> To [hypertap], he developed a unique one-handed grip: with his right thumb on the control pad, he flexed his right bicep until his arm shook, pressing down with each tremor, about fifteen times per second.
Did anyone else do this for other games? I used to pull this move all the time in those mario party style games where you had to be the first to press a button, or had to tap the most in a certain period of time.
Yeah, but like, not in such a controlled fashion and I could never go for long... like a sibling post, I use it for controlled flow in powders & shear-thinning fluids
It's the method I've used for at least 30 years for rapid shots on a non-turbo controller. I most commonly used it to unlock the secret Arcade difficulty level on Gradius 3 SNES, but I used it before that point.
I was a bit surprised to see that was a semi-secret technique!
Oh absolutely. It's that smasher skill to edge out an advantage when the only real limit is input speed. Made those later "press X repeatedly to survive!" quick time type things super easy.
I used it probably since California Games II and one of the last time in cookie clicker; now that I'm older I can feel the strain doing it for prolonged periods, and moved to games that have a somewhat slower input pace requirement.
As a kid I'd compete against classmates over who could start-stop a stopwatch the quickest. I don't think anyone who didn't use that technique (which was just instinct really) had any chance.
Depending on the game I always liked to change my hand position and flutter my index and middle finger on the same button. Not so sure how many hits in a second but much easier on your fingers.
A similar/same technique is common in competitive minecraft pvp, where it's known as jitter clicking. There are other similar such techniques with a variety of names.
I tried doing it for column-climbing in the Flash game 'n' on a number of occasions, but I gave up because fast column-climbing requires accurate taps and also it hurts.
I think about this a lot with regards to learning to program. I learned to program as a kid in early 90s, with no internet. I had a bunch of books I got from the library, and figuring things out meant looking in the index of a bunch of books to find the topic. I ended up making up my own version of a lot of fundamental programming things because I didn’t happen to read the chapter that had that bit, so I needed to solve it myself.
I used to be really nostalgic about this, and worried that “kids these days” never get that experience of having to figure something out entirely on your own.
Now I have started to think kids can do so much more and learn so much more these days. I could have learned so much with the effort I had to put in to learn the basics. I could know so much more than I do now if I had the internet as a kid!
I somewhat agree but there is a lot to be said about "reinventing the wheel", while you are learning. Not only do you get to a solution, you also consider other approaches and discover why they don't work, or work as well.
Having "a" solution at your fingertips all the time also decreases your critical thinking of whether that solution is really the best in the problem space you are working at.
I think that the best of both worlds, what I usually try doing, is that you think about a problem, try to analyze how you would solve it and only then look up the solution.
The crazy thing is that the Classic Tetris scene has really blown up a lot (partially as a result of that video) to the point that that video is outdated.
I used to watch Jonas and Heather’s Twitch stream every night for a while back in 2019. I had no idea he had passed away, only a year older than me :-(
While the term "Classic Tetris" usually refers to NES Tetris, it can also mean any pre-guideline game (modern tetris).
Tetris The Grand Master has actually been part of The CTWC for a few years. My favorite is from CTWC 2017, one of the craziest finals in Tetris ever. Round one starts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0xTEkejOtI
It's just not the same for me without the music.[0] Although my favorite soundtrack was actually the Welltris one.[1] Ah, brings back memories of when I had all the flags of the former USSR memorized.
This article is so well written - I watched the videos they were talking about and it wasn't nearly as exciting. I just want Jacob Sweet to describe videos to me now.
I too stumbled upon Classic Tetris through the Youtube algorithm.
I've watched almost all of the 2019 and 2020 world championships and the game is just played so well with so much energy. It's really a simple game and the players are just SO fast at understanding the combinations and when to "burn" lines to set up more valuable Tetrises.
> I too stumbled upon Classic Tetris through the Youtube algorithm.
To me this aspect was the most fascinating point about this article. I cannot shake the feeling that the algorithm "decided" for many individuals how to spend large amounts of their time.
> Months later, he noticed something strange. “It was just blowing up,” he said. “I don’t know why. The views just kept climbing and climbing and climbing.” Soon there were spin-offs.
Other than "It went viral" or "because the YouTube algorithm", was there a specific reason ever noted for this? I found this part of the article was the hook that got me interested in reading more, however I didn't find the answer further down.
This was such a beautiful article. I was just talking to friends about programming for predicting chess and poker games and then this came up which was felt very perfect. It just makes me appreciate the human mind that much more.
