What the hell do they put in Japanese water?

[Skykid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDCpv8gE ... tube_gdata

[RNGmaster]

Must be residual radiation.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I thought everybody and their dog have seen those vids already.

[Skykid]

I thought everybody and their dog have seen those vids already.

New to me.

Seriously, I can't believe my eyes.

[Obiwanshinobi]

There was a thread about TGM recently and some links to those crazy runs appeared there as well.
TGM3 is now cracked to run on a PC, by the way.

[GaijinPunch]

Fun Fact: Clover TAC is an accomplished Tetris GM player.

[Skykid]

Fun Fact: Clover TAC is an accomplished Tetris GM player.

Interesting.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the blocks in Tetris aren't completely randomly generated right? Watching this video it would be impossible for the guy not to have worked out some kind of pattern. Sorta like Pi where he tries to see patterns in the stock market.

There's just no way he could play at that speed simply by identifying the block and placing it in the appropriate spot - he'd need to be superhuman.

[Obiwanshinobi]

TGM games are statistically proven to have sorta anti-sure-death-sequence algorithm going for them indeed.

[Skykid]

TGM games are statistically proven to have sorta anti-sure-death-sequence algorithm going for them indeed.

I knew it.

And bloody hell, it's complicated.

[croikle]

There isn't a fixed sequence, but there are helpful limitations to pure randomness. Basically, it tries to avoid dealing a piece which is within the last 4 dealt, though those do occur occasionally. Still, these pieces are being read at speed. Keep in mind that this is the equivalent of those Futari Ultra videos; the game is much more approachable than it appears, and quite fun to progress in. Give it a shot!

The 1988 Sega Tetris actually had a fixed pattern used for the first game after the board was powered up (no NVRAM, so the seed is reset at boot, or something). People did memorize and construct patterns on this, and could clear the field entirely many times in a single run.

[Sumez]

Helpful thread where people outline the differences between TGM and "official" Tetris rules, and why the video you see is possible:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 59&start=0

[sven666]

i saw the shooting crew live when i went on my last japan trip.. these guys are amazing, they play this way while chatting and smoking and then they turn around and no miss/full chain DSMBL or DDPDFKBL (which were the games in rage while i was there) seemingly effortless.

i think its the company that makes them this good, one man on his own doesnt play at this level regardless of how much radiated water he drinks..

[Skykid]

i saw the shooting crew live when i went on my last japan trip.. these guys are amazing, they play this way while chatting and smoking and then they turn around and no miss/full chain DSMBL or DDPDFKBL (which were the games in rage while i was there) seemingly effortless.

So why is it the Japanese tend to have all the super dimensional extra-terrestrial players? Maybe they're just wired differently. I know they work hard and play hard, but the time you would need to dedicate to being this good at games seems to be at odds with getting a full nights sleep.

Unless of course they learn games several times faster than everyone else.

Maybe it's just the way it seems, but my mate swears all Asians have a certain ingrained efficiency and mental attitude that makes them superb at videogames.

[cools]

i think its the company that makes them this good, one man on his own doesnt play at this level regardless of how much radiated water he drinks..

Bingo.

A competitive environment where you can watch other players strategies and discuss the games gives a huge boost and helps to focus you. Flying solo requires a certain mentality that most people do not have (I'm thinking of guys like jpj and PROMETHEUS that can dedicate 100% to one title and take it apart completely).

[kernow]

TGM games are statistically proven to have sorta anti-sure-death-sequence algorithm going for them indeed.

My god the nerdrage, what a sad fuck.

[Sumez]

It's sad to make a game fair for all players?

[kernow]

Just the way he's dropping names, raging and .. my god I hate otakus.

[Sumez]

Oh, you're referring to the contents inside the link.. Didn't realise it was even a link.

[kernow]

*ahead of the curve and also quite handsome*

[Randorama]

The time you would need to dedicate to being this good at games seems to be at odds with getting a full nights sleep.

Yes, A lot of the top players play 3-4 hours per day. I don't if the old interviews of top players can be still accessed, but all of the notorious top shooters mention that they play a title hours on end, every day. I remember that the guys who did the originally Ketsui appreciate DVD made this comment.

Maybe it's just the way it seems, but my mate swears all Asians have a certain ingrained efficiency and mental attitude that makes them superb at videogames.

I sincerely hope that you're being facetious, otherwise this comment is superbly naive.

