FLASHBACK: SID SACKSON SAYS: TETRIS

FLASHBACK: TETRIS

by Sid Sackson

[No celebration of our 20th anniversary would be complete without acknowledging the contributions of legendary game designer Sid Sackson. Sid joined Gamers Alliance as a Contributing Editor quite early in our run and contributed regularly for years. (For more details, check out the GA Timeline.) His first column (titled "Sid Sackson Says") appeared in the Fall 1990 GA REPORT. Sid did THREE reviews in that issue. Here we reprint the FIRST of the three where, in characteristic Sackson fashion, he offers an improvement on Tetris. ]

TETRIS (Milton Bradley, 2-4 players, about 30 minutes; out of print)

Tetris, the computer bombshell from Russia, has kept countless fans transfixed as they guide myriads of falling shapes into the proper nooks and crannies. Now Milton Bradley has transferred the concept into old-fashioned cardboard, manipulated by hand power.

Four gameboards are provided. These are assembled (a not at all difficult procedure) so that the 8x11 grid slopes down towards the player using that board. There are 116 pieces, divided more or less evenly into seven shapes (the different possible arrangement of four squares - quadrominoes). The pieces are also divided, again more or less evenly, into five colors. Pieces must be played with the colored side up but, apart from that, color has no significance.

The pieces are thrown into a small deep box. At a starting signal, players grab one (no fair dropping it to take another) and place it touching the bottom of their grid. Further pieces are grabbed and placed as quickly as possible. New pieces must rest at the bottom or touch a previous piece along any edge. An unwanted piece can be unloaded on any opponent's gameboard, forcing him/her to position it before grabbing another.

The game ends as soon as one player covers at least one space in the top (11th) row, and the player with the least number of uncovered spaces is the winner. Unfortunately, with this rule, a player can rush to reach the top and win if she/her has one more piece in place than any opponent. And the challenge of proper packing is completely lost.

To get around this problem, and a few others, I came up with the following variation:

Turn all of the pieces color face down. Then take one piece ach of the seven different shapes and turn them face up in the center of the table. The player picked to play first takes any piece and positions it on his/her board. Players in turn to the left each choose a piece. After the seventh piece is taken, a new set is turned, and so on until the game ends.

A piece must be placed so that - in addition to any other connections - it rests at the bottom of the grid, or touches the top of a piece already in place (stopping the new piece from sliding down the slope of the board). And a piece can never be placed so that it touches a piece of the same color, even at a corner! If not able to use any available piece, a player is eliminated from the game.

A player is permitted to place a piece so that it projects past the top of the grid but this ends his/her play. When all players have finished, the one with the least number of uncovered spaces is the winner. In case of a tie, the tying player with the most completely filled rows wins. If this too is a tie, the victory must be shared. - - Sid Sackson