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[<──────────────────<──────<────<─<<─<<[]>>─>>─>────>───────>─────────────────>] <<─> Tetris Pro <─>> [<──────────────────<──────<────<─<<─<<[]>>─>>─>────>───────>─────────────────>] ┌───∙· ·∙───────────────∙· For Support Call ·∙──────────────∙· ·∙───┐ │ GENIAAL BBS 2 Line 1: +31-2294-2959 SysOp : Atilla Meijs │ │ Line 2: +31-2294-3154 CoSysOps: Jaap Verboon & Me │ │ Programmers Support Line 1: +31-4920-13558 SysOp : Peter Raaphorst │ └─∙· ·∙────────────∙· ·∙────────────∙· ·∙───────────∙· ·∙─┘ ─ Programmer ─ Michiel Ouwehand ─ Support ─ Tijs Mul (Beta Tester) Carlo Vogelsang (Sound Routines) Kees Spoelstra (Lots of ASM Stuff) Atilla Meijs (MOD's, GIF and lending of GUS) ─ Graphics ─ Various GIF CD's ─ Sound ─ Various nameless MODule files DJ Digital (Contact me!) ─ Contact me at ─ (InterNet) michiel@progsup.tess.wlink.nl (FreeNet) 2:2802/108.11 Write a message to Co-SysOp #2 at GENIAAL BBS 2 Call me at: (+31)-2294-2738 (or FAX me here) "Tetris" is a registered trademark of Elorg. ─ I hope the author of the program/copyright holder will not mind me using the name Tetris for my game. My intentions are good, I charge no fee, please let me live. ─ ──- A -─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ███████████████████│ ████████████▓│ █████│ ████████████│ █████│ ███████████████████│ █████████▓▓▓▓▓▓│ █████│ █████████████▓▓▓│ █████│ ██▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ██▓▓▓│ ██▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ███▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▒▒▒│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▒▒▒│ ▓▓▓▓▓│ ▓▓▓▒▒│ ▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ ▓▓▒▒▒│ ▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ ▓▓▓▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒▒▒▒░│ ▒▒▒▒▒│ ▒░░░░│ ▒▒░░░│ ▒▒▒░░│ ▒▒▒░░│ ░░░░░│ ▒░░░░│ ▒▒░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░│ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────- GAME -── Tetris Pro - Documentation 1. Introduction Welcome to the Tetris Pro documentation, this small document is split up into a few pieces. The next part you'll find is the installation description, then you'll find more background info about the program, and where you can get it. Note: I didn't create most of the graphics or the sound. I'm a pro- grammer not a graphics/sound artist. I ripped most from CD's or from our own BBS and if I found who made the picture or composed the MOD, I will say it and thank this person, however, most people don't. Of course, the Tetris Pro specific stuff, like the intro screens etc. were created by me (as you can clearly see). First, let it be clear that my main goal was not be make a new Tetris with all kinds of dooh-dahs. I designed one I liked most, just like the old original Tetris (yes, the CGA/EGA one) but then with some nice graphics and a bit sound etc. Every game-reviewer/tester who says my program 'doesn't add anything to the original' didn't read my docs. At least she/he should say 'the author didn't choose to add any dooh-dahs because he thought it would decrease the game fun, I do (or do not) agree with him'. History: Tetris Pro started as a simple Tetris clone in MCGA on a 386SX-16. It read a simple decompressed picture and had no background, no sound, no nothing really and was _VERY_ buggy. It was written in GFA and was quite fast. Then I got in SVGA support (directly to ET4000 and compatibles) and the backgrounds. Backgrounds were uncompressed and the program was quite (read: very, horribly, unacceptably) slow... Then I moved the pictures to the PCX format, making the program even slower and almost increased the size. Removed a lot of bugs though. Time warp: Couple of months later I started looking into C++, so I thought, what the heck, it looks nice, why not program in it? So, it took me a week or so to fully convert Tetris Pro which than ran with a very vanilla interpretation of VESA. By moving to C++ I speeded up the code quite a lot. Removed a lot of bugs too. Still slow, so I learnt Assembler and sped up thing a lot more (thanks to Kees). I immensly sped up my VESA routines and screen updates, moved the files to the GIF format and added four levels making ten. I made the datadisk structure, moved the compression to a slightly altered ARJ file and made my VESA routines even more neat. Then it was time to move decompression into inline assembler, still slow, but a good preparation for the real stuff. When I finally got all the decompression stuff into inline assembler I was to face the biggest challenge of programmin: Moving it to Outline assembler. So, I did (in a month or two) and finally, I got this ARJ decompression thing working on one single segment. Still slow, because I just made it to work, not to be fast. So I