How YOU Can Play NES Tetris

you hello in this video I'll be breaking down my entire NES Tetris gaming setup and going over everything you would need in order to play NES Tetris for yourself record your games participate in online tournaments and prepare for the real-life tournaments I've had a lot of people reach out to me asking what I would recommend so hopefully this video answers your questions the good news is a setup isn't nearly as difficult or expensive as you might think depending on where you live or what you have already it's possible that everything that I would consider the essentials could cost you less than 60 US dollars however of course not everybody has the same resources available I certainly didn't have access to most the stuff on my list one I first started playing so with that in mind I'll be talking about every piece of equipment in three different categories in addition to the essentials which is what I would consider the baseline equipment to be fully adequate I'll also have the category of in a pinch which is what you can use if you're on a budget or don't have access to something in your region and the works which is how you can take things to the next level if you're truly invested with most of these items I've started out in the in a pinch category and gradually works my way up to the works so I'll let you know the costs and benefits of each level and how much it's worth it so let's begin to start out with you're going to need the game itself and a gaming system to play it on in a pinch a rom running in an emulator will allow you to play the game using an emulator simplifies the discussion of much of the other gear because you'd be using your computer as a gaming system your monitor is a screen and in most cases your keyboard as a controller an emulator does give you the ability to practice and become skilled and you can use an emulator to participate in the online tournaments additionally since some of the gear I'll be talking about can be region specific it's possible that an emulator might be your only practical option however there are some caveats to be aware of if your aspiration is to play in the in-person tournaments and you're using your keyboard as your controller you're going to have to switch to a Nintendo controller for the event if you're used to playing like this switching to this can be difficult I've seen some keyboard players place their controller flat and bring in a sticky pad to keep the controller in place on the table in front of them or if there is no space on the table I have to bring in an Adu Meeny table or small platform to place their controller on so it's something to be prepared for at the very least and then there's also the issue of emulators being in kind of a legal gray area I'll link to an article that discusses the topic in the description but basically I can't talk about how to get an emulator or set one up here so what about the essentials category well you just buy an original cartridge fortunately a boatload of these were made back in the day so getting one is super cheap I got mine for $5 at a local retro gaming store they're also available and abundance on eBay but this is the first point where it has to be clarified that there are actually technically two versions of the game NTSC Tetris and PAL Tetris they're identical in almost every way except for that they're optimized for different framerate standards in different parts of the world NTSC is mainly North America and Japan while PAL is most of Europe Africa Southeast Asia and Australia and South America is split down the middle as a result different tournaments use different versions the world championships and classic Tetris monthlies use NTSC while the European Championships use PAL I'll discuss it more in depth in a future video but basically the difference in frame rates results in a huge difference in how you calibrate your aggression when playing the game so if you're aspiring to play in a particular tournament it's important that you get the right version of the game and for the record I'm using NTSC so for the works how can you improve on getting a cartridge well you could buy the original box that comes in two which has a little instruction booklet that mostly includes stuff you probably already know along with the real version of the fake meme that jeopardy used at one time smash boy and the one I bought secondhand for 10 bucks also has the original owners high score on it for someone who probably played without any knowledge of the tournaments or advanced strategy and had to figure it out all on their own that's actually not too bad pretty cool but by far the biggest simple thing you can do to upgrade your experience is getting a game genie this allows you to input codes that transform different aspects of the game for training and achievement purposes the most common one used at high level play is eeny oog easy which removes the 999,999 score cap by displaying numbers in the first digit beyond nine the alphabets thus allowing players to track scores higher than a million but there are tons of others such as a code to skip wading through a rocket sequence a code that allows you to start on level 29 and much more now you're going to need a system to play it on and it doesn't necessarily have to be an original NES the one I use is the retro bit re S Plus super retro it only costs 21 dollars and 80 cents on Amazon and in my experience it plays an NES cart nearly indistinguishably from an original NES the only difference that's popped up is the slightly different pitch in the sound effects and this is one category where the essentials and the works categories are kind of flexible because further works I would put you know an original NES but it's possible you are relative already have one which would make the process of getting one very simple or you might be able to snag one for pretty cheap on eBay if you're lucky so anyways the NES is the original authentic experience but I consider the super retro find failsafe option if getting an NES is difficult and again your console is another