Tetris, Like You've Never Played It.
November 2, 2009 3:06 AM Subscribe
TETRIS! Strangely mesmerising.
My dad would have loved this. He spent an inordinate amount of time playing Tetris while working at home. (He was old school, yo.)
posted by spoobnooble at 4:00 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by spoobnooble at 4:00 AM on November 2, 2009
It's like my dreams come to life!
Why can't I wake up? Oh god, make it stop
I think I might send this to my mom. She can have this open in one corner of her screen and be tetrising vicariously while she's at work.
posted by Mizu at 4:18 AM on November 2, 2009
Why can't I wake up? Oh god, make it stop
I think I might send this to my mom. She can have this open in one corner of her screen and be tetrising vicariously while she's at work.
posted by Mizu at 4:18 AM on November 2, 2009
How lazy - ah, never mind.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:27 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by IndigoJones at 4:27 AM on November 2, 2009
The little man in the shapka is waiting for his turn to come out and do the little dance.
Waiting... waiting...
posted by fontor at 4:37 AM on November 2, 2009
Waiting... waiting...
posted by fontor at 4:37 AM on November 2, 2009
Wow, this is mesmerising. I love comparing the computer's moves to whatmy own moves would be, and I've noticed that in general I naturally 'hold out' for the right pieces longer than the AI does. Do other people have the same experience? Maybe it's because I'm a bit of a perfectionist...
posted by Brentusfirmus at 4:48 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by Brentusfirmus at 4:48 AM on November 2, 2009
FYI, the computer does lose on occasion, which merely clears the section and starts a new game. The one time I saw it happen, it was because the AI doggedly stacked a string of S and Z pieces in an interlocking tower on the left instead of sinking them into a suboptimal position in the lower spaces to the right.
See also: Stacked Odds, the Tetris game programmed to give you the most inconvenient piece for the moment.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:08 AM on November 2, 2009 [4 favorites]
See also: Stacked Odds, the Tetris game programmed to give you the most inconvenient piece for the moment.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:08 AM on November 2, 2009 [4 favorites]
I feel really old. Everyone seems to be mentioning their parents in the context of Tetris. Yeah...uh...my...mom was the Tetris nut...
posted by nosila at 5:29 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by nosila at 5:29 AM on November 2, 2009
I'll be impressed if you write a game that creates a visualization of music waveforms by playing tetris. :)
posted by jeffburdges at 5:37 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by jeffburdges at 5:37 AM on November 2, 2009
The Complete History Of The Soviet Union As Told By A Humble Worker Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris by Pig With The Face Of A Boy
posted by unsupervised at 5:38 AM on November 2, 2009 [8 favorites]
posted by unsupervised at 5:38 AM on November 2, 2009 [8 favorites]
The Complete History Of The Soviet Union As Told By A Humble Worker Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris by Pig With The Face Of A Boy
That was a painful link to click cause I can't find anywhere to listen to it/ buy it.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:11 AM on November 2, 2009
That was a painful link to click cause I can't find anywhere to listen to it/ buy it.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:11 AM on November 2, 2009
Let's see it play against Bastard Tetris, AKA Bastet, a variation of Tetris that selects the worst possible piece. Sometimes the algorithm messes up and you get the second worst piece, or if you're really lucky, the third most useless piece.
What would be really interesting is to see this tile a bunch of Tetris games across a mosaic over a high resolution display. As in, the pieces are rendered at the smallest size they can be (maybe even sub-pixel on an LCD if a micro-typography nerd gets involved) and occupies every space. It'd be a fun way to use up the power of a modern CPU, and I imagine the resulting image would reveal some arcane and horrible knowledge, like how your face will look before you die.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:37 AM on November 2, 2009 [2 favorites]
What would be really interesting is to see this tile a bunch of Tetris games across a mosaic over a high resolution display. As in, the pieces are rendered at the smallest size they can be (maybe even sub-pixel on an LCD if a micro-typography nerd gets involved) and occupies every space. It'd be a fun way to use up the power of a modern CPU, and I imagine the resulting image would reveal some arcane and horrible knowledge, like how your face will look before you die.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:37 AM on November 2, 2009 [2 favorites]
I'm getting a 503 server error; "maintenance or capacity problems". Sad, I was looking forward to being strangely mesmerized.
posted by donnagirl at 6:50 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by donnagirl at 6:50 AM on November 2, 2009
Where do I get this tetris that plays at a constant speed? Playing tetris is meditative until it gets too fast.
posted by theora55 at 8:39 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by theora55 at 8:39 AM on November 2, 2009
NO! YOU FOOL! YOU'VE CREATED A TRAPPED EMPTY BLOCK! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
oh, you worked it out. okay.