went optimizing, and THAT was fun, I made the code nearly 5x as fast as the original. The quick 386+ LEA's really helped me out! So, I approached Planhold BV for spon- soring. They didn't react at first, but my persistence finally made them call me. And it seemed my Tetris didn't even work there. The pro- blem was the granularity of a SpeedSTAR 24X, Pro, Stealth etc. This problem was also comen on ATI cards. So, I changed my VESA routines to work with different granularities too. No sound until this point, so I called in Carlo's help to get me some really good music, and it worked! Now, most of the popular cards are supported, ever seen a PD game do this before? Note: The Gravis UltraSound is a special case. It's consumation of system time is below a percent at ANY rate (it ALWAYS plays at 44 KHz, stereo, 16 bit). However, it is adviced that you upgrade your card to at least 512 Kb. All the other cards mix at approximately 6% at 22KHz and 11% or 10% at 44 KHz. DAC's and PC-Honkers are slower, dunno the speed, depends on your computer's components. This is all benchmarked at my 386 DX-40. I've got some ideas to make it even faster. You might see the GLX module player as a stand-alone program in the near future. It's going to be the fastest player ever. The Renaissance claim to be faster, that'd be nice, some competition! No, really, GLX can be made faster, I've got some ideas to make it even faster. However, the Renaissance's code only works at 22KHz. I think that's a shame, sound starts getting good at 36KHz and finally sound very good when it reaches 44Khz. Bytheway, the GLX code I use in Tetris Pro will be different from the stand-alone player. The stand-alone player will have far better detection of cards and handling. When a card isn't found I just play it anyway, why? Well, some emulated modes (by other downwards compatible cards) fail detection, but DO work, so choose the right card. Because Planhold wasn't really very optimis- tic for sponsoring me, I contacted VOBIS A'dam II. They were quite enthousiastic from the beginning and friendly too, so I decided to let VOBIS sponsor me instead of Planhold BV. Tetris Pro - Documentation 2. Installation OK, here are some quick docs on installing Tetris Pro. If everything is allright there will be an archive, named TETRISP.xxx (xxx can be ARJ, ZIP, etc.). This archive must be extracted with directory creation (which means using "ARJ x TETRISP" or "PKUNZIP TETRISP -d"). Now, you should have the Tetris Pro program file "TETRISP.EXE", the Tetris Pro setup program "SETUP.EXE", Tetris Pro's datafile "TETRISP.DAT" and a directory called "DDISKS". Without DataDisks Tetris Pro is useless, so if somebody forgot to give you one you should get one as soon as you can. If you don't know how you can get them, there is a note on this further in the docs, so just read on. Ok, presuming you HAVE got one or more datadisks, dump the *.DD files in the DDISKS directory. Run the setup program, choose sound card and direct palette mode. Run Tetris Pro and enjoy... Really, if Tetris Pro kicks up without errors you'll probably be ready for hours of fun playing Tetris. ─∙· Oh nOoOo, TrOuBlEsHoOtInG PaRt ·∙─────────────────────────────────── Well, this is the troobleshooting part. Ok, there area couple of types of errors. They can be divided into four groups: 1. - Errors caused by the unavailability of drivers. 2. - Errors caused by the inexistense of system requirements. 3. - Errors caused by the corruption of datafiles. 4. - Warnings. Please, when you get an error, look it up in the errors list and continue reading below here. 1. - VESA Driver not loaded When you haven't got a VESA driver, get one from your supplier, most suppliers will be happy to help you, or check out some BBS'es, they have a lot too. For those who not know, a VESA driver is a driver needed to access the SVGA card in a compatible way. If you haven't got SVGA or your SVGA card has only 256Kb of RAM, forget it, buy a better one. You need at least 512Kb of RAM on your SVGA card. Some of the newer SVGA cards have the VESA-BIOS-EXTENSIONS, also know as VBE hardware-matically. It's just a part of their VGA BIOS I've seen it on a (as I recall) Cirrus Logic board and a Trident. 1. - XMS Driver not present Easy solution, put HIMEM.SYS in your config.sys and remove EMM386.EXE, QEMM386.SYS and other memory managers. 