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TETRIS for Windows


ppgrainbow

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I sure hope that this is the right place to post this.

Has anyone ever played TETRIS for Windows? The current version of the game is version 2 with the datestamp of 1990-09-04 21:46:28 with TETRIS.EXE as the executable.

It's a 16-bit executable that was apart of the first volume Microsoft Entertain Pack for Windows as well as Microsoft's Best of Windows Entertainment Pack that ran under Microsoft Windows 3.0 and later.

Now here's the embarrassing limitation. :(

According to this article, programmers used 16-bit signed integer variables to store points earned by the player.

Once you reach the highest possible score of 32,767 points, it overflows and is displayed as a negative number (-32,768 points).

Are there any 16-bit hex editing utilities that will look at 16-bit Windows executable files and are there any 16-bit de-compilers that will modify the code?

Also, is there any idea what code that was used to store 16-bit signed integer variables to store points that were earned by the player?

If there is no fix, I guess that you'll have to stop at 32,000. ;|

Thank you for your time. :)

Edited by ppgrainbow
I forgot the tags.
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I know this is not what you asked, but do you really want ro modify that specific version of Tetris?

I mean, if you want to play Tetris, maybe - just maybe - there is a working version of it, it is like the most copied/cloned/remade/reprogrammed/ported game EVER, only as an example:

https://tetris.wiki/Fan_games

jaclaz

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4 hours ago, Tripredacus said:

I can't easily find which Tetris is actually included in that pack.

It can be found in disk 1 of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack Volume 1 on a 1.44 MB floppy under the \bin sub-directory.

Wikipedia has a article on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Entertainment_Pack

Edited by ppgrainbow
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On 7/12/2019 at 2:16 PM, ppgrainbow said:

It can be found in disk 1 of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack Volume 1 on a 1.44 MB floppy under the \bin sub-directory.

Wikipedia has a article on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Entertainment_Pack

Well I don't have that disk, and the Wikipedia page doesn't help. In fact, it cites itself which I'm pretty sure is not how that's supposed to work. In any case, there are no details as to what Tetris that is, either.

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4 hours ago, Tripredacus said:

Well I don't have that disk, and the Wikipedia page doesn't help. In fact, it cites itself which I'm pretty sure is not how that's supposed to work. In any case, there are no details as to what Tetris that is, either.

I'm sorry to hear that you can't find any helpful information on TETRIS for Windows at all. :(

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I have found it. The Tetris that was in the Entertainment Pack and the Best of Pack is not the original Tetris. It is a port of Mirrorsoft's DOS version, which was the first official release of the game on PC, the first overall being on micros. The info refers to it as Tetris 2.00. and is official insofar that Mirrorsoft sub-licensed the rights to Microsoft, who then put their copyright on it as you can see here:

https://harddrop.com/wiki/File:Windtetrisstart.png

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1 hour ago, Tripredacus said:

I have found it. The Tetris that was in the Entertainment Pack and the Best of Pack is not the original Tetris. It is a port of Mirrorsoft's DOS version, which was the first official release of the game on PC, the first overall being on micros. The info refers to it as Tetris 2.00. and is official insofar that Mirrorsoft sub-licensed the rights to Microsoft, who then put their copyright on it as you can see here:

https://harddrop.com/wiki/File:Windtetrisstart.png

Not really :).

On its page on tetris wiki (which I referred earlier for possible alternatives):

https://tetris.wiki/Tetris_(Microsoft_Entertainment_Pack_for_Windows)

More info and some screenshots here:

http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Tetris_(Windows)

Interestingly enough, it seemingly bears the logo of "Bogus Software":

https://web.archive.org/web/20110415064416/http://www.download-central.ws:80/Win16/Tetris/Windows/

And it is seemingly also known as Wintris:

https://everything2.com/title/Wintris

but licensing/sub-licensing apart the game is definitely written by Dave Edson:

https://books.google.it/books?id=O5j5DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT62&lpg=PT62&dq=tetris+"dave+edson"+microsoft&source=bl&ots=MWD8s938S6&sig=ACfU3U1R63e9xC48wsQdNw_vsmefmzz0yg&hl=it&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiSg6Gw2rnjAhUEyqQKHXBmA6oQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=tetris "dave edson" microsoft&f=false

http://www.kraigbrockschmidt.com/mystic-microsoft-05/

Quote

There was a stout fellow named Dave Edson, for instance, who had been a co-op student at the same time as myself; we even shared an office for a few weeks. He had written a Windows version of the popular video game Tetris that was being included in Microsoft's first Windows Entertainment Pack. When I came to Dave's office for my half-hour interview he was just putting the finishing touches on a two-player mode. Under the pretext of helping him test this new feature, Dave proceeded to throttle me one game after another for a good twenty minutes.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-edson-89991620/

jaclaz

 

Edited by jaclaz
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  • 1 year later...

Well,, thus far I've gotten all these (retro) games to work, but can't find tetris?

https://archive.org/download/BestOfWindowsEntertainmentPack64Bit

On my XP 32Bit, but I'm not sure this was/is what you all are talking about as I'm hoping I have the right 'Entertainment Pack' ?!

Thank you in advance :)

Edited by XPerceniol
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BTW.. you will also need to download those 2 dlls (aboutwep and winclip) in the same directory as the applications/games. I've scanned all files with Malwarebytes and Rogue Killer and all come up fine here.

Edited by XPerceniol
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It is only on the original release of Entertainment Pack or vol 1. There are floppy images on archive.org that contain it such as this one:

https://archive.org/details/MicrosoftEntertainmentPackForWindowsVolumeOneGateway2000Edition1990

Here is a link to the only v1 I can find on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/324465832878

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Thank you for that helpful link:

I stand corrected; in part from my previous posting. I download all those games and they were so bad I deleted them lol. The only ones I've decided to keep:

https://archive.org/download/BestOfWindowsEntertainmentPack64Bit/cruel.exe (Cruel Solitaire Ver 5.1 - 2007)

and

https://archive.org/download/BestOfWindowsEntertainmentPack64Bit/taipei.exe (mahjong Ver 2 - 1987)

I didn't need those dll files for those 2 games - they run fine on their own. For some reason, I've never come across Cruel Solitaire and that is surprising, and taipei is actually pretty good given its age, so I consider this a lucky find today :)

Edited by XPerceniol
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