Conversation:

How did those triominoes(the green three squared pieces) sneak into the tetris graphic? They must have got jealous of all the fun the tetrominoes were having in tetris. Or maybe they got lonely since there's only two of them and they wanted to join the gang of five tetrominoes. Of course if they ever tried something like that with the 12 pentominoes (A899751), my pieces would eat their lunch.

Anyways, very nice article Farlander. I see you've added some interesting stuff since I last read it. I especially like the "hard, hard game" section. I'm coming to similiar conclusions for Pentominoes. Of course while several programmers have solved the puzzle using brute force, no one that I know of has found a logical way for a human to do it. It's still just a trial and error method that works best.

Well congrats again. I hope when the subed finishes my pentomino article it will have a link to yours.

guy who did the graphics prob wasn't familiar with tetris, lol. ah well, if one doesn't look too closely, it looks pretty good, no? we'll see how long the greenies stay there before the tetras gobble them up... might change the name of the game to terrorminoes...

anyway, thanks! i'm pretty sure i put a link to your page, but i'm not sure if it was to the original or to the ed copy. i'll go check...

(i wish somebody had come up with a good scientific reason why everybody who plays it winds up getting addicted... i don't think the glucose metabolic rate *quite* explains it)

I think the reasons why Tetris is so successful are (a) it is very abstract (b) it is very simple and (c) it could only ever be realised on a computer. I also think it appeals to certain kinds of brains: I find it easy because I'm a chemist, and I'm used to manipulating shapes in my head and fitting them together. I even found the 3-d version where the shapes drop down a well to be easy. Give me a chessboard though, and I'm all at sea.

speaking of which, there was this really old ms-dos 3d version where the pieces didn't drop down a shaft, but actually zoomed to the far end of one, and you had to plug em in the holes... i miss those games.

I can actually imagine an analog version of Tetris. It would be a mechanical monstrosity, sure. The pieces could fall and be controlled using magnets below a thin panel. Lines could be checked using electrical contacts with pusher pistons clearing the lines. Ok.. the pieces would have to be made of individual (magnetic?) cubes. It would be expensive sure, but I think it would be . Of course with the fall of most of the major pinball manufacturers I don't think anyone would mass produce it, but hey someone might build one. Hey, they made those card things so you can play solitaire when the computer's down right?

you could make the 'shaft' a very thin space between two transparent sheets of whatever material, just enough to let the pieces fall through, and hook it up to a vacuum pump/magnetic field of sorts to control falling speed. to make things easier for the manufacturer (and cheaper - also more challenging for the tetris fanatic) you could just have the players manipulate these falling pieces with a pair of stick magnets.

... hey, did you realize we could get an ig for this???

"Ig"?

aw larks, go to http://www.improb.com/ig (the IgNobel prizes)

if you're interested, let me know!

That site isn't up, but I see what you're saying. (I briefly thought that you were saying I.G. and I translated it as Inventors Grant or some such twaddle.)

not up? - gasp - then go to http://www.improb.com and click on the 'ig nobel prizes' link. you have just gotta see the stuff in there -

I got through a little later and spent the rest of the day looking through it and the linked sites. I especially liked the MRI shot of coitus. I sent it to a friend to see if he could guess what it was. When he figured out what it was he commented that it's the ultimate version of sitting on a photocopier.

interesting huh? i thought one had to be absolutely still inside the mri... hmm..

did you read the one about the researcher making clams happy by giving them prozac?

I liked the guys that actually petitioned to win an Ig... they're the ones that did the study on the effects of ale, garlic and soured cream on the appetite of leaches. Nothing like making science out of eating crisps, drinking beer and letting leeches suck on ya.

the fact that people actually nominated themselves - and got an ig... that's my ultimate goal in life, nominating myself and winning one...

Well... Looky what's on the front page today. A973677. And ooh... looky who is one of the writers. U206300. Farlander.

thanks! although i really didn't do much.

(bought the igs book. cool pics. hysterical)

Still, you are proving to be a quite prolific and widely interdisciplinary writer.

thanks! i have a new article in peer review - A1000378. we are currently trying to decide whether or not to keep it in one piece or to let it undergo binary fission... like bacteria...

Hey Farlander. My pentominoes piece(A970904) finally moved up to a sub and I noticed that our articles are both linked. Yay.

congratulations! i'm hoping to see your stuff on the front page by april! (let's hope that they don't do four-cube pieces for you...)