2. - Not enough free XMS memory. If you haven't got 4Mb of RAM on your computer, bad luck, you need them, go buy new ones. If you have got 4Mb and still get this warning, you probably have SMARTDRV (SmartDrive), SUPERPCK (Super PCKwik), NCACHE (Norton Cache), PCACHE (PC Cache) or sort-a-like program in your CONFIG.SYS, remove it or decrease the number that follows it until Tetris Pro wants to run. 2. - VESA Mode 101h not supported. VESA Mode 101h is the SVGA mode 640x480x256. If yout VESA driver doesn't want to put your computer in that mode you are most like- ly to have only 256Kb of screen-memory on your SVGA board. Tetris Pro simply doesn't work then. Buy an SVGA card with at least 512Kb of RAM on it, but most preferably 1Mb or even 2Mb. 3. - Bad Huffman code / CRC Error These errors are detected while decompression the data files and mean that your datadisk or other data file is corrupted. Get a new one! 4. - Windows warning, EMM386 Warning, V86 Warning, Virtual-DMA warning These are all warning because you are running some kind of program, which thinks it is needed that she/he is the allmighty memory-mana- ger. These memory managers are made so that programs who can't really get along with memory can do so. E.g. older programs run better with QEMM, because QEMM gives them more base memory. How- ever Tetris Pro'd like to do its own management. It doesn't need those managers. These managers do all kind of dirty tricks to get rid of limits, like placing to processor into V86 mode and changing the IOPL (I/O Priviledge Level). Now THEY control inter- rupts, Ins & Outs, DMA, etc. This makes your computer slower and because these programs aren't 100% 'clean' written they might crash your computer or say that an exception error occured which they generated themselves (I've seen it happen). Also, some managers destroy the upper part of the E?? registers of the 386, QEMM 5.x as I recall did this. That's why I advice to remove these filthy programs which are polluting your memory. Only install HIMEM.SYS or HIDOS.SYS for DR-DOS as I recall. Tetris Pro - Documentation 3. Frequently asked questions Allright, here is a small summary of frequently asked questions, if you've got a problem, read these first. (Frequently given anwsers are also listed) Q: GUS Doesn't work after Windows or GUSMOD A: Well, dunno why it doesn't, just run UltrInit once and it's fixed. Q: I have an SVGA card with 512Kb but don't seem to get Tetris Pro running, he keeps mentioning this VESA driver thing. What does it mean and what does it do? A: A VESA driver is a driver which is made for your graphics card, it's a driver which tells program HOW to get along with your graphics card. In order to run Tetris Pro you need one. Contact your dealer or manufacturer of the graphics card for more info. Also, there are some of them included in the archive VESA. Try one of those first. Q: I have an SB 2.x clone but the sound is real 'cracky'. How do I get rid of it? A: Switch to 22Khz, 44KHz is somewhat buggy on some SB 2.x clones. Q: I can't have the sound FX on only, why? A: Technical difficulty. It isn't much fun anyway. Q: Sometimes the screen fades out to change level and just stays black. Why does he do that? A: Well, could be anything. My program just doesn't like your computer. I've seen it happen to people who load high mouse drivers. I think it's because a high-loaded program is under the control of the XMS manager who I am then working with. Try remove things from upper memory and removing such redundant programs as QEMM, EMM386 etc. Q: My screen 'flickers' when changing from/to levels, why? A: Your SVGA card doesn't like to have the palette changed 'on the fly', run SETUP and change Palette mode. Q: Tetris Pro exits with an error message which has something to do with XMS handles or something? What's that? A: An XMS handle is needed by Tetris Pro to access your machine's extra memory. When your computer runs out of them you're probably multi- tasking or something. Try to put this line in you CONFIG.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /NUMHANDLES=128 This makes sure you've got dozens of XMS handles so you won't run out of them as easy. When this doesn't help, remove EMM386, QEMM386 or sort-a-like memory managers. Q: My screen 'trashes up'. It seems like the lines are partly on the wrong part of the screen. Why does he do that? A: It's probably a bug in your VESA driver. Some VESA drivers have the odd habbit to say that there are 1024 bytes on every screen line even though there are only 640 bytes present. Tetris Pro surely can't help it. It's the VESA driver's fault. Get another VESA driver. It might also be that your VESA driver thinks it's necesarily to say that it hasn't got a 64K granularity, but some other one. This re- sults into partial screens. All this trouble is because Tetris Pro strictly follows the VESA rules (at least, I think it does) and so, when your VESA driver is wrong, other program might run because they just ignore what that driver tells them, and I really follow it. Q: Sometimes the blocks just drop down while I am not doing anything, why does he do that? A: Well, it's a hardware problem. Because the dafault timer only allows a precision of 1/18.2 ticks a second and the maximum speed at which the