The Technology...............................
Another similarity betweenTetrisand classic arcade games is that none of those games
relied on their technology to impress players. For CAGs, the graphics the arcade
machines in the early ’80s could produce were so lackluster compared to what players
would find in other media, such as movies or television, that players had to be drawn in
by something else. As a result, the gameplay had to be truly captivating for these games
to survive. Despite the fact that much more sophisticated graphics were available by
the timeTetriswas released in the West in the late ’80s, the game did not need fancier
graphics and stuck to a very simple 2D implementation.Tetris’s gameplay is so strong
that it does not matter how technologically simple its implementation may be, the game
is still wildly entertaining.
The implementation ofTetrisis so simple that many aspiring game programmers
start out by making aTetrisclone. Indeed, numerous companies have attempted to add
fancy graphical effects to the game, including making it 3D. The first of these was prob-
ablyWelltris, a sequel of sorts toTetris, designed by Pajitnov. InWelltris, a 3D “well”
takes the place of theTetrisbox.Tetris-style pieces (though not always of four blocks)
fall down along the sides of the well and must be lined up into rows on the bottom. The
gameplay was considerably more complex without being particularly more fun or chal-
lenging. As a result, players were uninterested, and went back to the simplicity of the
original. Many subsequentTetrisknockoffs attempted to make “improvements” on the
original, either through fancy effects or special pieces of various sorts. None of these
attempts were particularly successful, and players continued to want to return to the
original.
The attempts to add technological sophistication toTetrisfailed, not just commer-
cially but also artistically. The enhanced technology added to these knockoff products
was actually detrimental to the original game design, polluting its purity and making the
game lose its elegance and fun in the process. Of course, the moral to the story is that
enhanced technology is not necessarily beneficial to a given game, and game designers
must be wary when the whiz-bang engine effects start to get in the way of what makes
the game entertaining in the first place.
WhileTetrismay have not needed much in the way of computer technology to func-
tion, it is worth pointing out that there could be noTetriswithout a computer.Tetrisis
not a game adapted from a pen and paper or board game, but rather something that only
can exist in a world carefully controlled and governed by a computer. As mentioned pre-
viously, Pajitnov is said to have drawn his inspiration from the non-computer puzzle
game pentomino. In adapting it to the computer, Pajitnov changed it into a form that
could exist only on a computer. The descending of the pieces from the top of the screen
at a steady rate, the way they can interact with the pieces already at the bottom of the
screen, and the random way in which pieces become available to players are all opera-
tions only a computer program could provide while still allowing for an entertaining
experience for players. These are all tasks the computer performs expertly, and it was
brilliant of Pajitnov to think to add them to his game.
146 Chapter 8: Game Analysis:Tetris