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Or just games. Can ANYONE compile a list please?
-G
I modified the article to refer to the actual Russian rockets displayed in the Game Boy game. User:Orville_Eastland
I take issue with the way a few things in this article have been expressed. Where it talks about gravity it says "Many versions of Tetris implement a naïve approximate gravity algorithm that always moves blocks down by a distance equal to exactly the height of the cleared rows below it," and then goes on to say that "newer" versions of the game have an "improved" flood-fill type gravity that forces blocks to fall down. The problem is, the original game by the name of Tetris and therefore every subsequent close was defined to simply move higher levels down after levels are cleared. These "improvements" are therefore better termed variants--whether they are considered superior is a matter of taste. But I would expect any game by the name of "Tetris" to go by the original tetris rules. Also it seems odd and again not very neutral to suggest that the Game Boy version of tetris is the "one true form." Certainly it was very popular and this notion may exist among those who spent a lot of time on their Game Boys in childhood, but it seems odd to call this one instance of Tetris (among thousands) the "One True" form. If anything I would suggest that standalone arcade version of tetris would be a better candidate, but that's clearly open to debate. Obviously Alexey Pajitnov lost his claim to ownership of the game long before it became popular, so I would say there is no "one true" form. Nathan - 1/14/04
The following is not an encyclopedia article...it's a review, maybe. Please avoid use of the first person in articles (nobody knows who "I" means). -- LMS
You are right, but the other games in the Tetris family list was useful so I put it back in. I may move it to video game/puzzle or whatever. -- drj
Atari Arcade tetris is my favorite variant.
"The Next Tetris" is a recent release by Hasbro. I thought that variant was a disappointment. Most of the other arcade remakes in that series were lame. (I also bought Q-Bert, Asteroids, and Missle Command from that series. I picked them up for $5 in the discount bin.)
Game Boy Tetris is supposed to be good, although I never played it.
Wesleyan Tetris is a cute variant. It has several interesting features, including invisible bricks and shifting bricks. Unfortunately, it only exists for the Macintosh.
I remember playing a bootleg Chinese? tetris variant. It was 2-players, but the computer could be one of the players. It featured special bricks that let you have a bird (fired bricks), cannon (destroyed bricks), remove 4 lines, and weight (cleared 3 columns). I believe the executable name was DTETRIS.
There are also games that are in the tetris family, but not strictly tetris.
Dr. Mario
Puzzle Bobble
Puyo Puyo
Columns
Klax
Uo Poko (see mame.dk for this and many others)
Yoshi (a.k.a. Mario and Yoshi)
Wario's Woods
This article doesn't seem very NPOV, though I don't know how to fix it. Also, I don't see how Minesweeper is a Tetris clone. Tokerboy 06:02 Dec 9, 2002 (UTC)
I also found Hatris, Facetris, Welltris, and Wordtris to be lame.
There are some good 3D tetris variants out there.
There are many glaring errors in this article regarding the history of Tetris, however I do not presently have access to the exact details to make the appropriate corrections (my copy of Game Over is still boxed up). But these are the points that I believe need to corrected:
Dan Mazurowski - 25 Aug 2003 20:43 CDT
I would guess that there are more Asteroids clones than Minesweeper. Any evidence for the "Minesweeper" assertion?
There are a couple of broken links in the article: http://pages.prodigy.net/jhonig/bignum/qauniver.html) and http://vadim.www.media.mit.edu/Tetris.htm.)
In both cases the problem is the right-paren after the URL. I couldn't figure out how to fix it while keeping the same look, and didn't want to bother rewriting.