NO! YOU FOOL!
[repeat ad nauseum]
posted by shmegegge at 9:06 AM on November 2, 2009 [5 favorites]
oh, you worked it out. okay.
NO! YOU FOOL!
[repeat ad nauseum]
posted by shmegegge at 9:06 AM on November 2, 2009 [5 favorites]
Stacked Odds, the Tetris game programmed to give you the most inconvenient piece for the moment.
The about claims "This game has an AI that finds which piece that player most desperately needs, and doesn't give it to him. More specifically, it finds the deepest hole, and gives you only the pieces that don't fit into it."
which isn't quite as bad as what Rhaomi claimed. In fact, the "real" game's blocks are rarely what you most want, so I'm used to finding suboptimal placements.
Bastard Tetris, AKA Bastet, a variation of Tetris that selects the worst possible piece.
Now that's hard, but I did get 200. Where's the version that gives you the worst piece *every* time, not just 70% of the time? Though the author claims no joy, just trying to complete a single line was interesting.
An AI vs. Bastet would be nice to watch. You have to form combinations that lets it try to screw you while anticipating it's choices and playing the long game. Tetris board game anyone?
posted by morganw at 10:20 AM on November 2, 2009
The about claims "This game has an AI that finds which piece that player most desperately needs, and doesn't give it to him. More specifically, it finds the deepest hole, and gives you only the pieces that don't fit into it."
which isn't quite as bad as what Rhaomi claimed. In fact, the "real" game's blocks are rarely what you most want, so I'm used to finding suboptimal placements.
Bastard Tetris, AKA Bastet, a variation of Tetris that selects the worst possible piece.
Now that's hard, but I did get 200. Where's the version that gives you the worst piece *every* time, not just 70% of the time? Though the author claims no joy, just trying to complete a single line was interesting.
An AI vs. Bastet would be nice to watch. You have to form combinations that lets it try to screw you while anticipating it's choices and playing the long game. Tetris board game anyone?
posted by morganw at 10:20 AM on November 2, 2009
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00101010000001000000100011001000001010100000010000001000110010000010101000000
1000000100011001000001010100000010000001000110010000010101000000100000
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:34 AM on November 2, 2009
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1000000100011001000001010100000010000001000110010000010101000000100000
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:34 AM on November 2, 2009
Impressive, except that the AI is going for the easiest/lowest scoring moves. You get more points for clearing more rows at once. That was always the thing that made Tetris more interesting — how far do you go trying to set up the big-scoring move, while dancing with towers that may spell your doom, awaiting that perfect piece or those perfect pieces?
posted by papercake at 11:50 AM on November 2, 2009
posted by papercake at 11:50 AM on November 2, 2009
I let it run for something like 10 minutes at instant placement, and it still hasn't lost (unless it's cheating). Does this mean every time I've lost at Tetris mean it was due to human error, and that a machine can play Tetris indefinitely? Because I now feel really inadequate.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:00 PM on November 2, 2009
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:00 PM on November 2, 2009
Yes, there are games that lose. I left it running, several games got into the 9,000 scores, and a few were different, with one @ 500. I am not yet bored enough to watch it long enough to see a game fail.
posted by theora55 at 1:39 PM on November 2, 2009
posted by theora55 at 1:39 PM on November 2, 2009
Oh my. Imagine how much Tetris I could play if I could multi-task like that!
posted by iamkimiam at 2:22 PM on November 2, 2009
posted by iamkimiam at 2:22 PM on November 2, 2009
What McCarty.Tim said. I hate being mesmerized by my own inferiority.
posted by bearwife at 4:50 PM on November 2, 2009
posted by bearwife at 4:50 PM on November 2, 2009
Yes, there are games that lose. I left it running, several games got into the 9,000 scores, and a few were different, with one @ 500. I am not yet bored enough to watch it long enough to see a game fail.
I left it running at home all day today and the high score was 23733. The low score was 103.
posted by burnmp3s at 6:04 PM on November 2, 2009
I left it running at home all day today and the high score was 23733. The low score was 103.
posted by burnmp3s at 6:04 PM on November 2, 2009
Think you can do better? Tweak the code yourself and watch the results play out.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:20 PM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by chrisamiller at 8:20 PM on November 2, 2009 [1 favorite]
Metafilter: I left it running at home all day today and the high score was 23733.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:08 PM on November 3, 2009
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:08 PM on November 3, 2009
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posted by Submiqent at 3:40 AM on November 2, 2009