blocks go down is more than 18.2 blocks down a second I put timer channel 0 into a high-precision mode, allowing incredibly precise timing. However, it occasionally runs backwards. I was very surprised too when the blocks just dropped down. It seems that just before the timer's going to overflow it runs backwards and goes berserks. My program first just stopped and hung when it happened. Now you've got the problem you are asking about. I can't wait for it to happen and then display a message "Waiting..." and wait for it to pass because it sometimes just occasionally happens, no overflow! I have seen some software having the same problem. But some seem to don't mind at all. It's probably fixable but I don't know how. Contact me if you have a solution! Tetris Pro - Documentation ──>> Stop reading now if you just want to play a game <<── 4. For programmers only Hiho programmers! Some info about Tetris Pro. Tetris Pro has been made with Borland C++ 3.1 and TASM 3.1. The original concept I started about a year ago, well, no, less than a year ago, was written in GFA BASIC and ran in 320x200x256 but the decompression of PCX pictures was too slow, so I impulsively decided to learn C. I didn't know how to program in ASSEMBLER so I learnt it in a day or two and began writing some VESA routines here and there. Now, a month or three later I'm beginning to feel at home in ASM and thanks to the Intel 386 Programmers Reference Guide I'm now optimizing the ARJ decompression code with fast 386 LEA's. It's a real speeda' right now and I think it will be even faster when I've finally got rid of all those CALL's to FillBuf. The source code will be available a couple of months AFTER Tetris Pro is brought out and spread to avoid people cloning it and bringing out their version with my code. I went through great pains to convert and optimize the ARJ code, so please use it when you've got hold of it. Currently, the source is a rough 400Kb of assembly and about 150Kb of C(++) code. Most of the assembly code is GLX, the MODule player. GLX will be brought with the code as an OBJ file I think. You may then use this as a library with you own code, like STMIK and GOLDPLAY or DSMI, but then for free. I would like to address programmer's to some docs provided with GNU C++ Here's a quote: ──>> Snip snip, quote <<─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Protect Your Freedom---Fight ``Look And Feel'' "This section is a political message from the League for Programming Freedom to the users of GNU CC. It is included here as an expression of support for the League on the part of the Free Software Foundation." Apple and Lotus are trying to create a new form of legal monopoly: a copyright on a class of user interfaces. These monopolies would cause serious problems for users and developers of computer software and systems. Xerox, too, has tried to make a monopoly for itself on window systems; their suit against Apple was thrown out on a technicality, but Xerox has not said anything to indicate it wouldn't try again. Until a few years ago, the law seemed clear: no one could restrict others from using a user interface; programmers were free to implement any interface they chose. Imitating interfaces, sometimes with changes, was standard practice in the computer field. The interfaces we know evolved gradually in this way; for example, the Macintosh user interface drew ideas from the Xerox interface, which in turn drew on work done at Stanford and SRI. 1-2-3 imitated VisiCalc, and dBase imitated a database program from JPL. Most computer companies, and nearly all computer users, were happy with this state of affairs. The companies that are suing say it does not offer ``enough incentive'' to develop their products, but they must have considered it ``enough'' when they made their decision to do so. It seems they are not satisfied with the opportunity to continue to compete in the marketplace---not even with a head start. If companies like Xerox, Lotus, and Apple are permitted to make law through the courts, the precedent will hobble the software industry: Gratuitous incompatibilities will burden users. Imagine if each car manufacturer had to arrange the pedals in a different order. Software will become and remain more expensive. Users will be ``locked in'' to proprietary interfaces, for which there is no real competition. Large companies have an unfair advantage wherever lawsuits become commonplace. Since they can easily afford to sue, they can intimidate small companies with threats even when they don't really have a case. User interface improvements will come slower, since incremental evolution through creative imitation will no longer be permitted. Even Apple, etc., will find it harder to make improvements if they can no longer adapt the good ideas that others introduce, for fear