Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2

Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2
Arcade flyer for Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PLUS
Developer(s)	Arika
Publisher(s)	Psikyo
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Release	TGM2 JP: October 27, 2000 PLUS JP: December, 2000 PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch WW: June 1, 2023
Predecessor	Tetris The Grand Master
Sequel	Tetris The Grand Master 3 Terror-Instinct
Gameplay info
Next pieces	1
Playfield size	10 × 20
Hold piece	No
Hard drop	Yes (Sonic Drop)
Rotation system	TGM rotation

Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 (テトリス ジ・アブソリュート ザ・グランドマスター2), also known as T.A. and TGM2, is the second installment in Arika's TGM series. Released as an arcade game by Psikyo in October 2000. A console version was later released on June 1, 2023, for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as part of the Arcade Archives series.

The Grand Master 2 introduced a more accessible Normal mode, designed to appeal to casual players, alongside a revamped grading system for its challenging Master mode, continuing the original gameplay style of TGM.

In December, 2000, Arika released a free upgrade titled Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PLUS (also known as TAP, and TGM2+). This update introduced new gameplay modes such as TGM+, T.A. Death, and heightened requirements for achieving the Grand Master (GM) rank in Master mode. The update, consisting of new ROMs, was given to arcade opperators. Due to this, it is very rare to find a TGM2 arcade PCB that has not been updated to the PLUS version.

Gameplay

Sonic drop

Sonic drop, a hard drop that doesn't lock, was added to the base TGM gameplay, which improves low gravity gameplay by allowing Zangi-moves.

Buffer zone

Above the playfield, the game uses a single-row buffer zone, effectively extending the height of the playfield from 20 to 21. Row 21 allows blocks that lock in it to reappear once the stack is lowered. Any row above it, however, is not part of the buffer zone, meaning that blocks that lock in such rows get deleted and will not reappear once the stack is lowered.

Game modes

Normal

Normal mode plays similarly to Master mode in gravity and speed timings, but ends at level 300. At levels 100 and 200 an item block is given to the player. "Free Fall," which eliminates all holes, is given at 100. "Del Even," which clears every other row throughout the field is given at 200. The credit roll challenge is a slow 20g, but playing through it is not required for a "Clear". See scoring bellow for how score is calculated in this mode.

Speed timings

The unit for gravity is G (rows per frame), as a fraction with a constant denominator of 256. This means G = Internal Gravity/256. For example, at levels 90 through 99, the gravity is 64/256G, or 1/4G.

Internal Gravity

Level	Internal Gravity (1/256 G)	Level	Internal Gravity (1/256 G)
0	4	149	48
8	5	156	80
19	6	164	112
35	8	174	128
40	10	180	144
50	12	200	16
60	16	212	48
70	32	221	80
80	48	232	112
90	64	244	144
100	4	256	176
108	5	267	192
119	6	277	208
125	8	287	224
131	12	295	240
139	32	300	5120 (20G)

Delays

Level	ARE (frames)	DAS (frames)	Lock (frames)	Line clear (frames)
000 - 300	27	16	30	40

Master

Master mode is Arika's evolution of the original Tetris The Grand Master gameplay. In TGM the speed timings remain the same for the entire length of the game. New to The Absolute is shrinking delays that speed up the game after level 500. The length of the game remains the same, with players trying to complete 999 levels.

Speed timings

Internal Gravity

Level	Internal Gravity (1/256 G)	Level	Internal Gravity (1/256 G)
0	4	220	32
30	6	230	64
35	8	233	96
40	10	236	128
50	12	239	160
60	16	243	192
70	32	247	224
80	48	251	256 (1G)
90	64	300	512 (2G)
100	80	330	768 (3G)
120	96	360	1024 (4G)
140	112	400	1280 (5G)
160	128	420	1024 (4G)
170	144	450	768 (3G)
200	4	500	5120 (20G)

Delays

Level	ARE (frames)	Line ARE (frames)	DAS (frames)	Lock (frames)	Line clear (frames)
000 - 499	27	27	16	30	40
500 - 600	27	27	10	30	25
601 - 700	27	18	10	30	16
701 - 800	18	14	10	30	12
801 - 900	14	8	10	30	6
901 - 999	14	8	8	17	6

Line ARE defines the number of frames of ARE to use after a line clear. The player's DAS charge is unmodified during line clear delay, the first frame of "lock flash" that occurs during the beginning of ARE without a line clear, and one frame of level-increment delay a little before the next piece spawns, and the frame a piece spawns.

