Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2

Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2
Arcade flyer for Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PLUS
Developer(s)	Arika
Publisher(s)	Psikyo
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	TGM2 JP: October, 2000 PLUS JP: December, 2000
Gameplay info
Next pieces	1
Playfield size	10 × 20
Hold piece	No
Hard drop	Yes (Sonic Drop)
Rotation system	TGM rotation

Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 (also known as T.A., and TGM2) is Arika's second title in the TGM series. It is an arcade game published by Psikyo in October 2000. The Grand Master 2 introduced the less-intimidating Normal mode to attract more casual gamers, as well as an all-new grading system in Master mode, the continuation of TGM's original gameplay.

Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PLUS (also known as TAP, and TGM2) is a free upgrade of The Grand Master 2, which adds TGM+, T.A. Death, and Doubles modes. It is very rare to find a The Grand Master 2 arcade PCB that has not been updated to the PLUS version.

Gameplay

Sonic lock, a hard drop that doesn't lock, was added to the base TGM gameplay, which improves low gravity gameplay by allowing Zangi-moves.

Game modes

Normal

Normal mode plays similarly to Master mode in gravity and speed timings, but ends at level 300. At levels 100 and 200 an item block is given to the player. "Free Fall," which eliminates all holes, is given at 100. "Del Even," which clears every other row throughout the field is given at 200. The credit roll challenge is a slow 20g, but playing through it is not required for a "Clear". For this mode, the player's score is multiplied by six.

Speed timings

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	149	48
8	5	156	80
19	6	164	112
35	8	174	128
40	10	180	144
50	12	200	16
60	16	212	48
70	32	221	80
80	48	232	112
90	64	244	144
100	4	256	176
108	5	267	192
119	6	277	208
125	8	287	224
131	12	295	240
139	32	300	5120 (20G)

Delays

Level	ARE (frames)	DAS (frames)	Lock (frames)	Line clear (frames)
000 - 300	27	16	30	40

Master

Master mode is Arika's evolution of the original Tetris The Grand Master gameplay. In TGM the speed timings remain the same for the entire length of the game. New to The Absolute is shrinking delays that speed up the game after level 500. The length of the game remains the same, with players trying to complete 999 levels.

Speed timings

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)

Delays

Level	ARE (frames)	Line ARE (frames)	DAS (frames)	Lock (frames)	Line clear (frames)
000 - 499	27	27	16	30	40
500 - 600	27	27	10	30	25
601 - 700	27	18	10	30	16
701 - 800	18	14	10	30	12
801 - 899	14	8	10	30	6
900	14	8	10	30	6
901 - 999	14	8	8	17	6

Line ARE defines the number of frames of ARE to use after a line clear. The player's DAS charge is unmodified during line clear delay, the first frame of "lock flash" that occurs during the beginning of ARE without a line clear, and one frame of level-increment delay a little before the next piece spawns, and the frame a piece spawns.

Grade Recognition System

Main article: Grade Recognition System

A new version of GRS (Grade Recognition System) was developed for The Absolute. Score is no longer taken into account, instead speed and skill are taken into account. Additionally, the GM grade requirements have been expanded. Now players must fulfill Tetris line clear requirements, faster completion time, and an invisible credit roll challenged called the M-Roll.

In The Absolute Plus, grades go from 9–1, S1–S9, M, GM.

Credit roll

Main article: Grade Recognition System

If a player completes 999 levels, the playfield is cleared, and a new challenge starts, with the credits rolling behind the stack. There are two credit rolls in The Absolute Plus, the Fading Roll, and the M-Roll. The Fading Roll is a 1 minute challenge, where pieces in the stack will fade out four seconds after locking. If a player clears the Fading Roll, their rank will be underlined with an orange line, which ranks above green lines, or players who did not clear the Fading Roll with the same grade, regardless of completion time.

If the player unlocks the M-Roll, they are met with an invisible challenge. Pieces turn invisible as soon as they lock down. If the player fails to clear, they are awarded the M grade. If the player clears the M-Roll with less than 32 line clears, they are awarded a Green line GM grade. Finally if the player clears the M-Roll with 32 or more line clears, they are awarded an Orange line GM, the highest possible grade.

TGM+

This mode features speeds similar to the original TGM, with one important gameplay addition to keep the game interesting: rising garbage during play, as in Sega's Bloxeed. An internal counter is incremented every time a tetromino is played without clearing lines; once this counter reaches 13 - floor(level / 100), a row of garbage rises from the floor of the playfield, and the counter resets. The garbage follows the fixed pattern shown below, looping every 24 rows:

There is no grading system, medals, or ranking system in this mode. If you reach level 999, the credit roll will start, but locked tetrominos will not become invisible. Surviving this roll is not required to see the "Excellent!" message.

