Tetris for Pocket PC 2002 Overview About Tetris...

Tetris for Pocket PC 2002 is similar to the popular game that is available on nearly every computer platform. It probably doesn't need any introduction. This Pocket PC implementation is almost the same as the original version and doesn't include any fancy features (yet). The creation and evolution of Tetris

Bubbles was the first game I have written for the Pocket PC. That game is very suitable for the Pocket PC, because it makes excellent use of the pen. The next step was to create a more dynamic game with more animation. Because I liked Tetris very much, I decided to implement it. The Bubbles source code was used to jumpstart the development. Bubbles is distributed under terms of the GNU Public License and contains full source code. Tetris is currently distributed as freeware as well, but its source code won't be released.

Tetris uses some simple animation, which is quite hard to implement on the Windows platform (without DirectX). Even on my good old Commodore CBM-64 it would have been easier, because it features sprites. Sprites aren't available on Windows CE, so you have to implement animation completely by yourself. This is a little troublesome, because it's a lot of work and software sprites are relatively inefficient. Tetris redraws it's display each time the blocks move. Although inefficient, it's easy to implement and the Pocket PC has enough power to use this algorithm without any problems.

A friend of my started developing Pac Man for Pocket PC in parallel and encountered the same problems. Unfortunately, Pac Man uses a lot more moving objects (you and the ghosts) and has much smoother animation, so the performance problem becomes more and more problematic. My next project will probably be a high-performance reusable sprite library for the Pocket PC. It will probably take a lot of time, but it should make developing games for the Pocket PC a lot easier. What's hot and what's not

The current version of Tetris is sufficient for a whole lot of fun. It has the following features:

The concept of Tetris is very simple, but the idea is just great.
The Pocket PC navigation keys are used for game control. I only have experience with the Compaq iPaq, but I am not very happy with the navigation keys on it. You can also use the command bar buttons, but this is probably even harder.
Highscore list, so you have prove when you reach a good score. It's also possible to reset the list of highscores.
Synchronizing highscores with other Tetris users using the infrared port. People who are familiar with Bubbles, will notice that the Tetris highscore list is quite similar.
Very neat about dialog, which is similar to the picture shown at the top of this page. The logo is created using POV-Ray.

Some features are still missing. I might implement it in a future version, but don't expect anything soon. The following features are planned:

Add animation when rows are deleted.
Skins for the Tetris main screen, shapes and fonts. Although not very difficult to implement I just hadn't time to do so. It has a low priority (I'm just not that much of a UI guy).
Better installation support, but I do need to get some more experience with ActiveSync installation. I don't want to rely on external tooling (such as InstallShield).
Help file for the game, explaining the various options and rules of the game.

Links Tetris gameplay

There are just to much Tetris related sites on the internet to list them all, but the following sites might be worth checking.

One of the creators of the original Tetris game started an Official Tetris site describing the history of Tetris.
Daniel Jackson released a freeware Tetris for the Pocket PC as well and it is called QTris. It's pretty good, but it doesn't have the programmable keys of my version of Tetris. This makes it useless for devices without navigation keys, but if you have navigation keys it's definetely worth a download. The graphics are great and gameplay is good as well. If you're there take a look at some other fine games from Daniel.
Applian released an Applian Bonus Pak, which includes a Tetris clone for free. It's called called Blox. It was one of the first freeware Tetris clone I found on the net. Don't bother downloading the game, because it's just a waste of memory on your Pocket PC.
Play Tetris online (using shockwave) at Shockwave Tetris .
Another online version of Tetris is called Dropping blocks and uses Java to play the game.
My Tetris has been reviewed by some magazines. One of them is a Spanish magazine called Mi PC de Bolsillo and their review can be found here . PocketNow.com wrote an article, called Battle of the Tetris clones! and compared Tetris for Pocket PC with Retris from Resco Software , which costs a few bucks. Tetris for Pocket PC was the big winner (and not only because it's free).

If you know about more Tetris clones, please mail me. Legal statement

This program is copyrighted by Ramon de Klein and distributed under terms of the GNU General Public License.