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by dzdt 909 days ago
One of my childhood claims-to-fame was getting a windows 3.1 version of Tetris to wrap around to negative scores. The score there was a 16 bit signed integer; after +32767 points it wrapped to -32768. At least in that version the challenge to playing at the highest speed wasn't so much the brainpower to decide where you wanted to get the pieces to go; when you get into the flow that is pretty much a nonissue. The challenge is getting the inputs to occur fast enough. On the PC the maximum key repeat rate you could set was no where near high enough, but with a good spring-loaded keyboard tapping keys that fast was doable. Later in college I tried with a laptop keyboard and it was completely impossible; the springs weren't strong enough to return the key in time to get the taps in. I'm curious about the "rolling" input method described here: maybe a workaround to get the NES controller to take inputs quickly enough?
1 comments

Here is a video about the rolling technique, I remember watching it when the technique was first pioneered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-BZ5-Q48lE

In short, you hold the controller so that you have a finger resting on top of the d-pad, and then with your other hand, you drum your 4 fingers in sequence against the back of the controller, causing the d-pad to press into your finger in extremely rapid succession.

Tangentially to this, I'm part of the speedrun community, where controller legality can be a hot topic on a per-game basis. I think it's equally cool to maximize skill within the restrictions of the original controller as it is to use new hardware to break that barrier. Different communities decide upon what mods or alternate hardware is acceptable based on what they feel is appropriate for getting the most enjoyment out of their game.