tetris
Latest
Game Boy Tetris leaving eShop on New Year's Eve
Shall old acquaintance be forgot And days of breaking lines Shall old acquaintance be forgot And Nintendo is pulling Tetris from 3DS eShop on New Years Eve Maybe it has something to do with Ubisoft. Okay, so it's not as catchy as Auld Lang Syne, but it might make you just as weepy. Nintendo has confirmed via its UK Twitter account that the Game Boy version of Tetris, a game that helped define Nintendo's handheld and portable gaming in general, will be pulled from the 3DS eShop on December 31. It appears that Tetris Axis for the 3DS is also being pulled, according to an image from the 3DS eShop news section posted on Twitter. Nintendo of America has yet to make a similar announcement, and the US eShops make no note of either game being removed, so it's possible that this applies only to the UK. As for why Tetris would be removed from the eShop, it may have something to do with Ubisoft's Tetris Ultimate, which was recently released on 3DS. We've contacted Nintendo of America to confirm if the US version is to be removed as well. If you'd rather not take your chances, the Game Boy version can still be had for $3.99. Unless, of course, you've somehow managed to keep your old Game Boy in working condition all these years. [Image: Nintendo]
Tetris feature film will be a 'sci-fi epic'
Feature film production company Threshold Entertainment announced today that it has partnered with The Tetris Company to produce a movie adaptation of the seminal puzzler Tetris. If you're thinking about how perfectly film could capture the global drama surrounding Tetris' initial licensing, you can stop dreaming right now. The film version of Tetris will instead be a "sci-fi epic," presumably about a heroic L-shaped Tetromino taking on waves of evil T-Polyominos, or something. Little is known about the film at this point, but the concept makes about as much sense as the canned Asteroids project from several years back. Threshold Entertainment's previous game-to-movie efforts include 1995's Mortal Kombat film and follow-up Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. A release window for Tetris: The Movie has not been set. [Image: Nintendo / The Cutting Room Floor]
There will be blocks: 'Tetris' is coming to the big screen
If you've ever pined for a feature film about the beloved 80s classic Tetris, you're in luck. The Wall Street Journal reports that an adaptation of the popular game is on its way, thanks to Threshold Entertainment. While that studio may not immediately ring a bell, it's the force behind transforming Mortal Kombat into two full-length movies in 1995 and 1997. So, what can we expect? A "very big, epic sci-fi" effort that aims to be much more than a bunch of CGI blocks with arms and legs. "What you [will] see in 'Tetris' is the teeny tip of an iceberg that has intergalactic significance," Threshold CEO Larry Kasanoff tells WSJ. What's more, "location-based entertainment based on the epicness" in addition to the film itself could be in the plans, too. One thing's for sure: these folks are going to be pretty excited about the news. [Photo credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images]
This playable Tetris T-shirt requires you to touch yourself
In the 30 years since Alexey Pajitnov first launched Tetris, the world's most popular game has regularly been immortalized in fashion. Luxembourgian Mark Kreger wanted to do the same, but instead of cooking up a colorful print, he's staving off boredom with something much more interactive: a playable Tetris T-shirt. Featuring 128 LEDs powered by an Arduino Uno microcontroller, Kreger's marvellous tee requires only four rechargeable AA batteries to power the game. It'll keep score and display level numbers -- the only thing it appears to be lacking is the super-funky soundtrack.
