My first attempt was to look at the maximum scores. My current, not too impressive high-score on PAL is 174_731 (and yes I will use underscores here). Isn't there a way to calculate the NTSC score based on a PAL score? Yea, is there a way to calculate NTSC score? But to compare myself with the pro's on screen I would have to spend a bit more to import an American NES. The cartridge of Tetris has cost me more. I am playing Tetris on a real NES, brought ☑5 years ago on a flee market at the local community playground for the insane price of 10 euros. This means the PAL version is just harder, you just get less points for your hard work. There is a nice article by Tetris Finland about this and other differences between the two versions.ĭespite the faster speeds of the PAL version, I found no evidence of the scoring system being different. Therefore Tetris on the European PAL systems gets faster in earlier levels than the American NTSC systems. Turns out old European TVs have a different refresh-rate than Americans. Of course, I need more practice, but I have an excuse: I live in Europe. Then I noticed how my mind could keep up with the players on the screen, but not with the pieces falling on my screen. There is a problem though: at first I deemed playing at level 18 myself impossible, it's just too fast. I am noticeably better after I watched some pro's scoring Tetris after Tetris at level 19, so I keep this pace of watching, playing, watching playing. I've been watching Classic Tetris for a few months now, and as a result, I'm also playing it.
Tl dr: This is nerding out on Tetris scores, and quite frankly, I don't think the conclusion holds.