Tetris Effect and Other Games with Immaculate Vibes
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2021
- With every passing day, the winds might blow stronger | Directly support me and watch exclusive videos by joining Nebula at go.nebula.tv/jacob-geller
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Connected (Yours Forever) Piano Cover by Henry Walsh: • Connected (Yours Forev...
Digital Foundry Retro: Tetris!: • DF Retro: Tetris!
Errant Signal- Blips Episode 8: • Bad Bosses, Beautiful ...
Additional footage from
World of Longplays: • Arcade Longplay [519] ...
Old Classic Retro Gaming: • Apple II Game: Beyond ...
Squakenet: • Elite gameplay (PC Gam...
Jorbs: • Let's Play Marble Blas...
Visual Media used: Marble Madness (Arcade), Venineth, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, Elite, Karate Champ, Hitman 3, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Elite Dangerous, Ballance, Marble it Up!, Marble Blast Gold, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, Mortal Kombat 9, Myst, NaissanceE, Street Fighter V, Tetris Effect, Tetris CD-I, 400 other versions of tetris (see Digital Foundry video for full details)
Music used (chronologically): Connected (Tetris Effect), Level 1 (Marble Madness), Lunar Discourse (Tetris Effect), Level 0 (Tetris CD-I), Level 2 (Marble Madness), Level 8 (Tetris CD-I), Ballance OST, Level 0 (Tetris CD-I), Joy, Connected, Bright Shadow (Tetris Effect), Metamorphosis II (Carrion), End (Venineth), Connected Jazz Improvisations by Henry Walsh, Dire Dire on the Rocks (OC Remix by Geoffrey Taucer/FFmusic Dj), Level 0 (Tetris CD-I)
Additional Music Provided by Epidemic Sound
Thumbnail Credit: / hotcyder
Description Credit: Connected (Tetris Effect) - Hry
If you'd like to see videos early, join the Geller Discord, or politely inform me that I said Myst but showed Riven, jump on my patreon at www.patreon.com/JacobGeller
join us, its great!
YAY
Jacob, fantastic video. I bought Venineth as soon as I saw that Twitter post you shot out a few months ago. I can't explain how cool it was that you ended up covering this marble masterpiece in one of your videos.
I noticed that you said Myst but showed Riven, and simply assumed it was because Riven is the true great entry of the franchise and better represents what Myst is than Myst does.
I appreciate that this video was a bit more upbeat. Sometimes, on the weekend you just wanna sit down, forget the craziness for a little and watch a video about games about falling blocks and rolling spheres
Jacob is genuinely one of the smartest people on this platform and he spends his time and intelligence talking about how tetris transcends all space and time. Please never stop making videos
True
Seriously, this entire video had me in awe of Jacob's ability to synthesize so many different topics together. Jacob is absolutely one of the most intelligent creators on CZcams.
Also I'm slightly offended by your username /s lmao
Ehhh
I hate how you chop this up to intelligence
This nigga Jacob really makes me think about things I never ever thought I could think about ! Idk how to explain it ! I love his videos I wish I had money to give him
Literally the second you brought up Marble Madness I was on the edge of my seat, like "Oh I cannot WAIT for Jacob to talk about Venineth"
Oh my god same! And at the same time, I didn't think he actually would since it's such an underground game. Super happy that he talked about it and hope it makes people try it out!
How come it has like 60 steam reviews but everybody in the comments seems to know about it?
@@manaulhoque6507 because we watch Errant Signal
in Jacob Geller's video at hand
he says, "this game is overgrown
by elements of nature. so it stands,
a tetris obelisk reclaimed by wild unknown,
whose soothing beats and backdrops of lush lands
convey the goals those game designers had
which yet survive, as emulated things
much like the game itself, O tetris never-dead,
whose great effect is present even here
'the game is tetris CD-I, of all things
stack up its blocks, and solid rows will clear!"
this little-known rendition, difficult to play,
yet echoes in our modern tetris fare
about which Jacob G has much to say
what
Percy Shelley is weeping for not writing this
thank you toasty, very cool!!!
*snaps fingers in appreciation
YEAAAA TOASTYGLOW
Looking at Veninith and Marble Madness side-by-side made me think of this quote-I can't remember who said it and can't find it, it might have been Hayao Miyazaki but idk-that said something like, adaptation is fundamentally like taking another person's work and explaining it to a friend, saying "This is what I saw in it." And I don't know the extent to which Veninith was specifically conceived as a response to Marble Madness, but it certainly feels like one. That "alien" "other-ness" you describe in Veninith feels like a natural extension of the feelings I had about Marble Madness and other similarly "primitive" games when I was a kid. When games that looked like that WERE the peak of graphics technology, I never saw their limitations, their failure to seamlessly render something else. The combination of novel, unfamiliar technology and minimalist abstraction always felt extremely surreal to me, and have stuck with me for years. It always felt like I was having a greater, stranger experience than just playing with a toy from the store, and that's something that I feel like has sometimes been lost in the pathological obsession with having the most photorealistic representations of human skin that seems to have consumed modern AAA developers.
