Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!nosc!cod!deichman
From: deichman@cod.NOSC.MIL (Shane D. Deichman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Speed of Tetris on different Macs
Message-ID: <2295@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 1 Oct 90 20:02:11 GMT
References: <257@geocub.greco-prog.fr>
Reply-To: deichman@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (Shane D. Deichman)
Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego
Lines: 32

In article <257@geocub.greco-prog.fr> anthes@geocub.greco-prog.fr (Franklin Anthes) writes:
>A while back I saw several messages go by, where people talked about
>getting very high scores in Tetris. Now I wonder whether the game
>runs at the same speed on all Macs? I think a fairly small difference
>( 5% or so ) in the speed on level 9 could make a big difference.
>

  I don't know about different speeds on the Mac, but a friend of mine
who has a 286-XT (incidentally, the gentleman who introduced me to 
Tetris) managed to "cheat" to beat the high score I had set on his
machine.  Not being able to top my then-ibm high score of 10,000, he
selected "joystick" mode when he booted up (those that have seen the
baby blue version know that there is such a prompt at the start).

Not having a joystick hooked up, what resulted was a VERY slow speed
game which he ran on the keyboard.  After some 45 minutes of slow
torture, he stopped the game with a score of over 12,000.  He never
told me how he did it until, after three hours of trying, I broke
17,000 at the "normal" speed....

Tetris purists will be pleased to know that the game is a LOT easier
on the Mac if you use the peek-mode -- with the Mac, you can type the
control commands while the last line you deleted is disappearing; when
the piece appears, it will instantaneously enact all commands and end
up where you want it.  On the ibm, the keyboard is disabled while the
line(s) disappear, so you have to wait until the block actually appears
on the screen to move it....  (Also, the Mac has the neat Control Panel
functions which allow you to adjust the sensitivity of the keyboard....)

Hey -- all's fair in love and Tetris!  ;-)

-shane d deichman