Tetris

Description

etris was a pack-in title included with the Game Boy at the handheld's release in 1989. It is a portable version of Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris. It was the first game compatible with the Game Boy Game Link Cable, a pack-in accessory that allowed two Game Boys to link together for multiplayer purposes. A colorized remake of the game was released on the Game Boy Color entitled Tetris DX.

The Game Boy version of Tetris plays identically to versions of Tetris released on other platforms. A pseudorandom sequence of "tetrominos" - shapes composed of four square blocks each - fall down the playing field. The object of the game is to manipulate these tetrads, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of blocks without gaps. When one or more such lines are created, they disappear, and the blocks above (if any) move down by the number of lines cleared.

As in most standard versions of Tetris, blocks do not automatically fall into open gaps when lines are cleared (see image captioned "Naïve gravity").

As the game progresses, the tetrominos fall faster. The game ends when at least part of a tetromino extends beyond the top of the playfield when set in place. The player can normally see which block will appear next in a window off to the side of the playing field, but this feature can be toggled during the game. Points are awarded based on the current level and number of lines cleared. The level increases each time the player clears ten lines, as does the speed of falling tetrominoes. The player may adjust the difficulty before beginning a game by selecting a starting level and/or choosing to pre-fill the play area with a given number of lines of randomly-placed blocks. The game ends when the stack of blocks extends past the top of the playfield.

Trailer