3.6 KiB
- -- outline --
- License
- About cpmtris
- Playing cpmtris
- Command-Line Options
- Acknowledgements
- Contacting the Author
-- outline --
Cpmtris v1.1 - (c) 1996,1999 Russell Marks
A tetris clone for Z80-based CP/M machines.
License
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
[The GNU GPL is in the file 'COPYING'.]
About cpmtris
Cpmtris is a free tetris clone for CP/M machines. It works as is on VT52s (PCW and +3) and ZCN boxes, works with VT100s with 'cpmtris 1', and is patchable for other machines and terminals.
It's a conversion of my Psion series 3 OPL tetris program, via my ZX81 tetris. Both are free like cpmtris, and available on request.
Playing cpmtris
It's tetris. Surely you've played tetris!?
Ok, the basics. Blocks fall from the top of the screen. You have to fit them together to make solid horizontal lines, as a horizontal line of blocks disappears to make room for more blocks. And why is this the case? Well, if the pile of blocks reaches the top of the screen, it's game over. So it quickly gets important to fit the shapes together well, and not leave any gaps.
You can rotate the blocks with 's', move them left or right with 'k' and 'l', and 'drop' them with 'd'.
Cpmtris does not (yet) speed up. It starts pretty fast and stays that way. If you want to play it faster, specify a MHz rating on the command-line (see below) lower than your machine's actually is.
Command-Line Options
In Unix terms, the synopsis (usage) is 'cpmtris [termtype [mhz10]]'.
If 'termtype' is specified, it must be a single digit corresponding to a terminal type. If 'mhz10' is specified, it should be ten times the speed (in MHz) of the Z80 the machine has. For example, on a 3.5MHz machine you'd use '35'. You must have a 'termtype' specified to use 'mhz10'.
To explain this 'terminal type' stuff: It's traditional for full-screen CP/M programs to either include a configuration program, or (more usually) document patches which need to be made to support different terminals. Cpmtris does have a patch area (100h-17fh), but also has built-in support for a few terminals. These are:
Type Terminal 0 as defined in patch area 1 VT100 2 VT52 (PCW, +3, etc.) - this is the default 3 ZCN (this is auto-detected) 4 VC404
The idea behind being able to specify both terminal type and speed when you run cpmtris is that it's more convenient if you sometimes use your machine via a terminal or terminal emulator. With most programs you have to devise some method of patching them when you want to use something other than the default configuration. With cpmtris, if (for example) I'm using my ZCN box via kermit on my Linux box - not uncommon - then it's just a matter of using 'cpmtris 1'.
See the source (cpmtris.z) for details of the patch area.
Acknowledgements
The original text-mode PC tetris game (which a surprising number of people have never played, it seems). It's inspired more clones than any other game since space invaders, I think. :-)
Rush's "Presto" album. I listened to it constantly while hacking up cpmtris.
Contacting the Author
You can email me at russell.marks@ntlworld.com.