http://www.blockstats.orgTetris Tetris Tetris (And more Tetris)en-ushttp://www.blockstats.org/Just a heads up... I've fixed the issue with the blogs... They should be working again as they once did. I've also made a few other updates to the site. Hope everyone is doing well in the Tetris World... I seem to be stuck in the Work-a-holic world at the moment.JJ Doughboy2007-06-22http://www.blockstats.org/We've been experiencing a weird database issue the last few days. While we research what is going on, Tetribot will be unavailable in chat. You will still be able to lookup your stats using the webpage search tool.JJ Doughboy2007-04-21http://www.blockstats.org/If you work for Nintendo (particularity the Nintendo Wifi Site), or if you know how to get in contact with them other than the slow method of using the NOA Forums, I would be very appreciative if you would get in contact with me. I would love to see this site do more for the Nintendo Wifi site, as well as come to not rely on it. It might be a dream that will never happen, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Have them come to blockstats chat, or send me an email at justin@jrcorps.com JJ Doughboy2007-03-12http://www.blockstats.org/Hello Again All, It's looking pretty good for a full fledge return of blockstats thanks to the inpiration brought on by the now updating of the wifi ranks on one of Nintendo's two servers. YAY! That said: Here's whats new as of tonight: 1) You can change your friend code 2) The site keeps track of the last time you visited and sorts the member list by it. 3) Tetribot is back, the search engine is back. Data is still being loaded in, so be patient. 4) A new image displaying your friend code has been added to the drop down list. Enjoy!JJ Doughboy2007-03-12http://www.blockstats.org/A return *may* be in order, thanks to Rosti's keen eye. It would seem that one of the two nintendo servers has started updating again sometime in the last few days. That said, I've started up the search engine again to get things rolling... It's a long process, but the top 3000 should be ready to search again. Let's here your opinion... To try to save load, I'm considering only graphing the top 10,000. Fair? Not Fair? Doesn't really matter to me, just thought more frequent updates of the top 10,000 (like we used to do) might be nice. Then again, perhaps there is the bottom rungs that would like to be recognized as well. Perhaps Tetribot will make a return soon as well then.JJ Doughboy2007-03-12http://www.blockstats.org/So I'm on a mission to bring back the search tools again... But I need to know if it's working or not... So, please post the following in the comments about Nintendo's Wifi Highscore board: 1) Have your scores been updated (If so, how recently... Are you seeing more than 2 numbers showing up) 2) If you've gotten a new name, has it been added to the rank tables? 3) What type of DS are you using? Lite/Regular Thank you for your help... If this doesn't work, we're going to move onto plan z.JJ Doughboy2007-03-06http://www.blockstats.org/I'm pretty sure that Nintendo has managed to kill this site by entirely removing it's primary feature. With Tetris Concept being the basis for everything else, I'm pretty sure that my only purpose now is to keep the chat room up for TC members, and even that seems to be dead. SO..... The question is, what is the next move. Do I: a) Leave it up as a reference site to some degree and leave the chat running for TC members. b) Attempt to host tournaments for people who just aren't playing as much c) Continue to send Nintendo emails telling them their system is broken? d) Find a way to make this site tetris friendly for another version of Tetris (or all of them?) e) Some other cool idea I haven't thought of.JJ Doughboy2007-01-02http://www.blockstats.org/There's just something that bothers me sometimes with Google, where doing a search for "Tetris Community" lists http://homepage.mac.com/redbird/churchoftetris/index.html instead of blockstats.... Then again, maybe we should set up a section totally dedicated to the worship aspect of Tetris...JJ Doughboy2006-11-26http://www.blockstats.org/So I really don't have a Blockstats update, but I have this deep desire to post the story of how I acquired my Wii. It's nothing special to anyone but me, but I don't run my personal blog much anymore, so this seems as good a place as any to document it. Two friends of mine set out at 3:00pm Saturday afternoon to find a 24 hour Wal-mart to attempt to get our Wii at Midnight. With the Gamecube and the DS, this has never been a problem going this early (in fact, I was normally top 10 in line). But this releasing on a weekend seemed to have changed that a little, for when we got to our first Wal-mart, we found that we had missed the line by like 5 people. We then headed to another Wal-Mart, where we