Information AboutTetris |
Tetris () is a , 2007 ., while working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy Of Science Of The USSR in Moscow . Pajitnov has cited Pentomino es as a source of inspiration for the game. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix " Tetra- ", as all of the pieces contain four segments, and Tennis , Pajitnov's favorite sport.Pajitnov interview, G4 " Icons ", ep. 305 , originally aired on April 22, 2004. The game (or one of its many 's 100 Greatest Videogames Of All Time. While versions of ''Tetris'' were sold for a range of 1980s Home Computer platforms, it was the hugely successful handheld version for the Nintendo Game Boy launched in 1989 that established the reputation of the game as one of the most popular ever. GAMEPLAY A Pseudorandom sequence of Tetromino es (sometimes called "tetrads" in older versions) - shapes composed of four square blocks each - fall down the playing field. The object of the game is to manipulate these tetrominoes, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of blocks without gaps. When such a line is created, it disappears, and the blocks above (if any) fall. As the game progresses, the tetrominoes fall faster, and the game ends when the player "tops out", that is, when the stack of tetrominoes reaches the top of the playing field and no new tetrominoes are able to enter. (The exact definition of a top-out varies from version to version.) Tetris game manuals refer to the seven one-sided tetrominoes in ''Tetris'' as ''I'', ''J'', ''L'', ''O'', ''S'', ''T'', and ''Z''''Tetris DS'' manual. Nintendo, 2006 - due to their resembling letters of the alphabet - but players sometimes use other names for the pieces.Mark Thornton and Billy Husky. The Tetris Taxonomy: The Pieces . Retrieved on May 1 , 2007 . All are capable of single and double clears. ''I'', ''J'', and ''L'' are able to clear triples. Only the ''I'' tetromino has the capacity to clear four lines simultaneously, and this is referred to as a "tetris." (This may vary depending on the rotation and compensation rules of each specific ''Tetris'' implementation. For instance, in the ''Tetris Worlds'' type rules (see below) used in many recent implementations, certain rare situations allow ''T'', ''S'' and ''Z'' to 'snap' into tight spots, clearing triples.) Colors of tetrominoes Some people refer to the pieces by the color in which they are drawn in a particular implementation of the ''Tetris'' game, but prior to The Tetris Company's standardization in the early 2000s , those colors varied from implementation to implementation so this is not very sensible. For example, the cyan piece is a different shape in nearly every version of the game below. Scoring The scoring formula for the majority of ''Tetris'' products is built on the idea that more difficult line clears should be awarded more points. Nintendo's implementations on the NES, Game Boy, and , 2006 . Nearly all ''Tetris'' games allow the player to press a button to increase the speed of the current piece's descent, rather than waiting for it to fall. If the player can stop the increased speed before the piece reaches the floor by letting go of the button, this is a "soft drop"; otherwise, it is a "hard drop". (Some games allow only soft drop or only hard drop; others have separate buttons.) Many games award a number of points based on the height the piece fell before locking. If a piece is manually dropped ''x'' lines and locked, these versions will typically award points proportional to the number of lines that the player accelerated the piece. If a piece is not accelerated at all the player will gain no points for that piece unless a line is made. Gravity Traditional versions of ''Tetris'' move the stacks of blocks down by a distance exactly equal to the height of the cleared rows below them. Unlike in Newtonian Gravity , blocks may be left floating above gaps. This behavior is known as "naïve gravity". Some variants implement "recursive gravity", a different algorithm that uses a Flood Fill to segment the playfield into connected regions and then makes each region fall individually, in parallel, until it touches the region at the bottom of the playfield. This opens up additional "chain-reaction" tactics involving blocks cascading to fill additional lines, which may be awarded as more valuable clears. Easy spin dispute Although not the first ''Tetris'' game to feature "easy spin" (see '', 2006 . Retrieved on April 28 , 2007 . Despite this, some recent games are not implemented in the way he meant for it to work. Modes lacking a timer such as marathon in '' Tetris Deluxe '' or also marathon and line mode in ''Tetris DS'' make problems for his statement. The