Joe Zbiciak's 4-Tris
Joe Zbiciak's 4-Tris
A "Falling Tetrominoes" Game for Intellivision
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Emulator Notes
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The Numeric Keypad is reversed. Intellivision keypads put [1], [2], and [3] in
the top row of the keypad, much like a telephone. The emulator retains this
spatial relationship, despite the fact that PC's put [7], [8] and [9] in the top
row. So, you will need to remember this little tidbit when starting the game or
using the sound-test screen.
On INTVPC, the [0] key on the keypad is mapped to the Intellivision's [0] and the
[.] key is mapped to the Intellivision's [C]. On jzIntv, it's the other way
around.
The "Action Buttons" are mapped to Ctrl, Shift, and Alt.
The "Disc" is mapped to the arrow keys (the Inverted-T, NOT the ones on the
number-pad)!
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Game Instructions
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At the title screen, press a number from [1]-[9] or [C] on the keypad to select a
starting level. (Buttons [1] through [9] start you at levels 1 through 9, and [C]
starts you at Level 10.) If you press [0] at the title screen, you will be taken
to a "Sound Test" screen. (See "Sound Test" below for more details.) Any other
input on the controller starts you at Level 4. (Level 4 seemed like a good mid-
way default level.)
In the game, the controllers are set up like so:
DISC: Moves piece left, right or down
Action Buttons: Rotates piece. Top button rotates counter-clockwise,
bottom buttons rotate clockwise.
[4], [6], or [C] Toggles "Next Piece" display
[7] or [9] Mutes/un-mutes background music.
Pieces fall until they hit an obstruction which keeps them from falling. When a
piece can't fall any further, it is "placed", and a score is assessed for that
piece's placement.
First, the player is awarded a small number of points for each downward move that
the player made with the piece. The player is awarded 5 pts/move if the next
piece was displayed at while this piece was falling, 10 pts/move otherwise. This
rewards fast play. Next, any completed lines are cleared away, and a cleared-line
bonus is awarded. The table below illustrates the line clear bonuses. Notice that
it's worth your while to clear more lines at a time.
Line Clear Bonuses:
+-----------------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Number of | Level Number...... |
| Lines Cleared | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ... | n |
|-----------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----------------+
| 1 | 1000 | 1500 | 2000 | 2500 | ... | 500 * (n + 1) |
| 2 | 3000 | 4500 | 6000 | 7500 | ... | 1500 * (n + 1) |
| 3 | 6000 | 9000 | 12000 | 15000 | ... | 3000 * (n + 1) |
| 4 | 12000 | 18000 | 24000 | 30000 | ... | 6000 * (n + 1) |
+-----------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----------------+
As lines are cleared, the player is moved up in level. Each level has a maximum
number of lines associated with it, which is "10 * level". When that maximum is
reached, the player is moved to the next level. For example, when a player reaches
40 lines, the player moves from Level 4 to Level 5 (if the player didn't start at
a higher level number).
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Sound Test
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The Sound Test screen allows the player to just play around with the sound effects
that are embedded in the 4-Tris ROM image. Press buttons on the keypad to trigger
sound effects and music. Use the action buttons to toggle the music playback
speed. Press Disc to exit.
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Source Code
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See the file "SOURCE.txt" for information on 4-Tris' source code.
Copyright 2000, Joe Zbiciak, im14u2c AT primenet DOT com
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