Tetris (Atari)

Arcade game published by Atari Games.

The game ran in B-type mode, where each level was cleared after 10 or more lines, and points were awarded for each empty row at the top of the playfield. Challenges included various patterns of starting garbage and randomly appearing single blocks in the playfield.

Rotation rules


The rotation rules are identical to those of the game's NES port, except the tetrominoes are colored differently, and they do not change color once they lock. In addition, the player can rotate the tetrominoes only counterclockwise (columns in order 0, 3, 2, 1).

Because basic rotation can fail when a piece is against the right wall, but not when the same piece is against the left wall, this game will wallkick one square to the left if basic rotation fails. If that fails the piece will not rotate. This allows for a few very unique wallkicks.

Scoring
The game is B-type, that is, each level has a number of lines to clear.

Next to each player's score is a horizontal bar called the rainbow meter. Every four lines cleared adds 1 to the rainbow meter. If the player tops out and continues, the rainbow meter is set the way it was before the player added.

The score for each tetromino that the player places is d*r*(r + h), where
 * d = 1 for normal gravity or 2 for soft drop when the tetromino lands
 * r = the number of bars on the rainbow meter plus 1
 * h = the row on which the tetromino was placed, minus 1 (0 = bottom)

Line clear scores:

After finishing each round, the game awards a "BONUS FOR LOW PUZZLE" of up to 2100 points based on the number of empty rows above the highest block left in the playfield. The formula is 5*e*(e + 1), where e is the number of empty rows.

In a two-player game, finishing the level before the other player gives a 2,000 point bonus. This bonus is awarded both for skill and for putting more money into the machine.

Trivia

 * The game's platform did not support sprites. The whole game ran in "text" mode, just as many of the early PC versions of Tetris did.
 * Except in copyright notices and in the name Vadim Gerasimov, all letter 'R's appeared as a Cyrillic letter Ya ('&#1071;').