Guiness World Record Tournament (Now with movies!)

Seems like one of those Guinness World Records where people are just brainstorming for ideas of records that don't exist, but there is a prize for the winner. Maybe you'd want to check it out c_t, or a few other people in the area?

From what I can tell on the FAQ, they're using 3 different versions of Tetris over the tournament. Single player, then a "special two-player version", and then another multiplayer one.

Isn't going to happen, but I'd love it if the single player one was Ti

 

Since you're on the subject, Triforce (yes, THE Triforce) recently made a Guinness world record for Tetris DS. Twin Galaxies just released some of the end of the video. Awesome.

 

I've emailed them for some more details. DeHackEd and I might attend to make things interesting. I'm half expecting to play against soccer moms and 9 year olds.

 

if i was a referee and someone asked me to watch 15 hours of TDS marathon i'd be like "f*** that." even the cameraman couldn't help drifting up to the top screen to watch mario jump over fireballs (yes, i know he was showing the score, but i like to think he was watching mario).

 

Yeah, the first thing I thought after seeing "15 hours" was "poor referee."

 

So they're intentionally keeping the games secret. This is all the info I could get:

So I'm thinking that:

1st game is probably single player or at least played for score.
2nd and 3rd games are going to have versus.
All games have hard drop.
All games will be for a classic computer (no consoles or windows PCs), so SRS and NES Tetris is out of the question.


Is there a classic PC expert here that wants to take a stab at guessing these?

 

the 1st competition could be the toughest. if it's an unfamiliar rotation system with no lock delay i could see problems with good players being able to survive as the gravity gets faster.

if you can get past that, i bet the 2nd competition will be much easier. if it's multiplayer then the gravity should be reasonable, at least long enough to allow the better player to win. this is where general tetris knowledge and quick decision making should win against someone who isn't as strong but is more familiar with the version of tetris being played. that is unless there's a secret strategy like making T-spins or 4x4 squares, but i doubt it.

 

So you think the games will be on DOS? My bet would then be on Spectrum HoloByte. You can find old school multiplayer Tetris games at Underdogs.

 

Yeah, I've got all the Spectrum Holobyte ones so I'll fire them up in DOSbox a bit I guess. But it could very well be a C64 or Amiga game or something.

 

So here's a l ist of all the PCs that the museum has set up for use. This is probably a good opportunity to clean up our wiki a bit when it comes to classic PC tetris. Does anyone know which of these PCs had tetris? Does anyone know which of these PCs are a differnet version of the same platform?

Bold = has a tetris game
(I'll edit this as we figure stuff out.)

• Apple IIe
• Apple IIgs
• Apple Macintosh Color Classic
• AST Advantage 486 SX/25
• Atari 1040 ST
• Atari 800
• Coleco Adam
• Commodore 128D
• Commodore 16
• Commodore 64
• Commodore Amiga 1000
• Commodore Amiga 3000
• Commodore Amiga 4000
• Commodore Amiga 600
• Commodore CDTV
• Commodore PET 2001
• Commodore SuperPET
• Commodore SX-64
• Commodore VIC-20
• Dynalogic Hyperion 3032
• Fortune 32:16 XP
• Heathkit H89
• IBM PC - Model 5150
• IBM PCjr
• IBM PS/1
• IBM PS/2 - Model 57
• IMSAI 8080
• Kaypro II
• NeXTstation Turbo Color
• Osborne 1
• Philips Micom 2001E
• Poly 88
• Texas Instruments TI 99/4A
• TRS-80 Color Computer 3
• TRS-80 Model 102
• TRS-80 Model II
• TRS-80 Model IV (4)
• TRS-80 Pocket Computer PC-1
• TRS-80 Pocket Computer PC-2
• TRS-80 Pocket Computer PC-4
• Xerox 820
• Yamaha CX5M Music Computer MSX

 

Wikipedia says:

IBM PCjr, PS/1, and PS/2 run most PC 5150 software. (Not PlayStation.) Tetris 3.12 was designed to run in "text mode" on these machines.

Spectrum HoloByte produced Tetris software under a Mirrorsoft license for at least Atari ST, Amiga, Apple IIe, Apple IIGS, 68K Macintosh, and IBM PC-family computers.

 

So the ante has just been upped! 1st place now gets $1000, and second place gets $500, not to mention all the mystery prizes for the top 8 players.

I'll start digging up classic games tomorrow night to see what might show up...

 

I read a couple of news releases, and this is backed by TTC, too. There's supposed to be some cool "Tetris Video Wall." Take pictures.

 

Make a documentary.

 

Damn c_t, unless Triforce blesses the tournament with his godlike skills, you're pretty set for a nice cash prize on Saturday.

Seriously though, other than DeHackEd (and doesn't Millartime live somewhere around there?) I can't see any of the other contenders winning. Unless the games they use have completely fucked up rotation systems, gameplay and controls I don't think someone else could take it. I seriously doubt there are people who actually play these games regularly today, and I'd maintain that for any Tetris game, a TC player (especially one of the top ones) would beat any casual Tetris player regardless of if they'd played the game before.

I mean, I hardly ever play NES Tetris, and I suck when I do by my own personal standards, but my scores still beat the crap out of all of my friends.

 

It's true that I'm generally stronger than an average player Rosti, but these games could be just about anything. By the very nature of their secrecy, just about anybody has a shot at beating a given opponent. All it takes is for them to be randomly familiar with the game from their youth, or for me to make a misdrop due to an unfamiliar rotation system. Because nobody knows what to expect, it really levels the playing field. I'm half expecting them to reveal Super Mario Bros. 4 as the final game.

Apparently someone is flying up from Denver!

 

How likely is it that they're not even Tetris brand?

So you've seen The Wizard too. But why would they use Super Mario World in a Tetris tournament? There aren't even any scenes with jumping from one falling block to the next, unlike in Yoshi's Island and Kirby Super Star.

 

Do I need a passport to go into Canada these days?

I didn't have to back in 02 but I don't know how it is now.

I have a friend that lives in Brantford, so this is totally a two for one trip.

 

Nevermind, here's my info:

http://gocanada.about.com/od/canadatrav ... border.htm

 

So I've got a bit more info!

All the games being used were commercially released in the West. This rules out the plentiful homebrew games that exist on classic computers, as well as Japan exclusives. Unfortunately my collection is a little Japan-centric , butthat's not the end of the world.

Most importantly "at least one of the games" is on PC, which strongly implies that they won't all be PC games. Additionally, at least one game was released after the formation of TTC.

So that changes my focus a fair bit! I'll still play a bit of the classic PC games, but I'll be sure to give GB/NES some attention and SRS as well.