tiltris 1.4.090206

Cool Tetris clone for the Storm. This game uses the Storm’s accelerometer and touchscreen so it will not have to run in compatibility mode. You can tilt your Storm in order to move the blocks.

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Really nice casino style game for the BlackBerry.

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Free apps Blackberry : Web download

Free apps Blackberry : PC download  

Compatible with Pearl and Curve

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Free apps Blackberry : OTA

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Curling Challenge

Nice curling game for the BlackBerry.

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Blackjack 1.01.03

Also known as Twenty-one, one of the world’s most popular card games is now available on the small screen. If you beat the Dealer’s hand without exceeding 21 you’ve won. It’s so simple to play, that you’ll be an expert in no time. Note: Use #/Q key for left menu and use J key for right menu.

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Compatible with: 8700 and Newer

After buying a stick, the next step is to get the feel of it and master it, if you don’t know what I mean. On some shmups (rRootage, Parsec47, NOIZ2SA) I tend to fare better, but on some others (the Garegga spirital trilogy, and maybe RFA) I tend to do worse.

I did, however, execute a 1CC on Thunder Force AC, two days after 1CC’ing Thunder Force III a second time. I’ve found that using A/X/Y, with thumb allocated to changing speed, is more comfortable than X/Y/RB. Same goes with Gradius, which puts the powerup button on button 1 rather than 3. AC is a fairly good port, but is graphically weaker in some spots. I did like Haides [AC/TS], however, and Ellis [AC/TS], despite being the mutant lovechild of Thunder Force II Stage 3-2 and Stage 5-2 4-2, is actually a challenge and isn’t a bland diagonal-scrolling stage where barely anything interesting happens. Only thing really hurting it is a lack of autofire, though various versions of MAME, controller-provided autofire, and the Saturn port fix that.

Thunder Spirits sucks. Still no autofire (inexcusable considering the overrated-as-hell SNES controller’s buttons), worse music in some spots, and when I use external autofire (generated by my stick), the game slows down Gradius III style. There’s two stages unique to this; I kinda like the new Stage 8, but Stage 6? Cerberus [Spirits] looks even more boring than Cerberus [III/AC]. This is a textbook example of why I don’t think SNES completely trumps the Genesis: SNES may have the higher color capacity and all the Mode 7 fancy-shmanciness, but it lacks the power needed to keep a game like Thunder Force III running at 100% most of the time. And even with the higher palette, Spirits somehow manages to look WORSE on the SNES, partly due to the SNES outputting 64 less vertical lines and thus necessitating smaller sprites.

Well, enough console ranting. I’ve also been using the stick for Tetris: The Grand Master. To play TGM on a stick properly, one must switch the restrictor from its square 8-way position to the diamond-like 4-way position.

This is easy to do on my FSTE, it just takes a lot of time, as mentioned before. On TGM2 and clones of TGM3, I can easily do the up-down motion necessary to do a firm drop, but I still have issues with the current piece shifting left or right slightly by accident. I also have to relearn some of the techniques I use to efficiently get pieces into tricky spots. This is made tricky by how I play on a keyboard: arrow keys for up/down/left/right, A for CCW rotate, S for CW rotate, and D for secondary CCW rotate. This means my hands’ roles are reversed. My hands, on a stick, will attempt to do a technique, but fumble with it. I have, however, noticed more consistency when playing on a stick: in T.A. Death mode, I can consistently break into the mid-200 range, whereas on a keyboard I have some bullcrap rounds where I don’t even hit 170.

However, there are tricks that I find easier on a stick: Zangi-moves are easier and feel more graceful on a stick, for instance. In instances where I need to perform a Zangi-move and rotate, I can more confidently move while rotating at the same time.

I may make a more long-term switch to 4-way in the winter, when I go to do some intensive TGM training. Heck, I may even use it in Blockbox League season 4.

When you get a long piece in Tetris

Graph by: balambfish via Graph Jam Builder

URL : http://www.flashgame-girl.com/Puzzle-board/Tetris-Returns.html

Game description :

He again is hooked for this clasicazo. In 1980 it has begun fever Tetris owing to founder Aleksei Pahitnov who has inspired in a popular puzzle named Pentamino

Game controls :

Use arrow keys to play the game.

URL : http://www.flashgame-girl.com/Puzzle-board/Mario-Tetris-3.html

Game description :

Play Tetris with Mario blocks.

Game controls :

Move and turn blocks with arrows.