I've been logging in quite the time into the NES Tetris since I watched "Ecstasy of Order" and I always felt like such loser whenever I reached level 19. I tend to start at level 15 to warm up and everytime I hit level 19 so far I just failed miserably. So after reviewing the movie and watching Thor start on level 19, I thought to myself: "My game is way faster on level 19!" I found this video on Youtube that shows how fast level 19 is on the PAL version.





So, I emulated the NTSC version on my laptop, and alas! I can actually play level 19! This made me feel a lot better since I always thought I was an okay Tetris player. This leaves the question why Nintendo tried to balance the 50/60 Hz versions while doing it in such a fashion that it becomes so hard ten levels earlier? Also, can someone comfirm that the PAL level 19 compares to the NTSC level 29 "kill screen" speed, as described in the Youtube video?

What are your thoughts? Anyone know Nintendo's intentions?

You're right, PAL 19 is close to NTSC 29 speed. But the pieces move left to right quite a bit faster in PAL version, so PAL 19 is not as impossible as NTSC 29. But PAL 19 is certainly way harder than NTSC 19.

I think it might have been laziness on the part of the programmers. It is, afterall, a very small percentage of their customers who would even get to 19 on either version. When I first started playing NTSC NES, I thought 19 was the "kill screen" and never bothered to try and learn how to play that fast.

I feel kind of bad that all the good European Tetris players might be confused by this after watching the movie. So would love to spread the word however possible. Also, Robin Mihara has actually played the PAL version extensively so he might have some more insight.

Mog sent me the Game Genie code for lvl 29 on NTSC and even the drop speed is a bit faster than lvl 19 on PAL. But you are right. I also noticed that the pieces move faster side to side.
I am hoping that Robin or even Thor might stumble across this thread and chime in. I would love to know how far Robin got on the PAL version. Because I can get up to around 4-5 lines on level 19 if I'm having a good day and have never seen level 20. But that counts for both NTSC and PAL. But when I emulate the NTSC version and start at level 19, I can get around 20 lines if I play it safe and don't stack up too high.
It was totally shocking at first and I was actually suprised I had not heard of this before or at least saved this information somewhere in my brain. Because the first thing I did after watching the movie was start a game on level 18 and once I hit level 19 and the blocks just came flying down I was dumbstruck. But that just made my admiration for the movie's Tetris Masters even greater.

^^^ It's not the drop speed that makes 29 unplayable. It's the drop speed relative to your ability to move pieces to the sides.

Obviously PAL 19 is harder than NTSC 19 due to the drop speed difference. But you maintain the same ability to get pieces to the sides without the need to hypertap.
So PAL 19 is nowhere near the difficulty of NTSC 29+, just due to the difference in controllability.

If you play the PAL game on a NTSC nes it will be even faster.

I assume Robin was playing PAL to practice?

I was in Anton's (Dendy here on NA) game room messing around in Amsterdam. I don't think I managed a tetris, but got a couple triples and I think my highest was around 15-20 lines (tried for about an hour).

It's really interesting to see what it would be like to have Thor's thumbs.

I do have a PAL tetris here at home, but am too lazy/incompetent to take out the chip (or whatever is needed)

^The toploader is perfect for lazy people.