Tetris Ultimate to also clear neatly aligned lines on 3DS
Tetris Ultimate will drop into the 3DS' library this fall in the UK, according to a release schedule shared by Ubisoft. The shape-aligning classic includes four-player multiplayer and six game modes: Marathon, Endless, Ultra, Sprint, Battle and Power-up Battle. Ultimate's initial press release also states that the puzzler "captures and saves your play style, allowing you to always be able to play with or against your friends, even when they are offline." In other words, you won't even have to be around to annihilate your friends in shape-stacking. Sounds efficient! Vita owners recently learned they'll be counting Ultimate as an option in the fall, while PS4, Xbox One and PC owners were acknowledged during the game's announcement. With its gradual descent toward us, Ultimate is certainly the newest block on the grid, but we still wouldn't mind seeing the excellent Tetris DS appear on the Wii U's Virtual Console at some point. [Image: Ubisoft]
Tetris Ultimate drops to Vita this fall
The next entry in the saga of longstanding falling block puzzler Tetris will continue its tradition of appearing on handheld platforms, as Tetris Ultimate will launch on Vita this fall. Announced last week, Tetris Ultimate includes four-player multiplayer and six different modes. The game will hit Vita alongside PC after it reaches Xbox One and PS4 this summer. The game celebrates a major anniversary: Tetris just celebrated 30 years of love, life and the liberation of blocky lines. [Image: Ubisoft]
Feedback Loop: must-play video games, Netflix woes and more
June is here! Let's get this summer started with a fresh edition of Feedback Loop. Kris finds a list of video games we must play before we die; Netflix tries to shame ISPs; Tetris hits the big three-zero and we discuss whether everything announced at WWDC was innovative enough. All that and more past the break!
Tetris celebrates 30 years as the world's favorite puzzle game
After three decades, billions of points and far too many of those useless Z-shaped monstrosities that always arrive at the worst possible moment, the universally-beloved puzzle game Tetris is now celebrating its thirtieth birthday. Originally conceived by Alexey Pajitnov during the final years of the Cold War, Tetris did what so many other Soviet creations could never manage: It escaped the Iron Curtain and proved an even bigger hit in the international market, reportedly selling more than 150 million copies since it debuted in 1984. Nintendo owes much of the success of the original GameBoy - and its success as a company - to Pajitnov's puzzler, as it was the handheld's "must own" game from its debut all the way up until 1996, when that title was usurped by a certain fuzzy, electric rat. "I never imagined Tetris was going to be this successful, but the simple, yet addicting nature of Tetris still has me playing it a few times every week," said Pajitnov. "I meet fans from around the world who are also as passionate about Tetris as me, and there is no doubt in my mind Tetris will continue to expand and bring its classic appeal to new players in new ways and on new devices, whatever they may be." To officially celebrate this milestone, Ubisoft plans to debut Tetris Ultimate on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC later this year. [Image: Nintendo]
Happy 30th birthday, Tetris
It's been 30 years since Alexey Pajitnov crafted the world's most popular game of all time, while as an employee of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Tetris spent the next 10 years bouncing onto every computer and arcade machine, including selling 33 million copies on the Game Boy alone. Pajitnov, however, saw almost none of the success of his creation, since the rights to his game wouldn't revert back to him until 1996. But by that point, Tetris' place in world history was secure, and the title has since gone on to sell 100 million copies, not to mention popping up in some rather unexpected places. Hop on over to the forums to share your favorite Tetris memories.
New generation finally begins in summer with Tetris Ultimate
Let's face it, the new generation of consoles isn't really here until there's Tetris on them. Tetris Ultimate is the latest-iteration of the iconic block dropper, and it's coming to Xbox One and PS4 this summer, followed by PC in the fall. It features multiplayer for up to four players (Ubisoft's wording indicates that includes online at least) and six self-descriptive modes, namely Marathon, Endless, Ultra, Sprint, Battle and Power-up Battle.
Watch this guy shred through four decades of video game music
Sure, some video games require lightning-fast fingers, but even the most insane combos in Street Fighter don't quite compare to running up and down a guitar's fretboard lickety-split. To pay tribute to 40-plus years of gaming history, YouTuber FamilyJules7X put together an epic 17-minute performance (embedded after the break) of music from the medium's past and present. If you ever wanted to hear heavy metal versions of classic game-themes like Space Invaders, Phozon and Tetris alongside those of Donkey Kong Country, Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Fallout 3, this should be right up your alley. Most impressive? Jules shot the video, mixed the audio, programmed the drums and performed the guitar and bass parts himself in eight days -- all during his last week of college finals. If you want to download an MP3 of the track, hit the YouTube page. Now, if you'll pardon us, we have some head-banging to do.
