Because bigger is always better.
March 11, 2009 4:26 PM Subscribe
This is the least fun game of Tetris I have ever played. And let me tell you, I've had some heart-wrenching games of Tetris.
posted by Lemurrhea at 4:37 PM on March 11, 2009 [13 favorites]
posted by Lemurrhea at 4:37 PM on March 11, 2009 [13 favorites]
Finally, I can take advantage of that big-ass widescreen monitor.
posted by box at 4:42 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by box at 4:42 PM on March 11, 2009
Someday Penny Arcade will make me laugh.
But it is not this day! [/aragorn]
posted by Joe Beese at 4:43 PM on March 11, 2009
But it is not this day! [/aragorn]
posted by Joe Beese at 4:43 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:47 PM on March 11, 2009 [6 favorites]w h a t
I made one line in 20 minutes.
I have just wasted 20 minutes.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 4:49 PM on March 11, 2009 [4 favorites]
I have just wasted 20 minutes.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 4:49 PM on March 11, 2009 [4 favorites]
No it isn't.
posted by localroger at 4:56 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by localroger at 4:56 PM on March 11, 2009
Not fun. At all.
posted by in the methow at 4:57 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by in the methow at 4:57 PM on March 11, 2009
Delightfully unfun!
posted by aubilenon at 5:06 PM on March 11, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 5:06 PM on March 11, 2009 [3 favorites]
Oh shit. That just hurts my brains looking at it. It's the same hurt I get when I think about the amount of human labor involved in building the pyramids.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:11 PM on March 11, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 5:11 PM on March 11, 2009 [2 favorites]
It makes pretty shapes if you let it run for a few hours.
posted by empath at 5:13 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by empath at 5:13 PM on March 11, 2009
More from the "i saw this on boingboing so by God I'd better immediately go post it on metafilter file....
posted by joe defroster at 5:20 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by joe defroster at 5:20 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
Via our own waxy, pretty shapes if you let it run for a few hours.
posted by Nelson at 5:20 PM on March 11, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 5:20 PM on March 11, 2009 [3 favorites]
Good God. I feel the old Tetris mindsuck on this. 25 minutes later, having finished a line, I have 20 points. That was about 24 minutes too long for that joke.
posted by Michael Roberts at 5:22 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by Michael Roberts at 5:22 PM on March 11, 2009
joe:
Wrong, you obnoxious thread-shitter.
I got it from rockpapershotgun. I don't even read boing boing.
posted by empath at 5:24 PM on March 11, 2009 [12 favorites]
Wrong, you obnoxious thread-shitter.
I got it from rockpapershotgun. I don't even read boing boing.
posted by empath at 5:24 PM on March 11, 2009 [12 favorites]
There was a time when I think I had the highest score ever in Tetris on Nintendo. Is that possible?
posted by jonmrich at 5:24 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by jonmrich at 5:24 PM on March 11, 2009
That was fun for about 4 seconds.
posted by alligatorman at 5:27 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by alligatorman at 5:27 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
The Great Big Mulp: "I made one line in 20 minutes.
I have just wasted 20 minutes."
My twenty minute waste.
posted by defenestration at 5:36 PM on March 11, 2009 [48 favorites]
I have just wasted 20 minutes."
My twenty minute waste.
posted by defenestration at 5:36 PM on March 11, 2009 [48 favorites]
pretty shapes if you let it run for a few hours weeks
posted by you at 5:39 PM on March 11, 2009 [10 favorites]
posted by you at 5:39 PM on March 11, 2009 [10 favorites]
And those random-run results just scream cellular automata to me. The patterns of growth are really compelling; I'd love to see something like an attempt to describe them formally.
posted by cortex at 5:56 PM on March 11, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by cortex at 5:56 PM on March 11, 2009 [2 favorites]
I have always credited my amazing car packing abilities with the hours and hours I spent playing Tetris. This however is no help.
posted by Bango Skank at 6:12 PM on March 11, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by Bango Skank at 6:12 PM on March 11, 2009 [2 favorites]
DO NOT GET
posted by hermitosis at 6:20 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by hermitosis at 6:20 PM on March 11, 2009
It would be nice to see a timelapse of a random run.
