Fun & Games Technology

By Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn
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C’mon, you knew it was only a matter of time…

Scopetris – [via] Link

20 thoughts on “Oscilloscope Tetris”

  4. Tempest-style vector graphics
    would work with any properly interfaced tube
    it’s actually two signals
    (to answer the question How do you even generate a signal like that)

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  5. About time this one made it to make ;-)

    I’m wondering, why is the bottom line of the moving piece bent ? Shouldn’t happen considering the very high scan rate (100 fps).

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  6. One of the HP digital storage scopes has Tetris built-in, as an Easter Egg. You have to start it up by using the soft-keys below the CRT, and then play the game on the green screen. The high-score table works by using the scope’s rotary controls to enter your name.

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  7. Yes it’s the handy X/Y mode on the oscilloscope that makes this possible.

    “I’m wondering, why is the bottom line of the moving piece bent ? Shouldn’t happen considering the very high scan rate (100 fps).”

    It has nothing to do with the scan rate actually. It’s because I use really simple D/A converters to control the X and Y beam position. It’s just resistor networks on stripboard and I couldn’t get rid of the over and under shoot problems when jumping large distances. I really need to hook the micro up with some proper DACs and finish the scopetris hardware…

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  10. i dunno man, i’ve actually taken some notes from what he was doing
    i’ve racked up some high scores and very long playtimes before, but very rarely got beyond the usual 4-line combo — the player here was racking up 5 to 9 line combinations like it weren’t no thang. i’d like to try similar…

    except without bombing out quite so fast, but that might have been done just as a way to end it faster for a shorter video

    btw i’d also like to know what the music was, it reminds me somewhat of the tune from my favourite version of tetris – the overwhelmingly demosceney “Tesserae” on the Atari ST. How do you go about differentiating your drop-the-blocks game from the others, when everyone else is pulling out every gameplay gimmick they can find? Keep it pure to the original but add a great deal of trippy graphical effects (seasickness background was a particular killer) and music that blew away the gameboy version. :)

    Sooo.. what is it?

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By Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn