Talk:Tetris/Archive 1

List of other Soviet video games

Or just games. Can ANYONE compile a list please?

-G

Old discussion

I modified the article to refer to the actual Russian rockets displayed in the Game Boy game. User:Orville_Eastland

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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:

• 'Elorg' was a soviet-owned business, and was not formed by Pajitnov.
• Arcade rights were NOT assigned to Nintendo; they were granted home game console rights. Arcade rights had gone to Atari Games.
• Tengen was not blatantly ignoring Nintendo's Tetris license, they had licensed the rights to do the NES console port from Atari Games. Atari Games had obtained these rights from Spectrum Holobyte.
• Tengen was not a subsidiary of Atari Corp., but rather was owned by Atari Games. (Atari Corp. was the home console & computer maker, while Atari Games is the arcade game division that was split off in 1984.)

Dan Mazurowski - 25 Aug 2003 20:43 CDT

Mostly fixed as of November 2003. --Damian Yerrick

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I would guess that there are more Asteroids clones than Minesweeper. Any evidence for the "Minesweeper" assertion?

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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.

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NP-completeness

Several of the subproblems of Tetris have been stated to be NP-complete.

Such as? -- Timwi 21:38, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Games and copyright

According to circulars available from the United States Library of Congress, a game cannot be copyrighted (only patented), which refutes much of TTC's copyright claims on the game, leaving the trademark on "Tetris" as TTC's most significant claim on any government-granted monopoly.

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)

Maybe it's backwards. Andre (talk) 21:30, Nov 23, 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.

Z and S Java Tetris

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)

Dunno, but Lockjaw has such a mode. Try that out. 128.226.46.29 14:32, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Not so Tetris.

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.

Feel free to edit away, but don't get discouraged if someone makes changes to your changes. You can RTFM first (also see the Wikipedia:Manual of style), or just plunge in. If you think the coverage of tetris variants is too extensive, you might try moving it to a page like Tetris-like puzzle games or something like that, but in general removing information wholesale if it is even vaguely relevant is frowned upon. Also, you can sign your posts by adding ~~~~ to the end of your post. Nohat 19:36, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

External links

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)

Again, anonymous user, please don't put links to Tetris clone sites here. - DavidWBrooks 02:44, 12 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)

Tetris in GNU Emacs

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)

dude, GNU Emacs includes implementations of pretty much everything...

Is this vandalism?

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)

citation

"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.

Given that the Game Boy is the best-selling console ever, and that tetris was bundled with it for a long time, it is likely the most widespread version. Besides, I've seen plenty of win95 installs, and never heard of a MS tetris.

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).

love

ilove ur game tetris it my favior game

Whoever added "multiblox" please do not put links to unlicensed tetris-like web games.

Seven Kinds for Seven Brothers

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)

• Yeah, I second that, I was thinking the same thing the first time I read it... -- MacAddct1984 02:45, July 19, 2005 (UTC)

I've removed it. --Pagrashtak 04:22, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Endings

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.

Wow, yup, you are quite right, I've added a screenshot and updated the article... now we just need someone to be able to identify what kind of rocket it is... -- MacAddct1984 03:48, August 5, 2005 (UTC)

falsity

"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.

Implementation differences

Tetris implementations vary in quite a few respects:

• the playfield dimensions
• centres of rotation of the pieces
• the scoring formula
• whether the pieces fall smoothly or in steps
• which dropping controls exist (sudden drop and/or merely accelerated drop, and whether sudden drop immediately settles)
• the level-increment formula, presumably both when it happens and the speed factor

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)

• More variant decisions:
  • It doesn't matter whether pieces fall smoothly. Since the already-settled pieces are already aligned to the grid, having a piece in the "middle" of two grid positions means nothing. It does make for a nice visual cue, however.
  • Another variant of the rules is whether pieces immediately freeze when they hit the bottom or another piece. Most variants allow you to move or rotate the piece in a short window after impact.
  • There is also the speed of the drop in general. In some versions, it's infinity; in others, it's the maximum normal speed. The Game Boy version has the accelerated drop speed equal to that of level 19's normal speed. Interestingly, holding Down on level 19 gives you the drop bonus points even though it doesn't change the speed at all.
• -- Myria 16:37, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

In versions where the pieces fall in steps, the piece tends to settle one step after it actually touches the bottom. In versions where the pieces fall smoothly, IMX there tends to be a short period for which it's stationary before settling. So the difference between falling smoothly and falling in steps isn't purely cosmetic: a piece can land, and then before it settles, you can slide it away so that it carries on falling. Consequently, you might be able to gain a bit of time (albeit trivial) by landing a piece and then sliding it off. And I'm puzzled by your last point - it's basically the same thing as my fifth one but looks written independently of it. -- Smjg 09:43, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

I don't think that is the correlation. Whether a game features smooth falling or step falling, it hasn't necessarily to do with whether the piece hovers or not. You may have said that because in earlier games such as NES tetris that feature step falling, say on level 19, it falls one step every two frames. so yeah it'll hover one step before locking. Later games such as The Next Tetris or Tetris: The Grandmaster (one smooth, one step) both feature hover times after landing of around a second. Furthermore in certain games, another feature is that after translating or rotating a piece after it has landed, it'll allow more time before it locks. To sum, I don't think one function necessarily correlates with the other. Each tetris engine operates differently. 66.157.60.202 20:07, 15 November 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)

tennis?

