Talk:Tetris/Archive 1

message: :Several of the subproblems of Tetris have been stated to be NP-complete.
Such as? -- Timwi 21:38, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: NP-completeness

message: :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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Games and copyright 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Z and S Java Tetris 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Not so Tetris. 

message: 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)
replies: text: Again, anonymous user, please don't put links to Tetris clone sites here. - DavidWBrooks 02:44, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: External links 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Is this vandalism? 

message: 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)
replies: text:  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)
replies: text:  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)
thread_title:  Implementation differences 

message: [ ...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)
thread_title:  tennis? 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Korobeiniki 

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

message: 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)
thread_title:  Two Player Modes 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Question regarding Tetris Commercials 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Let's get our facts straight.... 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Dates 

message: In Soviet Russia, block rotates you! Project2501a 19:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: In Soviet Russia, Tetris attacks YOU!!! --Yossarian 30px| 23:07, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: In Soviet Russia, Tetris pheers YOU!!! --Oceanhahn 05:50, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: In your country, you play Tetris. In Soviet Russia, Tetris plays YOU! Teh Shingen 17:32, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Obligatory 

message: 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 30px| 23:08, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: Well, that narrows it down, but it don't answer me question, sadly. :( --Yossarian 30px| 05:31, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Muzak 

message: "...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)
replies: text: Highest-selling game != highest-selling series. --Damian Yerrick (☎) 00:32, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Second Highest VG Seller? 

message: some 100 million lines were done by a AI, see []. 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)
thread_title:  World Record with AI 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)

text: 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)

text: 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)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title: Playable clones

message: 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)
thread_title:  Tetris is not just tetra- 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Tetris banned in Germany? 

message: 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)
thread_title: References

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  clear all lines and ... ? 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Effect of Tetris on the brain 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Scoring