Hmmm. . . but what if you could play it much faster--maybe that would be fun?
posted by flotson at 6:27 PM on March 11, 2009
Hmmm. . . but what if you could play it much faster--maybe that would be fun?
posted by flotson at 6:27 PM on March 11, 2009
Hell no. Just when I thought my tetris addiction knew no bounds....this is it.
posted by availablelight at 6:30 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by availablelight at 6:30 PM on March 11, 2009
Actually I think this game is an argument against immortality or extremely extended life spans. This game has taken something fun and made winning so monotonous that it seems more fun trying to lose than it trying to win.
posted by Knigel at 6:30 PM on March 11, 2009 [9 favorites]
posted by Knigel at 6:30 PM on March 11, 2009 [9 favorites]
Flip them upside down, and then they really look Wolfram-esque with all the triangles, it's practically Rule 110 right there.
posted by amuseDetachment at 6:43 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by amuseDetachment at 6:43 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
posted by Rhaomi at 6:46 PM on March 11, 2009 [56 favorites]
posted by Rhaomi at 6:46 PM on March 11, 2009 [56 favorites]
Hmmm. . . but what if you could play it much faster--maybe that would be fun?
Aha!
posted by carter at 6:47 PM on March 11, 2009
Aha!
posted by carter at 6:47 PM on March 11, 2009
I'm going to beat you all. With my high score. Of 1. You just wait.
posted by iamkimiam at 7:00 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by iamkimiam at 7:00 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
Someone, somewhere is working on an epic game of this just waiting to show the whole interwebs what's up.
Can teh win be ironic?
posted by defenestration at 7:11 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
Can teh win be ironic?
posted by defenestration at 7:11 PM on March 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
I'm going to shut off disasters and let it run over night and see how much tax money I have in the morning to build and Arcology then I am going to destroy everything with earthquakes and foods!
posted by cjorgensen at 7:20 PM on March 11, 2009 [7 favorites]
posted by cjorgensen at 7:20 PM on March 11, 2009 [7 favorites]
I never thought I'd get tired of wasting time on the internet.
Thank you for proving me wrong.
posted by never used baby shoes at 7:20 PM on March 11, 2009
Thank you for proving me wrong.
posted by never used baby shoes at 7:20 PM on March 11, 2009
This makes me think of the end of the David Gerrold novel "When Harley Was One". The final, evolved Harley would just eat this up, over eons.
posted by hwestiii at 7:38 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by hwestiii at 7:38 PM on March 11, 2009
A bigger field demands more shapes made of more squares. Otherwise, yeah, a line takes like 20 minutes. I made it about a minute, then my ADD kicked in.
posted by krinklyfig at 8:13 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by krinklyfig at 8:13 PM on March 11, 2009
It would be nice to see a timelapse of a random run.
Hold down the enter button.
posted by rubah at 8:24 PM on March 11, 2009
Hold down the enter button.
posted by rubah at 8:24 PM on March 11, 2009
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
posted by Rhaomi at 8:46 PM
Woke up my wife with my laughing. I feel your pain, friend.
posted by ColdChef at 8:33 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by Rhaomi at 8:46 PM
Woke up my wife with my laughing. I feel your pain, friend.
posted by ColdChef at 8:33 PM on March 11, 2009
Ha! That made me...laugh out loud. My wife is a Tetris junkie, I'll have to show her this.
posted by zardoz at 8:44 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by zardoz at 8:44 PM on March 11, 2009
That reminds me off a song I heard this weekend
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 9:47 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 9:47 PM on March 11, 2009
It actually took me about 15 seconds to figure out what was going on. It loaded with a mostly white screen w/ some text in the corners. I was waiting for the piece to appear. Then I realized that it, the piece, was the 4 pixel long squiggle up in the corner. I only placed 4 of them before I shut down the window.
posted by Severian at 10:48 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by Severian at 10:48 PM on March 11, 2009
should be able to click to place the pieces, then this could be maybe interesting.
posted by philosophistry at 11:51 PM on March 11, 2009
posted by philosophistry at 11:51 PM on March 11, 2009
I seriously doubt the author intended this as a game. It is more commentary on the futilit of puzzle games or something in that vein. I.e. a piece of art.