This is a bit off topic but if you think about it, in that case, it makes sense that older games were never really decried for "shitty graphics" and "bad textures" back in the day. When what you're experiencing _is_ the limit, you never stop to think about how that limit could be broken. Only after the limit is broken can people look back and think, naively, "why couldn't you do this back then?" It makes one wonder what limitations, graphical or otherwise, will be overcome in the future. How can a game 20 years from now be so good that it makes TLOU2 look ugly? How can mechanics be so seamless 20 years from now that new AAA games will feel clunky? It makes me realize that AAA games always have a timer, but indie games are much more timeless, with the lack of a distinct focus on improvement of the basics and a more specialized nature. indie games don't have to break limits, they can just work within them to make something that's never been seen before. anyway im rambling at this point lol
@@april5054 Maybe it’s just me, but I think the progression new games, AAA or indie, are going in is stylization.
The graphics and all can still be there in AAA titles, but looking at the frontrunners in the upcoming generation: Demon’s Souls Remake, the God Of War sequel, Battlefield 2042, etc, they have much less “gritty” textures than their previous titles, going more towards things that pop, colorful effects, concise textures, and bombastic animations that are helped out by haptics.
Even if they had to use the technology and graphics of 10 years ago, they still would feel distinct, which I think is largely because we’re reaching the ceiling of realism, so you can’t blow your competition out of the water unless you’ve got superiority in gameplay and vibe.
It’s also that the indie and AAA scenes are colliding in on each other, games like Hollow Knight and Hades are constantly brought up within game circles, Sony themselves made a rouguelike 3rd person shooter, a genre almost untouched by AAA studios, Sonic Mania is hailed as one of the best sonic games in recent memory, and some of the biggest trendy games, minecraft, undertale, among us, have been produced by indie studios.
It feels like, in some ways, 1st party studios are starting to look into more experimental titles, to the extent their left pretentiousness might let them.
Ultimately I’m still not sure where they’ll try to go, but personally I’ve become more invested in the mainstream than I have in a while
Toy ♡ I use these resources to stim as my talents are not generally ... hmm.. profitable to me but only others if I charge for them. I need an outlet for my pattern and problem solving fetishes.. giggle.
Can't help it. I don't have a community to utilize my other talents with in trade for them helping me stay alive.
Aww Heck...
#ytwhining #latestagecapitalism #rabbitholes #h0les
@@katrinakollmann5265 Huh?? did you reply to the wrong comment or something?
@@april5054 it’s a bot, maybe, i honestly have no idea
The coolest thing about Venineth is how difficult and long it is, and just how opposed to giving you any sort of direction. Jacob touched on this, but seriously you're dropped into these levels and they go on for hours and hours, and you spend a long ass time just trying to get your marble up an impossibly high slope or clear a wide jump. When you do finally progress, you're suddenly faced with yet another even more head scratching challenges. Often I forgot where I was going or what I was doing, with the only thoughts in my head being "roll, roll roll"
become one with marble
I feel the reason why it didn't give you a specific direction is because they didn't only want you to finish a level but explore it and that's really cool
oh my god ive got like 50 hours in venineth and this is the most ive ever related to a comment. you truly do just forget about any goal or objective and become one with the marble.
@@TheCyanSqueegee Embrace Rolling
I'm a simple man, I see "immaculate vibes" and "marbles" and I start vibrating with excitement. Venineth is such a good game
I NEED VENINETH
This is the marble game I’ve been waiting for my whole life.
My only question, have you also heard of Marble Marcher? It might not be so profound. But you need to check it out. Awesome combination of marble games and fractals
@@jaspin555 Yes I have. I watched playthroughs of it.
@@GrandPrinceBlueblood awesome! Meanwhile, i have a game to check out now so :D Venineth here i come
It is. Venineth is spectacular.
I've played a few hours now and it's amazing! Definitely worth my $20
Jacob-how is everything you make so good? I always start your videos with only a passing interest in the subject matter at best, and always come away feeling like I've had a borderline transcendental human experience that has left me permanently changed in some small but fundamental way.
