VB5 Tetris о v1.05
by Theo Kandiliotis
ionikh@hol.gr
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/5045/
* HI! *
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VB5 Tetris is a Visual Basic 5 version of the all time classic
puzzle game.Some of the features of this version include:
a) 20 levels of increasing difficulty .
b) Digital sound effects (in wave format) and a dynamic database of
soundtrack themes to choose from or add to.
c) Several public domain MIDI sound modules.
d) A built-in Level editor.
e) A top 10 highscores table.
f) Fully customisable interface.
* HISTORY *
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The game Tetris was first developed in Moscow in 1985, on a
computer dubbed the Soviet Electronica-60. Later that fateful
year, its creator, Alexey Pazhitnov, adapted it for players
worldwide on the popular IBM PC platform; from then on, it has
remained a favorite for 'gamers' of all ages and levels.
Pazhitnov, then a member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences
Computer Center's scientific staff, used to designed programs
in the areas of speech recognition and computer aided design.
However, with the success of Tetris, Pazhitnov has gone on to
become a full-fledged game designer; he is creating a
successful line of block-oriented puzzle games with Spectrum
Holobyte, now a division of Microprose.
* FILES *
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The game needs these files:
Life.MID - The official soundtrack :)
TetriNet.MID - The unofficial soundtrack...
rainyday.MID
prophecy.MID
lone.MID - Some more public domain midi's.
MidiArchive.TRS - A data base file that contains the titles and
paths of the background tracks you can select
from when you play.The game ships with Life by
Haddaway and TetriNet,a cool techno track.You can
add your own midis from the Archive option on the
Sound submenu,just make sure to copy them in the
folder of the game first.
Line1.WAV
Line2.WAV
Move.WAV
Rotate.WAV
Tetris.WAV - Sound effects in Wave format
Highscores.TRS - A data file with the highscores table info.It's in 32bit
but don't mess around with it in notepad or the game
will crush.
CustomLevel1.CUL
CustomLevel2.CUL - Custom level files that you can load from the
Levels submenu.
Tetris.EXE - The main executable of the game
Comdlg32.OCX - You may have this and you may not,but just in case...
Read_Me.TXT - You can erase this now that you've read it :)
Notice that like all Visual Basic 5 projects,this game needs the
runtime library Msvbvm50.DLL in your Windows System folder.Chances
are you already have this commonly used dynamic library,but if you
don't ,get it right here from my Geo homestead :
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/5045/msvbvm50.zip
* KEYBOARD *
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Use the cursor left,right keys to move the tetrads and either Space
or cursor up to rotate them.The cursor down key will not make the
tetrad fall faster like in most tetris games ,it'll throw it at
the bottom in one step .So if you want to fill up some holes by moving
a tetrad after it has touched the ground,wait for it to fall on it's own.
* TROUBLESHOOTING *
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You shouldn't mess with the text file that holds the highscores or the
program will crush.Also,in order to add a midi to the database,you must
first copy it to the folder of the game.
* WEB LISTINGS *
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VB5 Tetris is listed as freeware to the following web locations:
-Theo's VB site
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/5045/
-Electric Games
http://www.electricgames.com/pc-games/v/pc-vb5tetris.html
-The Game Programming MegaSite
http://www.perplexed.com/GPMega/index.htm
-The World Of Tetris
http://www.netcombat.com/~tetris/links/Tetris_Downloads/Windows/
* VERSION INFO *
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07/06/1998 v1.00
The original version of the game.Everything works ok,no bugs
in the gameplay and the soundtrack data base feature is included.
09/06/1998 v1.01
As a matter of fact there were bugs in v1.00 but they're fixed
now ! :) A level editor is added so that you can build your own
custom levels.The tetrads are now 3D.
26/06/1998 v1.02
The game board is resized from 18x22 to 10x20 ,it just occured to
me that all Tetris games are 10x20 :) The bug that caused
the game to crush when in 640x480 screen mode is fixed.An About item
that pops us this text file was added to the main menu of the game.
The source code is not yet in any presentable format :)
07/07/1998 v1.03
Some more resolution bugs were discovered and exterminated: Under
640x480 screen mode ,the level editor window didn't show 10x10 blocks
and there were also some minor design errors on the main window
of the game (only in 640x480) . I'm starting to realize that it's
almost impossible to write a game and be sure that no one will go
"hey,it looks shitty on my laptop,I use 1200x1050 resolution..."
Now I know why people say that the game programming is by far the
hardest kind there is . I'm working on v2.00, writing the code
from scratch and trying to make it readable this time :)
13/08/1998 v1.04
Now that I have enough feedback on my hands I can proudly
say the people actually like this stupid little proggy :)) Thanx
to everyone that has ever contacted me about this game,you will
all be notified of updates.Added some more public domain midi
modules and also zipped up Comdlg32.OCX ,it looks like some
systems (mostly running under NT) had the DLL version instead.
02/09/1998 v1.05
Just changed the interface around a bit,I didn't like the way the
menu broke down in two lines in some resolutions.Also,I added a new
window that shows this file when you click "About" ,launching notepad
directly was not a good idea since some people still run programs
under dos or 16bit Windows. v2.00 is almost ready,it's a MAJOR
improvement,includes a lot of extra features and fancy wallpapers and
stuff..Oh,and a demo option,I've implemented AI for the game to play
by it self. I'm also working on something new and very ambitious,a
3 dimensional tetris game.Alexey's brilliant game is much more
challenging in 3D! You can check out a beta right here
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/5045/resources.htm
Features to be added in the following versions are:
a) A remote highscores table where you can compete with
other gamers around the world
b) 16 million color wallpapers
c) Introducing 6 new tetrads (!!!) :
- Square JR
- Greek P
- Super S
- U
- W
- 8-block Straight
...and many more.Watch this URL for updates:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/5045/resources.htm
Thanx for playing this...
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Theo Kandiliotis,Athens,Greece
ionikh@hol.gr
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/5045/
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