Intro

In 2004, my college roommates and I started playing a multiplayer variation of tetris called The New Tetris for Nintendo 64. For the uninitiated this version of tetris hinges on building monosquares and multisquares

What began as a simple spreadsheet turned into an elaborate spreadsheet and finally into a PHP/MySQL web application.

As of December 2013 we had played over 5500 matches accounting for over 380 human hours of official gameplay time.

You can look at the code. I also dabbled with some standalone python scripting with Stored Procedures.

The app had been hosted in a few places in the past:

Game Settings

  • We play The New Tetris for Nintendo 64 on marathon mode with directed garbage.
  • 2-4 players at a time.
  • Matches which for any reason are missed prior to recording all stats are thrown out.

Scoring

Definitions

  • 1 point per line cleared
  • 5 points per multisquare line
  • 10 points per monosquare line
  • 1 point tetris bonus

Permutations

+---------+---------+---------+--------+-------+--------+
|         | 1 multi | 2 multi | 1 mono | 1 & 1 | 2 mono |
+---------+---------+---------+--------+-------+--------+
| 1 line  |       6 |      11 |     11 |    16 |     21 |
| 2 lines |      12 |      22 |     22 |    32 |     42 |
| 3 lines |      18 |      33 |     33 |    48 |     63 |
| tetris  |      25 |      45 |     45 |    65 |     85 |
+---------+---------+---------+--------+-------+--------+

Single Multisquare Tetris

Single Monosquare Tetris

Double Multisquare Tetris

Multisquare and Monosquare Tetris

Double Monosquare Tetris

Useful Terms

Win Rank: Rank as determined by longevity. “#1” was the last player standing. Ties for 2nd or 3rd are possible. (aka “Wrank”)

Efficiency Rank: Rank as determined by lines/second ratio descending. Ties are possible for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd positions. (aka “Erank”)

Box: (also cube, square) monosquare or multisquare - perfect 4x4 square with no holes or overhanging pieces.

Christmas: a deluge of red and green “S” pieces.

Line Dependence: poor planning which requires 2+ lines to save your butt.

“Oh Oh”: A round of zero lines. Traditionally zero lines and time under 1 minute (“oh” lines, “oh” minutes), but instances have occurred with zero lines in longer than 59 seconds.

Natural: An arbitrary distinction for a round of vague excellence. Specifically a round with more lines than the minute-seconds, less the colon, run together as a number (exs: 160 lines in 1:40, 205 lines in 2:00, 50 lines in 0:40).

Exact Natural: See “Natural” above. But means player’s result was precisely a Natural (exs: 154 lines in 1:54. 45 lines in 0:45). As of 3/3/2012, there have been 28 instances in recorded history (2 in 4p, 7 in 3p, 19 in 2p).

“S” Round: A round in which a player averages 1.0 line per second played (ex: 100+ lines in 1:40, 55 lines in 0:50).

Monosquares

O

J

T

I

L

Multisquares

jjoo

ijls

ittz

There are many more ways to make multisquares…

Example Reports

Most Lines Under 1 Minute, All Time (as of 12/5/2013)

+------------+-------+-------------+------+-------+------+-----+-----+
| date       | plyr  | site        | mode | lines | time | wrk | erk |
+------------+-------+-------------+------+-------+------+-----+-----+
| 2007-02-28 | Dan   | 1217        |    3 |   156 |   53 |   3 |   1 |
| 2007-04-29 | Dan   | 1217        |    2 |   142 |   54 |   1 |   1 |
| 2007-05-20 | Dan   | 1217        |    2 |   132 |   58 |   1 |   1 |
| 2011-08-13 | Dan   | Mt. Johnson |    2 |   129 |   56 |   1 |   1 |
| 2011-08-13 | JD    | Mt. Johnson |    2 |   121 |   59 |   1 |   1 |
| 2007-03-21 | JD    | 1217        |    3 |   109 |   57 |   1 |   1 |
| 2007-03-17 | JD    | 1217        |    3 |   109 |   57 |   1 |   1 |
| 2007-03-22 | Dan   | 1217        |    2 |   109 |   53 |   1 |   1 |
| 2007-03-30 | JD    | 1217        |    2 |   109 |   59 |   1 |   1 |
| 2013-10-03 | Neela | Old Harbor  |    2 |   109 |   58 |   1 |   1 |
+------------+-------+-------------+------+-------+------+-----+-----+

Highest Lines per Second Ratio, 4P Only, All-Time (as of 12/5/2013)

+------------+------+-------------+-------+------+-------+-----+-----+
| date       | plyr | site        | lines | time | lps   | wrk | erk |
+------------+------+-------------+-------+------+-------+-----+-----+
| 2011-03-19 | Tom  | 14211       |   129 | 1:06 | 1.955 |   4 |   1 |
| 2007-05-11 | Dan  | 1217        |   230 | 2:07 | 1.811 |   1 |   1 |
| 2008-04-25 | Tom  | 425         |   285 | 2:39 | 1.792 |   1 |   1 |
| 2011-06-04 | Dan  | Mt. Johnson |    85 | 0:48 | 1.771 |   4 |   1 |
| 2007-05-10 | Dan  | 1217        |   184 | 1:45 | 1.752 |   1 |   1 |
| 2007-03-20 | Dan  | 1217        |   168 | 1:37 | 1.732 |   3 |   1 |
| 2004-05-09 | Tom  | 23C         |   134 | 1:20 | 1.675 |   2 |   1 |
| 2008-04-25 | Dan  | 425         |    89 | 0:54 | 1.648 |   4 |   2 |
| 2011-03-19 | Tom  | 14211       |   133 | 1:21 | 1.642 |   4 |   1 |
| 2007-03-20 | Dan  | 1217        |    90 | 0:55 | 1.636 |   4 |   1 |
+------------+------+-------------+-------+------+-------+-----+-----+

Miscellanea

Christmas Tree Stand