posted by Harald74 at 1:19 AM on March 12, 2009
posted by Harald74 at 1:19 AM on March 12, 2009
This is my favorite implementation of Tetris. It recognizes which piece you need the most, and deliberately refuses to give it to you.
posted by rifflesby at 2:02 AM on March 12, 2009 [5 favorites]
posted by rifflesby at 2:02 AM on March 12, 2009 [5 favorites]
cortex: I wondered about that, too. Here's a quick upper bound of 16:21 on the minimum slope. Probably there are better schemes if you have some lookahead, I guess.
posted by equalpants at 3:30 AM on March 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by equalpants at 3:30 AM on March 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
...er, correction: 7:12, not 16:21
posted by equalpants at 3:43 AM on March 12, 2009
posted by equalpants at 3:43 AM on March 12, 2009
Why would you suck all of the joy out of tetris like that? Seriously, what kind of evil heartless bastard are you?
posted by cerulgalactus at 3:46 AM on March 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by cerulgalactus at 3:46 AM on March 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
posted by chrismear at 6:36 AM on March 12, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by chrismear at 6:36 AM on March 12, 2009 [3 favorites]
equalpants: awesome. I was halfway there with a post-it note last night but ended up eating tacos and watching old BSG instead.
One thing that occurred to me as I was slow-building my slope last night was that I was probably hurting (as in, unnecessarily increasing) the overall slope by opting for the larger form of the 1:1 pieces.
You can keep the 1:1 ratio going with the mirror-L and the Z shapes but do them as 2:2 by laying them lengthwise instead of vertical, which when I first started dropping pieces I decided was good enough. It wasn't until a quarter of the way up the screen and some idle thought later that I realized that even if 1:1 ~ 2:2 in terms of the the raw per-piece slope, it would be better to go for the vertical 1:1 alignment just to reduce the proportional slice of slope for which those non-optimal pieces were responsible.
So I just stuck with it to be consistent. But you've vindicated my second thoughts! 7:12 is markedly better than the 9:14 I was producing.
It might be fun to calculate the average rather than minimal slope, too: follow the same "left-most stacking" rule for placement but calculate slope for all four (or two, or one, per-piece symmetry accounted for) rotations of each piece and work out the slope over time if rotation is disabled. I might knock that out in a bit, actually.
Tackling true random stacking would be the next step, but that's a huge step.
posted by cortex at 7:26 AM on March 12, 2009
One thing that occurred to me as I was slow-building my slope last night was that I was probably hurting (as in, unnecessarily increasing) the overall slope by opting for the larger form of the 1:1 pieces.
You can keep the 1:1 ratio going with the mirror-L and the Z shapes but do them as 2:2 by laying them lengthwise instead of vertical, which when I first started dropping pieces I decided was good enough. It wasn't until a quarter of the way up the screen and some idle thought later that I realized that even if 1:1 ~ 2:2 in terms of the the raw per-piece slope, it would be better to go for the vertical 1:1 alignment just to reduce the proportional slice of slope for which those non-optimal pieces were responsible.
So I just stuck with it to be consistent. But you've vindicated my second thoughts! 7:12 is markedly better than the 9:14 I was producing.
It might be fun to calculate the average rather than minimal slope, too: follow the same "left-most stacking" rule for placement but calculate slope for all four (or two, or one, per-piece symmetry accounted for) rotations of each piece and work out the slope over time if rotation is disabled. I might knock that out in a bit, actually.
Tackling true random stacking would be the next step, but that's a huge step.
posted by cortex at 7:26 AM on March 12, 2009
This is awesome.
This reminds me of one of my first personal programming projects - I made a collection of impossibly hard games. The first one I made was a version of breakout "optimized for high-resolution CGA" which was 640x200 mono, I believe. The width of each "brick" was one pixel. There were 12 lines of bricks.
I think all of the other games were variations of this, much like "super-breakout" for the atari 2600.
I had written these all in turbo basic. My pinnacle achievement at the time was an enhanced version of this made by extracting sound samples from MODS, and using a dirty hack to play the samples through the PC speaker. No soundblaster needed!