came to find that people had literally been lined up since the PS3 release ended. From there we placed a call to one more Wal-mart to find that yes, their line was locked down as well... By this point, we were feeling like we had lost, I placed a call to a friend of mine that had lined up at a distance location and said to find out what the price was to buy a spot in line. He told me he would get back to me. We then went to dinner to talk about our next move. There was a plethora of options, for our research told us that the nearby Target had 59 units at 8:00AM. The Best Buy had a similar number at 10:00AM. A non-24 hour walmart had 20+ units at 11:00AM, and Toys R Us supposidly had 200+ units somtime that morning as well. We decided that we would most likely head to the Target, but first we decided to drive the 30 minutes to go to the Wal-mart our friend was at. We ended up staying until the actual release time of Midnight, on the off chance that we might just be able to pick up the games. We also did it on the off chance that Target didn't have the games or supplies we wanted, so we did manage to pick up additional Wii-motes, Zelda, and Excite Truck there. The time now was pushing the 1:00AM marker, so the only thing to do was head to Target. We arrived there shortly and found ourselves waiting in the second line of the night in spots 13,14, and 15. Now this is the part of the story where I wish my brain would have kicked in a little sooner. It was 1:00am. There were only 15 people in line, and, it was 22 degrees Fahrenheit outside. In other words, it got cold really really fast. My group had all picked up hand warmers which we were using more as foot warmers and neck warmers. We were all bundled very tightly as well... But for the life of me, I'm not sure why we didn't just hop in our car the entire time until the line got say... to the 30 mark. Especially since we a) had our games, and b) the 30th person didn't show up tile maybe... um... 4 or 5am. On the upside: we had plenty of great conversations about the Wii with everyone from a very weird kid would we were negotiating the price of buying his spot in line (at Wal-mart), to a guy from Gamestop who had gotten his a day or two early. John, a friend and target employee I knew, got a nice name list going so as to keep the mad rampaging down, and to allow people who had been there for 3-4 hours to go and take a bathroom break, or a unfreeze your body break. Well 8:00 am couldn't roll around soon enough. I found myself talked into buying more games so as to acquire a Wii Gift Card (it's so pretty). We got through the line without a hitch, and were back to the home base by 9:00am. Now here's where the bad part of the story kicks in: At this point, we had all been awake for over 24 hours AND, we had all been frozen, for at least 8 hours. Although I took the time to set my Wii up, and even turn it on long enough to download an update... I just didn't have the energy to give any game a shot. So I went to bed. Needless to say, I was up 2-3 hours later. The rest of my afternoon was mostly spent playing Wii Sports with my Girlfriends family, and with my family. It was awesome though: I can't remember the last time I saw my dad playing a Console Game, that wasn't racing, and having fun. Most of the time it would be frustration because the controls wouldn't do what he wanted them to. Heck: even my Mom got in and played a round of Wii Baseball (which is amazing considering I can't ever recall her picking up a controller). Nintendo: You've done it again, and this, is why I love you. So to sum up the day more or less, I acquired a Wii, an additional wiimote and nunchuck, Zelda, Excite Truck, Monkey Ball, Red Steel, and Ray-man. Quite a bit of cash, but hey, beats trying to buy a ps3 (which I won't be doing anyway). If you've got your Wii story yet, post it here. I'll try to seem if I can't find some Photos from everything the other night and post them. JJ Doughboy2006-11-19http://www.blockstats.org/So I'm not dead people. I'm still around. It seems chat is still going, and the bots are still doing what their supposed to most of the time. I've made a few changes to the system that records the numbers to hopefully start tracking better results. The Nintendo Wi-Fi grid has broken 180,000 which is a LOT of data to record daily. For those of you doing the math, that's 9000+ page views that the bot has to go through. In other new news, I've uploaded a photo module for people to share their Tetris Photos. It's an open system right now (meaning as long as your a member, you can upload photos to the 4 categories all you want). If this becomes an issue, I'll switch it to a closed system where anyone can upload, but they must be approved before going online. I think I might actually try to get my Name back in the Top 100 today. We'll see.JJ Doughboy2006-11-04