claim that "you've just taken five seconds out of the game that you needed to score so many points" isn't true. Losing time by gratuitously spinning a piece will not hurt the player in modes that do not reward better times with better scores. HISTORY ''Tetris'' has been embroiled in a large number of legal battles since its inception. In June 1985, Alexey Pajitnov created ''Tetris'' on an Electronika 60 while working for the Soviet Academy Of Sciences at their Computer Center in Moscow with Dmitry Pavlovsky , and Vadim Gerasimov ported it to the IBM PC . Gerasimov reports that Pajitnov chose the name "Tetris" as a , 2007 . From there, the PC game exploded into popularity, and began spreading all around Moscow. This version is available on Gerasimov's web site. The IBM PC version eventually made its way to Budapest , Hungary , where it was ported to various platforms and was "discovered" by a British software house named Andromeda . They attempted to contact Pajitnov to secure the rights for the PC version, but before the deal was firmly settled, they had already sold the rights to Spectrum Holobyte . After failing to settle the deal with Pajitnov, Andromeda attempted to license it from the Hungarian programmers instead. Meanwhile, before any legal rights were settled, the Spectrum HoloByte IBM PC version of ''Tetris'' was released in the United States in 1986. The game's popularity was tremendous, and many players were instantly hooked—it was a software blockbuster. The details of the licensing issues were uncertain by this point, but in 1987 Andromeda managed to obtain copyright licensing for the IBM PC version and any other home computer system. For Amiga and Atari ST two different versions by Spectrum Holobyte and Mirrorsoft became available. The Mirrorsoft version did not feature any background graphics while the Holobyte version had a background picture related to Russian themes for each level. Games were sold as budget titles due to the game's simplicity. By 1988, the Soviet government began to market the rights to ''Tetris'' through an organization called Elektronorgtechnica , or "Elorg" for short. By this time Elorg had still seen no money from Andromeda, and yet Andromeda was licensing and sub-licensing rights that they themselves did not even have. By 1989, half a dozen different companies claimed rights to create and distribute the ''Tetris'' software for home computers, game consoles, and handheld systems. Elorg, meanwhile, held that none of the companies were legally entitled to produce an Arcade version, and signed those rights over to Atari Games , while it signed non- Japan ese console and handheld rights over to Nintendo . Nintendo contacted Atari Games claiming they had stolen rights to ''Tetris'', whereupon Atari Games sued, believing they had the rights. After only a few (very popular) months on the shelf, the courts ruled that Nintendo had the rights to ''Tetris'' on home game systems, and Tengen's TETЯIS game was recalled, having sold about 50,000 copies. version of ''Tetris'']] Nintendo released their version of ''Tetris'' for both the Famicom and the Game Boy (the Game Boy version was developed by Bullet-Proof Software, Inc. , who held the Japanese license, despite Nintendo's license to the game) and sold more than three million copies; some players considered Nintendo's NES version inferior because it lacked the side-by-side simultaneous play of Tengen's version, but Nintendo's Game Boy ''Tetris'' became arguably the most well-known version of ''Tetris''. The lawsuits between Tengen and Nintendo over the Famicom/NES version carried on until 1993. Sega also released a Tetris game for the Mega Drive , however the ensuing blitz of litigation ensured that it was hastily withdrawn - possibly before it even reached shop shelves. A handful of copies remain, which now change hands for as much as 800,000 yen ($6600) making it probably the most expensive Tetris game in the world. Pajitnov himself made very little money from the deal even though Nintendo was able to profit from the game handsomely. In 1996 when Russian restrictions expired, he and Henk Rogers formed The Tetris Company LLC and Blue Planet Software in an effort to get royalties from the ''Tetris'' brand, with good success on game consoles but very little on the PC front. The Tetris Company (TTC) managed to secure Trademark registrations for the ''Tetris'' mark in several countries and has licensed the brand to a number of companies, but courts have not decided on the legality of tetromino games that do not use the ''Tetris'' name. Blue Planet was later purchased by JAMDAT Mobile , in turn purchased by Electronic Arts . According to circulars available from the on ''Tetris'' as TTC's most significant claim on any Government-granted Monopoly . Some players prefer ''Tetris'' brand games; others prefer homemade tetromino games downloaded from the Internet, which are given names such as "N-Blox" or "Lockjaw" so as not to infringe trademarks. In late 1997 Andrew James Bednarz. "The Tetris Company's Activities". Accessed on August 13, 2006. and in mid-2006, "Tetris blocks Mac Quinn game". ''MacUser''. Accessed on August 13, 2006. TTC's legal counsel sent Cease And Desist letters to web sites that misused the ''Tetris'' trademark to refer to homemade tetromino games. VARIATIONS ''Tetris'' has been subject to many changes throughout releases since the 1980s. It is difficult to place a standard on the game, as newer releases frequently progress it either to make the game better or to keep players interested. Newer ''Tetris'' games have made the trend of pace rather than endurance. Older releases such as Game Boy or NES ''Tetris'' offer records according to points. Since the meter for points is set to only a certain number of digits, these game's records can be "maxed out" by an experienced player. The next big Game Boy release after ''Tetris'', ''Tetris DX'', in marathon mode — comparable to mode A in previous releases — allowed an additional digit for the point meter. Even so, players still maxed it to 9,999,999 points after hours of play. For '' The New Tetris '', world record competitors have spent over 12 hours playing the same game It is probably for this reason of seemingly everlasting play that in both ''Tetris DX'' and ''The New Tetris,'' the new modes sprint and ultra were added. These modes require the player to act under a timer — either to gain the most lines or points in that time. Recent releases like ''Tetris Worlds'' did away completely with point records. This particular game kept records by how fast a certain number of lines could be cleared depending on the level. A drawback of this deviation, along with some other newer features, is that many traditional players rejected these advances all together. Critics of ''Tetris Worlds'' said it was broken due to how a piece is able to hover over the bottom for as long as a player needs [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3736273641404566879&q=tetris ; although, players of the game generally do not mind this feature because exploiting it will only hinder play, which is unfavorable to making a record time. Tetris LLC has been juggling different features with different modes of play in past years trying to satisfy traditional and newer players alike. There are many different modes of play added in recent years. Modes appearing in more than one major release include: classic marathon (game A), sprint (otherwise game B or 40 lines), ultra, square, and cascade. The field dimension of ''Tetris'' is perhaps the least deviated among releases, with the exception of some releases on handheld platforms with small screens. (For example, the ''Tetris Jr.'' Keychain has 8 columns and 12 rows.) It is almost always 10 blocks wide by 20 blocks high. However, the original ''Tetris'' for Game Boy is an exception with a 10 by 18 field of play. The field height may have been decreased to fit within the Game Boy screen. As a result, ''Tetris'' for Game Boy had an increased level of difficulty compared to some of its counterparts. Game Boy ''Tetris'' is also subject to faster speeds at lower levels. Traditionally, blocks spawn within the four most central columns and the two highest rows. The ''I'' tetromino occupies columns 4, 5, 6, and 7, the ''O'' tetromino occupies columns 5 and 6, and the remaining 5 tetrominoes occupy columns 4, 5 and 6 (or in some especially older versions 5, 6, and 7). In some more recent games, pieces spawn above the visible playfield. In traditional games, a level-up would occur once every ten lines are cleared. During a level-up, the blocks fall slightly faster, and typically more points are given. In some newer games such as ''Tetris Worlds'', the number of lines required vary upon each new level. The fall speed also varies but is usually no more than 20 milliseconds faster for each step per level. 