The lesson learned was to source your samples carefully... "M.C. Hammer's Break-it-down" was a huge neighborhood success solely because of the source material and frustrating game play. It ranks as one of the most sadistic things I have ever done.
posted by MysticMCJ at 8:20 AM on March 12, 2009
This reminds me of one of my first personal programming projects - I made a collection of impossibly hard games. The first one I made was a version of breakout "optimized for high-resolution CGA" which was 640x200 mono, I believe. The width of each "brick" was one pixel. There were 12 lines of bricks.
I think all of the other games were variations of this, much like "super-breakout" for the atari 2600.
I had written these all in turbo basic. My pinnacle achievement at the time was an enhanced version of this made by extracting sound samples from MODS, and using a dirty hack to play the samples through the PC speaker. No soundblaster needed!
The lesson learned was to source your samples carefully... "M.C. Hammer's Break-it-down" was a huge neighborhood success solely because of the source material and frustrating game play. It ranks as one of the most sadistic things I have ever done.
posted by MysticMCJ at 8:20 AM on March 12, 2009
It might be fun to calculate the average rather than minimal slope, too:
And I've now napkin-mathed this out, as per that last comment. It turns out that the average slope with this cantilevering sidemost-placement scheme and random rotations would yield a slope of 5:4. So the 7:12 minimal slope is a pretty good optimization, there.
The flip-side of the minimal slope calculation: what if we followed the sidemost-placement scheme but try to choose shapes to create the maximum slope?
I came up with 8:3 for that.
It might be fun to do three playthroughs doing min, max, and average (non-rotation) lines and superimpose the screenshots of each result.
posted by cortex at 9:12 AM on March 12, 2009
And I've now napkin-mathed this out, as per that last comment. It turns out that the average slope with this cantilevering sidemost-placement scheme and random rotations would yield a slope of 5:4. So the 7:12 minimal slope is a pretty good optimization, there.
The flip-side of the minimal slope calculation: what if we followed the sidemost-placement scheme but try to choose shapes to create the maximum slope?
I came up with 8:3 for that.
It might be fun to do three playthroughs doing min, max, and average (non-rotation) lines and superimpose the screenshots of each result.
posted by cortex at 9:12 AM on March 12, 2009
The best Tetris ever was an old Mac game, that you could load off a single 3.5" diskette, called Asshole Tetris. It talked to you, albeit obnoxiously, including statements like "What do you see when you close your eyes?" and more frequently, "You suck".
posted by PuppyCat at 9:38 AM on March 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by PuppyCat at 9:38 AM on March 12, 2009 [1 favorite]
I used to love playing Welltris in DOS when I was a little kid. Next level stuff right there!
posted by defenestration at 10:28 AM on March 12, 2009
posted by defenestration at 10:28 AM on March 12, 2009
I knew I'd hooked up the PC to the 40" television screen for a reason.
posted by jonnyploy at 11:29 AM on March 12, 2009
posted by jonnyploy at 11:29 AM on March 12, 2009
Does anyone else have the impulse to let it run for a long time then play a massive game of garbage Tetris?
posted by Night_owl at 12:14 PM on March 12, 2009
posted by Night_owl at 12:14 PM on March 12, 2009
It looks great with the return key held down. I would love to have a huge, framed display on the wall, with that running on it, maybe have it clear once a week.
Multi-colored, digital, tetris, imitation rain. That would be such a neat art peice on a wall. Or it would be mind blowingly geeky, I'm not sure which.
posted by paisley henosis at 2:12 PM on March 12, 2009
Multi-colored, digital, tetris, imitation rain. That would be such a neat art peice on a wall. Or it would be mind blowingly geeky, I'm not sure which.
posted by paisley henosis at 2:12 PM on March 12, 2009
puppygalore, I hate you. That is far too addictive.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:22 PM on March 12, 2009
posted by Rock Steady at 5:22 PM on March 12, 2009
Empath:
I don't know who told you that I shit thread, but it only happened that one time, and there was no reason to bring that into this.
posted by joe defroster at 6:44 PM on March 12, 2009
I don't know who told you that I shit thread, but it only happened that one time, and there was no reason to bring that into this.
posted by joe defroster at 6:44 PM on March 12, 2009
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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:30 PM on March 11, 2009