NNEs and why the game freezes

A Non-Newtonian Elimination, or NNE for short, is what I like to call it when one or more viruses are eliminated without there being 4 or more of the same color in a row.

It seems to be the case that the game has to be done with whatever needs to be done, at certain time intervals, and if it can't get things done in time, unintended things are likely to happen.
For NTSC the refresh frequency is roughly 60Hz and for PAL 50Hz, which I think sets the time limit.
If I am right about this it means that on the NTSC version the game has to finish its calculations in under 1/60 seconds, and on the PAL version 1/50 seconds.

There are probably many things that can add up to fill a time interval(which would account for different results on seemingly equal combos), but the biggest contributor by far seems to be the allotment of points.
For whatever reason, the more points you get, the more time the game needs to allot them.
If we consider the length of the time interval, it becomes clear that it is not the point allotment of the entire combo that is of interest, but rather what is allotted from viruses being removed "at the same time"(i.e. no falling of pills in between).

Let's say you make a 16 virus combo on LOW speed. First you remove 9 viruses at once, then some pills fall, then you remove 4, then some pills fall, then you remove 1, then some pills fall, then you remove 2.

Here's how the game sees that:
Virus 1-9 => 15900 points
New time interval, virus 10-13 => 7700 points
New time interval, virus 14 => 25600 points
New time interval, virus 15-16 => 300 points

As you can see, removing only the 14th virus is a bigger deal for the game than removing virus 1-9 and a much bigger deal than removing virus 15-16 even though they are "higher up" in the combo.

If time runs out by a sufficient margin while a virus is eliminated from the side we get an NNE.
If time runs out while a virus is eliminated vertically we get a freeze of varying degree. The bigger the margin the more severe the consequences usually.
If a virus looks to be eliminated both from the side and vertically, it is eliminated from the side.

It is actually possible to do an NNE by removing the virus vertically...
When you do an NNE from the side, all pills and viruses to the right of the tipping point virus and on all rows below it are usually removed. And you seem to be totally spared from hard freezes.
When you do an NNE vertically, only pills and viruses on the same column are removed, and you are really likely to get a hard freeze.

While you get a lot more points on MED and HI, this does NOT translate the way one might expect.
However, if you divide your MED score with 2 and HI score with 3 to get the equivalent LOW score, you need pretty much the same amount of points for an NNE.
Perhaps a little less on HI than on MED, and a little less on MED than on LOW, but the difference is really small.

Points for different combo sizes

This is the amount of points you get for eliminating different amounts of viruses in the same combo.
I've gotten most values from videos of my own gameplay, some are from ああああ(遊び人)'s videos. (aaaa_playboy)
The score for MED and HI is always twice and three times respectively that of the score for LOW.

Viruses	LOW	MED		HI
01		100		200		300
02		300		600		900
03		700		1400	2100
04		1500	3000	4500
05		3100	6200	9300
06		6300	12600	18900
07		9500	19000	28500
08		12700	25400	38100
09		15900	31800	47700
10		19100	38200	57300
11		22300	44600	66900
12		23300	46600	69900
13		23600	47200	70800
14		49200	98400	147600
15		49300	98600	147900
16		49500	99000	148500
17		49900	99800	149700
18		75500	151000	226500
19		100700	201400	302100
20		125500	251000	376500
21		149900	299800	449700
22		174100	348200	522300
23		198200	396400	594600
24		222200	444400	666600
25		246300	492600	738900
26		270500	541000	811500
27		294900	589800	884700
28		319700	639400	959100
29		344900	689800	1034700
30		370500	741000	1111500
31		372600	745200	1117800
32		375000	750000	1125000
33		378200	756400	1134600
34		403800	807600	1211400
35		406000	812000	1218000
36		407400	814800	1222200
37		408700	817400	1226100
38		434300	868600	1302900
39		459700	919400	1379100
40		461400	922800	1384200
41		463200	926400	1389600
42		488800	977600	1466400
43		490900	981800	1472700
44		493300	986600	1479900
45		496500	993000	1489500
46		522100	1044200	1566300
47		524300	1048600	1572900
48		525700	1051400	1577100
49		527000	1054000	1581000
50		552600	1105200	1657800
51		578100	1156200	1734300
52		579800	1159600	1739400
53		581600	1163200	1744800
54		607200	1214400	1821600
55		610700	1221400	1832100
56		614300	1228600	1842900
57		617800	1235600	1853400
58		621500	1243000	1864500
59		625300	1250600	1875900
60		629200	1258400	1887600
62		637000	1274000	1911000
63		641100	1282200	1923300
64		645300	1290600	1935900
65		649400	1298800	1948200
66		653700	1307400	1961100
72		657400	1314800	1972200

PushingPills

Dr. Mario (NES)

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Rules updated

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Nombre	Autor
NNEs and why the game freezes	PushingPills 7 years ago
Points for different combo sizes	PushingPills 6 years ago