This kid plays Tetris with MIND CONTROL!
After a tragic knife attack left Matthew Nagle paralysed, experimental technology has given him a new ability: he can now play the computer game Tetris simply by thinking.
]]>This kid plays Tetris with MIND CONTROL!
After a tragic knife attack left Matthew Nagle paralysed, experimental technology has given him a new ability: he can now play the computer game Tetris simply by thinking.
]]>Tech Digest UK tells us not only about the 20th anniversary, but also 10 fun facts!
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Real life Tetris... oh wow. First saw it on engadget, who called it a "Connect-Four-like Tetris Tower 3D tabletop game". Engagdet links to gadgetryblog, which explains, "Basically, the next piece to be dropped in is indicated by a light on the side of the tower. Players must pick the corresponding piece out of a pile, manipulate it into the position they want and then drop it into the game. Once you let go, the piece is guided down into the game by rails - a bit like dropping pieces into Connect 4. Once a line has formed you flick a switch on the side of the tower to indicate if it's your line or your opponents. To help keep the little one's attention span for just a little longer, the brain-draining process is accompanied by a 'tension-building' barrage of light and sound."
Radica Games has a link to the television commercial. Watch it, and be sure to notice the decor of this Tetris Obsessed Family.
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(actually, they link to joystiq.com)
So you want to play winning tetris? Well, don't look to this dud of a Tetris implementation to hone your skills on. You'd be better off playing the awkward original Playstation version (The Next Tetris) with its psychedelic wobbling pieces than this train wreck. Where to begin?
The stand-up arcade version of Tetris purports to bring you the game we all know and love, but it almost seems that the designers were more focused on bringing "cute" russianisms into the graphic design rather than focusing on the gameplay. Look! Backwards letters! Crazy kicking dancing men! Onion Domes! IT'S RUSSIA!!!!!
Hinderances to succeeding at this game abound: the gigantic joystick vacillates between horribly unresponsive and hair-trigger sensitive. Each level has a different line total to meet, but when that goal is met, the game stops to play you some maniacal trepak (which was blasting out of the speakers on the particular machine we were test-driving) and recap your progress. When the next level begins, the board is reset, and you might be given a completely different objective! Talk about breaking your rhythm! To top it off, the speed increases almost exponentially, no gradual increase here.
Some levels have garbage, some don't. This, in my mind, is a terrible distortion of the original game, where the object is to last as long as you can, until the bin overflows. I know some variations on the Existing Garbage objective have been around for almost as long as Tetris itself, but all of the competing implementations never agreed on basic rules. The beautiful simplicity of the original Tetris objective is its masterstroke. Like chess or soccer, you begin with very simple available moves, but the complexity of how a single game can turn out is where the beauty exists. Attempts like this to "mix it up" with garbage and non-garbage levels just overreach and distract from what could be a passable implementation.
But the most criminal decision the designers made? The one that should have them serving 10 years in the arcade gulag? NO TETRISES. None. Get four lines and you get points for four lines. No tetris bonus, and certainly no flashing screen atta-boy. What were they thinking?!
Bottom line, it might be tempting to step to this arcade with your friends thinking, "I'm a decent Tetris player, I can hold my own here," but don't kid yourself. This version isn't worth your time.
The Head to Head (SNES) match had 9 people entering, so the lowest seated players, Gene and Curt, had to battle it out to get into the first round. Gene beat Curt and advanced into the tournament, and then quickly eliminated Ryan! Russell and Justin, the two newcomers, faced off, and Russell eliminated Justin. Last year's H2H champion, Wade, was facing last year's best player, Judy, and was eliminated in the first round! And Kieran beat out Steve to advance to the next round.
Round two saw Russell beat Gene and Kieran face his Tetris Arch-rival Judy in a heated Head to Head match where he savored eliminating her. The final match, Russell verses Kieran, saw the Perfect Strangers fighting it out for who would be getting an additional Trophy, and Russell was the victor.
The final battle was ready to begin. Newcomers Justin Sanders and Russell Thomason were perceived as real threats, though Judy was still the favorite. Kieran was chomping at the bit to improve his third place ranking and at least wedge himself between the Holy Tetris Union of Ryan and Judy. In the first round Judy beat out Curt with a rather low score of 137,050 (Curt had a flawed game, only getting 20,674). Kieran also won with a low score, just 108.212, over Steve (42,118). Finally with newcomer Justin Sanders we saw a respectable score, 153, 780, but he was trounced by Russell with 203,800. And Ryan beat out Wade with his 140,817 to 23,840.
The lowest scores had all been eliminated except for Justin Sanders, who with had scored the second highest in round two, but was eliminated. We look forward to seeing him play in the future.
Round two saw much better scores. Again Judy and arch-tetris-nemisis Kieran faced off, this time Judy handing Kieran a solid ass whoopin' with a score of 231,732 to Kieran's 126,656. And Ryan scored better at 173,719, but not high enough to beat Russell's personal best of 245,313. Watching Russell play that game, I thought he might beat the all-time high score set by Judy last year of 276,264. So the final match was the mysterious newcomer Russell Thomason verses reigning champion Judy Zawatzky. The room got quiet as they started playing.
Judy scored a personal best for the day of 231,732, but was disappointed, as this was only her third highest score of tournament play. And then we watched, mesmerized, as this unknown kid from Wilsonville played an astounding game of 280,726, setting the new high score record and winning the championship. He was so unassuming and polite we didn't even realize until the awards ceremony that he had won IN EVERY SINGLE CATEGORY. A new champion. A new era of Tetris competition... The Russell Era.
(more pictures below)
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Russell takes the Head to Head Trophy
Russ wins the main event!
The registration and official scoring form.
The much debated un-official GameBoy Challenge.
Russell Thomason #1 ranked Tetris Player
Judy Zawatzky #2
Ryan Wise #3
Kieran Haggerty #4
Steve Schroeder #8
Gene Merrill #9
Wade Cosgrove #15
Curt Kentner #16
Judy Zawatzky, the former league champion, is bumped to the number two spot after failing to improve upon her record setting score of last year. Ryan Wise and Kieran Haggerty, now third and fourth place in the league, also failed to best their scores from last year. Rounding out fifth place is newcomer Justin Sanders, who was bumped out early by the new champion. We look forward to seeing great scores from Justin in the future. Only a few minor changes in the overall league standings in the middle and lower ends, with Wade Cosgrove being the only returning player to set a personal best this year.
Photos and full tournament write-up coming soon. Check out the League Standings.
]]>Here is a map to the Borthwick Estates.
Last year the champion was Judy Zawatzky who won the NES championship and also had the NES High Score of 276,264. I have a feeling a new record will be set tomorrow.
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