piece of equipment where you want to make sure you're getting one that's optimized for NTSC or PAL next you're gonna need a controller now if you're using an emulator you're probably gonna be using a keyboard but since when you're using an emulator your computer is basically your gear I'm gonna be breaking down the future categories mainly for console play and with controllers if your aspiration is to play in the World Championships it's important to know that in the rules only original unmodified Nintendo controllers are allowed and that's relevant because as I noted in my 2018 experience video even though they provide controllers at every station virtually every serious competitor brings their own because in a game where a move has to be made in a thirtieth or a 60th of a second having a controller where you're familiar with its feel and sensitivity makes all the difference I've used the same controller at every tournament since I started playing two years ago and I've gotten very comfortable with it I would consider having a Nintendo controller in the essentials category now when you're playing at home or online of course there's nothing to prevent you from using an off-brand controller the super retro I mentioned earlier comes with its own controllers which aren't that bad after coming home from the 2019 seat CWC actually started playing on this one in order to reduce wear and tear on the one I primarily use for tournaments but given how cheap you can typically get an NES controller definitely got one you have the option I think I got mine for about 10 bucks as for the works basically it would come down to finding an NES controller that's optimal for you if the first one you get isn't that good as they aren't made anymore used NES controllers come in varying quality some people buy a bunch of them and meticulously clean and refurbish the best ones if you really want to splurge you can try and find one in mint condition even this isn't a guarantee that a controller will work the best for you though it's just something you'll get a sense of over time and then there's what screen to use this is a unique category in that the in a pinch option is almost universally more expensive than the essentials category mainly because the in a pinch option is the one you're most likely to already have an LCD or flat-screen TV the item in the essentials category is actually a CRT or box TV now it's definitely possible to play well on an LCD TV I play my first few months and got my first half max out on one and Harry Hong got his first max out on one as well way back in the day but if you plan on an LCD you are going to be putting yourself at a bit of a disadvantage due to the delay on the display of an LCD over a CRT to illustrate this I hooked up my console to a CRT and an LCD screen with a cable splitter to show the difference you're dealing with in this test the LCD lags behind the CRT by about a sixth of a second on level 19 speeds that's huge and massively impacts your reaction time and ability to adjust for miss drops and mistakes in my experience I ran into a complete wall trying to learn level 19 on an LCD and couldn't ever play much past the transition until I switched to a CRT and even if you do learn how to play on level 19 speeds on an LCD if you eventually want to show up in person to the tournament's they're going to be played on CRTs and it's going to be very difficult to adjust to the different timing if you're not used to it so the fortune thing about CRTs is that to a lot of people their junk and next to worthless so in a lot of areas it's very easy to get one for extremely cheap I think I accidentally overpaid for my CRT Mac when I was thinking about getting one I didn't really know where to look so I hopped on eBay did four one for twenty dollars and then had to pay thirty dollars for shipping since it's so heavy and then I realized when I looked on Facebook marketplace and Craigslist in my area that people were giving them away for five dollars free whoops and then to connect it to your console you just need an RCA cable and if you don't already have one it's like a few dollars unfortunately I've heard from some people that it's very difficult or expensive to get a CRT where they're from so best of luck in finding one so what do you do for the works like a controller it's basically about finding a CRT that's right for you even though my CRT is on the smaller ends I actually like it because it's about the same size as the ones that use of the World Championships so I feel like it prepares me in a way for playing on their screens of course if you're just playing at home and find that a bigger CRT works for you then get a bigger CRT there's also some CRTs that display different colors better than others level 17 with its dark purple hues is infamous for being hard to see on most screens but on my CRT level 17 looks just fine it's level 16 s dark grey hues that don't display well however these issues can be mitigated with game genie codes if you really want to dive into it there's a CRT gaming subreddit with advice on how to get the best CRT one of their tips is to go to old TV stations or studios that have professional-grade CRTs that they might just want to get rid of and as a last note along with the console you'll want to make sure your CRT is compatible with NTSC or PAL depending on which version you get so now you've got your setup but how do you record your games well in a pinch you can just use your camcorder or your cell phone Jonas used a phone to capture his first recorded level 19 max out way back in the day and Josh uses a mirror to have a fancy one-shot setup that includes his face and his game in the same frame but a lot of camcorders have built-in time limits on how long they can record which can cause your recordings to be stopped at inconvenient moments and of course there's a certain amount of quality loss by recording this way even though cell phone cameras have improved substantially over the years you won't be able to participate on online tournaments if a secondary camera is your video source