Professor aims to create 'shared moment' using Tetris and a skyscraper
Humans are social creatures yet technology often serves to isolate us. Professor Frank Lee believes it can also be used to bring us together. The footage above captures a recent multiplayer game of Tetris playing out across the sides of the 29-story-tall Cira Centre in Philadelphia. Randomly selected players took turns manipulating and dropping tetrominoes, with their actions displayed via LED lights attached to the building. From that towering vantage, the game was visible to people across the city and for that brief period, the game became what Professor Lee calls a "social beacon" for the citizens of Philadelphia. Speaking to Polygon, Professor Lee also explains that he hopes this event will encourage people toward coding. "Coding is going to be so important in our future," Lee said. "Certainly you have a lot of people saying that as well, but this will be a fun way to engage students who might have never thought about going into programming." "[I want] to use this as a platform to try to reach those groups and those students to think about programming as a very creative endeavor." [Image: Drexel University]
Watch this massive game of Tetris play out on a Philly skyscraper (video)
Tetris is turning 30 (yes, thirty!) in June, so some folks threw it one epic pre-birthday party at Philly Tech Week's kickoff event this April 5th. What'd they do, you ask? They used the 29-story Cira Centre building as a screen to play an enormous game of Tetris that could be seen in many parts of the city, as you can watch in the clip after the break. While this isn't the first time someone rigged the facade of a building to play Tetris -- there was that one time in France and another at MIT, which was actually a brilliant prank by its students -- this is possibly the largest attempt, thus far.
Tetris used to help curb addictive cravings in UK study
UK researchers have found that playing a game of Tetris can help reduce cravings for people with addictions. The study, published in scientific journal Appetite, was designed to test Elaborated Intrusion Theory, which suggests that cravings are not just desire-based, but visual as well. The researchers therefore hypothesized that performing a visual-intensive task - in this case, Tetris - could reduce cravings. A group of 119 college students were told to describe their cravings before playing a game of Tetris, at which point the game would either load or produce an error message claiming it could not be played. Students who successfully completed a game saw their cravings reduced by 24 percent more than those who did not. While the researchers used Tetris in their analysis, Jackie Andrade, Plymouth University psychology professor and co-author of the study, told NBC that anything visually stimulating would work. "It also doesn't have to be mentally demanding, but if it is, it has a better chance to block the craving," she said. In other words, even watching TV - supposing it's not The Food Channel - could potentially work to curb the munchies. However, the interactive nature of games makes them not only more demanding of your attention, but also more fun (we know, it's a shock), which in turn made participants of the study better adhere to using them as the researchers intended. It's not exactly an isolated event, either. We've seen games be used to help get senior women active, thus lowering their levels of urinary incontinence. It's almost as though people enjoy video games or something. More research on this is clearly needed. Everyone, play your video games and report back here, ASAP. [Image: EA]
Kick off this year's Philly Tech Week with a gigantic game of Tetris
There's a few reasons why Tetris is one of gaming's most enduring classics: it's easy to pick up, hard to master and can be played on just about any platform -- including the sides of a building. Drexel University students are rigging the city of brotherly love's Cira Centre with LEDs to play Tetris on a massive scale for the kick-off of this year's Philly Tech Week. The school did something similar in 2013 with a giant version of Pong (video below), but the difference is that this time two sides of the 29-story Cira Centre will be used instead of just one. This will cover more than 100,000 square feet of the building's façade and, according to the university, it should be visible from just about anywhere in Philadelphia. Should the installation go off without a hitch, Drexel will set another Guinness World Record for largest architectural video game display. If you want to show off your block-dropping skills on a massive scale come April 4th, there's a sign-up at the source. [Image credit: michaelwm25/Flickr]
Daily Roundup: the travels of Myspace Tom, a business card that plays Tetris, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
This Arduino-powered business card looks like a Game Boy and runs Tetris (video)
Off-white business cards with Silian Rail lettering are so passé -- these days; it's all about creativity. This Game Boy look-alike, for instance, demonstrates its creator's skills in one fell swoop: It doesn't just display a résumé, it's also a simple gaming handheld that can play Tetris. The device was made by Oregon programmer Kevin Bates, who calls it the Arduboy, because it uses a barebones Arduino board (the tiny computer also found inside Kegbot and Fish on Wheels) connected to an OLED screen. To make the hand-held gaming experience as authentic as possible, he also equipped the card with capacitive touch buttons, a speaker and a replaceable battery that lasts up to nine hours.
