vitetris: Text-mode Tetris for Linux

Latest version: 0.57 (13 Sep 2009)

vitetris is a terminal-based Tetris clone by Victor Nilsson. Gameplay is much like the early Tetris games by Nintendo. Features include:

Configurable keys
Highscore table
Two-player mode with garbage
Network play
Joystick (gamepad) support on Linux or with Allegro

It has been tested on Linux, NetBSD and a few other Unix-like systems, and ported to Windows and DOS. Library dependencies are minimal (only libc is required), and many features can be disabled at compile-time.

Version 0.50 can run in graphics mode using the Allegro library, but blocks are still "drawn" as characters with an 8x16 console font.

Download | Screenshots | Servers | FAQ | More Info

                  +--------+
                  | ###### |
                  |   ##   |
             _____|________|_____
  +--------+|  .   .   .   .   . ||  Top Scores
  | Score  ||  .   .   ##  .   . ||  1. 415490
  | 122704 ||  .   .   ####.   . ||  2. 284528
  |        ||  .   .   ##  .   . ||  3. 244339
  +--------+|  .   .   .   .   . ||  4. 203341
  | Level  ||  .   .   .   .   . ||  5. 185026
  |   09   ||  .   .   .   .   . ||  ---------
  |        ||  .   .   .   .   . ||
  +--------+|  .   .   .   .   . ||
  | Lines  ||  .   .   .   .   . ||
  |   044  ||  .   .   .   .   . ||
  |        ||  .   .   .   .   . ||   <I> 021
  +--------+|  .   .   . {}.   . ||   {J} 008
           ||  . %%.   . {}{}  . ||   (L) 020
           ||  . %%%%%%{}{}{}  @@||   [O] 024
           ||  .   %%%%%%{}{}@@@@||   %S% 020
           ||  .   ()()%%@@<>@@##||   #T# 019
           ||  <>[][]()@@@@<>####||   @Z@ 012
           ||  <>[][]()@@()<>%%##||     -----
           ||  <>[][]()()()<>%%%%||  Sum 0124

Download

Source Code

To compile vitetris you need a Unix-like environment with a C compiler and other basic development tools.

vitetris-0.57.tar.gz
Installation instructions: INSTALL
vitet055src.zip for DOS
Installation instructions: INSTALL.DOS

Binaries

Windows:	vitetris-0.57-win.zip	README-win.txt
DOS:	vitet055.zip	README.DOS
Linux:	vitetris-0.55-i486-linux.tar.gz Built with gcc 3.4.6 for i486-linux on Slackware 11.0.

Screenshots

2P game on different terminals using Unix domain sockets

vitetris 0.3.1 and 0.3

Servers

liquidham.se:34034

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I install vitetris?

Linux: Unpack with "tar xzvf vitetris-XXX.tar.gz" and cd into the directory. Read the text files with "less" or whatever.
Windows: Download the zip-file (the bold link under Binaries) and extract it to any directory, e.g. C:\vitetris. Create a shortcut to tetrisal.exe.

How does the won-lost thing displayed after my opponent's name work?

When either of you wins three times, that counts as a match and this score is updated. It is simply saved in the configuration file and not communicated in any way to the server/other end of the connection. If a game was cancelled, the score is unchanged. It is only based on the names you use, which are case sensitive.

When will version 1.0 be released?

I thought 0.55 would be the final version! (and some other version before that). But when I fix bugs I get inspiration to add new features, and introduce new bugs. So there is some hope. I'm working on a new version with one new game mode and an alternative rotation system that is similar to modern "official" Tetris games. (No, there won't be infinite spin or hold piece.)

But 1.0 should have music and sound. Original music, not the Russian tune. Not sure I will do that soon...

History

The only thing you need to know is that ~~0.55~~ 0.57 was the first version without any awkward bugs. See changes.txt for details.

My approach when writing vitetris was to do everything from scratch for the fun of it. It was never meant to be an example of good programming, I just wanted to draw falling blocks in a terminal window and it evolved into a rather good (semi-traditional) Tetris game. Along the way I tried out some crazy ideas e.g. to port it to a 16-bit DOS compiler. Please forgive me.

Release 0.3 added two-player mode, configurable keys and more options. The code was largely rewritten and tested during Nov and Dec 2007, and did not contain so many bugs thanks to Hugo Fernbom.

Release 0.2.2 fixed some ugly bugs and configuration-file compatibility with 0.3. Otherwise it did not differ much from the version released on 31 Oct (to a few friends).

More Information

See the README file.

vitetris is not GPL, it's licensed under a 2-clause BSD-style licence.

The "vi" in vitetris has nothing to do with the editor vi &ndash it's for my first name.
(But it's written with Vim.)

Contact: nilsvic at gmail dot com