Tetris The Grand Master

Tetris The Grand Master
Developer(s)	Arika
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	1998 Aug
Gameplay info
Next pieces	1
Playfield size	10x20
Hold piece	No
Hard drop	No

Tetris The Grand Master is the first arcade game in Arika's TGM series.

Gameplay

TODO: I think we should possibly include one of those anatomy screenshot dealies that points everything out (score, grade, time, and level). Sort of like in the IRS patent. Maybe with a caption that says "beginners should care most about level, while advanced players care only about their time". Or something.

Unlike typical tetris games where the goal is indefinite survival and a high score, TGM is a challenge where you have a finite opportunity to attain a high Grade. With the exception of the final grade of Grand Master, grade is derived from your score. This indirectly makes the grading system strongly favour survival, with a special emphasis on clearing non-singles late in the game during 20g.

With only a small number of grades, there are often ties. The highscore table ranks a tied grade higher if it was attained faster. In practice, solid play will award players the highest rank of Grand Master. As such, for adequately skilled players the game becomes a time attack to level 999.

Level

Level has a unique implementation in TGM. The level counter will increase by 1 for every piece that enters the well. It will also increase by 1 for each line cleared. The game ends once level 999 is reached.

When you are about to increment the hundreds digit (eg. at level 399), only line clears will count towards your level. Level 998 is treated similarly, with a final line clear required to reach 999 and finish.

Speed

Gravity does not increase uniformly, unlike many other tetris games. It rises and falls, depending on the level, as follows:

Tetromino gravity speeds[1]

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

The player can force constant 20G, by entering a code before starting the game, though this will exclude their play from the highscore list. Unlike TGM2, the line clear delay, lock delay, ARE and DAS do not change throughout the game.

• Line clear delay is fixed at 40 frames.
• Lock delay is fixed at 30 frames.
• There are 25 frames of ARE during which DAS can be charged.
• DAS is fixed at 16 frames (inclusive of both the initial shift and the autoshift frames).
• In addition, there are also 3 frames of "lock-flash"; 3 frames of delay after ARE but before the appearance of the next tetromino (during which DAS will not charge); and 1 frame of delay before line clear animation begins.

Scoring

TGM shares the same scoring gimmicks of many other Tetris games, though they are not quite implemented the same way:

• You receive more points for clearing more lines at once.
• Lines are worth more with each passing level. (The nature of "level" in TGM, however, means the amount of points a line is worth is constantly changing.)
• You receive points for forcing a piece down. (Though only when this results in cleared lines, unlike in several other games.)

There are a few scoring gimmicks unique to TGM:

• You receive a combo bonus for clearing lines with consecutive pieces.
• You receive a bravo bonus for clearing the entire screen.

Incidentally, for all players good enough to attain the rank of S9 score becomes irrelevant and the focus changes to a time attack rather than a score attack. Nevertheless, here is a more technical description of the scoring formula:

Score = ((Level + Lines)/4 + Soft) x Lines x Combo x Bravo

Where:

• Level is the current level you are on.
• Lines is the number of lines you just cleared.
• (Level + Lines)/4 is rounded up.
• Soft is the cummulative number 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.
• If the previous piece cleared no lines, Combo is reset to 1. Otherwise and its Combo value is:

  Combo = (previous Combo value) + (2 x Lines) - 2

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

• Bravo is equal to 4 if this piece has cleared the screen, and otherwise is 1.

Grading

In TGM1 grade is entirely determined by score. As you pass certain milestones, TGM will assign you the next grade:

Grade	Required Score	Grade	Required Score
9	0	S1	16,000
8	400	S2	22,000
7	800	S3	30,000
6	1,400	S4	40,000
5	2,000	S5	52,000
4	3,500	S6	66,000
3	5,500	S7	82,000
2	8,000	S8	100,000
1	12,000	S9	120,000
		GM	126,000 (see below)

Grand Master rank has four requirements:

1. At level 300, score is at least 12,000 (grade 1).
2. At level 500, score is at least 40,000 (grade S4).
3. At level 999, score is at least 126,000 (slightly higher than grade S9).
4. At level 999, time is 13:30.00 or less.

Codes

All codes should be entered at the title screen.

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

• TLS Mode: ABCCBAACB
• 20G Mode：DDDDDDDDCBA
• Big Mode: LLLLDCBA
• Uki Mode：ABABABABABABABABB
• Reverse Mode: DUUDCBA
• Monochrome Mode: RRRUCBA