Tetris

Mirrorsoft, 1988

Written by Chris Owen, HTML'd by Arnt Gulbrandsen.

Controls

Keyboard, Kempston

Game play

For the very few people who don't know how to play Tetris: blocks of different shapes drop from the top of the screen into a box. Each block is made up of four small squares arranged to make a larger square, an L-shape or a column. As the blocks fall they can be rotated or moved horizontally so that every space in the box is filled. When a horizontal line is completed, that line is "destroyed" giving you more points and moving the rest of the placed pieces down by one square. If a line remains incomplete, another line must be finished above it. The more lines that stand incomplete, the higher the blocks above them stack, reducing the space in which falling shapes can be manipulated. Eventually the blocks reach the top of the screen and the game ends. The statistics box at the left of the screen shows the number of shapes of different colours that have been positioned, and another box at the bottom right shows what shape of block will appear next. There are ten skill levels; the higher the level, the faster the blocks fall.

Comments

"This looks destined to be one of the best thinking games yet - and a never-ending source of fun and frustration for players."

Rating

77% (CRASH #50, March 1988)

Now

CRASH were absolutely right; this has become one of the most- played computer games ever. It has appeared on virtually every computer and console you can think of and its clones are too numerous to list. (Sonic, eat your heart out...) An all-time classic! It has to be said, though, that there are public domain versions (TWINTRIS on the Amiga springs to mind) that are far better than this one.

Keys

I       - Left          }
P       - Right         } Joystick controls
O       - Rotate        }
SPACE   - Drop          - Joystick fire
Y       - Speed up
S       - Show next block
Q       - Quit

Nettverksgruppa, 5/10-94, sinclair@nvg.ntnu.no