Mr. Geller is made of immaculate vibes
Everything he vibes with vibes even more
i COULD explain how the combination of perfectly-selected music, enthusiastic speech and audible passion form together to create a viewing experience that feels more like... an old friend telling you about their new favorite game, rather than gameanalyst#6153 spouting out the 'connection between gameplay and the inherent human experience expected of most players of the game', but i WONT, because, i, uhh... already have!
enjoy the rest of your night!
mood v_v
Everytime Jacob uploads I literally backwards long jump to my pc to watch it
Backwards long jump? You got the plug on mario oddessey two or what lol
@@zaidlacksalastname4905 its a mario 64 thing
WAHOO
Do a prop fly over the floor stain, angular flip jump off the pizza box, flying prop manifest to the gaming chair, b hop around in glee.
Any % speedrun of CZcams
YAHOO
This is getting out of control. I'm damn near falling in love with this man. He is one of the most _human_ human beings I've ever encountered.
oh, you wouldn't believe!
in this world full of superficial people spouting on about how 'real' and non-superficial they are, in order to appear as, y'know, not not non-superficial - Mr. Geller is, uhh... a breath of fresh air!
@@we-must-live I believe that you cannot fake authenticity. The Jacob Geller in these videos is the real Jacob Geller. And I'm very grateful that I got to see him.
that's a parasocial relationship. you're only looking at a very heavily edited and curated glimpse of a person, he doesn't know you exist. it's a really unhealthy mindset
@@vampyre444 I'm very well aware that it's one-sided. He knows nothing about me, and he might not like me if he did. But that doesn't mean that I cannot know him or like him.
I don't agree with you that the Jacob in the videos is not the "real" Jacob. I know the videos present a limited perspective. There's lots about Jacob that I don't know and never will. But I think that his videos show something authentic. The aspects of his personality that are presented are real. The depiction is truthful And based on these aspects of his personality, I fucking love him.
@@vampyre444 you're damn right it is, and you can't do anything to stop me
"We're all connected", can't wait for Serial Experiments Lain Tetris.
Can't wait for Strand type Tetris
This is just my interpretation of Venineth, but it arguably also reflects human experience in a different way by throwing you into a world that you know nothing about, and you learn and experience new things as you continue. Just like starting from birth.
in a way, does that not make it 'another life' for us to experience?
actually, doesn't that make ALL videogames 'new lives' for us to live out?
sure, they may be antiquated lives, full of expected turns and events, but - you learn new things, you become invested (hopefully!) and, when it all ends, you... aren't really at peace with it... ending. and that's, uh... pretty realistic to the human experience, yeah!
@@we-must-live Absolutely, however I think it depends on the individual. Some view games as another passive story of another's actions for them to mentally throw away - and it's the least interesting thing about me, but being a drug user *gasp*, it's really given me an opportunity to "feel" the games in a whole new way that makes the game feel more unique and exactly like a new life to ME. They also opened up my mind to the idea that everybody has their own unique experience, and that I should learn what I can from all sources that I can, be it right or wrong, because all those aspects were brought about from the things that make life unique to THOSE people as well.
I'm high as I type this, so forgive me if it didn't make any sense lol I'll probably find this reply tomorrow and shamefully delete it 😆
@@csonweedagain5054 hehe - you're surprisingly legible while high. i try to explain any concept even after like a few coffees, and i'm going on tangents that lead absolutely nowhere!
but not tonight - yeah maybe tonight i just completely lost focus... damn. well, enjoy the rest of your night (if i didn't already say that - did i?)!
@@we-must-live I hope I didn't put off a feeling of trying to make you think you're wrong or anything, you were as legible and correct as I was trying to be lol. You have an even better night, sir :)
@@csonweedagain5054 oh, why thank you!
it just so happens that when I write an elaborate piece directed to a specific person, I end up taking the focus in a completely different direction, invalidating the original intended message - just like i've done here! like, really, what is the point of what I just wrote? why am I staying up so late and for so long to try to cause sleep deprivation hallucinations? is it to feel a taste of that fear that used to drive me, or to just give myself an excuse to chug monster and say i chugged monster to all of my internet friends that definitely care about the lie that I chug monster!
here i go again, making up stories - guess I'll never change!
and yeah, I hope you enjoyed reading my essay as much as I did writing it
i dont usually comment on videos, but i just wanted to take a second to say i am consistently blown away at how sharp and poignant your scripts are. every video you make feels like it is stuffed full of as much thought and care as you could give it and you are one of the only youtubers who talks about games that i know of that actually bothers to take the time to talk about how they affect the real world, i.e. the player, the landscape around the game's release, the feelings they can evoke. emotions. you refuse to be "apolitical". you want your videos to mean something even if it gets vitriol slung your way and despite the fact i don't know you i have a huge amount of respect for you on those grounds alone. thank you, jacob.
