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The New Tetris

Topic: Software

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 8 min

Short description: Puzzle video game for Nintendo 64
The New Tetris
North American box art
Developer(s)H2O Entertainment
Blue Planet Software
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Artist(s)Christopher Bretz, Roland Longpre, Jon McBain, Jake Pokorney
Composer(s)Neil Voss
SeriesTetris
Platform(s)Nintendo 64
Release
  • NA: August 2, 1999[1]
  • PAL: October 15, 1999
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The New Tetris is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo 64. The game was developed by H2O Entertainment and published by Nintendo, based on the Tetris series. The game was originally released on August 2, 1999, in North America.

The shows scenic fly-bys of structures (for examples the Sphinx, the Pantheon, Saint Basil's Cathedral, a Mayan temple, and others) rendered in real-time. This is relatively difficult for the Nintendo 64 hardware to accomplish at the quality that is achieved. The New Tetris features a multiplayer mode with up to four players and an electronic dance music soundtrack by Neil Voss, who also composed the award-winning music for Tetrisphere.

Game differences

There are several key differences in gameplay from the original Tetris. First, in addition to clearing lines, one can also form 4x4 large squares of four pieces to form "blocks." When a block is created, it turns solid gold or silver, depending on the makeup of the block—a block built from all the same kind of piece becomes a golden block or "monosquare", while any other combination becomes a silver block or "multisquare". Blocks can only be constructed from whole pieces: if any part of a piece has been cleared, then it cannot be used to form a block. When a line that has pieces from a block is cleared, it earns more points.

Second, in order to aid in the planning of building blocks, the game shows three upcoming pieces and has a "storage area" where a spare piece can be stored. If the piece in the storage area is more desirable than the currently falling piece, the player can press the L button to swap the currently falling piece with the stored piece. One other feature is that the rotation is much more flexible than in traditional Tetris games, trying several slight nudges, which players have called "wall kicks", before finding one where the tetromino fits. Some of these compensations move the pieces away from walls even "over" other pieces. In fact, the game rewards players for performing these seemingly impossible "spin moves": If a line is cleared by doing a spin move, all the pieces above or below the spin move break apart into individual blocks and fall down, possibly clearing many lines and filling in empty spaces in the bottom portion of the play area. Unfortunately, the spin move process causes golden and silver blocks to become ordinary pieces again and so they no longer carry their multiplier when cleared.

Tetris Worlds includes the rules of The New Tetris under the name "Square Tetris", with even more flexible wall kick rules, although the rule for what constitutes a spin move differs significantly.

The lead programmer on The New Tetris, David Pridie, placed a secret hidden rant within the code which was dumped by hackers soon after the release of the game.[2]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
GameRankings82%[3]
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGameStarStarStarStar[4]
EGM7.5/10[5]
Game Informer7/10[7]
GameFan80%[6]
GamePro(Dragon) StarStarStarStarStar[8]
(Hendrix) StarStarStarStarHalf star[9]
GameSpot7.9/10[10]
Hyper89%[11]
IGN8.8/10[12]
Nintendo Power8.1/10[13]
ONM74%[14]
Gamers' RepublicB[16]

The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Entertainment News Wire for August 2, 1999 [Renaissance Online Magazine News"]. https://renaissancemag.com/news/080299.asp. 
  2. ↑ David Pridie (July 1, 1999). "New Tetris Rant". http://www.bretz.ca/dave/tetrisrant.htm. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The New Tetris for Nintendo 64". CBS Interactive. http://www.gamerankings.com/n64/198976-the-new-tetris/index.html. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  4. ↑ Scott McCall. "The New Tetris - Review". All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20141114213313/http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=19230&tab=review. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  5. ↑ EGM staff (1999). "The New Tetris". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff Davis). 
  6. ↑ "REVIEW for The New Tetris". GameFan (Shinno Media). August 4, 1999. 
  7. ↑ Jay Fitzloff (September 1999). "[The New Tetris"]. Game Informer (FuncoLand) (77). Archived from the original on March 11, 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20000311125010/http://gameinformer.com/reviews/review_detail.cfm?ITEM_ID=3193. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  8. ↑ Four-Eyed Dragon (September 1999). "The New Tetris". GamePro (IDG Entertainment) (132): 146. http://www.nintendo64ever.com/scans/mags/Scan-Magazine-793-146.jpg. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  9. ↑ Air Hendrix (1999). "[The New Tetris Review for N64 on GamePro.com"]. GamePro (IDG Entertainment). Archived from the original on December 13, 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20041213014513/http://www.gamepro.com/nintendo/n64/games/reviews/1482.shtml. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  10. ↑ Jeff Gerstmann (August 9, 1999). "The New Tetris Review". CBS Interactive. https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-new-tetris-review/1900-2544908/. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  11. ↑ Nick O'Shea (November 1999). "The New Tetris". Hyper (Next Media Pty Ltd) (73): 70. http://www.nintendo64ever.com/scans/mags/Scan-Magazine-703-66.jpg. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  12. ↑ Aaron Boulding (August 3, 1999). "The New Tetris". Ziff Davis. https://www.ign.com/articles/1999/08/04/the-new-tetris. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  13. ↑ "The New Tetris". Nintendo Power (Nintendo of America) 122: 113. July 1999. http://www.nintendo64ever.com/scans/mags/Scan-Magazine-364-113.jpg. Retrieved September 18, 2018. 
  14. ↑ "The New Tetris". Nintendo Official Magazine (85): 28. October 1999. https://archive.org/details/NintendoOfficialMagazine085/page/n27/mode/2up?q=%22The+New+Tetris%22. Retrieved June 16, 2021. 
  15. ↑ Nemesis. "The New Tetris" (in es). :es:Superjuegos (90). https://archive.org/details/Superjuegos_090_faltan_2_hojas_0finales/page/n123/mode/2up?q=%22The+New+Tetris%22. Retrieved June 16, 2021. 
  16. ↑ "The New Tetris". Gamers' Republic (16): 77. https://archive.org/details/Gamers_Republic_Issue_16/page/n77/mode/2up?q=tetris. Retrieved July 24, 2021. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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