Tetris - Max Speed is a demonstration of the maximum speeds Nintendo could have used on Game Boy Tetris. This is for informational purposes; as well as for possible Tool Assisted testing. And if someone just wants their endless Tetris experience to have an endgame… well, that works too.

Level 7 in this corresponds to Level 20 in the original. Level 8 in this is theoretically playable. Level 9 is not playable, even with tool assistance. (This mod skips directly to the final 10 speed levels, no “Heart Mode” (UP+Start) code needed.)

What follows is a quick rundown on the exact speed each level is in the original, and then in this mod. The speed is how many frames (out of 60) the game waits in between pieces. This has been converted into milliseconds. Therefore a lower number means the gameplay is faster, and a higher number means the gameplay is slower.

Interestingly, in the original game, levels 14 & 15 were the same speed. As were 16 & 17 and 18 & 19.

Original Tetris:

    Level 00: 867ms   Level 10: 150ms
    Level 01: 800ms   Level 11: 133ms
    Level 02: 733ms   Level 12: 117ms
    Level 03: 667ms   Level 13: 100ms
    Level 04: 600ms   Level 14: 83ms
    Level 05: 533ms   Level 15: 83ms
    Level 06: 450ms   Level 16: 67ms
    Level 07: 350ms   Level 17: 67ms
    Level 08: 267ms   Level 18: 50ms
    Level 09: 167ms   Level 19: 50ms
    __________________Level 20: 33ms

Tetris - Max Speed:

    Level 00: 150ms
    Level 01: 133ms
    Level 02: 117ms
    Level 03: 100ms
    Level 04: 83ms
    Level 05: 67ms
    Level 06: 50ms
    Level 07: 33ms
    Level 08: 17ms
    Level 09: 0ms

(Level 09 and beyond have NO wait in between pieces.)

This mod is for the more common 1.1 version of Gameboy Tetris.

There are 2 additional patches for converting other mods to Tetris - Max Speed.

“Tetris - Max Speed - Hard Drop” is specifically for Ospin’s Classic Hard Drop mod. (Use this patch second, on the already patched Tetris - Hard Drop.)

“Tetris - Max Speed - Rosy Retrospection” is specifically for Ospin’s awesome mod. (Use this patch second, on the already patched Tetris - Rosy Retrospection.)

[Because Rosy has a built in delay between pieces to make the game easier, this one is actually quite playable at max speed.]