Tetris (Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows)

Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Publisher(s)	Microsoft
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows 3.x
Release	1990
Gameplay info
Next pieces	1
Playfield size	10 × 20
Hold piece	No
Hard drop	Hard drop only

Tetris is a Windows port of the game included as part of the first Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack, and later re-released as part of Microsoft's Best Of Windows Entertainment Pack.

System

• This game has a short lock delay (buggy though, where the piece continues to wait when moved away from landing position during the lock delay, and continues to fall after the timeout).
• The preview piece is toggleable.
• This game supports 2-player versus game (“Penalize Other Player”). The attacking rule is: N lines of 50% random junk will be set for each N-line clear where N≥2. However, under 2-player mode, the preview piece becomes unavailable.

Scoring

Integer passed

• The current piece starts with an initial score value, which increases for each successive playing level. Each time you rotate the piece or move it horizontally, its score value decreases.
• If you drop the piece, its score value increases proportionally to the distance it falls. Therefore, you can achieve the highest score per piece by immediately dropping the piece from the top of the playing area. (The lowest score per piece will result when you continually manipulate the piece until it lands on another piece or the bottom of the playing area)
• Programmers used 16-bit signed integer variables to store points gained by the player. Because of the binary representation of the signed number inside the computer, after you reach the largest possible value (32,767 points) it overflows and is displayed as a negative number (-32,768 points).

Bonus for clearing rows

Row	Points
One Row	100
Two Rows	200
Three Rows	400
Four Rows	800

Trivia

• The game ships with a help file stating “There are six different Tetris pieces.” with diagrams (the O-piece is missing). Though, the game is actually correctly implemented with all 7 tetrominos.

External links

• Play Tetris (Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows) on archive.org