Come and try out my new tetris clone! It's the very first public release, so not everything is in place yet. But so far, there's: - rendered true-color graphics - the "phantom" tetrad - custom sound effects - original cd-quality music - full-screen and windowed play modes - and more! So come check it out at http://zentax.redir.net (or zeltar.tripod.com if that doesn't work) I only have 3 download links so far, so if anyone is willing to host it for me as well, that'd be great. And let me know what you think. Of the game, the music(what there is of it so far), and just the website in general. Thanks! [edited by - MacGyver on September 5, 2002 5:53:27 PM]

The first link goes to an html page, then from there is a link to download the game. I guess they just wanna make you see their ads.

As for the graphical problems, I''ll have to see if I can find a faster machine to run it on and see what I can do. I''ve only tested it on 90 and 200mhz machines. Could just be a problem in my timing code.

And I already have plans to let the player turn the music on and off. I probably should have added a mute key at least before I released it, but I was trying to get all the bugs out of full screen mode that I could. I chose dance-style music because it''s easiest to loop and still sound like a song. Once I switch over to a more compressed format, there will be longer songs, of all different types.

I''ll have a new version up in a few days. Keep an eye out. And thanks for the feedback.

Ah okay. I had a feeling I should test my site out completely on another browser. I think I still have Mozilla installed. I''ll put a note next to that link about it going to a seperate page.

I''ve tested it on Win98 and XP machines, and it works okay. Not sure how much XP differs from 2000. I have DirectX 8.1 installed, since that''s the DirectX SDK version I''m using to compile. But it should still work with at least version 8. I''m still trying to get the DirectX requirement down to version 7 if possible. Lots of people still use that, and aren''t gonna spend like half an hour downloading the new version.

I''ve already added a music toggle to the next version. I don''t have it put up on the site yet though, because I want to add as much as possible between each one. v1.01 will probably be up sometime tonight or tomorrow though.

Thanks again.

All be danged, if you aren''t right. I did some checking. Not only is the "tris" part illegal to use, but the Tetris company has been sending threatening letters to lots of people who created their own falling block type of game, saying it infringes on the "look and feel" of Tetris.

At some point I was planning to charge a small amount, because I was going to make a lot of original music... not to mention for all the sounds and graphics I created for it... but not for the Tetris idea itself. Even if I never sell it, I don''t care, because it''s been a good learning experience. I at least wanted people to be able to play and enjoy it, but from the sound of this, even that''s illegal.

I just can''t believe that. I''ve seen dozens and dozens of Tetris clones, a lot of which people were charging $15+, with some of those even looking incredibly simplistic like the original Tetris. So I never imagined that the company would actually be threatening lawsuits.

You would think the concept of a tetrad (which is a real geometrical shape), falling down and attaching to other tetrads, is such a basic concept that it could never be "owned".

Anyway, I''ll see what else I can find out. I don''t care if I can''t sell the work I put into it (and the concept of each row of tetrads completing the circuit, and "zapping" out of sight), but if push comes to shove, I''ll just take it off my site completely.

Thanks for mentionting it. Otherwise I would have never had any reason to think it was wrong (according to them at least).

I happened to realize today that the redirecting service I use for my site isn't working at the moment. I'm not sure how many other times it hasn't worked, either. I was using it so that whenever I change web hosts, I could just change the redirection address to the new place, and it would be transparent to everyone else.

So whenever zentax.redir.net won't work, just go straight to zeltar.tripod.com. Whenever I change hosts, I'll post a message here and on my site with the new address.





[edited by - MacGyver on September 5, 2002 5:51:16 PM]