The New Tetris
Encyclopedia
The New Tetris is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo 64
. The game was developed by H2O Entertainment and published by Nintendo
, based on the latter's popular Tetris
series. The game was originally released on July 31, 1999 in North America.
The game is notable for showing scenic fly-bys of famous structures (for examples the Sphinx
, the Pantheon
, Saint Basil's Cathedral
, a Mayan temple, and others) rendered in realtime. This is relatively difficult for the Nintendo 64 hardware to accomplish at the quality that is achieved. The New Tetris also features a multiplayer mode with up to four players and an ethnically themed electronic dance music
soundtrack by Neil D. Voss
, who also composed the award-winning music for Tetrisphere
.
Second, in order to aid in the planning of building blocks, the game shows three upcoming pieces and has a "storage area" where a spare piece can be stored. If the piece in the storage area is more desirable than the currently falling piece, the player can press the L button to swap the currently falling piece with the stored piece.
One other feature is that the rotation is much more flexible than in traditional Tetris games, trying several slight nudges, which players have called "wall kicks", before finding one where the tetromino fits. Some of these compensations move the pieces away from walls even "over" other pieces. In fact, the game rewards players for performing these seemingly impossible "spin moves": If a line is cleared by doing a spin move, all the pieces above or below the spin move break apart into individual blocks and fall down, possibly clearing many lines and filling in empty spaces in the bottom portion of the play area. Unfortunately, the spin move process causes golden and silver blocks to become ordinary pieces again and so they no longer carry their multiplier when cleared.
Tetris Worlds
includes the rules of The New Tetris under the name "Square Tetris", with even more flexible wall kick rules, although the rule for what constitutes a spin move differs significantly.
The Lead programmer on The New Tetris, David Pridie, placed a secret hidden rant within the code which was dumped by hackers soon after the release of the game.
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
. The game was developed by H2O Entertainment and published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
, based on the latter's popular Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
series. The game was originally released on July 31, 1999 in North America.
The game is notable for showing scenic fly-bys of famous structures (for examples the Sphinx
Sphinx
A sphinx is a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head or a cat head.The sphinx, in Greek tradition, has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless...
, the Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome
The Pantheon ,Rarely Pantheum. This appears in Pliny's Natural History in describing this edifice: Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.from ,...
, Saint Basil's Cathedral
Saint Basil's Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat , popularly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral , is a Russian Orthodox church erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–61. Built on the order of Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the...
, a Mayan temple, and others) rendered in realtime. This is relatively difficult for the Nintendo 64 hardware to accomplish at the quality that is achieved. The New Tetris also features a multiplayer mode with up to four players and an ethnically themed electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
soundtrack by Neil D. Voss
Neil D. Voss
Neil D. Voss is a critically acclaimed composer who writes soundtracks for Nintendo video games.Voss' first recognized work was on Tetrisphere for Nintendo 64 in 1997, an acclaimed effort that earned him a "Best Soundtrack" award from Nintendo Power for that year. Later he composed tracks for The...
, who also composed the award-winning music for Tetrisphere
Tetrisphere
Tetrisphere is a falling block puzzle video game for the Nintendo 64 console. Developed by Canadian company H2O Entertainment, a nearly-complete version of the game was originally slated for release on the Atari Jaguar in early 1995...
.
Game differences
There are several key differences in gameplay from the original Tetris. First, in addition to clearing lines, one can also form 4x4 large squares of four pieces to form 'blocks'. When a block is created, it turns solid gold or silver, depending on the makeup of the block—a block built from all the same kind of piece becomes a golden block or "monosquare", while any other combination becomes a silver block or "multisquare". Blocks can only be constructed from whole pieces: if any part of a piece has been cleared, then it cannot be used to form a block. When a line that has pieces from a block is cleared, it earns more points.Second, in order to aid in the planning of building blocks, the game shows three upcoming pieces and has a "storage area" where a spare piece can be stored. If the piece in the storage area is more desirable than the currently falling piece, the player can press the L button to swap the currently falling piece with the stored piece.
Tetris Worlds
Tetris Worlds
Tetris Worlds is a version of the popular video game Tetris. Originally released in 2001 for PC and the GBA, it later was released for the Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 in 2002. In 2003, an Xbox Live capable and a single-disc compilation versions Tetris Worlds is a version of the popular video...
includes the rules of The New Tetris under the name "Square Tetris", with even more flexible wall kick rules, although the rule for what constitutes a spin move differs significantly.
The Lead programmer on The New Tetris, David Pridie, placed a secret hidden rant within the code which was dumped by hackers soon after the release of the game.