8088 Tetris Attack
A downloadable game
Match blocks as fast as you can in this PC port of a console classic.
This 2021 game for the original 1981 IBM PC runs in full color (all 16 of them) and high resolution (320x200) thanks to intense abuse of the Color Graphics Adapter's 40-column text mode. Responsive gameplay, even at 4.77 MHz. Music and sound effects, even with a simple buzzer. The only PCs this won't kick ass on did not have graphics.
Version 2.0 supports MDA. (Use the -mda flag.) The only PCs this won't kick ass on did not have video.
Version 2.1 is the same but automatically detects MDA or CGA.
Version 2.2 also detects EGA and VGA to match CGA.
Version 2.3 exits more cleanly and includes a COM version.
Originally developed for PC Jam: https://pcjam.gitlab.io/
Download
Install instructions
Tested in DOSBox-X and 86Box. If graphics look scrunched vertically or blink during gameplay - reconfigure. Use -mda for MDA / Hercules or -cga for CGA / EGA / VGA.
Development log
- All IBM PCs can now play Tetris AttackNov 13, 2021
Comments
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Hi, is it ok to distribute this game on the DOS Game Jam Demo Disc? It will be a freely downloadable ISO image with games submitted to the DOS Game Jam with a small menu to select games.
It's MIT-licensed, you can do anything.
I would make sure to include the EXE version, as I'm not sure the COM version works outside of DOSBox. The v2.3 ZIP has both.
Thanks, I'll put both on the disc, and make the menu launch the EXE for best compatibility.
Wow, this is a lively one. I really enjoyed the menacing music and the slightly unhinged visuals. I didn't even realise I'd lost the first time because the gameplay continues despite the game over message being visible, an interesting design decision! Very nice game
The tiles wound up with a Windows 95 shareware vibe because the CGA text-mode hack for 16-color graphics made some shapes impossible. Triangle up: trivial. Triangle down: gave up and drew an urn.
Gameplay after failure is part of the game being ephemeral. There's no high score table. There's no ending. It just ramps up to barely-tolerable pressure and stays there. The only difference after topping out is the lack of screen clears, because scoring stops.
Difficulty is the same past level 0x10. There's a way to score high enough, on the first screen, to go straight there.
I especially appreciate the support for MDA. My first PC was briefly MDA, until I upgraded it to Hercules. I'd have loved it back then, since the games I could play were few and far between.
MDA even gets its own tileset and backgrounds, because of how different it is from CGA / EGA / VGA. I had fun trying to coerce any set of distinct objects from two shades of green and a fixed font. They might not even port over, if I get around to ridiculous Olivetti and palmtop versions.
Incidentally, I love how The Anarchic Kingdom uses a CGA palette to look like the Bayeux tapestry. Working within technical limits takes more thought than fighting them.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work on the Book8088. The game loads with sound, but the screen goes blank...
Try the -cga flag.
That would fix it if it's mis-detecting MDA... but the game might just be bugged. I have only tested this on emulators. One person did have trouble with a CGA+MDA card, but that still showed buggy CGA output. In MDA mode it never writes anything to that address space.
If it's simply wrong on hardware, the source code is one file. Open Watcom takes one arcane command (see top comments in source code) and runs on anything. The problem is presumably in cga_initialize_screen, which contains some magic register operations I fully admit I do not understand. 160x100 "mode" is reasonably well-documented and this is a 40-column version of that 80-column hack.
At some point I need to update this, myself. But not today and not tomorrow.
Thanks for the tip and especially for taking the time to respond!