Talk:List of games

Organization
This list is going to be huge, so we should build it carefully. I suggest 3 general categories:

1. Official Tetris Games 2. Official Unrelated Games (games that use "Tetris" or "-tris") 3. Unoffical, Though Significant Fan Games (tetrinet etc.)

To clarify, I think Official Games should include even games that are technically unlicensed, but were believed to be legitimate by the developers. eg. Tengen Tetris & Megadrive Tetris

Also, should we drop acronyms? eg. GB -> GameBoy

At least, we shouldn't require them. There are waaaay to many versions on obscure Japanese home computer platforms to warrant that.

Colour Thief 22:41, 15 March 2006 (EST)
 * yeah, this is a touch decision. official, i guess, would mean the same thing as authentic, but how do you destinguish unrelated games? for that, you'd need to define tetris specifically. is tetris a falling tetromino game? if so, anything other could be unrelated. maybe do something like this,


 * 1) official (all published games with "ris" in its title, which would take care of believed legitimate games)
 * 2) unofficial (which would indicate unpublished unlicensed fan games)
 * in any case, we'd need to explain how we define it, however way we devide them.


 * in addition, feel free to move the pages to non-abbreviated pages, as i prefer the professional look.
 * Nicholas 22:42, 15 March 2006 (EST)
 * okay, basically we can make four distinctions
 * legally licensed games
 * those early games which were published during the copyright wars, but never legally were okay with elorg
 * fan games without licenses (which naturally aren't published)
 * games which bare the tetris trademark, but don't really have tetris look and feel.
 * so i guess we could clump 1 and 2 together, and seperate 4-- but i don't know how'd we label them.
 * Nicholas 22:56, 15 March 2006 (EST)


 * that wouldn't quite work as a definition... it's a little known fact that sega made 2 licensed tetris arcade games that did not use the name tetris at all: Flash Point and Bloxeed. these are falling tetromino games, with a license from ELORG if you look at the copyright screen. i think games that were believed to be legitimate at any point in time should count as official, so that history isn't written in the eyes of the winners.


 * the most borderline game would be Welltris, which i think shouldn't count. so the criteria would be:


 * -believed to be official
 * -similar gameplay to the original


 * this means we would combine your groups 1 and 2. so tetris (nintendo) and tetris (tengen) would both be recognized. obviously in the description we would mention the conflict.
 * fan games would get their own section. i think it's clear what belongs here.
 * the final "trademark only" category would have Welltris, Tetrisphere, Tetris Attack, etc.


 * so what do you think?


 * Colour Thief 23:07, 15 March 2006 (EST)
 * okay, so three categories, then? i still feel iffy about using "official."
 * Nicholas 23:14, 15 March 2006 (EST)

Ordering
So now we have categories. What about ordering? Chronological? Alphabetical? A combination of the 2?

Things get weird when you consider that the same game released at different times on different platforms, and also different times in different regions. Furthermore, we'll be lucky to pin an exact date on the more obscure versions... Sometimes we may even be without a definite year.

Colour Thief 01:38, 16 March 2006 (EST)


 * i like first published year for the title, then if we don't know exactly when, by alphabet.
 * Nicholas 01:40, 16 March 2006 (EST)


 * works for me. first year, then alphabet. if i don't know the year, i'll give it an approximate one followed by a question mark and otherwise fit it in the same way. eg. Tetris: Obscure Edition (WTF), 1989(?)
 * Colour Thief 01:43, 16 March 2006 (EST)

more games
i remember a small little silver keychain game i had at one point. maybe one of nintendo's pocket brands. not sure.147.174.150.24 15:10, 17 March 2006 (EST)
 * hi! there are several items in our list that are close to that description. in particular, the 'Tetris Jr.' sounds extremely similar. check out that entry in the near future where i will upload a picture. if you can give more details, such as where you you bought it (like, japan? europe?) and what it looked like more precisely, that would be great. also, are you sure it was licensed?
 * Colour Thief 15:15, 17 March 2006 (EST)

