Tetris

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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JaySevenZero
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Tetris

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here is where you can leave your thoughts regarding all the many official versions of Tetris for possible inclusion in the podcast when it's recorded.
Joshihatsumitsu

Re: Tetris

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

The original Gameboy was the first gaming system I saved up enough money to buy. Being around nine or ten that meant earning money by doing chores and whatnot, with the end result being a big noisy pile of coins, which I would then give to my parents and they would buy it for me on their credit card. That feeling of pride, of having worked hard to earn something I really wanted, and then finally getting that grey little ever-so-desirable handheld console that I drooled over in gaming magazines all that time... such a good memory.

And what is the Gameboy if not just the perfect vessel for a game like Tetris. Chucking in those four AA batteries, inserting the little game cartridge at the top, flicking the power switch that would also slide a little plastic lock over the cart, the little red led light coming on, and the words "Nintendo" scrolling down the green screen to stop dead centre, with a little chime to top it off... I remember very trivial things for some reason...

And the game itself was, and still is, easy to grasp. There's no need for a tutorial - the attract mode made it pretty clear what you needed to do, and the design was pretty minimal, and being the neat-freak that I am, trying to keep that play area as clean and organised as possible felt very natural to me - order to chaos.

Sometimes I would set the game to level 9 (fastest drop speed) and just see how long I could hold off the inevitable. The sheer panic of the music speeding up, and the anxiety of knowing that it's all going to fall apart if you make one wrong move, and the occasional relief as one line clears another line, and creates a chain reaction that clears a lot of the screen, letting you survive for a little while longer.

Unfortunately, many, many years ago I lent my copy of Tetris to a cousin, only to never see it again (along with Super Mario Land 2). Needless to say, my trust in certain family members wavered significantly, and I'll still to this day have that memory in the back of my mind when I see them... bastards...

Anyhow, I'll have to pick up a Tetris cart again at some point, as there's plenty floating around (and they are much cheaper to buy than the NES Tengen version, which I kinda want). I still have my Gameboy, in excellent condition, and Tetris really does feel most at home to me on that.

I don't know how much this game is going to resonate with people who are much younger than me, growing up with different gaming experiences. Portable hardware has never been more powerful, and can only get more so over time, and the very simplistic minimal design definitely played to the strengths of the Gameboy's underpowered monochrome hardware by never drawing attention to it. It never felt like compromised in the way that other games could be on that system; it just felt so right, kind of like how Super Mario Bros felt just so right for the NES.

So, to me, Tetris equals Gameboy, and Gameboy equals Tetris. I love that game and that system, and I have way to much nostalgic baggage to be objective about it. So go out and buy a Gameboy with Tetris, and some AA batteries.
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Buskalilly
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Re: Tetris

Post by Buskalilly »

I'm sure I'm woefully ill-equipped to say anything interesting about Tetris. From the intrigues of its origin, through its addictiveness, success and ubiquity, it's a game that has been spoken about at length by people much smarter than me. For me personally, the game was pretty perfect right from that Game Boy game and I've never gotten quite as much play out of another version. The only one that came close was the oddly Nintendo-heavy DS edition.

I think Tetris is the perfect example of a singleplayer game as multiplayer. I couldn't count the number of car, bus or plane journeys made bearable by passing a copy of Tetris back and forth to compare scores. Tetris, in its simple design and complex mastery, is probably the closest videogames have come to inventing a new timeless game in the vein of chess or playing cards.
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stvnorman
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Re: Tetris

Post by stvnorman »

I'd I had to name the perfect game, I'd probably pick this. A timeless masterpiece that my words can't do justice to. Three word review: Invaded my dreams!
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hazeredmist
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Re: Tetris

Post by hazeredmist »

Nothing in gaming compares to the desperation of the line piece arriving when you are almost, ALMOST out of space. I love this game, the word timeless is used far too often in gaming nostalgia but this is the best example of a genuinely timeless game I can think of.
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matten zwei
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Re: Tetris

