Grand Teton, a Tetris game for Macintosh written by Andrew Morrisey.
Important:
To make the highest score function work, you must complete 6 lines in the game...it's easy!
Grand Teton is a game with 19 different 4-tile shapes which you must rotate and position so they will drop into a pit and form a line all the way across. The lines completed will disappear. As you make more lines disappear, the game will speed up making Grand Teton more challenging. The game ends when a tile cannot enter the pit because the other tiles are piled right to the top.
The game is similar to Tetris. Is it the first version on the Macintosh? I'm looking for others.
Controlling Grand Teton for Mac.
Double click the application icon. There are no extensions or control panels with this program.
Get playing and read this later!!!
Balloon Help is available on the game window.
There are five buttons on the Grand Teton window which directly control the tiles.
The two buttons marked 'Flip' are used to rotate the tiles. The flip button on the left rotates the tile 90 degrees anti-clockwise, and the flip button on the right rotates 90 degrees clockwise. (No point rotating the square tile though!)
The right and left buttons move the tile horizontally one space.
The drop button will accelerate the tile to the bottom. Use this when you have decided the tile will fall in the position you want. This is optional as the tile will reach the bottom eventually.
You will probably find controlling the game with the mouse difficult when the game speeds up, so there are keyboard shortcuts available at all times during play. If you have an extended keyboard, it's best to use the numeric keypad. The shortcuts are:
<zero> for DROP,
4 for flip left, <4>< ><6>
6 for flip right. <1>< ><3>
1 for move tile left, < 0 >
3 for move tile right,
If you are using a Powerbook, The shortcuts are
<Spacebar> for DROP,
V for move tile left,
N for move tile right,
F for flip left,
J for flip right.
Of course, these letters or numbers will work on any keyboard, it's your choice.
Pressing the button labelled 'Keyboard' in the main game window opens a small window that will remind you of any keyboard shortcuts that are available.
Scoring.
As each tile reaches the bottom or lands on top of another, a score is added. Some tiles have a higher score than others, the oddly shaped ones are harder to fit in and will score more. The higher up a tile lands the more points. This is because as the speed increases, it is harder to maintain the game because you have less space to work in.
The scoring system is used to find the player with the highest score. To be 'eligible', you need to have completed 6 lines. You can set you name anytime in the preferences.
Levels are the skill level you have reached. Below is a list of minimum points and lines needed to advance levels. The game speeds up as you reach the levels from 2 to 5.
'Yeah!'
From level 1 to level 2
1 line and 600 points
speed increases
bonus points 50
To level 3
2 lines and 1500 points
speed increases
bonus points 100
To level 4
4 lines and 4000 points
speed increases
bonus points 600
To level 5
6 lines and 7000 points
speed increases
bonus points 1000
To level 6
8 lines and 10000 points
no speed increase past level 5
bonus points 1200
To level 7
10 lines and 13000 points
bonus points 2000
To level 8
15 lines and 21000 points
bonus points 4000
(There may be further bonuses now or in the future)
Saving a game in progress
You may save a game in progress to a file. Choose Save Game As in the file menu like any other mac application. Reopen the file with Open. You may drag or double click game files onto the application to open them.
To start a new game choose new game from the file menu.
The current game will be automatically saved when you quit, to resume, choose File-Resume Last Game. If you quit again, that first game is overwritten by the one you just began.
What are Tile Piles?
Tile Piles are files that you can open which have tiles already in the pit. This creates a greater challenge as you try to make lines out of the tiles piled up. The main difference is that your score starts from scratch. These files have a light BLUE icon. Some may have be supplied downloaded with the Application or you can create your own. Just build up some tiles and Choose File-Save As Tile Pile. Next time you open this file, you can play a new game with it.
Game Settings and preferences
Many of the settings for the game are in the Preferences menu. Choose Edit > Preferences.
Next Window
Displays the next tile that will drop. Handy for planning where the tiles will go. It can be turned on in the preferences menu. There is also a small button on the next window which also quickly opens the Preferences.
Window has background color.
Uncheck this box in the preferences window if you don't want the game windows to have a background color and would prefer default grey.
