The CICA Windows Explosion!

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Notes on Tetris, Version 1.1 by Corey Garrow. ============================================= This package should come with the following files: README.DOC - Document file about Tetris TETRIS.EXE - Actual Tetris game After running TETRIS.EXE, two more files will be created: TETRIS.CFG - Configuration file for Tetris TETRIS.HS - High scores for Tetris. Computing Requirements: IBM PC 8086, compatible, or higher processor with at least DOS 3.0, and VGA video card. 286-12Mhz computer or higher is recommended. What is Tetris? =============== Tetris is a simple, yet challenging, game invented by a Russian mathema- tician. The main object of Tetris is to clear as many lines as possible by manipulating certain shapes which fall from the top of the screen. These shapes are always comprised of 4 blocks (hence the name 'Tetris'). The player can rotate these shapes left or right and move them into the correct place. When there are ten blocks in a row, that row is cleared and the blocks on top will fall into the newly created gap. Game level gradually accelerates until the blocks build to the top of the screen. When this happens, your game is over. Why make another Tetris game? ============================= No one game has intrigued so many people like the game of Tetris. As previously stated, it is so simple, yet so challenging and addictive. Many Tetris games have been made for the IBM PC. However, much to my dismay, many of these games lack proper playability and fun. For example, there are numerous Tetris games for Microsoft Windows. But nearly all of them reduce playability by only allowing quick tetrid drops instead of slower, more controlled drops. In this game, I have programmed both options. Also, many Tetris game have simple sound effects. I have tried to make better sounds (and in future versions, I will have sound card support). What is special about this Tetris game? ======================================= Much time and planning was invested in this game. Some of the features for this game include four disappearing sequences that occur when lines are cleared. There is the option of increased difficulty with added blocks and faster beginning levels. A 'Next' box is also optional to preview and plan your next moves. In addition to the normal Tetris game, I have also included two other games - a timed game and a highest scoring game. Finally, a top 10 scorer's list was added to keep challenging yourself for the better score. Description of Tetris, Version 1.1 features =========================================== Tetris, Version 1.1 is the result of much time and work that ties a great strategy game with fun and challenge. This version of Tetris supports three independent games, a record of the top ten high scorer's for each game, and many other features. Below is a description of every function of the game: Running the game ... -------------------- In the directory where you have stored the Tetris file, type TETRIS and press <Enter>. If this is the first time you ran the game, two new files will be created. They are the configuration file (TETRIS.CFG) and the high scores file (TETRIS.HS). The game should work normally. There are a few video cards that I have come across that stall when the game is run. This stalling is due to the screen fading that occurs from screen to screen. To disable screen fading, use the command line option '/f'. So, for example, type 'TETRIS /f' at the DOS prompt. About the menu commands ... --------------------------- After pressing a key, the menu screen will appear. There are two major divisions to this screen, game play and game control. Whenever you are in any menu screens trying to select different options, you will use the arrow keys to move the flashing arrow. Once you are at a desired option, use the spacebar to select any sub-options. These sub-options have a white dot in front of them. Press <Enter> to execute any selected option. To exit the program to DOS, press <Esc> at the menu screen. Here is the list of Tetris features and options in the menu. Game type ... ------------- There are three separate Tetris games. Game A, or normal play, can be considered the standard tetris game, where the player attempts to get as many lines as possible. In Game B, or timed game, the player attempts to get 25 lines in the least amount time. Time is not constant in this game. When you clear away lines, time is stopped and then resumed again. In Game C, or highest scoring game, the player attempts to achieve the highest score possible for 25 lines. To do well in this game, your starting level should be 9 and you should attempt as many tetrises as possible. From my own experience, this is the most frustrating game out of the three. Drops ... --------- Drops refers to tetrid drops. When the player presses the 'down' key, the pieces will either drop immediately to the ground (quick drops) or they will fall at a constant rate (normal drops). Block set ... ------------- The user can play with the standard square blocks (squares) or the other graphics set, the circular blocks (circles). It has been my observation that people prefer the squares to circles. Oh well. Block clearing ... ------------------ When lines are cleared, four clearing sequences can occur. Disintegration and explosion are self-explanatory. Shrinking #1 causes the blocks to dissolve from top to bottom. Shrinking #2 causes the blocks to dissolve from outside to inside. If you get a tetris and have sound on, then different music is played than that of normal clearing lines music. Starting level ... ------------------ The player can begin at different starting levels. The standard is level 0, the slowest. If after 10 lines are cleared and if the ten's digit of lines is greater than the level, then the level increments and game play is faster. Obstacle height ... ------------------- The player can begin with obstacles, or random blocks, in the playing field. This feature allows for a more challenging game. Actually, obstacle height is obstacle height degree; that is, it is a measure of how high the obstacles are on a scale of 0 to 9. The actual obstacle height can be calculated by: real obs. height = int (obstacle height * 1.5). Save configuration ... ---------------------- If you want the menu screen to appear the same way it currently appears whenever you restart the program, save the current configuration. The data is stored in the TETRIS.CFG file. Play tetris ... --------------- Yes, this is it!! You can also play tetris by pressing 's' or 'b' in the menu screen. During the game, there are few things to remember. To pause the game, press <Esc>. To return to the game, press <Esc> again. You can press 'q' to quit your current game and return back to the menu. No high scores will be checked. Press 'n' to add/remove the next box that previews the next tetrid. Scoring is as follows: The drop height (in blocks) is added to your score if you hold the 'down' key continuously until the block hits the bottom (or if you tap the 'down' key in quick drop mode). The scores for line clearing can be calculated by: amount of points = (basic line scores) * (adjusted level), where (basic line scores) = 40 for a single (one line), 100 for a double (2 lines), 300 for a triple (3 lines), and 1200 for a tetris (four lines, maximum lines), and (adjusted level) is the current level + 1, but if the level is over 9, then the adjusted level is 10. When the game is over and if you have a good enough score, then you will be inducted into the top ten scorer's list. Just type your name (or commonly used dirty expression). You can enter at most 20 characters. Keyboard control ... -------------------- The user can define the play keys in this feature. To do so, move to the desired key press with the spacebar and then press <Enter>. The next key press will be the key stroke for that key. Sorry, but you cannot use <Esc>, <F11>, <F12>, <Ctrl>, <Alt>, or <Shift> as key strokes. You can however assign the same key strokes to two different actions. For example, you can use just one key to rotate by choosing that key stroke for both 'rotate left' and 'rotate right'. Sound control ... ----------------- Sound can be muted or turned on for PC speaker. In the future, I will have sound card support. Control type ... ---------------- The player can use the keyboard or the keyboard/joystick. Before using the joystick, be sure to calibrate it. See the joystick adjust section. Configure control ... --------------------- These options are used to enhance playability in the game. They are: Use quick drop - A 'y' allows for quick drop key (in normal drops mode). An 'n' disables the quick drop key. Move sensitivity - My description of 'move sensitivity' is considered movement delay, or the inverse of movement speed. In other words, a low value is a quick tetrid movement speed when moving left or right. All my friends complained that this definition was inherently incorrect and asked me to change it. Although they are correct, I have stubbornly insisted that I will not change it. After days and days of tinkering with the program, I wasn't about to program 40 new lines into the already massive code. So, to all my friends out there, Ha Ha Ha, Ha!! Joystick adjust - Before using the joystick, you need to calibrate it and set its buttons. Button values range from 0 to 3. Some joysticks only have 2 buttons. During joystick calibration, just follow the directions. If you want to exit this sub-menu at any time, press <Esc>. View high scores ... -------------------- This feature simply lets you view the high scores to each game. To erase the high scores, just delete the file, TETRIS.HS, in DOS. When tetris is re-run, it will create a new, blank high scores file. A few other notes ... --------------------- Press 'h' in menu screen to view the help document. Press <Esc> to exit the program. And remember, 's' or 'b' can be used to start or begin tetris play. Past, Present, and Future of Tetris =================================== In Version 1.0 ... This was the first release of Tetris. It included two block sets, two types of tetrid drops (quick and normal), four different clearing sequences, and three tetris games. Variable starting level and obstacle height was also included. Also included was the option to redefine play keys. Tetris 1.0 used the PC Speaker as sound or it could produce no sound at all. The configur- ation of the game and setup could also be saved so that the same menu screen would appear every time you run Tetris. This version also supported a top ten high scorer's list for each game. This version was officially released January 12, 1994, but was never distributed publicly. In Version 1.1 ... As the second release of Tetris, this one included the major feature of joystick support. The joystick can be calibrated for your particular joystick controller, and its buttons can be configured for different game play. Many other small options were added, like ... ... The game play is quicker and more difficult. If you can achieve more than 110 lines on Game A, then you are a very good Tetris player. If you can get more than 130 lines consistently, then you are a Tetris master. ... There is a quick drop key and a quick drop key enable. This allows you to move tetrids downward with control and quickly drop them in the same game. ... Move sensitivity has been added to control the speed of the tetrid when moved left or right. (See the description and ensuing saga of this feature in the 'move sensitivity' section of this document.) ... The configuration file has been reduced from 205 bytes to 29 bytes. Why the dramatic reduction? Let's just say that I had anticipated sound card support for version 1.0 and had never gotten around to doing it. ... There is a newer introduction message and more help screens. ... The game menu is more color-coordinated (blues and purples, instead of those other crappy colors found in version 1.0). ... For those who have found that their video card only works half the time when the screen would fade to black and then back in, this version supports a /f command line option which disables this fading. For Version 1.2 ... Sound card support should be added in the near future. Sound cards that will be supported are Sound Blaster, Adlib, and Gravis Ultra Sound. This version should play newer sound effects in the background. For Version 1.3 ... Sound performance will be enhanced by game music. There should be music for each sound card. The music will also speed up when the player is near the end of the game (or is about to lose the game). Also, I plan to change the tetrid colors from level to level (which may add to the annoying aspect of the game). For Version 2.0 ... Hopefully, I can add to the game a head-to-head play on the same computer, or on different computers across a modem. Perhaps, head-to-head play can occur across a network or even against the computer. Wow!! Where do we go from here? ========================= The answer should be simple - play the game. And how can you thank me for this game? Just simply distribute the game everywhere. I am charging absolutely nothing for this game. I just want the long-deserved recognition of being a good computer programmer. However, a monetary contribution would be nice. If you have the heart to help a starving college student, please send about five dollars to the below address: Corey Garrow 143 Chestnut Lane Wheeling, IL 60090 USA Even if you can't send money, write some comments or suggestions about the game. With these suggestions in mind, I might be able to program an even better version one day. If you want a reply, send a self-addressed stamped envelope. I will gladly respond. But please, do not ask for the source. I am not willing to give that out. Have fun playing the game!! Enjoy!!