Tetris Effect is easily one of my favourite chill-out games, and tracks from the soundtrack regularly make it on to any playlist I'm making! It really is the perfect symbiosis of visuals and music
There's some irony in Jacob referencing the "RTX On" meme in relation to Venineth, as one of the most advanced RTX demos Nvidia has available right now is a mini-game called "Marbles RTX".
Ironic, because it's kind of the opposite of what Jacob finds so captivating about Venineth - all its incredible visual fidelity is used to anchor it in real, mundane things, almost a deliberate rejection of the abstract Marble Madness precedent.
Gotta say that your videos have helped me. You along with a couple other youtubers have helped deradicalize from the alt right.
Tetris is just the game that you can never quit, you're instead just taking long breaks from playing :)
Venineth: modernism
Tetris Effect: postmodernism
omg hi ian! always so nice seeing all my fav creators watching each other lol
I would argue the opposite tbh. Tetris Effect: tries to ground the game as a sort of universal experience with a recognizable and somewhat logical "design" (quite modernist), while Venineth rejects this universality, rejects the possibility of answering the question of what it is, and subsequently embraces an otherness that is way too alien to be "objectively" understood (postmodern af).
@@TheMathDieu I don't think you're quite right. Modernism is an old term now, and came into the world as an idea in the early 20th century. Modernist art is extremely abstract but grounds itself in fundemental truths and attempts to ascertain meaning through absolutes - for example there is an emphisis on geometry as symbolism. Post-modernism, by extension, is a rejection of 'modernism' and tries to reconceptualise the human experience thrugh a social lense and tries to explain that the meaning of life is through our shared experiences, history, culture and thus our future is dependent on our current relationships - as opposed to some higher universal power or scientific construct.
@@lawrencesmeaton6930 modernist art isn't just abstract art, what we know as "abstract art" can be found in both modernist and postmodernist artistic movements, but even if abstract art was exclusively a feature of modern art, I would argue that the visuals of Tetris Effect are much more abstract than the ones of Venineth, so my point would still stand :p
I don't see how your comment really contradicts mine tbh, I don't completely agree with how you characterized modernism and postmodernism as I find it a bit reductive (I'd say that your definition is more befitting that of poststructuralism rather than postmodernism per say) as postmodernism, both artistically and philosophically is too diverse and varied to give it a one fits all definition (besides the rejection of overarching truths and narratives which seems to be a trend of postmodern thought) but even if this characterization is taken into consideration, I feel like my comment still holds
@@lawrencesmeaton6930 it's funny that you describe modernism as focusing on fundamental truth and using geometric symbolism then say that Tetris Effect -a game that posits we are all connected by visions of geometric shapes- isn't modernist. But a bit more seriously, postmodernism doesn't simply reject religion and science, but anything that could fill a similar role like culture or history (these are called meta narratives). I think an argument can be made that Tetris Effect is about the subjectivity of an abstract game which sounds postmodernist, but then they tie it all together into a collective human experience which doesn't really sound postmodernist at all.
Edit: I have no clue how or why that one line is crossed out
Most unexpected game to give me the Tetris Effect? War Groove! Literally couldn't sleep for all the random battle situations that kept popping up from my subconscious
I got it from playing portal 1 and 2.
Trying to sleep while flying around rooms into portals that throw you out in unintuitive places is really difficult.
I got it from chess and a mobile word puzzler
Into the Breach did it for me. I got so obsessed it became a little scary.
I got that way with osu and recently call of duty
@@The_Jovian I've had it from chess recently too, super cool to know it has a name
Jacob: Tetris is a relaxing game-
Me, trying to dt canon into a 4 wide while fighting for life: haha yea-
It was halfway through watching this I remembered I dreamt of the T-Spin move the other night.
*The weird thing is I haven't played Tetris in months*
I remember my first time through Tetris Effect on expert, it was incredibly challenging, supremely difficult to me but it wasn't until I just let the music, visuals, and vibes take over me that I was able to beat it. It was one of my favourite gaming experiences ever and I love going back to it every once in a while and just being swept up in it again. The last stage is incredible, it feels near impossible but once you make it out the other side you're just itching for another go. Tetris Effect is THE definitive Tetris experience to me.
This is an incredibly intelligent, articulate, and simply fascinating video essay.
All his videos are incredibly intelligent and articulate . Its people like him that makes me feel like a dumb smooth brain lol.
@@casualcadaver Haha, same! I'm not on his level.
I love that Jacob watches Errant Signal, I get a great game recommended to me, I go play and love it and then I get an awesome meditative examination of it in a couple months
Shame on you for not mentioning the greatest Historically Accurate Strategy Tower Defence Marble game, The Rock Of Ages
"This means something. This means something big. But you, you human, just don't speak the language." I love it when games make me feel that way, but never really had the words for it before. Absolute chills.