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. Level increments will either terminate at a certain point (Game Boy ''Tetris'' will top off at level 20) or will increase forever yet not increase in speed after a certain point. NES ''Tetris'' will level up in until the speed of level 29 (due to frame restrictions, pieces are not capable of dropping faster than this), but tool-assisted emulation will show that the level indicator will increase indefinitely-- eventually leading to a glitch where the meter displays non-numeric characters. Modern games such as ''Tetris the Grand Master'' or ''Tetris Worlds,'' at their highest levels, opt to drop a piece more than one row per frame. Pieces will appear to reach the bottom as soon as they spawn. As a result, a hover or slide feature is often implemented into these games to help deal with an otherwise unplayable fall speed. In some games, the hover time is regenerated after a piece is moved or rotated. Soft drops were first implemented in Nintendo releases of ''Tetris'' so that pieces would be able to drop faster while not lock as to slide into gaps. The other option is hard dropping, which is mainly featured in PC ''Tetris'' games such as ''Microsoft Tetris''. Here, a piece falls and locks in one frame. Newer ''Tetris'' games feature both options. Some games have their locking roles reversed, with soft dropping making the pieces drop faster and locking down, and hard dropping making the pieces drop instantly but not lock. Single rotation is an older restriction that has since been ruled out in nearly every new official release by the favor of dual rotation, which uses two buttons (one for clockwise and one for counter clockwise rotation). In traditional games, the unsymmetrical vertical orientation I-, Z-, and S-pieces will fill the same columns for each clockwise and counter clockwise rotation. Some games vary this by allowing two possible column orientations-- one for counter clockwise and one for clockwise rotations. Double rotation, only seen in progressive clones such as ''Quadra'' and ''DTET'', rotates the piece 180 degrees. Piece preview allows a look at the next spawn. This feature has been implemented since the earliest games, though in those early games, having the preview turned on made the score increase more slowly. Newest features Newer versions of ''Tetris'' add different scoring goals not present in traditional ''Tetris''. As achieving these goals while not topping out becomes more difficult, these games usually add a few features to help the player. ''The New Tetris'' and ''The Next Tetris'' were the first official ''Tetris'' games to feature multiple piece previews, showing 3 in advance. ''Tetris Worlds'' for PCs and game consoles added 5 more, while the GBA version retained the 3 piece preview. ''Tetris DS'' uses the 6-piece preview. The "phantom piece" (referred to in some versions, such as the ''Tetris Mania'' cell phone game, as the "ghost") is a feature that shows an obscuration in the shape of the current piece over where that piece would drop. The feature disposes with the old problem of misdrops and is relatively new. Hold piece is an optional ability to reserve a piece for later use, allowing a player to either avoid undesirable pieces or save desirable ones, usually the I piece or a piece needed to complete another goal. Some clones featured it as a powerup that the player could earn and use once. A hold piece available to the player at all times was first featured in ''The New Tetris''. Games that have hold piece generally activate it when the player presses both rotate buttons simultaneously or when the player presses a dedicated button, depending on the game. When hold piece is activated, it causes the falling piece to move to the top and trade places with the hold piece. However, the feature cannot be activated twice in a row; a piece released from the hold must be dropped into the well. Initial rotation and Initial hold are features that make the game accept rotation/hold button inputs while the next piece is still in the preview area. With initial rotation, when the player holds down the rotation button after the previous piece has locked down but before the next piece comes into the well, the next piece will come into the well in an already rotated state. Initial hold works similarly, as the piece will be already swapped with the hold piece when it enters the well. Initial rotation and Initial hold first appeared in the '''' series. ''Tetris DS'' features wireless on-line play through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection system. This new version also takes advantage of the touch screen in the added "Touch Mode," which has no time limit. Instead, every block is already placed in a tall tower, and the player uses the stylus from the Nintendo DS to shift blocks left and right and, in earlier towers, rotate blocks. The goal is to clear enough lines so that a cage of balloons reaches the ground. (This mode is themed on the NES video game '' Balloon Fight '', hence the cage of balloons.) ''Tetris DS'' also introduces the '' Metroid ''-themed "Catch Mode." In this mode, the pieces still fall downward, but the stack is moved and rotated instead. As the falling pieces bump against