Tetris Classic
A 1992 DOS adaptation of Tetris with enhanced graphics and audio.
Tetris Classic is a 1992 puzzle video game developed and published by Spectrum HoloByte for DOS systems. It adapts the 1985 Soviet video game Tetris, building on the commercial version Spectrum HoloByte first released in North America in 1988. The title showcases enhanced VGA graphics and audio, drawing on Alexander Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Ludmila and Mikhail Glinka's opera adaptation.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Spectrum HoloByte
- Series
- Tetris
- Designer
- Rebecca Ang, Heather Mace
- Programmer
- Rebecca Ang
- Artist
- Charlie Aquilina
- Chuck Butler
- Kathleen Thornton
- Composer
- Paul Mogg
- Released
- July 1992
- Genre
- Puzzle
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Tetris Classic is a puzzle video game where pieces composed of four squares in seven shapes descend into an empty pit. The player can move pieces laterally and rotate them until they land on the pit bottom or another piece. A particular input hastens a piece's descent; if the Soft Drop option is toggled off, the piece drops immediately to its lowest position. The player must fit pieces to form a horizontal line of boxes across the pit; completing a line makes it disappear and drops all squares above by one row. In single-player mode, completing ten lines on a level advances the player to the next level, increasing the descent rate. The campaign has ten levels; a non-timed game ends if pieces reach the pit top. Two scoring methods are selectable: the original method awards points per piece that increase with each level, with extra points for faster drops and for toggling off the Next Piece option; the Tetris Classic method gives bonus points for completing two or more lines at once. The top ten high scores display after a game.
Development and release
The story of Tetris begins in 1985 with Alexey Pajitnov, a researcher at the Soviet Academy of Sciences, and programmer Vadim Gerasimov. The Academy licensed commercial rights to Elektronorgtechnica, and with Pajitnov, that firm, and American publisher Spectrum HoloByte, the game took off in the US in 1988. Spectrum HoloByte followed up with yearly spin-offs like Welltris and Wordtris. As computers got better—with sharper graphics, better sound, mice, faster processors, and networking—and customers sent in suggestions, the publisher decided to make an improved version. That version is Tetris Classic, designed by Rebecca Ang and Heather Mace, with Ang as the lead programmer. It runs in 256-color VGA, and also works with 16-color EGA and Tandy 1000 displays. The art, by Charlie Aquilina, Chuck Butler, and Kathleen Thornton, uses a lacquer-painting style to show scenes from Alexander Pushkin’s poem Ruslan and Ludmila. Paul Mogg composed the audio, drawing from Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila; the title screen plays the opera’s overture. For copy protection, the game asks a random trivia question about Pushkin, Glinka, or the poem, with the answer in the manual. Tetris Classic came out in July 1992 for IBM PC DOS and MS-DOS, and later appeared in the 1994 compilation Tetris Gold.
Reception
When Tetris Classic first came out, critics had mixed opinions. Lance Elko from Game Players PC Entertainment liked the extra play options and better graphics and audio, saying it felt richer than the earlier version. Michael S. Lasky of Computer Gaming World enjoyed the background art, but admitted the upgrades were mostly surface-level; still, the simple, tricky gameplay kept it addictive. Reviewing it alongside Super Tetris, Jeane DeCoster and David Crook of the Los Angeles Times thought the game itself hadn't changed much despite the nicer presentation and a new competitive mode, though they agreed both titles made good use of newer technology. Marcus Höfer of Aktueller Software Markt gave a negative review, arguing the price was too high for so few new features, especially since the original was shareware. He advised skipping it if you already had Super Tetris or were happy with single-player Tetris and didn't care about fancy backgrounds.
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