Breath of The Wild's "vibe" is easily one of the my favs. For the most part a chill game, but those battles and always exciting. One of the reasons it's a favorite of mine.
I'd love to hear Jacob's perspective on the Myst games
Or The Witness
When you mentioned the abstraction of marble games, I was expecting the RTX Marbles demo to get a mention. Photorealistic, grounded levels built upon the most advanced graphics tech currently possible so you can play as a marble. Essentially the opposite of what came before. Gotta say though Venineth looks super cool and definitely a creative take on how abstract most marble games are.
Jacob: Ah yes, my memories of Myst
Also Jacob: *shows screenshot from Riven*
The golden dome of Temple Island is quite distinctive!
I just stumbled upon your channel accidentally and holy shit did I find a gem. I don't even know how to describe your channel, you just talk about books and games and plays and shit but somehow with every upload you delve deep into my psyche and either reveal something new i've never thought about before or just straight up fuck my brain. You are so eloquent with your words it's entrancing, you're like a poet. Every video i've watched so far i've been hypnotised right from the start - hanging off every one of your masterfully crafted sentences. My man Geller even somehow convinced me I want to read Piranesi and Death of a Salesman, and I haven't read in years. I wasn't expecting to find a top tier CZcams channel with quality on par with Exurb1a/Lemmino/Veritasium/Vsauce when I clicked on your video on the shape of infinity but boy was I pleasantly surprised.
Anyway what i'm poorly articulating in my gushing fanboy rant is this channel is amazing and you use words good. I'm gonna go watch your entire catalogue and then eagerly await each new upload.
Love to see an Errant Signal shoutout. Ian Danskin’s was the whole reason I found Chris’ channel, and I’ve devoured his essays since.
Couldn't believe I saw someone talk about Tetris CD-I. The vinyl release of it is freaking great and came out from left field. Such a solid release.
These videos are a cure all for writers block, artists block, or just.. any block in general. Having a breakdown before work? Boom, put on a Jacob essay. I've never been more satisfied than when I'm watching these videos. They scratch that itch of not being able to describe a *feeling*. And yet, Jacob manages perfectly. Listening to him ramble helps me brainstorm, because of how much he talks. Its therapeutic.
This has to be one of my favorite Jacob Geller videos. Listening (for the third or fourth time) while doing laundry, and I'm reminded that each time you say "We're *all* connected, we're *All* connected, we're *ALL* Connected-" makes a lump rise in my throat. Playing Tetris Effect has made me cry multiple times, and your conviction just makes that feeling come back to me. Thank you Jacob.
When Venineth appeared I literally went "oh yeah, it's that Errant Signal marble game
i absolutely love the music of this game. yours forever is a fantastic song.
Shout out to all my homies who are bad at Tetris and are very embarrassed about it 💪
Jacob has the the superpower of being able to find any topic, find a deeper meaning intrinsic to it, then talk about it in a video that makes me reconsider all of my previous experiences in a moderate existential crisis
I love that line
"Of rolling marbles, and falling blocks"
thank you for talking about my favourite game, venineth. i have put literally 200 hours into it---an amount of time which i suspect is rivalled only by the developers themselves---because i was so smitten by it that i took up speedrunning it. so it's great to see it being enjoyed by and shared with other people.
and what a coincidence, cdi tetris is my favourite tetris game too! one of my favourite video game soundtracks (after venineth)
Seeing Jacob talk to us in person makes me smile.
My friend literally just got Tetris Effect working on their computer a few hours ago, this is slightly terrifying
Really happy to finally see cdi getting some love, ive had the soundtrack in my playlists for years now and it kinda felt like everyone forgot it ever existed, good to know I wasnt the only one enjoying the weirdly chill vibes
I LOVE to do a complete journey through all the single player levels in Tetris Effect: Connected, the PC port of the game. It’s an endurance challenge that rewards you for your time with progressively more beautiful and emotional experiences, and ends beautifully.
When I first saw someone playing Lumines, my impression was "This is basically next-level Tetris." Then a year later I bought the game and sank hours upon hours into it.
I will never forget the first time I played Tetris Effect. I was in an internship at a small gaming news plattform and the game was just about to release. We had received a review code and put it on a giant tv in the office. I had only been passively aware of Tetris Effect before, and when I played the first level I damn near teared up from the visuals and the music.