Such as? -- Timwi 21:38, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Games obviously can be copyrighted. You won't find a commercial computer game that doesn't have a copyright notice. I believe the same will also hold for, say, board games (except traditional games like checkers, which leave little room for anything to be copyrighted). The rules to the game, however, are a different matter. A particular instruction booklet might have a copyright, as might a design document or any other written description of the rules. However, the underlying rules themselves could not be copyrighted. Therefore another game could use the same rules provided that they don't violate copyright in describing the rules (which would only happen if they plagiarized the relevant text). - furrykef ( Talk at me) 21:12, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
While I'm certainly no legal expert, I figure it's like Monopoly clones. Anybody can make a Monopoly clone that plays exactly like the original and not pay a dime to Hasbro (or whoever owns it now), but you have to have the license to use any of the names, pictures, etc. - furrykef ( Talk at me) 01:35, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The general premise that a game is uncopyrightable is correct. A game is, after all, the rules, and persuant to 17 USC 102(b), which is part of the idea/expression dichotomy that is key to copyright law, rules (which are a system for playing the game) are not copyrightable. You can play any game without the specific parts (e.g. the board or the pieces or whatnot) but you can't play it without the rules.
Rules may be patentable, but this is rare; the Magic: The Gathering patent is the only game rule patent I know of. Game rules really aren't novel and nonobvious enough to routinely be patentable, I suspect, and in any case, game inventors don't seem to be interested in pursuing rule patents much.
There are, as you've noticed, copyrightable elements that are related to the game, but in the end, are not the game itself. The art on the board, pieces, and box are copyrightable to the extent that they are not useful and are seperable from useful elements (this due to the utility doctrine in copyright). The specific description of the rules is copyrightable. Both might be subject to the merger doctrine (which has been applied to rules in the past), which basically prohibits copyright where there is only one or a few ways to express an idea reasonably, further limiting the copyrightable elements.
The name of a game may be trademarkable, although I suspect that there is a strong case for Tetris having become generic. This is because trademarks must be source identifiers. That is, if people think that Tetris is the name of a game, it's generic; if people think it's the name of a block game from a specific source (whether or not they know who that source is), it's not. E.g. Moxie is from a specific source; tonic is not. Whoever is alleging a trademark for Tetris ought to use it in the form 'Tetris-brand block game' and so on if they're really serious about preserving their rights.
Does anybody here have a link to the Java Tetris game that only deals Z and S pieces that was mentioned in the article? I would like to be able to try it. -- Kenb215 01:42, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)
The article should be more about tetris and not so much tetris clones; although, this is not to say that there should not be a section explaining the clones that resulted from the game. With this exception, non-authentic tetris games such as tetrinet and gravytris are not important and should not be explained.
Instead about gravytris, why not explain The Next Tetris. This is the first appearance of the cascade algorithm in a tetris game, and it is an authentic tetris game as well. There are many other modes expanding on basic tetris-- cascade mode from The Next Tetris, square mode from The New Tetris, three new modes from Tetris Worlds, and five new modes from Tetris Elements.
I am thinking of adding a section on the scoring formula, and of basic strategy for single player and multi player mode. I have never editted a wikipedia article before, so I am hesitant.
I removed several external links that pointed to various freeware Tetris clones. The links that point to information about Tetris are great background information, but wikipedia isn't a link farm or a game-review site. After all, every wikipedia article about musicians/TV shows/games/pop culture could be swamped with links to fan sites, mirrors and clones, to the point that nobody could see the encyclopedia information. - DavidWBrooks 14:39, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I think it is a bit easier to understand what Tetris is with the clones. Personally, I found that people found the clones particularly useful. Where should clones be placed? It is actually hard to find a playable version online.
I removed a link leading to Rotten.com. CedricVonck 09:49, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
GNU Emacs includes an implementation of Tetris. Simply type M-x tetris
at any time in the editor.
