99 Tetris bricks on the wall, 99 Tetris bricks, take one down, toss it around...

November 13, 2008 7:30 AM

99 Bricks is what you get when you cross Tetris with Jenga. Instead of keeping your tower's height to a minimum, the goal is to get it as high as possible with 99 bricks. And the bricks don't stick to each other anymore. One wrong placement and they'll fall all over the place.
posted by grouse (29 comments total)

I was going to post this tomorrow...it is more difficult than it sounds, you really have to mke sure that you place the blocks carefully. Press 'c' to discard a block you don't want to use.
posted by schyler523 at 7:45 AM on November 13, 2008

That was fun. 369!
posted by k8t at 8:08 AM on November 13, 2008

437, by discarding everything but squares and the long ones, and building a two wide tower in the middle.
posted by clearly at 8:09 AM on November 13, 2008

I got in the 500s somewhere last week, but eventually no amount careful placement can save you.
posted by DU at 8:16 AM on November 13, 2008

You bastard!

I have several pages to finish today!

Argh!
posted by The Whelk at 8:24 AM on November 13, 2008

If you like this, Topple for the iPhone (App Store link) is very similar, but more difficult because it incorporates tilting and curved bases into it.
posted by joshrholloway at 8:29 AM on November 13, 2008

I got 585, only dropped two bricks totally since an undulation made one of the bricks land crooked. This is a great game though. Reminds me a bit of world of goo.
posted by I Foody at 8:44 AM on November 13, 2008

Warning: Crack Cocaine
posted by limon at 8:46 AM on November 13, 2008

"Press 'c' to discard a block you don't want to use." - schyler523

That takes the entire challenge out of it.
posted by SteveFlamingo at 8:47 AM on November 13, 2008

~ That takes the entire challenge out of it.

Not really, the movable area is wider than the platform at the bottom, so all pressing 'c' does is save you from having to scoot the piece off the edge and wait.

This is more fun than most online games that start out by saying "like Tetris, but…"
posted by paisley henosis at 8:51 AM on November 13, 2008

639, by building something that looked very Empire State Building-ish. Platform width up until about 500, then slowly tapering to a 2-brick wide spire.
posted by anthill at 8:57 AM on November 13, 2008

I hate my new addiction.
posted by mandal at 9:09 AM on November 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

You son of a bitch; I have a deadline.
posted by Pecinpah at 9:13 AM on November 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

You absolute bastard. I have things to DO.
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 9:25 AM on November 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

I vote lame because you can't slide the bricks into place to fill in vertical gaps like in Tetris. As soon as I try, the falling brick transmits its entire vertical momentum horizontally against the tower. Which is weak-sauce physics.
posted by BeerFilter at 9:41 AM on November 13, 2008

I got 99 bricks but lego aint one.



hit me!
posted by cashman at 10:09 AM on November 13, 2008

Another variant: Under Construction
And, of course, a version of the original Tetris (w/ 5 subsequent versions).
I shouldn't have waited for FF either, schyler523
posted by carsonb at 10:19 AM on November 13, 2008 [3 favorites]

The physics are actually pretty awesome. The fact that you can transfer momentum lets you use them like a mallet to shore up your otherwise rickety design. The key seems to be to make sure that you don't end up building several tall runs that don't interconnect with each other. If you do end up with multiple touching but not interleaved structures gravity will soon be demonstrated.
posted by substrate at 10:41 AM on November 13, 2008

I got 99 problems but a brick ain't one.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:56 AM on November 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

oh man. there goes my day!
posted by fuzzypantalones at 11:41 AM on November 13, 2008

This is awesome! I was delighted the hear the sound of bricks hitting the floor. Funny you posted this, just today I was thinking about a game called 3D blocks I used to play on my old (very old) PC. One of those "like Tetris, but…" games. It even had a color setting to make it work with 3D glasses. this link is for a pocket version.
posted by SheMulp AKA Plus 1 at 11:51 AM on November 13, 2008

A trick to help you get a higher tower:

As your tower begins to fall over, simply hold "down" and watch as blocks pile upon each other with lag before falling! There's an analogy in here somewhere about the US financial crisis, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
posted by tehloki at 12:21 PM on November 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

this is cool.
posted by brevator at 12:56 PM on November 13, 2008

646. I built - carefully - an overhanging platform to each side on the bottom layer. Seemed to work.
posted by tawny at 2:59 PM on November 13, 2008

744. I started with a .5 block overhang on my platform on each side. The tower was about 80% solid, tapered to -.5/side of the platform at about 200, -1.5 at around 350, etc. I managed to get a pretty absurdly high spire, and actually ran out of blocks. Keeping the bottom of your tower interlocked and rock solid seems to be the key.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 8:43 PM on November 13, 2008

All that stacking bales on the family farm helped. This is a very faithful rendition of that experience, if bale makers were stupid.

Sloppy 300
posted by sleslie at 9:37 PM on November 13, 2008

And they stayed put after falling! HA!

Sloppy 300 aftermath
posted by sleslie at 9:42 PM on November 13, 2008

I kinda enjoyed just holding the down the drop key and letting them smash into each other, spilling all over the place. Got to 200 before it all came tumbling down.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 11:19 PM on November 13, 2008

Got 412 by holding the down key. More than I got by playing properly!
posted by dave99 at 4:06 AM on November 17, 2008