Throughout the day I put everyone of my colleagues in front of that tv, gave them a headset and just let them loose on the first level, watching their reactions. The pure elation and euphoria on their faces has etched into my brain. We all shared a moment that day, when something as simple as Tetris made us connect on an emotional level
I love thinking about the games that inspired these primitive video games. You mentioned those slide contraptions where you just let the marble fall but I think the marble "videogame genre" is much more inspired by those wooden puzzles where you have to turn the whole thing to get a ball through a labyrinth or get several balls in their holes. And I just did a little search and Tetris was inspired by a math puzzle called Pentominos which has very similar moving pieces but made of 5 squares (usually made of wood) that you basically have to make fit together into a box. They're basically the same concepts as the video game incarnations and they share their simplicity and almost primal concept of "game". I just think it's neat that humans of the past and of the present are entertained by the same little things
The gameboy color version of Tetris was my first game that I ever owned. My dad found it and the Gameboy color it was in at the airport and, when it went unclaimed at the lost and found for a week, brought it home for me. Still have that cart. It still has it's original owner's name in the high scores dispite how hard I've tried to beat em over the years
Ok, I have almost the exact same story. There was a non color Gameboy left behind in lost in found after it was left on an airplane. It went unclaimed, so my Dad’s coworker told him to take it home. The game cartridge inside? Tetris. I still have that Gameboy and the Tetris game. I’m going to have to look to see who has the high score though!
I played through all of tetris effect in one go while my flatmates were playing poker at the kitchen table, occasionally stopping to watch and cheer me on. Truly immaculate vibes indeed, it is one of my favourite memories of living in that flat. The music and graphics just kept swelling and ebbing and building, I was totally sucked in and was able to clear every level first try, making it a wonderfully seamless experience. I love tetris.
Never heard of Tetris Effect until I was in a discord call one day with some friends, where one was streaming this game to us. The instant he began the first level, I felt as if I recalled something I had long forgotten.
This game is euphoria, and I don't think anything could ever match that feeling of pure awe and beauty as its soundtrack and visuals that sync with your gameplay.
Tetris Effect is a masterpiece. THE masterpiece, of gaming.
Who could have ever thought that falling blocks could make you cry.
I DO remember my first encounter with Tetris. It was the late 80s and my mom came home from work one day saying she almost missed her bus because was playing a game at the arcade by her bus stop, and she wanted to show me the game. So sometime in the next couple weeks we took the bus to downtown Seattle where she worked in a restaurant, and she led me into this dark little arcade right off the busy street. My memory of this place has a retrofuturist Blade Runner vibe, with all the activity happening outside and people glued to machines inside and the only lighting coming from the machines themselves and whatever could find it's way in through the door. That was where I first played Tetris.
We spent Christmas at my aunt and uncle's house that year, and my mom let me bring my NES so I had something to do since I was the only kid there. When we opened presents, she had given me both Tetris and Paperboy. We spent a week there, and after everyone saw what Tetris was the adults pretty much took over my Nintendo. Great video!
Jacob’s description of Veninith’s alien landscape reminds me of H. P. Lovecraft’s description of the ancient idol of Cthulhu;
“One sight of the thing had been enough to throw the assembled men of science into a state of tense excitement, and they lost no time in crowding around him to gaze at the diminutive figure whose utter strangeness and air of genuinely abysmal antiquity hinted so potently at unopened and archaic vistas. No recognised school of sculpture had animated this terrible object, yet centuries and even thousands of years seemed recorded in its dim and greenish surface of unplaceable stone. […] Its vast, awesome, and incalculable age was unmistakable; yet not one link did it shew with any known type of art belonging to civilisation’s youth-or indeed to any other time.”
I CANT BELIEVE IT..
Alright.. what the hell. Just one week ago I spend an entire day thinking about marble games on a whim and searching for a marble game I swore I saw on an essay video. I looked thorough all supereyepatchwolfs videos, I looked through yours, Jacob, I searched far and wide on Google to find it but alas I went to bed with a bitter taste in my mouth and I soon forgot about it. AND THEN a week later you release a video specifically about marble games, nonchalantly revealing not only that that game was venonith but also that that essay video I swore I saw was errant signals! I... I guess I'll just start thinking really really hard about how cool it would be to have a pc port of Bloodborne?
So something I don't see you noticing but stood out to me.
Tetris Effect's campaign mode plays with difficulty, music and visuals to convey a story as well. It is not JUST the visuals and audio, there is definite distinct 'moments' of scaling adversity and relief explicitly implemented.
It is in that regard a master stroke in my mind, the final chapter is one that conveys an experience of benign reality that was incredibly refreshing and touching.
The mechanic actually does communicate back along side all the other channels of communication.
It is an absolute joy listening to you talk. I put on your video in the background with the intent of listening to it while playing FF8 for the first time in over a decade, literally re-experiencing my childhood and happily grinding out draws like I did back then.
And 5 minutes in, I paused FF8, minimized the completely legal PS1 that I totally have hooked up to my computer.