Speed timings

Gravity speed timings are the same as those of Master mode, while delay timings are the same as those of Normal mode.

T.A. Death

T.A. Death mode is identical to Master mode in gameplay, but the game begins and remains at 20g throughout (similarly to the 20g mode code). However, how quickly a tetromino is given out, how quickly a tetromino will lock into place, and other values that determine the speed of play steadily change as levels are cleared.

T.A. Death is possibly the most famous mode ever featured in a TGM game. A video originally called Death 800, which features a player breaking level 800, has floated around the Internet under the name Tetris Japan Finals, making the TGM series famous throughout the world. This video is very popular and was single handedly responsible for introducing most western players to the TGM series. Arika currently hosts a much better Gm rank Death mode video: Death-Gm05.

Ranking

Only the M and Gm grades are achievable. The conditions are as follows:

• If the player reaches 500 with a time greater than 3:25:00 the timer will stop, the credits will roll and the player is given an "Excellent!" but no grade.
• If the player reaches 500 under (or equal to) 3:25:00, the M grade is given and the game will continue to 999.
• Gm is awarded at 999 regardless of time or score. The game does continue through the credits, but winning or losing at that point has no effect.

Speed timings

Though Death mode has a fixed gravity of 20g, there are 4 other timings that shape the flow and speed of play.

Delays

Level	ARE (frames)	Line ARE (frames)	DAS (frames)	Lock (frames)	Line clear (frames)
000 - 100	18	14	12	30	12
101 - 199	14	8	12	26	6
200	14	8	11	26	6
201 - 299	14	8	11	22	6
300	14	8	10	22	6
301 - 399	8	8	10	18	6
400	8	8	8	18	6
401 - 499	7	7	8	15	5
500 - 999	6	6	8	15	4

Some repercussions of this are that there is no time penalty for clearing singles instead of tetrises from level 100 through 299. Also, as these values decrease, the options for tetromino placement are gradually reduced, becoming a subset of what was once possible in 20g.

Doubles

Doubles is a two player cooperative mode that puts both players in one well that is 14 units wide instead of 10. In TAP, it is selectable from the menu. In The Grand Master 2, it was accessed one player holding down the start button on his/her side while the other player pressed the other start button to join in. In TAP, one credit pays for both players.

Each player has a separate level counter, and both players must reach level 300 for the win. Though the level counter does not stop at every x99 as in standard modes, the final 299 does require a line change to 300. If one player reaches 300 before the other, he enters 20g for the rest of the game. It is quite difficult to survive for long with 20g in such a wide well, so winning requires a fine degree of coordination between the players so that they reach 300 synchronously.

Versus

The versus mode in TAP works in a very similar way to that in its predecessor, TGM. Each player has their own field, and clearing two or more lines in their field will cause garbage lines to be sent to the bottom of their opponent's field. Unlike the multiplayer modes in other Tetris games, the garbage holes correspond to the location of the line clearing piece. This means that the usual playing style of the series, of leaving a column down the right for Tetrises is not as beneficial, because if both players do it then any garbage sent will line up with the opponent's Tetris hole. Alternating sides, or using other pieces to clear lines will send garbage that is more difficult to the opponent to clear. Oddly enough, the versus mode in Bloxeed' and Dreamworld's DuelTris worked in a similar manner.

All of the four single player modes can be played in Versus mode, although a Normal mode game will be temporarily converted to Master for the duration of the match, signified by the frame changing from grey stone to grey metal. The first player picks a mode, and starts as if playing alone. When the second player pushes their respective start button (assuming there is a credit) they will be asked if they want to challenge the other player. If they choose 'yes', then the other player will lose their game, "Here comes a new challenger" will scroll across the screen, and versus mode will start in whatever mode the first player was playing in. Normal, Master and Death use their respective speed curves for each player. TGM+ mode has garbage rising automatically from the bottom, in the same way it does on single-player. To prevent unwanted versus games, the first player can press their start button, which will cause "no more challenger" to display on the opposite field. Pressing the start button again cancels this effect. If a second player starts while "No more challenger" is displayed, then it will skip the challenge menu and go straight to the mode select.

For versus there is a default target level of 200, and a default time limit of 2:40:00. The target level can be changed in the game setup (in 100 level increments), with the time increasing or decreasing by 1:20:00 for every 100 levels. If a player tops out their field, then they lose. If neither player tops out their field in the allocated time limit, then the winner is the player with the highest level. If a player reaches the target level then the game ends and they are declared the winner. By default, the overall winner is the first player to win two games. Again, this can be changed in the game setup.