Twitch Plays Pokemon Plays Tetris as reality folds in on itself
The tens of thousands of Twitch members who are participating in a crowd-sourced playthrough of Pokemon Red are also unknowingly taking part in an ongoing game of Tetris. Twitch Plays Pokemon Plays Tetris captures input requests from the Twitch Plays Pokemon chat and repurposes them for the strangest, lowest-scoring game of Tetris you've likely seen. Curated by Xkeeper, Twitch Plays Pokemon Plays Tetris features a modified version of Nintendo's 8-bit Tetris that gives players greater control over tetrimino placement...in theory. The mod adds a feature that sends falling pieces toward the top of the screen every time an "up" input is registered, adding to the chaos. It's a very deliberately paced game of Tetris, in other words. Scores are low and completed lines are rare, but possible. Other Twitch Plays Pokemon-inspired bits of madness that have cropped up over the last week include Twitch Plays QWOP and RNG Plays Pokemon, which uses a random number generator to decide input. [Image: Nintendo/Twitch]
Apple rejecting Flappy Bird knockoffs, and other news for Feb. 17, 2014
In a hopeful sign that the Flappy Bird craze is abating, Apple has begun rejecting apps that are knockoffs of the popular Flappy Bird game. You'll remember that the developer pulled the game last week, saying that its popularity was overwhelming. Since then, many knockoffs have appeared in the App Store, and several have been reached the top 10 free apps. The news of the blanket rejection of Flappy Bird clones started appearing on Twitter on Saturday. As TechCrunch notes, Apple isn't the only one rejecting Flappy Bird knockoffs. Google has started rejecting them in the Play store as well. In other news: T-Mobile's early upgrade Jump plan is going through some changes. Now customers will have to pay of 50% of their devices before they can upgrade. Users of the Apple Store app can get the official TETRIS app for free this week. Users must obtain the code in the Apple Store app to get it for free. BBM for iOS has been upgraded to version 2.0 with free voice calls over Wi-Fi to other BBM users.
Tetris meets Lemmings in Mousecraft, coming this summer
Combining intrepid rodents with the gaming industry's favorite suffix comes Mousecraft, a new puzzle game from indie developer Crunching Koalas which is coming to the Vita courtesy Curve Studios. "The basic gameplay [in Mousecraft] is very simple: Your goal is to lead a group of mice through a machine to find the cheese at the other end of the level," wrote Curve Studios PR manager Rob Clarke on the PlayStation.blog. "You don't control the mice directly however, but instead control their environment through the use of many different types of classic 'Tetromino' blocks that can be dropped onto the level." "Imagine the careful strategy and planning of a game like Lemmings with the blocks and fast-paced decision making of Tetris, and you've got an idea of how Mousecraft works," Clarke added. According to the developer, Mousecraft will feature 50 stages of increasing complexity, online leaderboards, an in-game ranking system, collectables to hunt and a "fully-featured level editor available during launch." Curve Studios claims that Mousecraft "should" be available on Vita and PC at some point in May, with a PlayStation 4 version of the puzzle game following this summer. It's currently unknown what price point will be attached to Mousecraft. Update: Originally this article described Curve Studios as the creator of Mousecraft. Crunching Koalas is actually the creator the indie game, while Curve is responsible for bringing Mousecraft to the Vita. [Image: Curve Studios]