Anyway:

I remember at least 10 different people who attended my uncle's arcade and could play flash point (old Sega's clone of tetris) at top speed for tens of minutes. The speed was marginally slower. One of them was indeed my uncle. Most of these performances were based on the player being able to recall how to place a piece in a given pit configuration. I remember that two girls could also say aloud the moves they were going to do, for short periods. No, no one was Japanese.

There should be a (scientific) journal article that studies this phenomenon in detail, as it is one of the many cases in which extremly advanced recalling skills appear like spontaneous reflexes. I remember that they indeed studied recognition patterns and reaction times in very high-level tetris players.

A similar phenomenon is found in fencing sports (Kendo, epee, etc.) and similar other disciplines in which people can perform recall tasks at threshold level of activation. I may try to find the tetris paper again, if anyone wants to know (may take a while).

[alphagamer]

What the hell do they put in Japanese water?

The truth is japanese taps release Liquid Awesome!

[Skykid]

I sincerely hope that you're being facetious, otherwise this comment is superbly naive.

You have an odd habit of misquoting/misreading me recently.
That whole "my mate thinks" wasn't just made up to make it sound as though it was nothing to do with me: it was a genuine pass off. I really don't know how serious he is when he says that stuff tho.

Maybe it's just the way it seems, but my mate swears all Asians have a certain ingrained efficiency and mental attitude that makes them superb at videogames.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Skykid, ever try drinking some Porcari Sweat energy drink? You could say that it's akin to a Japanese Gatorade type of drink (except it's crystal clear, of course).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Kasbe]

Aaaah I used to play a lot of Tetris TGM on 20G before shmups. It was like a drug.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

After watching that TGM vid I went on to watch some of those speed rubiks cube vids, man those are crazy especially the competition rubiks magic vids done less than 1 second

I once read an article about the gaming culture in Korea which said that a big reason why they are good is because number games are widely popular with school children, so doing advanced calculations in their heads is second nature to them.

[Sandlegs]

I just bought TGM Ace. Didn't know it even existed till that article. Soon i hope to have trouble going to sleep because i keep seeing falling blocks in my head. Hasn't happened since tetris DS.

[GaijinPunch]

Yes, A lot of the top players play 3-4 hours per day. I don't if the old interviews of top players can be still accessed, but all of the notorious top shooters mention that they play a title hours on end, every day. I remember that the guys who did the originally Ketsui appreciate DVD made this comment.

Interview translated on gamengai. I believe it was a few hours a day for about 7 months. One of the Futari Ultra guys (Yusemi?) said he spent 150,000 yen on Futari the first month it was out.

[Randorama]

Interview translated on gamengai. I believe it was a few hours a day for about 7 months. One of the Futari Ultra guys (Yusemi?) said he spent 150,000 yen on Futari the first month it was out.

I guess he has a top job, to spend all that money in a single month.

You have an odd habit of misquoting/misreading me recently.

Well, the "a friend/relative/acquaintance told me that X" comment is the standard structure of tall tales/urban legends, so your comment sounded like a joke. In this case, your mate's comment to sounded naive, say, like claiming that white people can't jump and so on. If we want to stick to stereotypes, I'd say that the standard Japanese/Korean educational system must be an influence, since it heavily revolves around rote learning.

On speed, well, practice makes perfect. Generally speaking, anyone who practiced sports with some profit will know that good skill levels require hundreds, thousands of hours of focused practice over months or years. Skill-based videogames are really not any different.

Still no luck with the Tetris paper, sadly.

[sven666]

Interview translated on gamengai. I believe it was a few hours a day for about 7 months. One of the Futari Ultra guys (Yusemi?) said he spent 150,000 yen on Futari the first month it was out.

I guess he has a top job, to spend all that money in a single month.

top job? 150000yen?

more likely he spent all his time he wasent working in the arcade..
if credits are 100yen a piece and his average playing round was 15mins he'd spend 12.5h/day in the arcade that month!!

[rancor]

Skykid, ever try drinking some Porcari Sweat energy drink? You could say that it's akin to a Japanese Gatorade type of drink (except it's crystal clear, of course).

Pocari Sweat isn't an energy drink and it certainly isn't clear. Maybe you're thinking of something else? Energy drinks almost always come in small glass bottles of about ~100oz. or so and are sold in a different part of the store than "regular" drinks. The only exception I can think of is that drink that comes in a camouflage plastic bottle and tastes exactly like Mountain Dew... "Cyberpower" or something like that.

edit: found it. It's "Lifeguard"... not sure why I thought it was cyberpower..

The truth is japanese taps release Liquid Awesome!

hmm... Wanna buy a few hundred gallons?