Super Tetris

Super Tetris
Developer(s)	N/A
Publisher(s)	Spectrum HoloByte
Platform(s)	Amiga, DOS
Release	1991
Gameplay info
Next pieces	1
Playfield size	10 × 14
Hold piece	No
Hard drop	No

• lock delay: no; wall kick: no; rotation: J, L, T bounding box and S, Z, I 2-state, counterclockwise only

• The upper field, with a white background, a normal tetris playfield, is 10w X 14h. The lower playfield, wih a black background, and a preset garbage pattern, is 10 wide and has a height dependent on the level. At most 28 rows are visible on screen at once, and the field will scroll down to follow a falling piece or bomb if needed.

• The player starts with 50 tetrominoes and, as in Bombliss, loses one tetromino for each tetromino that drops.
• Clearing 1, 2, 3, or 4 lines adds two tetrominoes per line cleared and inserts a rectangular piece containing 2, 4, 8, or 12 bombs before the next piece. Since more blocks are always removed then replaced, the player will run out of tetrominoes unless they keep clearing lines in the lower field and collecting powerup blocks.

• The player can shift and rotate the bombs as they fall.

• The object is to clear all garbage from the lower field. There are about 3 or 4 preset patterns randomly chosen from for each level, and each one forms a low resolution picture.

• Clearing a line below the center of the playfield causes the blocks below it to move up.

• Once the solid floor reaches the center line, the screen is cleared with a bonus for remaining tetrominoes, and then a "bonus for low puzzle" like that of Klax is awarded, and the next screen is loaded. Any bombs from the line clear are dropped on the next level, and the current "next piece" is maintained.

• It is possible to completely clear a using bombs. If this is done, the lines below move up, or the lines above move down, just as with a normal line clear.

• There are power-ups in the preset garbage.

• They must be activated with a bomb; clearing a line containing a power-up will destroy it.

• The "5", "10", and "15" power-ups add tetrominoes.
• The "detonator" powerup destroys the 8 blocks adjacent to it.
• The "bomb" powerup transforms your next tetromino into bombs.
• The "bubble" powerup clears all blocks above it in the lower playfield.
• The "lightning" powerup clears the line containing it.
• The "box" powerup fills in all blocks above it in the lower playfield.
• The "line" powerup summons an I piece that drops before the current "next piece".

• Most decent players will have little difficulty until level 8. The lack of lock delay and wallkicks makes the highest two difficulty levels (9 and 10) extremely challenging. This is in no small part due to the fact that the upper field is only 14 rows deep.

• DAS is unusually fast for a game of this age, and is not dependent on keyboard repeat. It is not nearly as fast as a TGM series game though. It is also impossible to tap faster than the autorepeat, or rotate faster than the auto repeat rotate rate. Also, the delay for auto rotate is unusually small.

• This game gives you the most unusual ability to drop a piece one square diagonally down, by pressing 1 or 3 on the numeric keypad, or z or c on the "qweasdzxc" matrix. This is most useful to tag an otherwise unreachable powerup with a single bomb, though it can also slip a piece into an otherwise impossible position.