Post by matten zwei »

I remember playing this game during class. I played it that much, that "Tetris" was haunting my dreams. When I was almost asleep, I saw the squares and L-shapes and wanted to turn them, so they fitted to the stacks. Since then I was paying more attention in class.
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MarkHoog
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Re: Tetris

Post by MarkHoog »

Half a life ago, this was probably one of the biggest building block of my gaming persona. Had I not gotten a Game Boy along with this game at such a young age, I might've just stuck to reading books. And, probably due to Tetris' abstract simplicity, the fond memories I have around this game are legion; playing it on long trips in the backseat of my parents' car, killing time with it in the school cantina, playing matches against a 40-year old French bloke called Claude in a hotel bar in Torremolinos... good times. And to this day, the impact of Tetris on my life is palpable. For instance, whenever my girlfriend and I are at the grocery store trying to economically put all our items in a bag that's a tad too small, we start humming the tune. Boy, that tune...
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Mechner
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Re: Tetris

Post by Mechner »

3 WORD REVIEW:

TETRIS WORKS PERFECTLY
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Tetris

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Three Words Review:

"Could Use Leaderboards"
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Hunter30
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Re: Our next podcast recording (20.5.17): Tetris

Post by Hunter30 »

The original Gameboy was my first ever console, and Tetris was one of the first few games that I owned for it. I have to confess though, it never really threatened to claim top spot in my affections at the time, with my younger self usually opting for more flamboyant alternatives such as Super Mario Land when it came to deciding what to play. Given my age I think I can be forgiven for this, although I do harbour a certain amount of Tetris-related guilt and insecurity still; it’s a bit like when you watch an indie film which everyone says is really clever, and because you just don’t get it, you worry that the logical conclusion is that you are really stupid.

This isn’t to say that I never spent any time playing Tetris. I did, and certainly had my moments with it – the satisfaction of slotting in one of the long ‘I’ shapes and clearing several rows in one fell swoop is something I remember well, as is that iconic earworm of a soundtrack. Another abiding memory is that my step-mum, who has never shown the slightest interest in any other computer games either before or since, really enjoyed playing it, and on occasion would borrow my Gameboy for that reason!

Ultimately, I regard Tetris as something of an ugly duckling, underappreciated (by me at least) in its earlier years, but a game whose impact and simplistic genius I’ve subsequently come to recognise.
Angryzeusgaming

Re: Our next podcast recording (20.5.17): Tetris

Post by Angryzeusgaming »

Tetris was the first time I had ever experienced an unavoidable pull towards a video game. I first played Tetris on the NES and, unlike other NES games, Tetris was not instantly punishingly difficult. It had a simple formula to follow. Make lines. Make more lines. Make 4 lines and the screen flashes. It had a haunting and addictive soundtrack, now famous, and it always prodded the player forward, challenging them by continuously increasing the speed until the screen filled with blocks.

My brother and I had played a ton of NES games before this. The difference with Tetris was that it never got old. No matter how much we loved Mega Man 2, the Dr. Wily stages would always torture us and we would walk away dejected when the game hit the difficulty level that our pre-adolescent thumbs couldn't keep up with. Tetris both allowed you to feel skilled and helpless at the same time. We would sit for hours transfixed by the blocks, hypothesizing what color they would change to if you could hit 200. We would compete back and forth even though it was not yet two player. Tetris, for us, was a perfect game. A game anyone could play, yet none could conquer.

It is clear that I have a romantic relationship with Tetris. I'm ok with that. Now, back to playing Puyo Puyo Tetris on my Switch.
Todinho

Re: Our next podcast recording (20.5.17): Tetris

Post by Todinho »

Dont have much to say about Tetris but anything that I might've said I think Mathewmatosis covered on his Tetris video, one of his best:


TWR: Perfect Puzzle Phenomenom
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