Items

Each player has a green bar to the side of their field. With each piece placement, this bar increases slightly. When the bar is filled, the next piece the player receives will be an item piece. The shape of the piece is retained, but the appearance of the individual composite blocks will be different, depending on the item. The piece is placed normally, and the item is used automatically when a line containing part of the item piece is cleared. Again, Bloxeed was the inspiration here. Many of the powerups, like the 16 ton weight, and the delete even, are based around the ones in Bloxeed. But unlike in Bloxeed, DuelTris, and Tetris DS, the entire piece counts as the item, instead of just one block of it.

Items can be turned off by each player holding their respective start buttons as Versus mode is initiated. If A+B is also held down on both players, garbage is also turned off completely, activating what the game calls "Cement mode."

Medal conditions

Medal conditions

Medal	Bronze	Silver	Gold
AC (All Clear)	Complete 1 Bravo	Complete 2 Bravos	Complete 3 Bravos
RO (Rotation)	Rotations/tetromino >= 6/5 from level 0 to 300	Rotations/tetromino >= 6/5 from level 300 to 700	Rotations/tetromino >= 6/5 from level 700 to 999
ST (Section Time)	Approach section time record (<10 seconds slower)	Approach section time record (<5 seconds slower)	Beat section time record
SK (Skill)	Master 10 Tetrises Death 5 Tetrises Big 1 Tetris	Master 20 Tetrises Death 10 Tetrises Big 2 Tetrises	Master 35 Tetrises Death 17 Tetrises Big 4 Tetrises
RE (Recovery)	Perform 1 recovery	Perform 2 recoveries	Perform 4 recoveries
CO (Combo)	Reach a combo of 4. Big: Reach a combo of 2	Reach a combo of 5. Big: Reach a combo of 3	Reach a combo of 7. Big: Reach a combo of 4

Scoring

Unlike the first game in the series, score is completely unimportant in the main game modes. The only mode where score counts for anything is Normal mode.

Compared to the first game, the scoring system has an added bonus for sonic drops, but still only awards score on line clears. TAP also changes the scoring system, adding a reward for fast play among other changes. The equations are:

TA: Score = ((Level + Lines)/4 + Soft + (2 × Sonic)) × Lines × Combo × Bravo

TAP: Score = ((Level + Lines)/4 + Soft + (2 × Sonic)) × Lines × Combo × Bravo + (Level_After_Clear)/2 + (Speed × 7)

Where:

• Level is the current level you are on.
• Lines is the number of lines you just cleared.
• (Level + Lines)/4 is rounded up.
• (Level_After_Clear)/2 is rounded up. Importantly, Level_After_Clear is different from (Level+Lines) for edge cases like reaching 300 in Normal mode, 500 when being torikan-stopped in Death mode, and reaching 999 otherwise.
• 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.
• Sonic is the size of the single greatest sonic drop during the piece's active time. Note that this is non-cumulative.
• If the previous piece cleared no lines, Combo is reset to 1. Otherwise its Combo value is (updated BEFORE the score):

  Combo = (previous Combo value) + (2 × 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.
• Speed can be no less than 0, and is otherwise equal to:

  Speed = Lock Delay - Active Time

where Lock Delay is the number of frames of lock delay given out for that particular level, and Active Time is the number of frames the piece was active (which is a minimum of 1).

It should be noted that Normal mode multiplies line clear scores by 6. Also, the player is given a time bonus of 1253 × Seconds where Seconds is the amount of time in seconds, rounded up, that the clear time is below 5 minutes.

Development

Changes between TA and TAP

• M-Roll conditions have been changed. Notably, the section time conditions have been altered and the required Tetrises per section have been increased for for the first 5 sections.
• Two new modes have been added, TGM+ and T.A. Death.
• Scoring formula has been changed, adding an extra term for the level after the line clear and another for placement speed.
• The method for accessing Doubles has changed.

Codes

Item mode

When selecting either Master or TGM+ mode, hold B and C, then press Start while "READY" is still on-screen. If the code was correctly entered, the "NEXT" text will pulsate when the game starts. This code causes item pieces to appear like in 2-player versus mode, except all effects from items are sent to yourself.

Title screen codes

The following codes should be entered on the title screen, and only take effect in Normal mode and Master mode. Using them disqualifies the score from appearing in the rankings.

Name	Code	Effect
20G Mode	DDDDDDDDCBA	Forces maximum gravity.
Big Mode	LLLLDCBA	Tetrominoes are twice their normal size, simulating a 10 × 5 well.
TLS Mode	ABCCBAACB	The ghost piece does not disappear after level 100.

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

External links

• Archive of official website (in Japanese)