A bit disappointed.

[DescipleOfZen]

No tetris splash? Kiwamemichi? advance (japan)? diamond?

Would be nice instead of what feels like 20 versions of Bombliss. Did anyone actually like Hatris?

Edit: NOV/15/2024 I have purchased the game, and indeed it's a disappointment. Save your money.

[«codeman»]

Right. This collection is seemingly lacking and sort of confusing.

There’s still time to listen to the fans on this one. Add on Tetris Worlds, Tetris DX, too.

[DescipleOfZen]

Originally posted by «codeman»:

Right. This collection is seemingly lacking and sort of confusing.

There’s still time to listen to the fans on this one. Add on Tetris Worlds, Tetris DX, too.

The new tetris they made for the bundle seems kind of dumb, too. Instead of having one that changes, just give the actual tetris where the styles are from.

One of the highlights was that it has a dvk/electronika theme, but so many people already remade that experience over the years, including myself. it's not interesting anymore, and wasn't when tetris effect had it either.

I may buy this if they can make it fore fulfilling, otherwise my only interest is the documentaries and therefore will wait for a sale. I own most of the confirmed list physically, including some of my suggestions, so it's not a total miss-out for me.

[DanAmrich_DE]

Originally posted by «codeman»:

Right. This collection is seemingly lacking and sort of confusing.

Crucially, it's not a collection, and I'm not trying to be a jerk with semantics. But we've intentionally not used that word on any of the Gold Master Series projects, and this is the third, following The Making of Karateka and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Plus, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration was something of a proof of concept with a very similar approach.

This is an interactive documentary, a narrative project where the games support the core story. It is not designed or intended to be simply a compilation of existing Tetris games, or every Tetris game that exists. The games are curated to help tell the story, and the story becomes playable. It is a different approach.

So if it seems lacking or confusing, consider our creative goals and scope; it will not look like much if you approach it in a traditional "collection" or "compilation," which by design, is not intended to be.

It's sort of why you don't call a steak an "unground hamburger." The elements may look familiar, but this is prepared a completely different way to deliver a completely a different experience.

Not that there's anything wrong at all with a hamburger, but it's not what we're making. :)

[«codeman»]

Originally posted by DanAmrich_DE:

Originally posted by «codeman»:

Right. This collection is seemingly lacking and sort of confusing.

Crucially, it's not a collection, and I'm not trying to be a jerk with semantics. But we've intentionally not used that word on any of the Gold Master Series projects, and this is the third, following The Making of Karateka and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Plus, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration was something of a proof of concept with a very similar approach.

This is an interactive documentary, a narrative project where the games support the core story. It is not designed or intended to be simply a compilation of existing Tetris games, or every Tetris game that exists. The games are curated to help tell the story, and the story becomes playable. It is a different approach.

So if it seems lacking or confusing, consider our creative goals and scope; it will not look like much if you approach it in a traditional "collection" or "compilation," which by design, is not intended to be.

It's sort of why you don't call a steak an "unground hamburger." The elements may look familiar, but this is prepared a completely different way to deliver a completely a different experience.

Not that there's anything wrong at all with a hamburger, but it's not what we're making. :)

My guy, people just want to play video games at the end of the day. As many others have pointed out, there are some glaring and confusing omissions.

How does excluding the 1989 version of "Tetris" for the original Game Boy handheld help tell a story when it was probably the very first ever Tetris game millions of us were exposed to? Learning about how "Tetrisphere" was developed for the Nintendo 64 would have been infinitely more interesting than seeing multiple versions of "Tetris BombBliss". Tetris for the Philips CD-i would have been intriguing.

The same goes with the "Atari 50" collection. While it was an admirable and well-done release, it still missed out on including iconic games that were featured on Atari systems like "Defender" and "Space Invaders". It was right around the time the movie "Ready Player One" came out, where one of the main characters named Halliday, is seen playing “Defender” on his Atari 2600 console. Even teenage Groot in the massively successful movie "Avengers Infinity War" had a scene where he was playing the game. It's just mind-boggling and absurd that no one decided to capitalize on that. Would be reassuring to know if it was truly due to exorbitant licensing costs or not.

I'm sure it's not specifically on your shoulders, sorry to sound a tad harsh and rant here, but it just feels like there are so many missed opportunities with these types of releases. Whose story is really being told here?

[SDgamedev]

yea i wanted more tetris games. idk which ones they have the rights to, but theres probably like 20 more that couldve been added to this "collection".

[DescipleOfZen]

Originally posted by «codeman»:

more interesting than seeing multiple versions of "Tetris BombBliss".

Exactly this, way too many bombliss included. If it's not a convenient collection, then really you only need to include to good one, and not any bad tetris like Famicom version.. The whole narrative schtiq also tells me that battle gaiden will just be Japanese ROM, since story is more important, games second.

I didn't like Atari 50, so I'm genuinely over this product. I have most of my wish list physically owned already, but I also have flash carts and ODEs for the ones I don't, so really I'm set already. Watched a great Tetris doc on YT a few years ago, and i'm sure these ones will get uploaded there too at some point.