the stack, they get clustered into it. To clear blocks, there must be a solid area of the stack that's 4x4 or larger. When this happens, the blocks glow and the music changes. After ten seconds or upon pressing the X button, these blocks disappear and shoot a Laser Beam in a plus-shape, the horizontal part equal to the number of rows cleared and the vertical equal to the columns. This laser beam will destroy falling blocks and Metroid enemies in its path. The parts of the stack not hit by the laser beam will be pulled in towards the center of the stack after the laser beam dies. If a piece falls below of the bottom screen, the stack hits a falling block while rotating, or the stack hits a Metroid, the stack loses Energy. The player loses if the stack runs out of Energy or if the stack becomes so large that it can no longer fit on the bottom screen. The ''Tetris'' arcade game offered different "puzzles" for selected rounds. The first three rounds are played normally, with no obstacles. At the start of round 4, eight bricks are placed vertically along each side of the well. Round 5 begins with ten bricks scattered throughout the bottom five rows. Round 6 begins with twenty bricks arranged in a pyramid. In rounds 7 through 9, the well starts out empty but single bricks will appear at random on top of your puzzle each time a piece lands that does not clear any lines, potentially thwarting any advance planning you may have done. In rounds 10 through 12, incomplete lines will randomly pop up underneath your puzzle, pushing the puzzle upward, when a piece lands without clearing any lines. Rounds 13 through 15 begin with more blocks arranged in predetermined patterns, and the cycle continues throughout the remaining rounds in the game in groups of three. ''TETRIS'' VARIANTS See Also: List of Tetris variants A number of ''Tetris'' variants exist. Some feature alternate rules and pieces, and others have completely different gameplay. Because of its popularity and the relatively simple code required to produce the game, a game with nearly the same rules as ''Tetris'' is often used as a Hello World project for programmers coding for a new system or programming language. This has resulted in the availability of a large number of Ports for different platforms, most of which are not endorsed by The Tetris Company and are given away freely. For instance, µTorrent and GNU Emacs contain tetromino stacking games as easter eggs. uTorrent Easter Egg: Tetris in uTorrent macosxhints.com - Play Tetris in Terminal via emacs IS IT POSSIBLE TO PLAY FOREVER? Players may lose a game of ''Tetris'' for the following reasons:
The question ''Would it be possible to play forever?'' was first encountered in a thesis by John Brzustowski in 1988John Brzustowski. Can You Win at Tetris? Accessed February 25 , 2007 . and has been more recently investigated in published articles by Walter Kosters. The conclusion reached was that a player is inevitably doomed to lose. system, which uses the original randomizer.]] The reason has to do with the S and Z tetrominoes. If a player receives a large sequence of S tetrominoes, the naïve gravity used by the standard game eventually forces the player to leave a hole in a corner. Suppose that player then receives a large sequence of Z tetrominoes. Eventually, that player will be forced to leave a hole in the opposite corner without clearing the previous hole. Back and forth, the holes will necessarily stack to the top. Since the pieces are distributed randomly, this sequence will eventually occur. If played long enough, and the , 2007 . Practically, this may not occur. Some , 2007 . Several of the subproblems of ''Tetris'' have been shown to be NP-complete on a playing field of size ''n''. MUSIC
EFFECT OF ''TETRIS'' ON THE BRAIN According to Richard Haier, et al. prolonged ''Tetris'' activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity during play . When first playing ''Tetris'', brain function and activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by Glucose metabolic rate. As ''Tetris'' players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity for this task. Haier, R. Siegal, B. MacLachlan, A. et al (1991). Regional glucose metabolic changes after learning a complex visuospatial/motor task: a positron emission tomographic study. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA (U.S.A.) The game can also cause a repetitive stress symptom in that the brain will involuntarily picture tetris combinations even when the player is not playing the game (the Tetris Effect ), although this can occur with any computer game showcasing repeated images or scenarios. OTHER FACTS
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