Like many other classics it’s easy to come up with ways to ruin Tetris, but hard to think of anything that will make it better. Adding more clickiness is definitely one way to improve the game, and playing Tetris on a flip-dot display certainly manages to achieve that.
The surplus flip-dot display [sinowin] used for this version of Tetris is a bit of an odd bird that needed some reverse engineering to be put to work. The display is a 7 x 30 matrix with small dots, plus a tiny green LED for each dot. Those LEDs turned out to be quite useful for replicating the flashing effect used in the original game when a row of blocks was completed, and the sound of the dots being flipped provides audio feedback. The game runs on a Teensy through a custom driver board and uses a Playstation joystick for control. The video below, in perfectly acceptable vertical format, shows the game in action and really makes us want to build our own, perhaps with a larger and even clickier flip-dot display.
The best thing about Tetris is its simplicity: simple graphics, simple controls, and simple gameplay. It’s so simple it can be played anywhere, from a smartwatch to a business card and even on a transistor tester.
[via Gizmodo]
‘k … now show me with solenoids and ball bearings. :-p
Love it. The clicking as addictive.
There is no such thing as an acceptable vertical video.
But his is perfect for vertical filming! The horisontal youtube frame is the problem, not the filming :-)
The real problem is that our vision and most non-smartphone devices suck rancid balls at being used for vertical videos.
Just say no to VVS.
People consume the internet in large part on mobile devices nowadays. Photos have used vertical framing for over a century. Vertical filming can be appropriate and this would be an example. It’s time to quit the whining and accept the world and media consumption have changed.
Sorry, gotta agree with Jarl, the orientation of the game board made vertical video the best choice, but for anything else NEVER!
That sound is so soothing!
We did something similar a while ago with some flip dot panels taken from a decommissioned traffic sign.
The root of the display glitches has been found and fixed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ6rfI28zJ4
I also want to have a decommissioned traffic sign now :)
Wow, sweet!
How about Space Invaders?