========================================================================== ZX TETRIS The Atari arcade Tetris (1988), one player for the ZX Spectrum 128K, +2, +2A and +3 ========================================================================== Tetris ................. Alexey Pazhitnov, Vadim Gerasimov (1984) Arcade game ............ (C) 1988 Atari Games (Team Tetris) Music .................. Brad Fuller (Atari Games) Spectrum version ....... (C) 2026 namco/nexgen In 1988 Atari Games put Tetris in the arcades: St Basil's Cathedral under fireworks, a tower in the middle of the screen, Russian tunes, rounds with line quotas, and a Cossack dancer between them. ZX Tetris brings that game to the Spectrum 128K. The rules, the timings and the scoring are the arcade's own, read from its program and checked frame by frame against the original running under emulation. The music and the sound effects are the arcade's too: its sound driver was translated to the Z80 and plays the arcade's own tunes on the AY chip. The graphics were redrawn for the Spectrum's screen. REQUIREMENTS ------------ A ZX Spectrum 128K, +2, +2A or +3. ZX Tetris uses the 128K memory and the AY sound chip. On a 48K Spectrum it says so and returns to BASIC. LOADING ------- Choose "Tape Loader" from the 128 menu, or type in 128 BASIC: LOAD "" and start the tape. The loading screen appears first, then the rest of the game loads. The title comes up on its own. CONTROLS -------- The keys can be redefined in the options (see OPTIONS). O ................ move left P ................ move right A ................ drop faster (hold it) M ................ rotate (the arcade's direction) Z ................ rotate the other way C ................ insert a coin S ................ start ENTER ............ (title screens) the options (in a game) game music on / off CAPS SHIFT+SPACE . (in a game) give up, back to the title A Kempston, Sinclair (+2) or cursor joystick works as well as the keys: left, right, down to drop, fire to rotate. COINS AND CREDITS ----------------- Like the arcade, the game runs on credits. Press C to insert a coin (99 credits at most), then S (or rotate) to start a game. Each game takes one credit. Coins are free, of course :P THE TITLE SCREENS ----------------- While nobody plays, the game shows its title (the cathedral, first by day, then by night with fireworks), How to Play, the high scores and the credits, over and over. With credits in, the title stays and says PRESS 1 PLAYER START. DIFFICULTY SELECT ----------------- Before a game, choose where to start with left / right, and rotate or start to take it. If you wait too long, the choice under the arrows is taken, just like in the arcade. EASY ..... round 1, no bonus. How to Play is shown first (rotate or start skips it). MEDIUM ... round 4: a handicap start with two columns of bricks. 20000 points at once. HARD ..... round 7: added bricks drop into the well as you play. 40000 points at once. THE GAME -------- Pieces fall into the well. Move and rotate them so that they fill whole lines; a full line disappears and everything above it drops. The game is over when a new piece has no room at the top. The tower beside the well shows each round's message, the lines left to go, the high score, the round and the credits. The ledge under the well shows each clear's name and the points for a dropped piece. On the left: the next piece, and the pillar's windows that light up the last five lines of a round; at the bottom left, next to the score, the speed meter grows as the game speeds up. On the right: how many of each piece you have been dealt. Rotating: a piece that can't turn where it is tries one column to the left. There is no other "kick". ROUNDS ------ Each round asks for a number of lines (5 in round 1, 10, 12, ...). Every round starts with an empty well, and some with bricks already in it: handicap columns, scattered bricks, a pyramid, and in rounds 16-18 the initials of the best three players on the high-score table. Later rounds fight back: ADDED BRICKS ....... (rounds 7-9 and later) a grey brick drops onto the stack now and then, when a piece clears nothing. ADVANCING LINES .... (rounds 10-12 and later) the whole stack is pushed up by a new row of bricks from below. When the quota is met: YOU DID IT, then the BONUS FOR LOW PUZZLE (see SCORING). After every third round a Cossack dancer comes out of the tower's door; press rotate twice to send him off early. The game speeds up as you clear lines, and the colours of the screen change every third round. After round 27 the game goes back to round 16 and carries on. SCORING ------- Single line .......... 50 Double ............... 150 Triple ............... 400 Four lines (TETRIS) .. 900 While the name of a clear is still showing on the tower, the next clear scores no line points: space your clears out. Drop points: every piece scores a little when it lands, more on a higher speed level and the higher up it lands; twice as much if you dropped it at full speed (hold A). 250 at most (500 at full speed). Bonus for low puzzle: at the end of a round each empty row above the stack scores 10 more than the one before (10, 20, 30, ...). Keep the stack low. The score stops at 999999. CONTINUE -------- After GAME OVER, insert a coin and press start before the count runs out (9 to 1) to carry on: the same round starts again with its full quota, and the score, lines and statistics are kept. The speed drops back a little. HIGH SCORES ----------- A score on the table of 16 asks for your initials: left / right pick a letter, rotate takes it; "?" rubs out the last one. The clock runs, so be quick. On tape the table lasts until the Spectrum is switched off. Under esxDOS (DivMMC / DivIDE) it is kept: the game quietly saves it to TETRISHI.BIN in the folder it was started from after every new entry, and loads it back next time. Delete that file to start afresh. OPTIONS ------- Press ENTER on any title screen. ENTER again goes back. 1 SPEED ............ EASY, MEDIUM, HARD or HARDEST: how fast the pieces fall at each level (the arcade's operator setting; MEDIUM as the arcade shipped). 2 JOYSTICK ......... Kempston, Sinclair or cursor. 3 ATTRACT MUSIC .... YES: the title plays its tune every fourth time round (as in the arcade). 4 GAME MUSIC ....... YES / NO: the tunes during play. ENTER in a game switches it too. The sound effects always play. 5 REDEFINE KEYS .... press a key for each control in turn. HINTS ----- - Keep one column open at a wall and save it for the long piece: four lines at once score 900. - The pieces always turn the same way with M; Z turns them back. - Hold A from the moment a piece appears: it lands faster and scores double drop points. - Before the last line of a round, clear the stack down: every empty row counts towards the bonus. ========================================================================== Tetris (C) 1984 Elorg / Alexey Pazhitnov. Arcade game (C) 1988 Atari Games, licensed by Mirrorsoft Ltd. This is a non-commercial fan version for the ZX Spectrum. ========================================================================== namco/nexgen 2026 =========================================================================