you're going to want to capture directly what's on screen for the best quality Harry Hong originally recorded his first max out on a VHS but chances are you're gonna want immediate digital access unfortunately the options don't have to be expensive easycap which is the capture card that I use along with many others in the NES Tetris community only costs 1099 on Amazon and the setup isn't too difficult you're just going to need two additional cables another RCA core and an RCA splitter so first install the software that comes on the little CD and then you're going to plug your to RCA chords into the splitter then this end goes in your console this end you plug into your screen and this end you plug the easycap in and then insert it into the USB port on your computer and boom there you go as for the works there are some more expensive capture cards out there some of which come with their own basic recording and editing software but ultimately I don't think any of these options are super necessary mainly because of the price of the next category recording and streaming software this is what you'll be able to use to record your games participate in online tournaments and optionally run your own live streams and build a following the software of choice of pretty much everyone in the community is OBS an open source program that rings up at the grand old price of free and is super easy to use you just load it up click the plus on the bottom left to create a new scene then click the plus on the bottom middle to create a new video capture device it's going to be an OEM capture device then you just resize it to where you want it to be make sure that your video output settings or what you want them to be and then you can record once you've got all this set up is a fairly simple process to participate in the online tournaments as well the classic tetris monthly for example just has you streamed to a twitch page and then use a stencil to line up your game footage exactly to a template that will then be used to cut out individual elements and place them in an aesthetically pleasing format for the final broadcast and if there's any confusion the online tournaments have pages and forums dedicated to helping you through technical issues and any set of questions you may have so if recording and participating in tournaments is all you ever need or want to do OBS has you covered with a nice streamlined interface however if you're going to host tetris live streams of your own I'd move it down to the in a pinch category only because there's an even better free option Stream labs OBS which is a combined program for OBS and stream labs a live streaming collection of widgets such as chat boxes notification alerts etc it also integrates a lot of the live streaming interface into OBS which reduces the need for doing it from your browser and I'm showing examples from twitch by the way because although there are other platforms available almost everybody who streams NES Tetris right now uses twitch it's where all the networking is and really the only big reason you need to upgrade to paid software is if you're like tray and you're running a professional level live broadcast event with the need for tons of different inputs multiple streams to multiple platforms all at once although let's be real if you're like Trey you're on the level of writing your own custom software to do things you know everything you don't need to be watching this video I should be learning from you and the last two categories of equipment I'll be talking about are webcams and microphones for live-streaming now I should emphasize that these are definitely not a requirement if you prefer not to be on the camera or mic because it's a hassle to get ready or for privacy reasons especially in this day and age there is absolutely nothing wrong with that and in almost every online tournament webcams are optional however if you do have a webcam or mic tournament organizers will like it and appreciate it because it helps add to the visual appeal of the livestream and it can have a huge impact in building and connecting with your own audience and because your webcam feed is typically going to be very small on your screen you don't need an HD webcam in most cases a cheap one or the one built into your laptop should work just fine along with a cheap microphone or a microphone built into your headset if you want to have a more web cam centric setup like Joseph or you plan to use your webcam as a camera for recording an HD webcam might be worth investing in this is the webcam I have my girlfriend got me this one for Christmas and for $34 this is the quality you get from it it's pretty good a good microphone can improve overall quality as well the audio you're now hearing is from the microphone I use which is the blue Yeti it's a very popular upper mid-range option in industry it's important to know though that your quality is going to be dependent on how close you are to the mic so the next thing I'll be investing in is an arm for this thing so I don't have to lean in so that's my setup some closing remarks these are my personal recommendations based on what I've used I was not sponsored by anyone to include anything in this video it's also possible my gear recommendations may improve in the future or I'll be recommended something better by someone in the comments so I'll try to keep the description updated with any new information happy playing and I'll see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: aGameScout

Views: 131,608

Keywords: nes tetris gear, nes tetris, ctwc, classic tetris world championships, classic tetris, tetris, how to play nes tetris, classic tetris monthly, agamescout

Id: kH5C7UDI8TI

Length: 15min 39sec (939 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 24 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/gripleg]

Omg! I’m a huge fan of your Tetris vids!! You and Joseph inspired me to buy my own NES and try to get good enough to compete!! Thank you for your content and keep doing what you do!!

[u/lifteris]

Thank you dude, you're a legend.