This just blows my mind for a lot of reasons...
1. Does the PS3 1080p mode run at 50/60Hz, or is it 24/25/30? I think I'd prefer the smoother lower-rez modes in that case, for a twitch game.
2. I was playing it in 1024p (and even at some points, 1024i) on my old 15" SXGA monitor like 15 years ago... could probably have extended that to 1080 with software tweaks, if my eyes coulda taken it. And, as that was the MS Arcade Pack version, it wasn't any less graphically impressive than this, bizarrely. Bright colours, bevelling etc.
3. Such a wasted opportunity. All they have to crow about is the resolution and number of speakers. There's been no effort to make it more appealing at all, despite the fancy-ish tron-like graphics in the promo video. Haven't seen N64 Tetrisphere (mentioned by someone) but I bet it was better... Next time, call Jeff Minter or something... someone with a flair for making otherwise incredibly simple, ZX Spectrum-level games look and sound
awesome.
4. Gameboy had 144p graphics... in mono... and it played just as good. Hell, I've bought £5 "20 in 1" chinese LCD game things from spanish markets which had approx 18p resolution (and 10 pixels across) and they provided an incredibly addictive version. That and the tetris watch that was even blockier (ahem).
5. Greatest version? BS. I still maintain THIS >>>
http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/teserae.htm is the greatest (singleplayer) version. If you can't get Minter, track down whoever was behind the Albanian Sausage Company and see what he can do with the monolith. Afraid there's no videos online to do full justice to the "infamous oh-my-god-i'm-drunk-and-staring-at-wallpaper" background, or how the blocks go through a rainbow from cyan to red as you near the top, or the truly excellent music (long, varied, very well done and damn awesome bit of chiptuneage from an age when it was neither retro, nor at all cool, that i'm still playing in the background) that has a slight russian flavour at points but has no elements of Type-A. However, if I can figure out how I may try to fix that, now I've finally tracked down a working copy. It's definitely more impressive than the PS3 effort, even though it's in all of 240p (go on count those pixels) mode, and that only because they're using a trick lower-border-overscan routine.
I'd encourage you to download a copy of Steem, hunt out an OS (GEM, therefore very windowsy and easy to use) ROM image, and give it a spin. Very simple, pure controls; left, right, drop faster, and rotate (clockwise). I was playing for ages just now, it kicked my ass, eventually got up to level 4 and 3550 points, well in the zone, before can't-move-fast-enough panic set in and it was all over. Apparently an all expenses paid trip to Florida awaits for anyone who gets a Tetri.... sorry,
Teserae on level 6...
Oh yeah there's also a fairly funny scroller for spectators, or those who suffer terminal motion sickness/epilepsy and have to keep pausing and blocking out the top part of the screen, to read.
Hard level would be to get it up and running on the original hardware (all of 8mhz, 1mb and 9-bit colour... in fact if you had the bourgeouise 16mhz, 12bit colour deluxe model, you had to step it back to proletarian 8mhz in order for the game to work) and a proper CRT, or an LCD/Plasma with proper 50/60Hz interlace display response so things don't get all blurred. I quite fancy digging out the old Atari, then dragging it to work to abuse my privelege by hooking it up to one of our big pro-grade data projectors and theatre amps and playing it in mega-size with blasting music and see if I can still stand up after. I have the time and room booked out next week for a job that's since been cancelled by someone else anyway... probably just enough time to work out a 13pin DIN to D-sub RGB connector...
(and hook up a PS3 on the same projector/amplifier and see which version - in single player mode - people preferred. Maybe a NES, or PC with GB emulator, too).
Best multiplayer mode, I think, would be the classic old Win9x Tetrinet, which also had decent graphics and music... Lost far too many hours to that at uni, along with some network-attached dorm mates, just the same as Teserae stole huge chunks of youth.