Grade Recognition System

Main article: Grade Recognition System

A new version of GRS (Grade Recognition System) was developed for The Absolute. This time, instead of the player's score, their speed and skill are taken into account. Additionally, the GM grade requirements have been expanded, including Tetris line clear requirements, faster completion time, and an invisible credit roll challenge, which is called the M-Roll.

In The Absolute, grades go from 9–1, S1–S9, M, GM.

Credit roll

See also: Grade Recognition System#Credit roll

If a player completes 999 levels, the playfield is cleared, and a new challenge starts, with the credits rolling behind the stack. There are two credit rolls in The Absolute Plus, the Fading Roll, and the M-Roll. The Fading Roll is a 1 minute challenge, where pieces in the stack will fade out four seconds after locking. If a player clears the Fading Roll, their rank will be underlined with an orange line, which ranks above green lines, or players who did not clear the Fading Roll with the same grade, regardless of completion time.

If the player unlocks the M-Roll, they are met with an invisible challenge. Pieces turn invisible as soon as they lock down. If the player fails to clear, they are awarded the M grade. If the player clears the M-Roll with less than 32 line clears, they are awarded a Green line GM grade. Surviving the M-Roll with 32 or more line clears will award the player an Orange line GM, the highest possible grade.

TGM+

TGM+ is a rising garbage mode, similar to Sega's Bloxeed. Players must dig through to survive as they progress through the 999 levels. This mode has speed timings similar to TGM. An internal counter is incremented every time a tetromino is locked down without clearing lines; once this counter reaches $13-\left\lfloor {\text{level}}/100\right\rfloor$, a row of garbage rises from the floor of the playfield, and the counter resets. The garbage follows the fixed pattern shown here, looping every 24 rows.

Unlike other modes, TGM+ has no grades, medals, or ranking. A credit roll is played upon reaching level 999, but similarly to TGM, it is not neccessary to survive the credit roll. After the credit roll, a message "Excellent!" is displayed.

Gravity is the same as Master mode, while speed timings are the same as Normal mode.

T.A. Death

In T.A. Death, gravity is fixed at 20G for the entirety of the game. Combined with increased speed timings, it is one of the most difficult modes to complete in the series.

A video originally titled "Death 800", features a player breaking level 800, went viral under the name "Tetris Japan Finals". This video created widespread knowledge of the game, and is responsible for introducing many of the first Western players to the series.

Ranking

Only two grades are achievable: M and Gm. The conditions are:

• The player must reach level 500 under (or equal to) 3:25:00, the M grade is given and the game will continue to 999.
• Gm is awarded at 999 regardless of time or score. The game continues through the credits, with no effect when playing on or blocking out.

Because of a torikan, if the player reaches level 500 with a time greater than 3:25:00, the timer will stop and the credits will roll. The player is given an "Excellent!" but no grade.

Speed timings

Though Death mode has a fixed gravity of 20G, there are 4 other timings that shape the flow and speed of play.

Delays

Level	ARE (frames)	Line ARE (frames)	DAS (frames)	Lock (frames)	Line clear (frames)
000 - 099	18	14	12	30	12
100 - 199	14	8	12	26	6
200 - 299	14	8	11	22	6
300 - 399	8	8	10	18	6
400 - 499	7	7	8	15	5
500 - 999	6	6	8	15	4

As a result of these timings, there is no time penalty for clearing singles instead of Tetrises from level 100–299. As these values decrease, the options for piece placement gradually reduce, becoming a subset of what was once possible in regular 20G.

