I am the man who arranges the blocks

[davidn]

You've probably seen this already, but there's a really amazing music video on Youtube that describes the history of the Soviet Union using the metaphor of a game of Tetris, using the game's quite possibly unintentional commentary of the pointlessness of building an endless wall. The production values are very good for a self-branded "anti-folk" band, which happens to have the unusual name of "Pig with the Face of a Boy". Why can't bands have proper names, like Glory Storm or The Tony Danza Tap-Dancing Extravaganza?

I was reminded of it by my brother, who posted it in response to my mention of Tetris playable on a torus, by Ben Joffe. Playing on a ring instead of a two-dimensional field seems to make the game much easier than you would think - there feels like there's a lot more space to move around, and you can't form valleys or hills as easily. What makes it even more impressive is that it's done entirely in Javascript with the Canvas element... I was just searching around for example HTML5-type games to put into a webapp, and the next thing I knew, it was about six days later.

Comments

[scani.livejournal.com]

I honestly found the game a bit more challenging in torus format! You don't have the same sort of 'spatial sense' that you do in traditional Tetris... "oh the piece goes here' requires a fair bit of cycling around.

The Tetris purist in me is also annoyed that the game occasionally drops things other than normal tetrominoes.

[davidn]

I was very surprised when the five- and three-square pieces came up as well! For me, it took a while before they appeared - I thought he was making up for the way that you didn't have to deal with left and right barriers. But it's true that you have to remember a lot more about the current playfield, rather than having it all there for you at once...

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome music video.

It kind of reminds me of the less critical history lesson presented in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rt_3_bQVJU

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

That video was really well made. Maybe. . .too well made.

[antifolkexplicator.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Here's another Soviet history lesson done by Anti-folk artist Jeffery Lewis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJvxHncE_iI

[kjorteo]

I like how Korobeiniki has completely lost its status as an actual standalone composition of any sort--it's just Type A now.

[davidn]

It is now completely impossible to watch any performance of it without just thinking they're playing "the Tetris music". And while I'm at it, I find it difficult to call that thing at the back a balalaika in preference to "whacking great bass thingamajig".

[feralmuse.livejournal.com]

It's nice to have some more lyrics to go with it in my head other than "Da dada Da dada da dada Da dada da da da da Tetris Song". That video was amazing and... highly educational!

[e-to-the-ipi.livejournal.com]

"Playing on a ring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_%28mathematics%29) instead of a two-dimensional field (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_%28mathematics%29)" has an entirely different meaning to a mathematician.

Not least in that I just had a meeting with my supervisor and we discussed how different doing something over a ring than a field was. Though a two-dimensional field is a rather nonsensical concept. Unless you mean something like the Galois field of p² elements...


[Your livejournal comments aren't geeky enough. And that's not a torus: a torus is a product of two circles, this is a product or a circle and a line.]

[davidn]

This is, without a doubt, the dullest comment I have ever received. Yes - let's say I do mean the Galois field of p² elements - why not, let's go with that. If the comments I was receiving weren't geeky enough, you've just balanced it out for at least the next five years.

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

I'm still looping that song.

Also now I'd really like to see how a Tetris/Missile Command hybrid would play. Blocks fall from the sky and you play as the man who arranges the blocks. Rather than direct control, you'd move two turrets up and down the sides of the well and shoot with them at the blocks to get them to rotate or move over.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the well you'd have a city slowly developing. Houses would be built and you'd have to not let the blocks crush them (still using them to make lines but they'd never disappear). As you get lines that have homes in them they'd increase in population, eventually growing into larger buildings which take up multiple tiles

Artist's brilliant conception:

[davidn]

I really do think that you have the seeds of a successful Flash game there :) It would have to be thought out how you'd control the blocks by shooting, exactly (when to rotate as opposed to when to move), but having blocks you have to protect like that could alter the whole dynamic of the game.