Name
You can set the names of yourself and any other players so your name will be recorded if you reach the highest score. Names are stored in a pop-up menu in the prefs. Click <add name> to be included.
Speed
You can use the slider in this preference panel to set the initial speed of the game. Pressing default restores the game to a medium gentle pace. If this is too slow on your machine, increase the speed by moving the slider to the left.
Because the game speeds up on its own, the speed controls are unavailable if you get to level 2 and beyond, so you can't manually slow a game that is in a high level. No cheating!
Practice Mode.
Allows you to keep playing without the game ever speeding up.
Selecting Practice will keep the game in level one and you can never record a highest score. If you score more than 600 points in practice mode you can't revert to normal speed mode until you start a new game.
Problems you may have.
The game is presently compiled in 68k and was tested on a PowerMac, so it should run on most modern Macs.
If the game is choppy, increase the memory requirements in the Get Info box.
2048 should be plenty though.
If the tile dropping is not smooth, quit all the other applications you have open or even restart so the memory is freed up.
When you are furiously flipping and moving the tiles left or right, some traces of the tile may remain on the screen, or some tiles disappear when flipped. If this happens, these trails will be erased when the tile reaches the bottom. It won't effect the score and is not a big problem. It will be worked on in the future.
Grand Tetris has been thoroughly tested on a powermac, but no guarantee is made that it will run on all systems and no responsibility for any damage will be taken by Arch Media Software.
Strategy.
Note that the shapes are made up of every combination possible of four tiles.
Tiles will continue to fall into the pit until there is no more room at the top so the game will end. The idea is to rotate and place the tiles along the bottom of the pit so they will form a continuous line all the way across. When a line of 20 tile segments is complete, the line will disappear and your score and line count will increase. Don't allow any gaps or holes. You can slide tiles under other ones (may be necessary for the purple and light blue tiles!), but you can't fuse or overlap tiles.
You could play all day like this, so as your score increases and you get more lines completed, the game speeds up making things frantic. Eventually you make mistakes under pressure and run out of room. If you make too many errors, you find that completing lines becomes impossible, if you are giving up, remember to choose <File-End Game> to finish and view the Game Over screen. From here you can view the previous high score, your score, quit or start a new game.(See Below)
Recording the highest score.
The previous highest score is displayed through out the game. If you pass this score, it will update and reflect your current score. To record your score as the highest, you must complete a game by running out of room at the top of the pit or pressing <File-End Game> to end quickly.
If you choose preferences during game play and close by choosing OK, the highest score will also be recorded because high scores are stored in the preference file.
Statistics:
As the game plays, the computer chooses a random number between 1 and 19. Each number represents one of the tiles in the tile set. This number will tell the computer the next tile and display it in the next tile window if it is on. This much you probably know. Grand Teton for Mac always chooses a totally random number so no tiles have been 'rigged' to appear less, or more often.
If you press the <Statistics> button or choose it in the <controls> menu item, a window opens showing how often each tile has appeared at the top of the window during the current game. Rotating the shapes has no effect on the Statistics.
Game Over.
If you choose Quit from the file menu, the game you are playing is automatically saved for you and if you want to continue your incomplete game later, choose 'Resume Last Game' from the file menu the very next time you open the application.
If you want a permanent version of your game, choose <save game as> from the file menu before you choose <File-Quit>
To end the game and view the game over screen, choose <File-end game>.
If you have no more room for the tiles to drop, the game will end and the game over screen appears.
Here you can add your name if you didn't in the prefs.
If your name is not highlighted, choose from the pop-up menu.
You will be informed if you beat the highest score.
you will see the previous record holder and their score.
Choose New Game to play again or Quit. Both options will update the preferences file with any new information.
Finally...
Grand Teton for Mac was written in RealBasic 1.1.1 <www.Realsoftware.com>, on a PowerMac 5500/250 in July 1999 in Sydney Australia. Version 1.0 of this game is offered as Freeware.
Send any comments to <andrewwm@ozemail.com.au> or click on the email address in the About Grand Teton for Mac menu in the Apple Menu.
Later versions of this Read Me and Grand Teton are available on the web,
Visit the Tetris page at :<www.ozemail.com.au/~andrewwm/tetris.html>