— JIP |
Talk
10:29, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
An anon just made changed in the shoring schema after " The scoring formula for the majority of tetris applications is built on the belief that more difficult line clears should be awarded more points. The four possible line clears are as follows:" - I don't understand the process enough to know if they were accurate changes or vandalism; it needs to be checked. - DavidWBrooks 00:24, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
no, it appears that all that was changed was the additional level 10. all values are still correct. Il.nico 05:42, 10 May 2005 (UTC)
"The most famous version has been on the Game Boy (released in 1989) since the game was distributed with the machine."
is there any evidence that this is the "most famous" version? i.e. microsoft tetris was released alongside every microsoft windows 95 (i think it was) with the pack of games that came with it just as well. the nes tetris was released in 89 alongside with the gb version. maybe a rewording is in due.
it's just that i don't know if gameboy tetris is the right one to be pointing out in the intro. it doesn't even match the specification given for standard tetris (it's dimensions are 18x10, not 20x10).
ilove ur game tetris it my favior game
Whoever added "multiblox" please do not put links to unlicensed tetris-like web games.
This sounds fishy to me:
Alexey asked his seven brothers to create one piece each, for the puzzle game he was creating (before it was known as Tetris)
considering that there are exactly seven unique configurations for tetrads. I'm removing this unless someone provides a reference. -- Pagrashtak 02:28, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
I have played the old GameBoy tetris for a while, and I'm positive that they're are three possible rockets for type A, not 2. I clearly remember two different rockets for 100,000-149,999 and 150,000-199,999.
"The most popular online client for Tetris is TetriNET" isn't true. it's debatable at the least. there are several other clients besides tetrinet, some with one player mode, some without. google turned up many before tetrinet.
Changing this to "Tetris Worlds" for xbox live. Nearly 50000 players have played it online last time I checked.
Tetris implementations vary in quite a few respects:
How many of these did Alexey ever try to standardise? Does anybody know these details of the original implementation? -- Smjg 17:43, 21 October 2005 (UTC)
Another very important variation: the rotation compensation, or 'wall-kicking' of blocks when trying to rotate in a tight spot. In early versions of Tetris (Like the first Game Boy Tetris), blocks would just refuse to rotate if the post-rotation state of the block would collide with the wall or the terrain or both; later versions became more flexible, by trying to compensate by either A)moving the location of the block by a few grid squares and evaluating the rotation again (Tetris The Grand Master, Tetris Worlds) or B)evaluating the rotation again along a 'secondary' rotational axis [1] (Tetris DX).
On the mention of an axis: In some Tetris games, most notably the several Japanese Arcade versions of Tetris, th blocks have no set axis; instead, they are designed to rotate so that their lowest points never changes, regardless of orientation (with the exception of the long I block.) [2]
Back to rotational compensation. The compensation rules for Tetris Worlds (and other games compliant with the 2002 Tetris rule guidelines) is very flexible and often allows blocks to spin into sometimes even counter-intuitive locations. Using this, it is indeed possible to make triples using Z, S or T in Tetris Worlds, albeit tricky. For example: [3] A Z block placed in this particular shape of terrain will, amazingly, rotate to snap into the Z-shaped opening below, and clear a triple. Similar acrobatic maneuvers exist for the S and T as well.
Needle0 16:30, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
[ ...and the -is from "tennis", as Pajitnov has explained that the game of tennis was the only other game he liked at the time. ] "tetra" looks obvious, but please verify the tennis statement with a source.
That was stated in an episode of Icons on G4 if anyone cares to add a reference for it. -- Pagrashtak 00:26, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
I have both the Game Boy and NES versions, and only the Game Boy has Korobeiniki....-- 68.170.86.111 18:27, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know if there is there a standard/original color mapping for the 7 tetrads? That information belongs in the article. Asteron 20:26, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Hmm, no one has included anything about two player mode, specifically in two player competition that involves adding unfilled lines to a player whose opponent scores a double, a triple, or a tetris. In the Game Boy version of Tetris, the objective is to either force the opponent's blocks to the ceiling or complete a set amount of lines first.
DaDoc540 19:33, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
I'm wondering if anyone knows what music they used for the two commercials for the NES Nintendo version of Tetris. The two commercials are these:
The Two Russian Bears (animated) talking about how their kids play too much Tetris (has heavy metal music in the background).
Tetrisize (has an Opera Singer, and has numberous Tetris remixed heavy metal themes in it as well as the line clear noise.)
