''Wordtris'' is a ''

Tetris ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...

'' offshoot designed by Sergei Utkin, Vyacheslav Tsoy and

Armen Sarkissian Armen Vardani Sarkissian (; born 23 June 1952) is an Armenian politician, physicist, investor, businessman, and computer scientist who was the 4th president of Armenia from 2018 to 2022. He also was Prime Minister of Armenia from 1996 to 1997. ...

(who later became

President of Armenia The president of Armenia () is the head of state and the guarantor of independence and territorial integrity of Armenia elected to a single seven-year term by the National Assembly of Armenia. Under Armenia's parliamentary system, the president ...

) and published by

Spectrum HoloByte Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher. The company, founded in 1983, was known for its simulation games, notably the ''Falcon'' series of combat flight simulators, and for publishing the first version of ''Te ...

in 1991 for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

compatible operating systems. A port to the

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

, by

Realtime Associates Realtime Associates, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1986 by David Warhol and a group of ex- Mattel Electronics employees originally to create games for the Intellivision system. Since then, t ...

, and

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

were released in 1992.

Gameplay

The object of the game is to build words of three letters or more using the tiles that fall from the top of the playing area. Words can be constructed horizontally or vertically, and multiple words can overlap each other. If the player manages to construct the magic word at the top of the screen, the well will be cleared of all tiles and the player will receive a large bonus. Occasionally, a free tile (denoted by a "?") will drop. Its letter can be selected by the player (either by typing it in the PC version, or scrolling through letters with a button on the console versions). If the player does not choose a letter, the block will become a random letter when it stops. Eraser blocks will fall and remove whatever letter that they land on (in the SNES version, the eraser is replaced with bombs and vials of acid). In the Super NES version, players advance from levels "A" to "J."Rice, Chris ed. "Wordtris." ''SNES N-Force'' Magazine. Issue 07. Pg.69-70. December 1994. There is no level after "J."

Development

The background pictures (except the title screen) were taken from Spectrum Holobyte's earlier ''Super Tetris''. The MS-DOS, Game Boy, and Macintosh versions of ''Wordtris'' have original music by Ed Bogas, while the Super NES music is by Paul Mogg. While the Game Boy and SNES versions contain looping music, the other ports do not. Ed composed the soundtrack for ''Wordtris'' using his own music software Super Studio Session for the Macintosh, in which his MIDI files were converted to the game in MIDI format. For the SNES version, Paul composed his music using Studio Vision Pro, also for the Macintosh. David Warhol provided sound engines and musical arrangements for both the Game Boy and SNES versions.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' stated that "''Wordtris'', like its predecessors, is as infuriating as it is incredibly addictive ... ''Tetris'' is a classic game. ''Wordtris'' does it one better." The SNES version of the game was scored a 65% by ''N-Force'' Magazine.

References

External links

* {{Tetris 1991 video games Alexey Pajitnov games Blue Planet Software games DOS games Game Boy games Classic Mac OS games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Tetris games Video games developed in the United States Multiplayer and single-player video games Spectrum HoloByte games Word games