I stopped immersing myself in a childhood experience so I could watch and listen to you talk about Tetris and Marbles.
You're a phenomenal wordsmith.
this is the only video ever for which I've actually found myself needing the youtube feature to drag and move closed captions.
Having all this footage of cleared up tetris lines be obscured by the CC felt so weirdly frustrating I just HAD to.
3:28:
> Says "[the ability to] hold tiles"
> Game on screen is the most well-known release without that feature
I recall being really into Marble Blast Ultra as a kid and seeing this video is the equivalent of digging up an old time capsule, only to find that there was FAR more stuff put into the capsule then you remember putting in. Incredibly humbling experience to me.
I'm pretty new to video games (and this channel); I bought Tetris Effect for the switch after watching this video a week ago, and I'm so glad I did! I actually have never played tetris before, and I feel lucky that it's my first experience with it! :) It wasn't even remotely on my radar when considering what games to try out, thank you for talking about it!
Still waiting for the marble cinematic universe
Well. I didn't expect to cry twice today and then to spend money on a marble travelling through space. Damn you Jacob Geller.
Thank you for this video! I've always felt a deep resonance with games like Marble Blast and Tetris and this talks more about them then I'd ever expect anyone to.
I work in a restaurant and putting the order away is one of my favorite things. There’s a specific way the food needs to be stored safely and I’m sure this is the same thing.
I get so hyped every time I see a new video from you. Sure appreciate what you're doing up in here. Helping to explain (and in turn legitimize) how we emotionally connect to the things we invest our time and energy into.
Thank you.
My dad was one of the first westerners to play it - he played Tetris in the soviet union before it was released in western countries for a report in a newspaper called ‘soviet weekly.’
Never stop, Jacob. You're by far my favorite channel to watch late at night when the day is over and im in a thoughtful and reflective mood.
No one else could make a video about tetris and marble games anywhere near as interesting as you do. Bravo 👏
Veninith looks like those 90s-2000s renderings in old skool drum and bass mixes but fully realized into a world
when asked the question posed in the video about progressing the marble genre, one of the developers for marble it up responded by saying "The opportunity to bring it to new markets where it might be successful - ie, Switch/PC first, and AA second, now other consoles. And it was fun to get the old crew together one more time. It's rewarding to build a game that people love."
1) we can surely replace the philosophical axiom with "i play tetris, therefore i am"
2) we *will* communicate with aliens via tetris effect
3) i never held a marble ball nor ever i saw the physical prototype of the game, but the game told me everything about this ball so clearly i didn't need to
4) i love and appreciate your works so much man
Marble games are my childhood. I grew up with them and still play them. I think I started playing Marble Blast Gold when I was 6 or 7 or so. Thanks for letting me know about Venineth.
"It means something, it means something specific. But you human, you non-marble, don't speak the language." You might not know it, but you've just beautifully sumed up my biggest art obsessions with this sentence.
Tetris Effect is a game so thicc with vibes and atmosphere that when on the final level and clearing a huge chunk of blocks it literally blew the power supply on my flat screen tv
"Unless you watch Errant Signal"
ok ya got me
Contrasted to a comment I made on a more recent of your videos about your work often making me cry, this video does fill me a certain warmth.
A warmth that is hard to pin down the specifics of, but not entirely physical.
the piano in the background is beautiful
New Jacob Drop!!!! I've celebrated your videos being released so often that I think my parents might actually know who you are now, which is quite the testament to how much I enjoy them. Seriously, the ridiculously consistent quality and writing blows me away, your content is truly an inspiration.
Thank you for the great videos! Your style of talking about these themes is very special, very calming and makes me pretty much meditate and reflect on things.
that marble blast reference hit me out of left field, what a phenomenal game I rarely see covered
this video made remember playing a marble game on the home computer when i was a kid. Even after 10 years later, i still can recall playing it like it was yesterday when i last played.
Beautiful video essay. One of your best yet.
Ballance! First time I've seen anyone acknowledge that game's existence. "Supremely chill and mystical"- nailed it. It struck a chord with me as a kid, like a revelation that games could have this feel, this aesthetic. What a charming little experience.
20:00 was an immaculate vibe. So perfect. 20 minutes.
