Tetris - Atari ST - Gameplay Footage & Opinion

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Published on May 1, 2016 2:52:57 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBLSpc8FlrY

Game:

Tetris (1984)

Duration: 23:09

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Tetris was one of the first games that we owned for the ST. It was one of the many black disk games along with International Karate, Super Sprint, Mouse Trap, Chopper X that was bundled with our original ST. It was made in 1987 by Andromeda Software and published by Mirrorsoft. This version is one of many builds of Tetris that exist on the ST, but this is probably the most common one.

There’s really not a lot that I can say about Tetris that you probably don’t always know, heck it practically sold the Game Boy in the early years. It’s a simple puzzle game where randomly shaped objects appear from the top and you have to create lines out of them in order to gain a high score. It the blocks reach the top of the stage then it is game over.

Visually Tetris has never been that impressive. For some reason in the ST version we get this yellow static instead of a background image of Russia. Maybe it was due to a lack of colours available on the Atari, however the Amiga port has exactly the same feature, so I don’t know maybe it was laziness.

Sound wise the music on the title screen isn’t that bad, however I don’t like the music in-game. It’s rather ringy (if that’s a word), slow and repeats often. Listen to the Game Boy version, it’s upbeat and emphasises the need to hurry up. It’s something you can happily listen to, unlike this game.

It’s not just the music that is wrong with this port. The developers have also messed up the controls. How did they screw that up you ask? Well for one the controls are very stiff, it’s very slow to move the blocks horizontally, making it very difficult when you are near the top of the stage. Furthermore it doesn’t seem to be possible to move a block and rotate at the same time. It’s either one of the other, which really hampers the fast paced quick reflex action that Tetris is supposed to have. The last thing is when you press down. Rather than speed up the block it instantly put the block at its destination. I couldn’t tell you how many times I pressed down and accidentally placed my T-shape in a really stupid spot.

Overall Tetris by Mirrorsoft isn’t a great port of a classic game. I’m pretty sure there are better builds of Tetris on the ST or if you can get the Nintendo versions.

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