It still exists, just elsewhere :) Google!
akouzoukos
Creator of
Recent community posts
You missed the 2022/12/6 restock! Unfortunately there seems to be a shortage for cartridge parts at the moment. There will be more stock at some point but I don't have a time frame to give you sadly. Make sure to turn on email notifications on insideGadgets by giving them your email in the out of stock page!
Thank you, love to hear that you like the game so much! As for your suggestion, try inputting the konami code (with start at the end) in the title screen for a surprise ;) . I haven't considered lower height field yet, but I'll test it and see how it feels as a mode (or ruleset perhaps)!
Hmm I don't know how comfortable you are with things like this, but this should be the easiest way to do this. Using a hex editor, copy the first 192 bytes from a rom that supports rumble (Drill Dozer probably) onto the first 192 bytes of the Apotris rom. This should be the area you're replacing (up to and including the B0 row):
Though I'm pretty sure this would work, I can't test it myself so I can't be certain.
As for the cartridge, insideGadgets will definitely have more stock some time in the future! Seems like there's a part shortage unfortunately. You can also give your email to the store to be notified when more stock is available.
Hey, I'm sorry you're having issues. It looks like there's a bug in save conversion from versions older than <3.2.
I'll fix this issue in the next release, but until then you have 2 options:
- If you've kept a backup of your save before converting to v3.4, first open it using v3.3 (found here) and the bug should no longer happen
- Start a new save for v3.4
Thanks for reporting this to me.
Thanks!
I changed 4 line clears to quads out of necessity, I hope you understand...
About saving on OpenFPGA, I had a look around but the GBA core is closed source and has no documentation so I don't know how to help you. You should probably ask around is some community that focuses on the Analogue Pocket... The game supports both SRAM and Flash saving, but I've seen some emulators that detect the save type using an official game database and otherwise disable saving. I would try copying a savefile from another game and renaming it to apotris.srm or whatever you named the rom, just in case this helps it detect the save type (don't worry about the save being different, if is read it should be hopefully detected and reformatted by my code).
Great idea for a game!
The controls could use a bit of work, here are some suggestions:
- Moving rotate to A or B like in other tetris games, so that your left thumb isn't doing all the work
- Adding some sort of auto-shift/auto-repeat to left and right; the lack of this plus the fact that the pieces spawn on the left means that you have to press right a bunch of times to place something on the right edge of the board
Some sound effects would really help a ton too, but I'm sure you know this and time constraints were the issue.
The graphics were pretty fun too! Interested to see where this goes if you keep working on it.
Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying the update!
As for the suggestions, I think the line clear delay is pretty good as is. It strikes a good balance of encouraging multi-line clears while still not punishing you too much time-wise for single line clears. Most other popular unofficial Tetris games omit line clear delay entirely for the sake of speed, but I mostly put it in the game because it adds a lot of character to the visuals.
Speed wise, the game has the guideline values, so it's exactly as fast as Tetris DS. But Apotris lets you change DAS and ARR, making moving pieces to the edges of the board much easier. I don't think adding infinity (no step reset limit) makes much sense, it would make the game way too easy. Try changing Auto Repeat Delay (DAS) and Auto Repeat Rate (ARR) in the handling settings, and see if that helps.
I checked many times if there are any more bugs with piece locking, but I couldn't notice any. I think it might be that you're too used to infinity... Also from the tetris wiki: "Most games since 2007 have a limit of 15 move resets before the piece locks."
Lastly, while the game might be "difficult", it's way more important that it's fair. That way, you can practice and become better!
Hey I just checked, but I think save conversion for place effect is working as intended... Did you mean that the effect is off by default? If so that was intended!
If you meant you can't turn it on at all, first make sure you're actually saving your changes in settings by selecting "SAVE" and pressing A. If it's still not turning on, DM me your save on twitter if you can, so I can check it out!
I've got a few more modes in the works ( classic mode (NES ), master mode (TGM3) and a few others). I don't have concrete plans after that.
I've tried a few games with pentomino modes, but I never really liked playing with them much. Though, I for sure want to have achievements in the game at some point! I had one of those brick game handhelds as a kid too :D
I also want to port the game to other platforms, once I feel like it is "complete".
Ah I'm sorry for the trouble, I tested on a few devices and I had no problems with the code, so I decided to leave flash detection on... Didn't think about bootlegs with FRAM. I could always just have 2 builds available, but I will try to fix the code!
Props for finding the issue yourself and building the game, hope it wasn't too much hassle.
Thank you!
I did think about adding rumble, maybe in the patch after the next one!
About other puzzle games, I've certainly considered it! Especially a tetris attack/ panel de pon style game since I've already made a crappy clone in the past (though that one already has a pretty good port on GBA).
Right now I'm focusing on adding all the "regular" tetris modes. When I run out of stuff to add, I'll definitely expand to new types of content!