[ ...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)

Korobeiniki

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)

Original Colors?

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)

See the graph at the bottom right, here. To me, these are the standard/original color mappings... ≈ Ekevu (♥ • ★) 14:02, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

tetris llc has made a standard. "tetris deluxe" "tetris: the grand master ace", "tetris ds", and all the other new releases follow these colors: "i" looks cyan; "o" looks yellow; "t" looks purple; "s" looks green; "z" looks red; "j" looks blue; and "l" looks orange. originally, all colors look black and white. 65.6.70.86 23:26, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Two Player Modes

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)

Question regarding Tetris Commercials

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.)

"Tetrisized" music is "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, which is also used as music A in the NES version. --Damian Yerrick (☎) 04:22, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Let's get our facts straight....

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)

Dates

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)

what about two player mode?

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.

Obligatory

In Soviet Russia, block rotates you! Project2501a 19:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

In Soviet Russia, Tetris attacks YOU!!! --Yossarian 23:07, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

In Soviet Russia, Tetris pheers YOU!!! --Oceanhahn 05:50, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

In your country, you play Tetris. In Soviet Russia, Tetris plays YOU! Teh Shingen 17:32, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Muzak

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)

Music B on Game Boy is the same as it is on the NES. Neither is "Kalinka". --Damian Yerrick (☎) 04:20, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, that narrows it down, but it don't answer me question, sadly. :( --Yossarian 05:31, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Second Highest VG Seller?

"...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)

Highest-selling game != highest-selling series. --Damian Yerrick (☎) 00:32, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

World Record with AI

some 100 million lines were done by a AI, see [[4]]. Think this is worth a link?

I want to know who holds the world record for a human -- lines, not points. Anyone know?

Due to the infinitespin.ytmnd.com/ SRS infinite spin rule, Tetris DS has an upper limit of speed at which human players can survive arbitrarily long. In addition, Tetris DS allows the player to close the DS, plug in the charger, and come back hours or days later to continue a game. There are players who have scored well over 9,980 lines, which is the maximum that the game can count. After 999 lines it counts lines only by tens, where level = floor(lines / 10) + 1, and counting the number of lines from the displayed level is the only way to figure out how many lines the player has made. --Damian Yerrick (☎) 00:29, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Playable clones

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)

"Use the up key to rotate"? The official standard is to use the up key to hard drop, and use the B and A buttons to rotate. Lockjaw and Heboris Unofficial Expansion are downloadable games that implement the current rules of Tetris more closely. --Damian Yerrick (☎) 14:13, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

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 first post in the forum thread linked from the word "Lockjaw" above says "Look at the last page(s) of the thread for a download link." Did you? --Damian Yerrick (☎) 02:54, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

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

Lockjaw: Each link to the Lockjaw download was of the form "Download LOCKJAW program and Allegro 4.0 DLL". The second link is to a copy of 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)

Then should we have a separate article under a generic title that describes the rules? We have articles Platform game (generic) and Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo brand). We have articles Ludo (generic) and Trouble (Hasbro brand). So why not split the article into some generic article Russian block game (following the Babel Fish translation of the Chinese article's name), which describes the rules of Tetris broadly, as well as a second article Tetris about implementations licensed by Elorg? --Damian Yerrick (☎) 01:10, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

No we shouldn't have an article for "russian block game". Tetris is tetris. The clones are also tetris, whatever they call themselves. There's not even a definitive tetris version, even the commercial versions most of us are familiar with are probably rightly called "clones". Super Mario Bros. is a type of Platform Game, Tetris is a type of puzzle game. We should not have an additional "russian block game" page simply because you want a place to put the clones. I don't think they belong in this article; there are simply too many of them to fairly list one, and they are dead easy to find. However, if you want to give yourself a serious cataloguing challenge, I wouldn't oppose a List of tetris games article. - Rainwarrior 04:37, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

umm... GNU's Not Unix? GNU/Linux is not UNIX® product. Neither is FreeBSD. They are "operating systems that implement part of the UNIX specification". The closest existing article to what you suggest is Tetris variants. --Damian Yerrick (☎) 15:51, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't know why you have suddenly started discussing UNIX, Linux, and FreeBSD, but it's good to see that Tetris variants exists. Go link your clones there. - Rainwarrior 19:12, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Because Linux and FreeBSD are to UNIX as Quadra and Heboris are to Tetris. They're clones of a commercial product whose name is a trademark. --Damian Yerrick (☎) 01:07, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard of Quadra and Heboris, but if they are notable enough, they can have their own articles. Linux and FreeBSD are both widely used and have been continually in development for many years. Games, for the most part, don't share that kind of longetivity. This is why the comparison seems irrelevant to me. Yes, Linux is a "version" of UNIX, but that's not why it has an article of its own. - Rainwarrior 06:52, 24 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

Tetris is not just tetra-

The name Tetris is co-formed from Pazhitov's favourite sport: Tennis [tetr(a) + (tenn)is]

someone speculated this on an episode of Icons on G4.

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)

Tetris banned in Germany?

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

Problem with the math?

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.

Good version of "Tetris" converted for the ZX Spectrum, 1986

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

References

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)

clear all lines and ... ?

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)

sort of. the long majority of games don't reward it. however, the TGM series calls it a "bravo." Quadra (a fan game) calls it "clean sweep."68.222.41.105 23:55, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Effect of Tetris on the brain

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)

Scoring

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)