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This is a bit of a tangent, and not sure I’ll have any other opportunity to mention this here, but… I used to play the heck out of Tetris on to OG Game Boy. I

This is a bit of a tangent, and not sure I’ll have any other opportunity to mention this here, but… I used to play the heck out of Tetris on to OG Game Boy. I probably played it, by far, more than any other Game Boy game, and probably any game around that 5-10 year period. But boy has it not aged well, at all. I played it recently on the Switch, and couldn’t handle it for more than a few minutes. The lack of multiple next tetrominos, no hold, no instant drop, no ghost, the completely random draw of pieces [1], and it just felt sluggish. I didn’t realize how much it had evolved, and how spoiled I was to the QoL updates over the years (and I think these were all fairly evolutionary additions, making it hard to realize the drastic difference). I’m usually more nostalgic for classic games (I still enjoy playing some classic NES/SNES games), but when it comes to Tetris, give me the modern one any day (Tetris 99 and Tetris Effect are two of my recent favorites). [1] https://simon.lc/the-history-of-tetris-randomizers https://simon.lc/the-history-of-tetris-randomizers Edit: corrected next and quick drop.

ginko 3y ago
There's ROM hacks that add most of the modern features of tetris to the GB version. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5813/ https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5813/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDYciJzzTvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDYciJzzTvw
krs_ 3y ago
I can still play older Tetris games without the modern features and enjoy them for what they are. In fact, I kinda like that there wasn't an established "standard" of how Tetris games should play back then, and the different games feel quite different to play as a result. But the randomizer in the Game Boy game sucks a lot of enjoyment out of it for me. Combined with the shorter playfield (18 rows instead of the standard 20) and the blocks instantly locking upon touching the bottom, it often feels like a single mistake is impossible to recover from at higher levels. Recently I found this romhack for it that essentially adds all those modern features to it, and it does play a lot better. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5813/ https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5813/
cubefox 3y ago
Regarding the randomizer article: Tetris requires some randomness, but also some prevention of "floods" and "droughts". This sounds remarkably like the use of blue noise in dithering. Unlike purely random white noise, blue noise optimizes for "even" sequences without too many repetitions or large gaps in occurrences. I assume a similar thing is possible in a randomizer, which would make more even sequences of draws more likely than ones which are less even. Of course perfectly "even" distributions would no longer be random at all (each of the seven pieces would reoccur after exactly seven steps), but one could make anything else just less likely, depending on how far it deviates from the most likely seven step reoccurrence.
Xenoamorphous 3y ago
> The lack of a next tetromino, no hold, no fast drop, no ghost, the completely random draw of pieces [1], and it just felt sluggish. Maybe I’ve misunderstood something but the original GameBoy Tetris definitely showed you the next piece and had fast drop.
- jader201 3y ago
  You’re right, it does show the next piece. But some modern ones show you more than one (e.g. Tetris 99 shows the next four pieces queued up). Re: fast drop, I mean press up to insta-drop. OG Tetris allowed pressing down for a fast-ish drop, but not instant (which is what I meant).
  - cubefox 3y ago
    Showing more pieces in advance makes the game easier, but it's unclear whether it also makes it better.
    - jader201 3y ago
      Yeah, for sure. I think it can be helpful when planning tetrises, and figuring out whether to just plug the chasm with a non-line piece to buy you some time when you’re close to the top.
blizdiddy 3y ago
For anyone looking for a high quality Tetris clone, check out Apotris https://akouzoukos.com/apotris https://akouzoukos.com/apotris It is for the Gameboy Advance and plays well on handheld emulators and flash carts.

ginko 3y ago

There's ROM hacks that add most of the modern features of tetris to the GB version. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5813/ https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5813/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDYciJzzTvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDYciJzzTvw

krs_ 3y ago

I can still play older Tetris games without the modern features and enjoy them for what they are. In fact, I kinda like that there wasn't an established "standard" of how Tetris games should play back then, and the different games feel quite different to play as a result. But the randomizer in the Game Boy game sucks a lot of enjoyment out of it for me. Combined with the shorter playfield (18 rows instead of the standard 20) and the blocks instantly locking upon touching the bottom, it often feels like a single mistake is impossible to recover from at higher levels. Recently I found this romhack for it that essentially adds all those modern features to it, and it does play a lot better. https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5813/ https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5813/

cubefox 3y ago

Regarding the randomizer article: Tetris requires some randomness, but also some prevention of "floods" and "droughts". This sounds remarkably like the use of blue noise in dithering. Unlike purely random white noise, blue noise optimizes for "even" sequences without too many repetitions or large gaps in occurrences. I assume a similar thing is possible in a randomizer, which would make more even sequences of draws more likely than ones which are less even. Of course perfectly "even" distributions would no longer be random at all (each of the seven pieces would reoccur after exactly seven steps), but one could make anything else just less likely, depending on how far it deviates from the most likely seven step reoccurrence.

Xenoamorphous 3y ago

> The lack of a next tetromino, no hold, no fast drop, no ghost, the completely random draw of pieces [1], and it just felt sluggish. Maybe I’ve misunderstood something but the original GameBoy Tetris definitely showed you the next piece and had fast drop.

jader201 3y ago
You’re right, it does show the next piece. But some modern ones show you more than one (e.g. Tetris 99 shows the next four pieces queued up). Re: fast drop, I mean press up to insta-drop. OG Tetris allowed pressing down for a fast-ish drop, but not instant (which is what I meant).
- cubefox 3y ago
  Showing more pieces in advance makes the game easier, but it's unclear whether it also makes it better.
  - jader201 3y ago
    Yeah, for sure. I think it can be helpful when planning tetrises, and figuring out whether to just plug the chasm with a non-line piece to buy you some time when you’re close to the top.

blizdiddy 3y ago

For anyone looking for a high quality Tetris clone, check out Apotris https://akouzoukos.com/apotris https://akouzoukos.com/apotris It is for the Gameboy Advance and plays well on handheld emulators and flash carts.