For starters, Alexey did not himself state the origin of the name "Tetris" on the G4 interview. That was speculation by a former coleague, hearsay cannot be construed as factual in this context I feel. More when I feel like it. Basschron 17:46, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
Something is obviously wrong about this article. The head states that the game was invented in 1992, but received popularity when distributed with the Game Boy in 1989. Surely, it cannot have been distributed before being invented? Dolda2000 00:14, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
i came here to find out about various multiplayer modes. on the snes you can play against a human or computer while you play. when you get n lines at a time, n-1 lines are added to the bottom of your opponents pile.
In Soviet Russia, block rotates you! Project2501a 19:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
Does anyone know the actual name of the Type B music from the Gameboy version? I assume its another Russian folk song. Just to clarify, the article names the B song from the NES version, not the Gameboy one. -- Yossarian 23:08, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
"...sales of the video game are second only to Super Mario Bros." This line seems dubious to me. Are there any numbers or sources for this statement? Because I've looked at the Pokémon article as well, and under the Video games section of it says "This makes it the second biggest-selling games franchise ever (after Nintendo’s Mario series).", as well as including sales data. -- 'Ivan 03:37, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
some 100 million lines were done by a AI, see [ [4]]. Think this is worth a link?
There are currently no links to playable clones of Tetris in the article. I was thinking of adding http://www.webdoodles.org/pages/tetris.htm but there is little point in doing this if it is going to be removed immediately. The neave.com version of Tetris is faithful and gives a good idea of what the game is like. Would there be a consensus about adding this link? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ianmacm ( talk • contribs)
Fair enough, but it would be better for most users to have an online version that could be played immediately, in libraries and internet cafes etc where downloads are not permitted. The neave.com version is the best online version that I could find, and I have not found the configuration of the arrow keys unduly distracting. User:ianmacm. I have been unable to find the www addresses for downloading the Lockjaw and Heboris programs mentioned above, and have added the online game as a link to illustrate the general principles of the game for the article. User:ianmacm
The link to the online Flash version has been removed. This is not a spam link, but an attempt to illustrate the game. Can there be some further discussion about this? (the link is at http://www.webdoodles.org/pages/tetris.htm ) User:ianmacm
Reply to Damian Yerrick's question: I downloaded Lockjaw Tetris but could not get it to work (it gave the error message alleg40.dll was not found). Attempting to download Heboris from http://download.hosiken.com/win/hebo160a.zip gave a 403 error message. Although I would like to add the link to the neave.com flash version., there is little point in doing this if people will come along and remove it. Ideally there should be an agreed version of Tetris which can be played online or downloaded in order to show the game in action, and there is not at present. User:ianmacm
alleg40.dll
, which implements the
Allegro library. Put the DLL in the same folder as lj.exe to get it to work. Lockjaw appears to be under
GPL; if you want to have someone recompile it against a static Allegro DLL, feel free. Heboris: That link is Referer:
protected, just like links to files on
Zophar's Domain and
GameFAQs. Copy and paste the link into your web browser's location bar, or turn off your web browser's Referer:
reporting. --
Damian Yerrick (
☎)
02:35, 20 July 2006 (UTC)To Damian Yerrick: I did manage to download the Lockjaw and Heboris versions but it looks like no link of this kind will be accepted on the page. User:ianmacm
This article's not about playable clones. It covers the game Tetris. There exists at least two links to the Tetris variants article, which a reader may pass by for a taste of the game. It's not appropriate for this article, though. You wouldn't post a link to an unofficial Mario fan game on the Mario article-- or GBA roms link on the GBA article, etc. People can easily find that Neave one by googling Tetris. That's not why they come to Wikipedia. 81.138.253.153 11:03, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