Concerning fan games
I juste added Tetrinet and Tetrinet 2 into the list (hooray ! first wiki contribution ever !). But I was wondering if we should merge these two games, as they are quite similar. Oh, and by the way, is the fan games link in the[|see also] section really necessary ? I find it redundant... Or perhaps should we list list all obscure tetris clone on even more obscure  platform in the fan games and only majors fan games (like tetrinet) in the main page ? --PetitPrince 20:46, 4 May 2006 (EDT)
 * that's what the fan games link is for (obscure games). i don't see any problem with merging tnet with tnet2. if someone decides to write enough to seperate them later, then they'll still have the option. by the way, welcome to the wiki! 147.174.150.163 22:10, 4 May 2006 (EDT)

Added Tetris AI and Tetris Building. I don't know wheter I should place them here or somewhere else... ohwell, feel free to move them wherever you like. --PetitPrince 16:51, 8 May 2006 (EDT)

How should we present games ?
If we are to "Compile every Tetris detail known to mankind.", I think a little organisation would help. Is there a template that we should follow ? I though of something like this: Oh, btw, is a screenshot/boxart of games requiered ? --PetitPrince 10:27, 5 May 2006 (EDT)
 * a small description of the game itself (date, platform...)
 * feature(s) of this tetris (hard drop, n-pieces preview, bonus, cute graphics...)
 * other (anything that doesn't fit in the 2 previous section)
 * The descriptives (date, platform, etc) could fit within the infobox, and so could the features. We could add to the infobox template with like shadow, hard drop, etc-- with yes or no. Then we could have others like dual axis/single axis, SRS compliant, etc. Then for the actual text, if there's something interesting about the game itself (cool deviations) or about the background of the game (N64 TNT is loaded with tidbits-- I plan on writing an article about the game eventually), then we could include that in the text, but the infobox can really cover a lot. Neither box art or anything is really required, but we should definitely have that option open in case anyone wants to add it later (colour_theif mentioned having some obscure Tetris box arts). Keep up the good work, man. I'll start helping you (and probably colour, too) as soon as I get some time freed up. I really need to back up this wiki, heh. Nicholas 19:56, 5 May 2006 (EDT)
 * Okay, so I modified Template:Infobox to add additionnal info (it was a real pain to understand how it worked ^^)(and I still aren't quite at ease with mediawiki's syntax °^-^), and filled the Tetris_and_Dr_Mario page to test it. Obviously there's still a lot tons of work to do, but I hope it is a step in the right direction. I also found some |ways to make conditionnal things, but it is either a dirty CSS hack, or needs an admin help (cf. "Solutions" paragraph) --PetitPrince 17:06, 6 May 2006 (EDT) Oh, and I forgot something: the current infobox links to TGM legend. Shouldn't we have an unified jargon or something ? --PetitPrince 06:41, 7 May 2006 (EDT) Added Tetris AI and Tetris Building. I don't know wheter I should place them here or somewhere else... ohwell, feel free to move them wherever you like.

1997?
Pretty sure TTC formed in 96-- not 97.72.150.7.147 13:58, 28 May 2006 (EDT)
 * Formed != full operation. A few games from 1996 still had only the "Licensed by Elorg" notice, and at any rate, the Guideline was nowhere near finished until 2001. --Tepples 20:01, 28 May 2006 (EDT)

"Tetris" a conversion for the ZX Spectrum 1986
According to the "World of Spectrum" website, a conversion of Tetris was made for the ZX Spectrum, by someone called Andi in 1986 but the copyright was held by Alexey Pazhitnov and the game was published by Alexey Pazhitnov for the computer in 1986. Can be downloaded @ http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0005208

To play the Java version available on World of Spectrum once the game has loaded successfully, initially press space and wait. When the games screen appears set the joystick to "Cursor". Once game play commences with the pieces falling, set the joystick back to "Kempston".

The Java emulator on the World of Spectrum does not emulate the “Fire Key” on the “Kempston” joystick, so the pieces cannot be turned! To play the game properly, the game file has to be downloaded and then played on a real ZX Spectrum or an emulator with the “Kempston” joystick fully emulated.

Many ZX Spectrums were cloned in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. More ZX Spectrums were cloned in the former Soviet Union than the rest of the world put together! Eastern European clones :- http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/clones/e_european.htm

Russian clones :- http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/clones/russian.htm