Make:

• Simulating fatigue on a PSX with Arduino
• Giant connect four game board
• Balance boarding!
• The Hockey Organ
• Homebrew Nintendo DS music apps
• How to install a Wii Mod chip

This is cool, if they used some kind of rod to clear out completed rows and move the rest down that would be sooo cool. But of course very difficult to pull off.

This isn't really tetris. Its just a machine that picks up and rotates pieces. Without a way to clear out rows, its nothing amazing.

Still a cool machine though.

yeah, as long as it's not a working game of Tetris, it's just a demo. ;-) It needs to clear lines. And if you really want to impress us, the actual sensing and decision making on clearing needs to be made mechanically (or at the very least, electronically through PLCs) rather than having a computer do it. If I were to grab a block with my hand and remove it from the board, the logic should know that and not allow those rows to be removed. In other words, don't have the game keep track of the pieces in memory and have the physical blocks merely mirroring that state.

i say it doesnt matter HOW the machine runs tetris, as long as it runs a full game. without clearing of rows, endgame sensing, etc, then thi sis just a machine that picks up and puts down pieces of foam.

This really is a wonderful Tetris themed device. I suppose that each tetra-shape would have to be 4 linked blocks (magnets?) Some old-fashioned interaction for a row clearing 'plunger' wouldn't be bad; esp. if when the machine 'sensed' a full row, it moved the plunger arm up/down to the correct row & lit up so you can give a good shove (meanwhile the next piece is falling - better hurry if you pull a 4-line clear!)Plexi over the top would stop human meddling.What about sensing a full row...RFID? Light-detection as a NOT signal?Of Course this would a require a second device to randomly choose & assemble the next piece. &lsaqou;sarcasm&rsaqou;This isn't much to ask right?&lsaqou;/sarcasm&rsaqou;

Yup, hate to be a critic, but you folks are quite right: this thing has got a long way to go. It's very cleanly manufactured and all, but that ain't nothing when you've lost sight of the original idea.

The way to do it would be with nothing but un-linked single-square blocks, and a 4x2-block suction effector doodad that could rotate. That way it could hold every possible shape, and the unlinked blocks really could be pushed out by a simple rod actuator for any filled row.

Making everything else fall down when a row or rows disappeared would be a further challenge. You couldn't just use a pusher bar or it'd fill gaps that weren't meant to be filled; it'd have to be something like a sectional conveyor belt under the pieces, or a lot more work for the main piece actuator.

Subscribe today, save 42% and get web access to MAKE free. MAKE Digital Edition is available only to subscribers.

$34.95 / 1 year
(4 Quarterly Issues)

Subscribe now