Tetris The Grand Master

Tetris The Grand Master
Developer(s)	Arika
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	JP: August, 1998
Gameplay info
Next pieces	1
Playfield size	10 × 20
Hold piece	No
Hard drop	No
Rotation system	TGM rotation

Tetris The Grand Master is an arcade game released exclusively in Japan. It was developed by Arika and is the first game in the TGM series.

Gameplay

TGM's gameplay is heavily inspired by it's arcade predecessor, Tetris (Sega) released 10 years earlier. It uses a modified rotation system, color scheme, and relies heavily on mechanics such as lock delay. Another game which inspired TGM is Shimizu Tetris, a fan game which was the first to introduce 20G gravity.

The main goal in TGM is to score points, awarding the player a higher grade. The game ends when a player reaches level 999. If the player scored enough points, they will be awarded with the grade S9. To achieve the grade GM, the player must also meet some time requirements during play. If the player tops out before reaching level 999, the game ends, awarding the player the current grade and it's "mastering time", the time at which the grade was awarded during gameplay.

Level

Level has a unique implementation in TGM. The level counter will increase by 1 for every piece that enters the playfield. It will also increase by 1 for each line cleared.

When you are about to increment the hundreds digit (e.g., 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.

IRS

Main article: IRS

Abbreviation for Initial Rotation System.

Normally a piece will appear in the rotation showed in the piece preview. With IRS, holding either the left or right rotation button will cause the piece to appear rotated 90 degrees. This allows the player a higher degree of freedom when placing pieces at higher game speeds.

TLS

Main article: ghost piece

Abbreviation for Temporary Landing System This system is a semi-transparent representation of where the piece will land if allowed to drop into the playfield. It is displayed up to level 100.

Secret grade

Main article: Secret Grade Techniques

Secret grade is a hidden grading system that recognizes a ">" pattern in the playfield by leaving holes. The first hole becomes Secret grade 9, and each subsequent hole increasing the grade until row 19, the GM grade. The player must top out to have the Secret grade awarded. A minimum grade of 5 is needed to see the message.

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, and especially in the 0-99 section, it is to the player's advantage to stack high before clearing lines.)
• You receive points for forcing a piece down. (Though only when this results in cleared lines, unlike in some 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.

Once one can reach the S9 rank, score becomes irrelevant and the focus changes to a time attack rather than a score attack. Nevertheless, here is the actual scoring formula:

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

Where:

• Level is the current level you are on (before the lines are cleared).
• Lines is the number of lines you just cleared.
• (Level + Lines)/4 is rounded up.
• 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.
• Locking a piece without clearing lines sets Combo to 1. Otherwise, the game updates Combo as follows, BEFORE calculating Score:

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

Grade Conditions

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 Grade Conditions

Level	Required Score	Time
300	12,000 (Grade 1)	=<04:15:00
500	40,000 (Grade S4)	=<07:30:00
999	126,000 (slightly higher than S9)	=<13:30:00

Hidden modes

All codes must be entered at the title screen. Codes may be combined (i.e. Big 20G mode + Reverse Monochrome mode.) Scores achieved using codes will not be stored on the high score table.

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

• 20G Mode (Forces constant 20G from the beginning of the game):
  DDDDDDDDCBA
• Big Mode (Tetrominoes are twice normal size, simulating play in a 5x10 playfield):
  LLLLDCBA
• Rev Mode (Play in reverse! Pieces will spawn at the bottom of the playfied and "fall" upwards):
  DUUDCBA
• Mono Mode (All tetrominoes are monochrome):
  RRRUCBA
• TLS Mode (Shows the "Temporary Landing System" aka "ghost piece" for the entirety of the game, not just 0-100):
  ABCCBAACB
• Uki Mode (A joke mode; instead of line clear sound effect when clearing multiple lines, a child's voice will say "Uki" repeatedly, which is the japanese word for the sound a monkey makes. This is a callback to Sega Tetris, with it's monkey. The child will say "Waaahhh!" instead if you score a Tetris.):
  ABABABABABABABABB

Other modes

• No item VS (Play VS mode without item blocks):
  Hold both player Start buttons together before the match begins.

Speed Timings

Gravity does not increase uniformly, unlike many other tetris games. It rises and falls, depending on the level as shown in the table below.

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	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)

Unlike TGM2, the line clear delay, lock delay, ARE and DAS do not change throughout the game.

Delays

Level	ARE (frames)	DAS (frames)	Lock (frames)	Line clear (frames)
000 - 999	30	14	30	41

• The player's DAS charge is unmodified during line clear delay, the first 4 frames of ARE, the last frame of ARE, and the frame on which a piece spawns.