There are some interesting points here. Contrary to what the purists may say, there are no 100% accurate versions of classic arcade games because they have all appeared in a variety of forms over the years. Some, like Pac-man, Tetris and Super Mario have spawned numerous unofficial clones which a) are technically copyright violations and b) often take considerable liberties with the features of the game in its "classic" form. Wikipedia has a problem here, because it does not want links to unofficial clones or umpteen Flash games sites at the bottom of the games pages. However, it could still be useful to offer links to versions of games which are considered to be relevant illustrations for the purposes of the article, even if this is done on a separate page. User:ianmacm
The name Tetris is co-formed from Pazhitov's favourite sport: Tennis [tetr(a) + (tenn)is]
You mean, the reference we have on this fact is that "someone speculated it?" And somewhere that no Wikipedia user will be able to look up? -- Stellmach 17:45, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
I vaguely recall reading in a video game magazine sometime in the past that Tetris was banned in Germany (I suppose that would have been West Germany at the time) because the L and J pieces look vaguely like guns when rotated. However, I can't find any info on this from searching the web. Perhaps I'm recalling the wrong country? Or perhaps this was a joke on the part of the video game magazine and I was too naïve to recognize it? Garrett Albright 08:13, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
i am from germany, and it really sounds real, but i think it was an aprils fool joke
One section of the page says:
For example, NES Tetris operates at 60 frames per second. At level 0, a piece falls one step every 48 frames, and at level 19, a piece falls one step every 2 frames. This means for each level, pieces fall 16 milliseconds faster per step.
There is a math problem here.
48/60 = 0.8s per frame at level 0.
2/60 = 0.033s per frame at level 19.
16ms = 0.016s faster per level-up.
From level 0 to level 19, there are 19 level-ups.
Hence at level 19, blocks should fall 19*0.016 = 0.304s faster.
This gives 0.8-0.304 = 0.496s per step at level 19.
0.496 != 0.033
These should be equal. I am inclined to believe the "one fall per 2 frames" over the "16ms per level-up", as I have written a Tetris clone and the latter seems to increase speed very slowly (subjective analysis). 40ms per level-up seems like it might be a little too fast, but it's definitely more sensible-looking that 16ms.
According to the "World of Spectrum" website, a conversion of Tetris was made for the ZX Spectrum, by someone called Andi in 1986 but the copyright was held by Alexey Pazhitnov and the game was published by Alexey Pazhitnov in 1986. Can be downloaded @ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0005208
To play the Java version available on World of Spectrum once the game has loaded successfully, initially press space and wait. When the games screen appears set the joystick to "Cursor". Once game play commences with the pieces falling, set the joystick back to "Kempston".
The Java emulator on the World of Spectrum does not emulate the “Fire Key” on the “Kempston” joystick, so the pieces cannot be turned! To play the game properly, the game file has to be downloaded and then played on a real ZX Spectrum or an emulator with the “Kempston” joystick fully emulated.
Many ZX Spectrums were cloned in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. More ZX Spectrums were cloned in the former Soviet Union than the rest of the world put together! Eastern European clones :- http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/clones/e_european.htm
Russian clones :- http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/clones/russian.htm
The development section is tagged as not citing its sources. I recommend one of you pick up David Sheff's Game Over (1993). It has a huge section dedicated to the development of Tetris I'm sure the BBC documentary Tetris - From Russia With Love would also prove handy. I'd edit this page, but I lack the time and inclination I hope a few others might have. I just wanted to give a quick suggestion. -- Tristam 23:28, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
in Quinn, you get 4444 bonus points when you clear lines such that the whole board is empty, and then a little hangman appears at the bottom of the screen. is this a standard feature? -- ti 06:38, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
My memory is shoddy, but I seem to remember the article mostly saying that by doing something over a period of time, the brain does less work in that activity-- not exactly meaning playing Tetris makes the brain functions more effeciently, as the article implies. 68.222.41.105 23:56, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Since individual licensees make their own scoring formulas, and The Tetris Company apparently has not enforced a standardized method on them, scoring ranges on their many games. We can't go into every game's scoring. Nominated to be moved to a gaming wiki instead. 68.222.41.105 00:15, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
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