;;===========================================================================;; ;; Joe Zbiciak's 4-Tris -- A "Falling Tetrominoes" Game for Intellivision ;; ;; Copyright 2000, Joe Zbiciak, im14u2c AT primenet DOT com ;; ;; http://www.primenet.com/~im14u2c/intv/ ;; ;;===========================================================================;; ---------------- Emulator Notes ---------------- -- The Numeric Keypad is reversed. Intellivision keypads put [1], [2], and [3] in the top row of the keypad, much like a telephone. The emulator retains this spatial relationship, despite the fact that PC's put [7], [8] and [9] in the top row. So, you will need to remember this little tidbit when starting the game or using the sound-test screen. -- On INTVPC, the [0] key on the keypad is mapped to the Intellivision's [0] and the [.] key is mapped to the Intellivision's [C]. On jzIntv, it's the other way around. -- The "Action Buttons" are mapped to Ctrl, Shift, and Alt. -- The "Disc" is mapped to the arrow keys (the Inverted-T, NOT the ones on the number-pad)! ------------------- Game Instructions ------------------- At the title screen, press a number from [1]-[9] or [C] on the keypad to select a starting level. (Buttons [1] through [9] start you at levels 1 through 9, and [C] starts you at Level 10.) If you press [0] at the title screen, you will be taken to a "Sound Test" screen. (See "Sound Test" below for more details.) Any other input on the controller starts you at Level 4. (Level 4 seemed like a good mid-way default level.) In the game, the controllers are set up like so: DISC: Moves piece left, right or down Action Buttons: Rotates piece. Top button rotates counter-clockwise, bottom buttons rotate clockwise. [4], [6], or [C] Toggles "Next Piece" display [7] or [9] Mutes/un-mutes background music. Pieces fall until they hit an obstruction which keeps them from falling. When a piece can't fall any further, it is "placed", and a score is assessed for that piece's placement. First, the player is awarded a small number of points for each downward move that the player made with the piece. The player is awarded 5 pts/move if the next piece was displayed at while this piece was falling, 10 pts/move otherwise. This rewards fast play. Next, any completed lines are cleared away, and a cleared-line bonus is awarded. The table below illustrates the line clear bonuses. Notice that it's worth your while to clear more lines at a time. Line Clear Bonuses: +-----------------+---------------------------------- -------------------+ | Number of | Level Number...... ... | | Lines Cleared | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ... | n | |-----------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+- -+-----------------+ | 1 | 1000 | 1500 | 2000 | 2500 | ... | 500 * (n + 1) | | 2 | 3000 | 4500 | 6000 | 7500 | ... | 1500 * (n + 1) | | 3 | 6000 | 9000 | 12000 | 15000 | ... | 3000 * (n + 1) | | 4 | 12000 | 18000 | 24000 | 30000 | ... | 6000 * (n + 1) | +-----------------+--------+-------+-------+-------+- -+-----------------+ As lines are cleared, the player is moved up in level. Each level has a maximum number of lines associated with it, which is "10 * level". When that maximum is reached, the player is moved to the next level. For example, when a player reaches 40 lines, the player moves from Level 4 to Level 5 (if the player didn't start at a higher level number). ------------ Sound Test ------------ The Sound Test screen allows the player to just play around with the sound effects that are embedded in the 4-Tris ROM image. Press buttons on the keypad to trigger sound effects and music. Use the action buttons to toggle the music playback speed. Press Disc to exit. ------------- Source Code ------------- See the file "SOURCE.txt" for information on 4-Tris' source code.