The game I wish would make a comeback is the original Tetris Attack. It's probably the best PVP puzzle game of all time, and not the easiest game to get right due to timing issues.
I love Tetris Attack / Panel de Pon / Pokémon Puzzle League! Superficially it looks like Tetris, but the mechanics are way deeper. There are many combos you can make. More importantly, you need to make chains to do meaningful damage/scoring. Whereas in Tetris you are at the whim of the random incoming pieces, in Tetris Attack it is up to you to create order from the random field, and players at different skill levels will take an identical field and process it totally differently.
Right with you on this! Spent so much time playing "T-Attack" (as we called it) I would see the shapes behind my eyes when I would go to sleep. My brother and one friend still dust it off every year to see if we've still "got it". Would love a comeback on this.
Chess has been big lately and I feel that as a game it's far more rewarding and scalable than Tetris. The mastery curve of chess is very long and doesn't ceiling like twitch games do.
[+] [-] jamesgreenleaf|5 years ago|reply
Did anyone else do this for other games? I used to pull this move all the time in those mario party style games where you had to be the first to press a button, or had to tap the most in a certain period of time.
[+] [-] flobosg|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] klyrs|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] csours|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ycombinete|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Firehawke|5 years ago|reply
I was a bit surprised to see that was a semi-secret technique!
[+] [-] bfdm|5 years ago|reply
Man I miss gaming.
[+] [-] Foobar8568|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] avereveard|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fearthetelomere|5 years ago|reply
Looking at the sibling comments, it's kind of cool how a lot of people arrived at the same pattern intuitively.
[+] [-] dalmo3|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] pirocks|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] orblivion|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] alisonkisk|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] cortesoft|5 years ago|reply
I used to be really nostalgic about this, and worried that “kids these days” never get that experience of having to figure something out entirely on your own.
Now I have started to think kids can do so much more and learn so much more these days. I could have learned so much with the effort I had to put in to learn the basics. I could know so much more than I do now if I had the internet as a kid!
[+] [-] prerok|5 years ago|reply
Having "a" solution at your fingertips all the time also decreases your critical thinking of whether that solution is really the best in the problem space you are working at.
I think that the best of both worlds, what I usually try doing, is that you think about a problem, try to analyze how you would solve it and only then look up the solution.
[+] [-] yesenadam|5 years ago|reply
The Classic Tetris World Championships Explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RaqVGzhQTM
[+] [-] xmprt|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mdm_|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simlevesque|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fartcannon|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flobosg|5 years ago|reply
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm6t5IKVGsM
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMjbnvZMck
[+] [-] simonlc|5 years ago|reply
Tetris The Grand Master has actually been part of The CTWC for a few years. My favorite is from CTWC 2017, one of the craziest finals in Tetris ever. Round one starts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0xTEkejOtI
[+] [-] daniellarusso|5 years ago|reply
http://watch.ecstasyoforder.com/
[+] [-] willhinsa|5 years ago|reply
Another way to describe it would be a long-four rectangle :)
[+] [-] jamesgreenleaf|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stanislavb|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PebblesRox|5 years ago|reply
[0]https://youtu.be/NmCCQxVBfyM
[1]https://youtu.be/RJEyqLK7HwU
[+] [-] jamiek88|5 years ago|reply
Thanks for this! I had to force myself to quit the game and leave this last comment before bed!
[+] [-] misterkrabs|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] suzzer99|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darkwizard42|5 years ago|reply
I've watched almost all of the 2019 and 2020 world championships and the game is just played so well with so much energy. It's really a simple game and the players are just SO fast at understanding the combinations and when to "burn" lines to set up more valuable Tetrises.
Incredibly surprised that Joesph lost but it was a REALLY REALLY close game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isbvQVngnXA)
[+] [-] untoxicness|5 years ago|reply
To me this aspect was the most fascinating point about this article. I cannot shake the feeling that the algorithm "decided" for many individuals how to spend large amounts of their time.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] vgb2k18|5 years ago|reply
Other than "It went viral" or "because the YouTube algorithm", was there a specific reason ever noted for this? I found this part of the article was the hook that got me interested in reading more, however I didn't find the answer further down.
[+] [-] hivacruz|5 years ago|reply
I like Tetris Sprint, where you have to do 20 or 40 lines the fastest you can.
There is a lot of competition around this too. A great website to play is Jstris: https://jstris.jezevec10.com
[+] [-] lloeki|5 years ago|reply
This recent story had me wanting to try the NES version again: https://www.gridbugs.org/reverse-engineering-nes-tetris-to-a...
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