I have been experimenting with emulating the original Tetris game in a standard Linux terminal window. Here is a screenshot: Currently the setup process is a bit cumbersome- you need to open a terminal window (adjust font and colors), launch a 15IE-00-013 terminal translation program (converting 15ie codes to UTF-8), run the "simh" pdp-11 emulator with special settings, install/load the RT-11 operating system, load a disk with the Tetris binary on it, and then launch the game. Would anyone be interested in using/playing this original Tetris, if I spent more time 'packaging' it up (maybe in some stripped-down Linux virtual machine image) and making it easy to run from any system?
I could never get the version with the solid block characters to display properly; perhaps this is why... So yeah, I'm definitely interested, and I'm sure others are too. I actually investigated this version a couple years back and wrote a wiki article about it, with information about the mechanics, timings, bugs, a little bit of history, etc. Sadly, with the TC wiki being triplicated on HD and wikia, I didn't feel there was a good home for it, so I kept it private, and it's since been lost.
Cool, glad to hear there's interest, I'll keep playing with packaging it up then. Also possibly of interest to Tetris history buffs: I've unearthed four distinct versions of the original MS-DOS Tetris, from some old BBS shareware repository CDs I found on archive.org. I've attached the binaries to this post. Take a look at these screenshots (captured with DOSBox emulating a CGA display): V0: V1 (same title screen as V0): V2: V3.12: It's interesting to compare these early DOS versions to the original Mirrorsoft releases. When you compare the earliest DOS version side by side with Mirrorsoft's Amstrad CPC port, it's very clear that it was this early version that Mirrorsoft had in their possession as their reference, matching the interface very closely:
I'm working on MESS driver [1][2] for "15ie" terminal, which the original Tetris was designed for: Haven't tested it yet with a live (or emulated) RT-11 system, though. [1] http://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=85723#Post85723 [2] http://zx.pk.ru/showthread.php?t=20744
Is there any progress on this? Specifically the pre-packaged emulator idea. I'm planning to run Gerasimov's DOS Tetris at the Eindhoven meeting this year, but the original E60 Tetris would of course be even cooler.
Tried this version and it works, though I had trouble using the latest mame, so I actually compiled the version in the guide. It also seems to use bone blocks not the null blocks, any idea how to get the latter?
"converting 15ie codes to UTF-8" There is absolutely no reason for anyone to use UTF-8. In fact, it's impossible to use UTF-8 in a terminal/commandprompt environment, as they require fixed width encodings to work, such as cp866 or UCS-2 (or else the character width is proportional to its size, like in some CJK encodings).
Hello, I just discovered this forum and its awesome. I would be very grateful for the opportunity to download the already finished VM image, as I would love to try playing the original version of TETRIS. Can you share it? Thank you very much in advance