Doubles

Doubles is a two-player cooperative mode that puts both players in one well that is 14 units wide instead of 10. In TAP, it is selectable from the menu. In The Grand Master 2, it was accessed by one player holding down the start button on their side while the other player pressed the other start button to join in. In TAP, one credit pays for both players.

Each player has a separate level counter and lines they clear are only added to their level. Both players must reach level 300 to complete the game. Like in Normal, there are no level stops at 99 or 199, but each player must clear a line to go from 299 to 300. Whichever player reaches 300 first enters the credit roll speed of 20G until the other player also reaches 300, at which point the timer stops and the credits start. It is quite difficult to survive for long in 20G with such a wide well, so winning requires a fine degree of coordination between the players so that they both clear a line to advance to 300 at nearly the same time. Also like Normal, the credit roll can be fast-forwarded by holding down Start, and surviving it does not matter; the score is awarded a green line regardless.

Doubles has some bugs regarding input handling which can result in one player's DAS being instantly charged or their inputs being ignored. These are not currently fully understood, but seem to have to do with inputs that occur on the same frame that one's partner clears a line. There is also odd-looking behavior which could be considered a bug when one player places a piece on top of the other player's piece which clears a line.

Speed timings

Internal Gravity

Level	Internal Gravity (1/256 G)	Level	Internal Gravity (1/256 G)
0	4	119	6
8	5	135	8
19	6	140	10
35	8	150	12
40	10	160	16
50	12	170	32
60	16	180	48
70	32	190	64
80	48	200	80
90	64	220	96
100	4	240	112
108	5	260	128
300	5120 (20G)

Versus

See also: Tetris The Grand Master#Vs. Mode

See also: TGM Versus Mode Guide

In terms of versus play, The Absolute is very much like its predecessor, The Grand Master. Each player plays in their own playfield. Clearing two or more lines sends garbage lines to the bottom of the opponent's playfield. Unlike garbage in other Tetris games, the location of the garbage holes corresponds to the location of the line-clearing piece. This means that the usual play style of the TGM series, in which players strive to clear Tetrises using a well on the right, is not as beneficial: if both players do this, all garbage sent will line up with the opponent's Tetris well. Alternating sides or using non-I pieces to clear lines will send garbage that is more difficult to clear. The versus modes of Bloxeed and DuelTris worked similarly in this regard.

All of the four single-player modes can also be played in a versus format, although a Normal mode game will be temporarily converted to Master for the duration of the match, signified by the playfield frame changing from grey stone to grey metal. Normal, Master, and Death apply their respective speed curves for each player. In TGM+ mode, garbage rises automatically from the bottom, as it does in single-player play.

To start a versus match, one player picks a mode and starts as if playing alone. When the second player presses their respective Start button (after inserting a credit, if necessary), they will be asked if they want to challenge the other player. If they choose Yes, the other player's game will end, "Here comes a new challenger" will scroll across the screen, and versus play will start in the mode chosen by the first player.

To prevent interruptions from unwanted versus games, players can press their own Start button after beginning single-player play, which causes "No more challenger" to appear at the top of the opposite field. Pressing the Start button again toggles this status off. If another player presses their own Start button while "No more challenger" is displayed, the game proceeds directly to mode selection without offering the option to challenge the other player.

Versus play defaults to a best-of-three format with a target level of 200 and a time limit of 2:40:00. The rounds per match and target level can be changed in the game setup (in 100-level increments), with the time increasing or decreasing by 1:20:00 for every 100 levels. If a player tops out, they lose the round immediately. If a player reaches the target level, they win the round immediately. If neither player tops out or reaches the target level before time expires, the player who has reached the highest level is declared the round's winner.

