gregory@icad.COM (Jack Gregory) (02/23/90)
Sadly, there is a bug in Tetris (both BW and Color) which allows you to get any score. If you don't want to know what it is, then kill this message and go on. I am reporting this in the belief that it is better if everyone knows. I will no longer trust high scores, because this can happen accidently. To do it, you pause a tet while still high in the box, make the scoreboard go away (I forget the key to do it right now), and hold down the space bar. This apparently strokes the same algorithm that scores the tet when you drop it, ignoring that fact that you are paused. With rapid key repeat, the score gets very high very fast. Don't trust the scores that you hear about. --J Gregory
cbm@well.sf.ca.us (Chris Muir) (02/26/90)
>Don't trust the scores that you hear about.
Actually, it's pretty easy to hack the scores in ResEdit.
--
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Chris Muir | "There is no language in our lungs
{hplabs,pacbell,ucbvax,apple} | to tell the world just how we feel"
!well!cbm | - A. Partridgeejgraves@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Eric James Graves) (03/07/90)
In the previous article, gregory@icad.com points out a way to get high scores in the game. Of course, other unscrupulous types make up their high score list with resedit. (Not a recommended procedure for those not familiar with Resedit, so I'll only give what I know of the format.) Open the "scor" resource, then "scor ID=1000". It will open as a general format item. The first byte is the length of the high-score holder's name. That is followed immediately by the name in ASCII, and filler. At positions 1C,1D,1E and 1F they store the score, as a 4-byte signed hex number (ie, the maximum score possible is 7fff ffff, or 2,147,483,647). Furthermore, the level attained is stored in position 1B (It seems like the highest level tetris recognizes is 9, but if you set the high bit of the level, it prints in bold.) The format repeats itself at positions 20, 40, etc (all in hex). One interesting note is that Tetris recognizes when a score is too high and changes the point size in an attempt to make it fit, but even at the reduced size, the maximum attainable score doesn't fit. PS-Be careful... People might get suspicious if resediting your scores causes a score of -1, or some other suspicious number in first place. Furthermore, By using resedit, it is possible to make the first-place score lower than the others, and screwing up the way Tetris updates the highscore list. Disclaimer: This is posted only for the information of netters. I do not encourage anyone to modify their high score list in any way, and will take no responsibility for any strange occurences. In other words, if you screw up, don't blame me. :) ejgraves@phoenix.princeton.edu or ejgraves@pucc.bitnet