aaron@stat.tamu.edu (Aaron Hightower) (05/18/91)
Yet Another Tetris Clone (YATC) V0.99
(C) 1991 Aaron Hightower
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How YATC is different from other Tetris variations:
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The thing that may stand out as being different about this game is the
ability for the computer to play the game. I spent just a short while on
this part of the game, but I am still looking for improvements. I think
the computer is fairly adept at seeing some moves that we humans sometimes
miss, and the lack of mistakes keeps the computer going for quite a while.
The average score over a weekend turned out to be about 30-40 million
points at last checking. Top score that I have seen is 95 Million. A
special thanks goes to my current roommate at Texas A&M, Richard Baker.
Richard lost a lot of sleep helping to "tune" the algorithm to achieve
better scores. We kept joking back and forth about how we would just sit
and watch the computer play instead of doing our homework and/or studying.
Thanks for the support and interest, Richard.
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"Yet Another Tetris Clone" includes the following features:
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* One/two button joystick (rotate both ways if you have two buttons)
* Keyboard (with simul-key capability - more than one key at a time)
* Many favorable keys available for human playing
- Move Left : J, Numpad 4, and Cursor Left
- Move Right: L, Numpad 6, and Cursor Right
- Rotate CCW: K, Numpad 5, and Cursor Up
- Rotate CW: I, and Numpad 8
- Drop Piece: SPACE, Cursor Down, Numpad 2, Comma Key, Numpad 0
* Selectable options for
- Next piece display
- Monochrome mode (a really great option :-) - use 'M' key)
- "Quick drop" or "Slide down" (use 'D' when playing to toggle)
- Cute erase technique (use 'E' when playing to toggle)
- Computer aided play (use 'C' key in Human Play)
- Full computer play with ability for human to intervene
- Computer plays while human selects pieces (use toprow nums 1-7)
This is called "YATC Revenge"
- Computer speed control (SHIFT-1 thru SHIFT-9 on toprow numbers)
- Ability to turn off graphics when computer plays (speeds up
playing) - press the zero key on the toprow numbers to toggle
- Computer can suggest (hint) a move when user holds the 'H' key
- Optionally smooth scrolling pieces (use 'S' key)
* Note that other options may exist - all keyboard options available
from menu also.
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Release History
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Version 0.99 5/16/91 Pre-release
YATC is available from ab20.larc.nasa.gov and is currently in the
/incoming/amiga/ directory.
The file names are "yatc.lzh" and "yatc.Readme". It will probably be moved
to /amiga/games/ via my prediction.
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