Players can choose to play without items by holding down both Start buttons when beginning versus play. Additionally, if both players hold down A+B, garbage is turned off completely, activating what the game calls "Cement Mode."

Items

Each player has a green bar to the side of their field which increases slightly with each piece placement. After filling the bar by placing 20 pieces, the next piece the player receives will be an item piece. Item pieces retain their normal shapes, but their blocks have a unique appearance that varies from one item to the next. Item pieces behave normally when placed, and their effects are activated when any of their blocks are cleared. Bloxeed provided the inspiration for items;^{[citation needed]} many of its powerups, like the 16-ton weight and "delete even", were the basis of items in The Absolute. Unlike items in Bloxeed, DuelTris, and Tetris DS, in The Absolute, entire pieces count as items, rather than single blocks.

Pieces are chosen using a bag system, with each item having its own weight. Items with a heavier weight are less likely to be chosen first, typically resulting in "Dark" being the last item to be dealt from the bag. Once the bag is depleted, all items are returned to the bag and dealt again.

Most of the items from The Grand Master continue to appear in The Absolute. SPIN FIELD and PRESS FIELD were removed, while COLOR BLOCK, DARK BLOCK, and MIRROR BLOCK were added.

Attack items
DEATH BLOCK	Makes the opponent's next block big.
NEGA FIELD	Flips the playfield's occupied cells to empty and vice versa.
180° FIELD	Rotates the playfield upside-down and moves the newly rotated cells down.
SHOT GUN!	Shoots a random group of holes in the opponent's stack.
HARD BLOCK	Causes the opponent's next piece to require two clears to be removed from the playfield.
LASER BLOCK	Clears a column of holes in the opponent's stack. The attacker can direct the laser by pressing left and right.
ROLL ROLL	Automatically rotates the opponent's next three pieces at regular intervals.
TRANS FORM	Changes the shape of the opponent's next three pieces with each rotation.
X-RAY	Applies a partial invisibility effect to the opponent's stack for a short period.
COLOR BLOCK	Applies a partial invisibility effect to the opponent's stack for a very short period.
DARK BLOCK	Temporarily makes the opponent's entire stack invisible.
MIRROR BLOCK	Mirrors the opponent's stack three times for each new piece, leaving it mirrored after the third piece.
Defense items
↑ DEL FIELD	Deletes the upper half of the player's playfield.
↓ DEL FIELD	Deletes the lower half of the player's playfield.
→ MOV FIELD	Pushes every cell in the player's playfield to the right.
← MOV FIELD	Pushes every cell in the player's playfield to the left.
DEL EVEN	Deletes every other row in the player's playfield.
Special items
FREE FALL	Forces all cells to move down in the player's playfield, eliminating any holes.
EXCHG FIELD	Swaps the player's playfield with their opponent's.

Medal conditions

Medal conditions

Medal	Bronze	Silver	Gold
AC (All Clear)	Complete 1 Bravo	Complete 2 Bravos	Complete 3 Bravos
RO (Rotation)	Rotations/tetromino >= 6/5 from level 0 to 300	Rotations/tetromino >= 6/5 from level 300 to 700	Rotations/tetromino >= 6/5 from level 700 to 999
ST (Section Time)	Approach section time record (<10 seconds slower)	Approach section time record (<5 seconds slower)	Beat section time record
SK (Skill)	Master 10 Tetrises Death 5 Tetrises Big 1 Tetris	Master 20 Tetrises Death 10 Tetrises Big 2 Tetrises	Master 35 Tetrises Death 17 Tetrises Big 4 Tetrises
RE (Recovery)	Perform 1 recovery	Perform 2 recoveries	Perform 4 recoveries
CO (Combo)	Reach a combo of 4. Big: Reach a combo of 2	Reach a combo of 5. Big: Reach a combo of 3	Reach a combo of 7. Big: Reach a combo of 4

Scoring

Like TGM, points are only awarded when the player completes line clears. A bonus for using sonic drop is new to the scoring formula. The Absolute Plus also changes the scoring system, adding a reward for fast play among other changes. The formulas are:

TA: ${\text{Score}}=(\left\lceil ({\text{Level}}+{\text{Lines}})/4\right\rceil +{\text{Soft}}+(2\times {\text{Sonic}}))\times {\text{Lines}}\times {\text{Combo}}\times {\text{Bravo}}$

TAP: ${\text{Score}}=(\left\lceil ({\text{Level}}+{\text{Lines}})/4\right\rceil +{\text{Soft}}+(2\times {\text{Sonic}}))\times {\text{Lines}}\times {\text{Combo}}\times {\text{Bravo}}+\left\lceil ({\text{Level After Clear}})/2\right\rceil +({\text{Speed}}\times 7)$

Where:

• $\left\lceil \cdot \right\rceil$ is the ceiling function (i.e. the contents are rounded up).
• Level is the level just before the line clear.
• Lines is the number of lines you just cleared.
• Level After Clear is is the level just after the line clear. This is different from $({\text{Level}}+{\text{Lines}})$ for edge cases like reaching 300 in Normal mode, 500 when being torikan-stopped in Death mode, and reaching 999 otherwise.
• Soft is the cumulative number of frames during which Down was held during the piece's active time. Note that this means manually locking pieces already on the ground will increase the Soft value by 1.
• Sonic is the number of rows covered by the single greatest sonic drop during the piece's active time. Note that this is non-cumulative.
• If the previous piece cleared no lines, Combo is reset to 1. This calculation is done before the score calculation:

  ${\text{Combo}}={\text{Previous Combo Value}}+(2\times {\text{Lines}})-2$

  Example: A double-triple-single combo will have combo values 3, 7, and 7 respectively.

• Bravo is equal to 4 if this line clear resulted in a perfect clear, otherwise it is 1.
• Speed can be no less than 0, and is otherwise equal to:

  ${\text{Speed}}={\text{Lock Delay}}-{\text{Active Time}}$

  where Lock Delay is the number of frames of lock delay given out for that particular level, and Active Time is the number of frames the piece was active (which is a minimum of 1).

Normal mode multiplies line clear scores by 6 and the player is given a time bonus of $1253\times {\text{max}}\left(0,\left\lceil 300-{\text{Seconds}}\right\rceil \right)$ where Seconds is the clear time in seconds.

Development

Changes between TA and TAP

• M-Roll conditions have been changed. Notably, the section time conditions have been altered and the required Tetrises per section have been increased for for the first 5 sections.
• Two new modes have been added, TGM+ and T.A. Death.
• Scoring formula has been changed, adding an extra term for the level after the line clear and another for placement speed.
• The method for accessing Doubles has changed and it is selectable from the mode select screen.

Codes

Item mode

When selecting either Master or TGM+ mode, hold B and C, then press Start while "READY" is still on-screen. If the code was correctly entered, the "NEXT" text will pulsate when the game starts. This code causes item pieces to appear like in 2-player versus mode, except all effects from items are sent to yourself.

Title screen codes

The following codes should be entered on the title screen, and only take effect in Normal mode and Master mode. Using them disqualifies the score from appearing in the rankings.

Name	Code	Effect
20G Mode	DDDDDDDDCBA	Forces maximum gravity.
Big Mode	LLLLDCBA	Tetrominoes are twice their normal size, simulating a 10 × 5 well.
TLS Mode	ABCCBAACB	The ghost piece always appears throughout the game.

Key: L = Left, D = Down, U = Up, R = Right

Arcade Archives version

The Arcade Archives version released for the Nintendo Switch and PS4 features new modes and online leaderboards.

Emulation

The tables below provide verified lists of archives and files to make sure that Tetris the Absolute the Grand Master 2 and/or Tetris the Absolute the Grand Master 2 Plus can be emulated properly. There aren't any guides, at this point, for dumping these required files from the PCBs; but these files can be searched out on the Internet.