It also seems like G-Mode's port of tetris diamond will never come to PC, only Switch Japan for whatever reason.

To whomever buys this, enjoy, Tetris is great (usually). Unsubbing from topic now.

[m.maslen7]

Originally posted by DanAmrich_DE:

Originally posted by «codeman»:

Right. This collection is seemingly lacking and sort of confusing.

Crucially, it's not a collection, and I'm not trying to be a jerk with semantics. But we've intentionally not used that word on any of the Gold Master Series projects, and this is the third, following The Making of Karateka and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Plus, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration was something of a proof of concept with a very similar approach.

This is an interactive documentary, a narrative project where the games support the core story. It is not designed or intended to be simply a compilation of existing Tetris games, or every Tetris game that exists. The games are curated to help tell the story, and the story becomes playable. It is a different approach.

So if it seems lacking or confusing, consider our creative goals and scope; it will not look like much if you approach it in a traditional "collection" or "compilation," which by design, is not intended to be.

It's sort of why you don't call a steak an "unground hamburger." The elements may look familiar, but this is prepared a completely different way to deliver a completely a different experience.

Not that there's anything wrong at all with a hamburger, but it's not what we're making. :)

Thank you for explaining. :) Can I ask will the timeline go up to the present day and feature information on modern Tetris games and other important ones in the series or is it strictly the birth/early years of the series and will only go up to a certain year?

[silentJET85]

Originally posted by DanAmrich_DE:

Originally posted by «codeman»:

Right. This collection is seemingly lacking and sort of confusing.

Crucially, it's not a collection, and I'm not trying to be a jerk with semantics. But we've intentionally not used that word on any of the Gold Master Series projects, and this is the third, following The Making of Karateka and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Plus, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration was something of a proof of concept with a very similar approach.

This is an interactive documentary, a narrative project where the games support the core story. It is not designed or intended to be simply a compilation of existing Tetris games, or every Tetris game that exists. The games are curated to help tell the story, and the story becomes playable. It is a different approach.

So if it seems lacking or confusing, consider our creative goals and scope; it will not look like much if you approach it in a traditional "collection" or "compilation," which by design, is not intended to be.

It's sort of why you don't call a steak an "unground hamburger." The elements may look familiar, but this is prepared a completely different way to deliver a completely a different experience.

Not that there's anything wrong at all with a hamburger, but it's not what we're making. :)

Well there goes all the excitement I had for it. I would've really preferred an actual collection. There are barely any Tetris games available on Steam.

[«codeman»]

Originally posted by silentJET85:

Originally posted by DanAmrich_DE:

Crucially, it's not a collection, and I'm not trying to be a jerk with semantics. But we've intentionally not used that word on any of the Gold Master Series projects, and this is the third, following The Making of Karateka and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Plus, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration was something of a proof of concept with a very similar approach.

This is an interactive documentary, a narrative project where the games support the core story. It is not designed or intended to be simply a compilation of existing Tetris games, or every Tetris game that exists. The games are curated to help tell the story, and the story becomes playable. It is a different approach.

So if it seems lacking or confusing, consider our creative goals and scope; it will not look like much if you approach it in a traditional "collection" or "compilation," which by design, is not intended to be.

It's sort of why you don't call a steak an "unground hamburger." The elements may look familiar, but this is prepared a completely different way to deliver a completely a different experience.

Not that there's anything wrong at all with a hamburger, but it's not what we're making. :)

Well there goes all the excitement I had for it. I would've really preferred an actual collection. There are barely any Tetris games available on Steam.

This.

[DanAmrich_DE]

Originally posted by «codeman»:

My guy, people just want to play video games at the end of the day.

We're certainly not stopping anyone from playing video games. That'd be odd given that we're a game developer. :)

As many others have pointed out, there are some glaring and confusing omissions.

That might be true if this were a collection or a compilation, but again, it's more than that; we have a different creative focus, as we have taken with earlier Gold Master Series titles. Expectations of what Tetris Forever is designed to be may be misaligned. If people think it's one thing but it's actually another, then I can see where people might say "this is wrong." But it's not incomplete or lacking. It's just...not what you might expect it to be. It's not wrong, it's different.

And it doesn't have to be confusing, either. We explain what the focus will be on our website[www.digitaleclipse.com] so people understand how our approach differs from just about every other developer working today. This is the third Gold Master Series release and it's aligned with what we've been doing for a few years now. We took a similar approach in The Making of Karateka, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, and even Atari 50, which was sort of our proof of concept.

There are several examples that will go a long way to clearing up that confusion, but the simplest takeaway is this: We are using video games to tell the history of video games. This might be a fun read too.

So it's strange to see the allegation that we've somehow not aware of the subject matter we're documenting...well before the project is even available. Everyone may not want what we're making, but that doesn't mean we aren't making it correctly. :) And based on both sales and reviews, a lot of people do like the Gold Master Series. But if that's not you, that's okay too.

Whose story is really being told here?

Alexey and Henk's, and I can't wait for you to experience it. It's really compelling.