I think theres something else to add to these: match-3 games and bubble burst games. They are very similar to Tetris and Marble games but… different. We all know what a match-3 game is. Theres a square/rectangle of a few different tiles. You swip to match three or more of the same. Every match-3 game is the same but its also always different. Its the same thing with bubble burst. Its a game where you shoot different colored balls at a mass of balls coming towards you. Match a certain amount and you pop them. Pop all the bubbles around a certain section and the section falls. Both these subgenres havent changed, yet the games have. They havent evolved, like Tetris, but unlike Tetris, they still somehow change. Its strange yet… not
4:18 Quarantine is getting to me but this quote has been sticking with me. We all function with the same mechanics and all love, laugh and cry with loves ones and family. Eat, sleep and repeat our daily cycle while trying to live our lives under the pressures of the world and people that want to justify our existence through the achievements and profits gained. It's just tiring because there shouldn't be a reason to why a person exists they just do and their value isn't tied to their inherent worth. All Tetris games are the same but are unique experiences that are important.
Very good video Jacob!!
The New Tetris (N64) with its backgrounds, music, and block combinations, is my favorite iteration
I’m usually not into “marble games” because I get overly anxious about falling off ledges (plus, the main theme in Marble Madness unnerved me as a kid for whatever reason), but I think I’ll check this one out!
i think, ironically enough, my tetris effect experience/takeaway was much more alien than relatable. it definitely feels extraterrestrial in the sense that the game is permanently floating around a solar system in its menus & the gameplay is at best just an observant, pesky drone of classical physics that can only observe & record its surroundings without being impacted by them or impacting them in turn. it floats around & uses pretty particle effects to build fantastic constructions to remind us of what we already know.
the CD-i tetris explored here is attempting to camouflage or peek out of its surroundings instead of replicating something; tetris effect couldn't care less about blending in. this is a tetris that is trying so desperately to pass a turing test it goes for the (best, i cry just thinking about it, no shade whatsoever) sentimental adult contemporary vibes.
looking at veninieth was hearing the charles mingus interpretation of a puzzle game, all clamor & negative space jostling to see which is the most jarring but stitched together becomes something so inhospitable & alien you're forced to wrap your brain around it. tetris effect always seems to reach out like someone who knows you, & wants you to know that you know them already as well, even if you haven't seen each other in years; venineth is constantly turning away & presenting a new facet of itself, like it doesn't want to be fully known.
after watching this i obviously had to check out the rest of venineth since i'm a dirty rotten macos user with no access to play PC games. i quickly found the speedruns, the intrepid few who want to take the most asocial super monkey ball game of all time & finish it quickly. even truncated like this it's a mesmerizing sight. the shortest runs are still well over an hour & very few people play this. it's still a nascent game in speedrun terms, lots of lost of time clearly visible along with faltering composure during even the world record run currently available on youtube, but i can't help but hope some of that flagging energy, the sudden inability to focus, was on someone's attention flickering &, just for a moment, wondering why stacking blocks or moving marbles in imaginary worlds feels so good, before snapping back & realizing that thinking about it isn't the same as watching yourself make it happen on a screen.
even if it's just a little mention, I'm so happy ballance is getting a little love. My favourite obscure childhood game, and I haven't heard about it from anyone in ages
I think my favorite line in this is that gentle "video games are ridiculous." So many CZcamsrs who talk about video games or cartoons or other "nerdy" parts of culture point out how weird or silly it can be as a sort of self-defensive self-deprecation. This doesn't feel like that. It's just a sincere affirmation that yeah, this is all pretty silly, but that doesn't make it any less valuable.
I don’t know how the hell you make me emotional over Tetris but goddamn you did it! The comfy ass vibe each video has makes new releases and rewatches a welcoming experience as always so thank you!
beautiful, incredible work as always. i’ve been jumping between tetris effect and tetris 99 a LOT lately, but i’m thinking i may need to put tetris down for a bit to pick up veninith. loved the video!
This video made my day by being posted. I was having a not great day due to too many people and lack of sleep, but then you posted this and I got to watch it at the end of the day and it's instantly so much better :)
Hope you had a good day, and your videos are always wonderful
Love your content! It's thoughtful and very well done and I get excited every time I get a notification there's a new episode.
The philosophical ramifications of marble games. Reminds me of eating shrooms with my game dev friends back in college. A+ video
Your videos are absolutely amazing man. I really appreciate having an ever-growing impressive library of content to watch that not only makes me appreciate the most incredible yet simple of human achievement BUT also reminds me of how beautiful the human mind can be over the most minute of things. Your outward appreciation for the smallest of human capacity is phenomenal; keep up the amazing videos.
I love your work Jacob. Keep it up!
You are by far the most poetic video essayist I have seen on this platform. That is a compliment
Outstanding video about _connection_. Loved it! Also, one of the most iconic video game sound effects is the marble's descent into the wherever nether when it falls off of a column in the NES version of marble madness. In a way, it's a normal falling sound, but it also kind of sounds like a sigh, like it's so damn tired of falling off of the same damn cliff. I also really like the visual of the marble halting and breaking into a plethora of shards and then getting swept up by the phantom janitor.