Downloadable Archives

Archive	MD5 Hash
tgm2.zip	b05e0334f9bfdc70ddb67ab298682ce1
tgm2p.zip	e7d45937e7e39a62ed9d927a43c9f623

Required TGM2 Files

File	MD5 Hash
1.u22	2e5b07573c26d7848b7bc4090a101dc8
2.u21	a046a504b60d73b177875007b9dc1196
81ts_3l.u6	692775964ab65326a59faff93b4fd3b5
82ts_3h.u14	e525a5bdc61fba20d5ba8cb98da76ab8
83ts_4l.u7	d6e125cb3a78328e4e44734b5d94e7a6
84ts_4h.u15	bd954b63ed5f753b05d6fba446a76b56
85ts_5l.u8	4de3657e0a84c47c4eff2858fe9c4284
86ts_5h.u16	428c2b080db0e9de297a16afe353f95e
87ts_6l.u1	a612c22bff929667e771f30d290c9ec6
88ts_6h.u2	7a95be9538c8ab68cec8a181d43a0541
89ts_7l.u19	e723da63f626cb010cf4e7354ee04d6f
90ts_7h.u20	eed4787610e2c765d386c6cedff9029c
91ts_8l.u28	d9e0dcb0c43c585ed11b06bc2f62ba8f
92ts_8h.u29	a440108aa574ae68eaef865001a6a3a3
93ts_9l.u41	24db7b6b6329ed26e697ac188a84c8c6
94ts_9h.u42	74f5501b8cc62a1332280a30946ee23b
95ts_10l.u58	56a384d97e88bafb38033e9d1b798ec4
96ts_10h.u59	a678c8ede77f2eed977902397238b720
97ts_snd.u52	a3ca101d1535df544ced5eeb63fd1c45
tgm2.default.nv	9b96866fb3f5581548be9ec9f8b1fb13

Required TGM2P Files

File	MD5 Hash
1b.u22	b4d96efe098365cd9edc616377d18dae
2b.u21	a32329eb82a7a64747b2b7b9cdf5a570
81ts_3l.u6	692775964ab65326a59faff93b4fd3b5
82ts_3h.u14	e525a5bdc61fba20d5ba8cb98da76ab8
83ts_4l.u7	d6e125cb3a78328e4e44734b5d94e7a6
84ts_4h.u15	bd954b63ed5f753b05d6fba446a76b56
85ts_5l.u8	4de3657e0a84c47c4eff2858fe9c4284
86ts_5h.u16	428c2b080db0e9de297a16afe353f95e
87ts_6l.u1	a612c22bff929667e771f30d290c9ec6
88ts_6h.u2	7a95be9538c8ab68cec8a181d43a0541
89ts_7l.u19	e723da63f626cb010cf4e7354ee04d6f
90ts_7h.u20	eed4787610e2c765d386c6cedff9029c
91ts_8l.u28	d9e0dcb0c43c585ed11b06bc2f62ba8f
92ts_8h.u29	a440108aa574ae68eaef865001a6a3a3
93ts_9l.u41	24db7b6b6329ed26e697ac188a84c8c6
94ts_9h.u42	74f5501b8cc62a1332280a30946ee23b
95ts_10l.u58	56a384d97e88bafb38033e9d1b798ec4
96ts_10h.u59	a678c8ede77f2eed977902397238b720
97ts_snd.u52	a3ca101d1535df544ced5eeb63fd1c45
tgm2p.default.nv	13ab7213275b3ba66d377e901e3f6b7a

The current version of MAME is capable of running Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 and Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 Plus. MAME can either be run as a standalone program on Windows or the Macintosh, or as a core through other Emulator frontends such as RetroArch or OpenEmu (Experimental).

Physical scans

Psikyo SH-2, JP
PCB, 310×230×33 mm

See also

• TGM Versus Mode Guide
• List of TGM series bugs

External links

• Archive of official website (in Japanese)