of weakening their own legal positions. Some users suggest that this stagnation may already have started. If you use GNU software, you might find it of some concern that user interface copyright will make it hard for the Free Software Foundation to develop programs compatible with the interfaces that you already know. To protect our freedom from lawsuits like these, a group of programmers and users have formed a new grass-roots political organization, the League for Programming Freedom. The purpose of the League is to oppose new monopolistic practices such as user-interface copyright and software patents; it calls for a return to the legal policies of the recent past, in which these practices were not allowed. The League is not concerned with free software as an issue, and not affiliated with the Free Software Foundation. The League's membership rolls include John McCarthy, inventor of Lisp, Marvin Minsky, founder of the Artificial Intelligence lab, Guy L. Steele, Jr., author of well-known books on Lisp and C, as well as Richard Stallman, the developer of GNU CC. Please join and add your name to the list. Membership dues in the League are $42 per year for programmers, managers and professionals; $10.50 for students; $21 for others. The League needs both activist members and members who only pay their dues. To join, or for more information, phone (617) 492-0023 or write to: League for Programming Freedom 1 Kendall Square #143 P.O. Box 9171 Cambridge, MA 02139 You can also send electronic mail to league@@prep.ai.mit.edu. Here are some suggestions from the League for things you can do to protect your freedom to write programs: Don't buy from Xerox, Lotus or Apple. Buy from their competitors or from the defendants they are suing. Don't develop software to work with the systems made by these companies. Port your existing software to competing systems, so that you encourage users to switch. Write letters to company presidents to let them know their conduct is unacceptable. Tell your friends and colleagues about this issue and how it threatens to ruin the computer industry. Above all, don't work for the look-and-feel plaintiffs, and don't accept contracts from them. Write to Congress to explain the importance of this issue. House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property 2137 Rayburn Bldg Washington, DC 20515 Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights United States Senate Washington, DC 20510 (These committees have received lots of mail already; let's give them even more.) Express your opinion! You can make a difference. ──>> Snip snip, quote <<─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── I totally agree with the words said above. We are programmers, not lawyers. We are here to make a good game, an intuitive database, a quick spreadsheet, or a users-friendly BBS-Program. The interface we use is something which helps programmers to achieve their goals. Restricting people to clone, improve or change is nonsense, it is as much nonsense as a grocer going to court because another grocer sells peaches too or sueing him because he also uses a shop as a medium to sell the products. I would like to push other programmers in the direction too, to copy this quote I took and express your opinion. Tetris Pro - Documentation 5. About the Gravis UltraSound Bytheway, thanks to the Renaissance (and in particular Joshua Jensen) for giving out the source of GUSMod. Our GUS driver for GLX had a bug and we couldn't find it. After taking a peek at GUSMod I found it. I forgot the shut the voice up before playing a new instrument on it. To make things clear, I am not using GUSMod, I'm just inspired by it, I read a text by Joshua Jensen once in which he said he wasn't pleased because people copied his code and said THEY made it. Because of that type of people normal programmers can't anymore learn from each other. This type of lamer should be banned! Anyway, the Gravis UltraSound is the *BEST* SoundCard for IBM PC's and is almost the cheapest. It now replays at somewhat more than 44 KHz 16Bit stereo on every 386 with a GUS. I haven't yet got time to remove all of the UltraClicks yet, but isn't THAT anoying anyway. Maybe I will release a fix when I find out how to do it later. Being support of this great card we know how good it is. The Gravis UltraSound is the programmer's dream and a must for the GamePlayer. If you'd like to know more about it, contact me at the adresses in the beginning of this document. Tetris Pro - Documentation 6. Updates To make it clear, I think I will release an update later. Undoubtedly there are bugs in Tetris Pro, however, I haven't discovered all of them naturally. All the bugs I get info on and can figure out how to remove will be featured in a next version. I do not plan to make more than one update.