[DanAmrich_DE]

Originally posted by «codeman»:

It's just mind-boggling and absurd that no one decided to capitalize on that. Would be reassuring to know if it was truly due to exorbitant licensing costs or not.

That is discussed in depth over in the Atari 50 forums, as you probably already have read.

But -- and please forgive me if I'm reading too much into this, but yeah, it is coming off harsh -- it sounds like one of the core misunderstandings here is "if you didn't include the game I expected or the game that was important to me personally, that must be a value judgment on the game and, by extension, me personally, so developer, you make no sense at best, and at worst, you're doing this wrong." And that's both incorrect and frankly unfair, so I hope it's not the case.

Licensing is a lot more difficult than many gamers realize. It's slow, it's frustrating, it's legally scary, and most of all, it's not compulsory. We can ask; they don't have to say yes. I also worked on Rocksmith for several years, so this is something I've seen first-hand and learned a lot about from the game-dev side, after years as a player and a few more as a member of the media. So please believe me when I tell you it's not out of ignorance, subjectivie perception of quality, or a lack of desire that the games you want don't always appear in the contexts you'd like to see them. We at the studio have all played the same games you have, and we understand their historical significance. More often than you might realize, they're the games we want to include too.

But we can't always get what we want. What's more, we don't let that stop us from doing what we can.

I'll stop; I don't want this to get heated, but I think there's a lot of negative assumptions going on. If I accept that you are inevitably going to be disappointed if either the story we are telling doesn't include your personal highlights and that we can't always get all the elements we'd like, I'm asking you in turn to accept that we do not control all the elements involved in every project we create, even if our ambitious start at the very top.

[«codeman»]

Originally posted by DanAmrich_DE:

Originally posted by «codeman»:

It's just mind-boggling and absurd that no one decided to capitalize on that. Would be reassuring to know if it was truly due to exorbitant licensing costs or not.

But we can't always get what we want. What's more, we don't let that stop us from doing what we can.

I'll stop; I don't want this to get heated, but I think there's a lot of negative assumptions going on. If I accept that you are inevitably going to be disappointed if either the story we are telling doesn't include your personal highlights and that we can't always get all the elements we'd like, I'm asking you in turn to accept that we do not control all the elements involved in every project we create, even if our ambitious start at the very top.

That was a very well said response and I appreciate the time! Not much more I can add on to that. Pretty much acknowledged what a lot of us feel here with this release.

I’ll most definitely be buying “Tetris Forever” regardless of the game selection. It was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. Thanks.

[ziggy_]

Originally posted by SDgamedev:

yea i wanted more tetris games. idk which ones they have the rights to, but theres probably like 20 more that couldve been added to this "collection".

I guess in a similar vein, I thought one cool idea (maybe for the 50th anniverary) is to reach out to many indie game devs, studios, game makers of all kinds and offer like 50 different takes on TETRIS; a celebration of the tetris community, different perspectives on tetris and how tetris has been absorbed into humanity, played so many different ways, etc.

maybe a mixture of old and new games; but I realize I don't fully understand the licensing process and full scope around coordinating a project like that; but i do think it'd be a cool idea!

I guess it'd be slightly similar to UFO50

all in all, i'm very excited for TETRIS: forever; more tetris on Steam! new (old) versions to play
and introduce to friends, hopefully a cool narrative and new content presenting tetris history in a compelling way; very cool! so good luck and here's to success with the game

[Defective Dopamine Pez Dispenser]

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum, I suppose. I'm overjoyed that we're getting versions lately of... just plain Tetris lol. Between this and the NSO releases, I can finally just play normal Tetris again in a contemporary, official form (NSO is where to go for the GB version if anyone really wants it incidentally,) that isn't in a browser, on a mobile device, or on Amazon Fire or whatever.

For years it felt like every version of Tetris available on every platform was some special, new, or tweaked version (unless I wanted to play in a browser or mobile or unofficially emulate.) I kept asking, "Where can I play just plain Tetris on PC or console?" and there was never any answer.

Now we have several options that are not Tetris Effect, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Tetris (insert subtitle here) to do so and this is another, so I'm satiated lol. Plus the real value in these "interactive museums" from DE imo are the historical interactive timeline elements that guide us through the games' historical contexts.

As an aging gamer with a long memory, I find these really awesome to journey through personally. Sure they may not be exhaustive, but that's to be expected for all sorts of understandable real world reasons.

[Doktor Mandrake]

It's been interesting reading this

As a huge fan of preservation, i do like how Atari 50 went (though i dont have any experience with this era of gaming, Im 34)

But I do get some of the complaints as well, alot of the games do seem to be this Bombliss variant that I'm not familiar with, nor the gaiden games or any of them really in this "collection"

So the games will be "new" to me in a sense but don't even know if I'll like hatris, or bombliss.

Like someone else said GB tetris in particular was a huge part of Tetris history and something very close to my heart, though its cool imo we've got Elektronika 60 replicated in this non-collection

I hope at least that GB tetris will be mentioned in the documentary parts of this product, I'm not trying to come off harsh as I do love this different take on video game preservation