Color-blind players are not the main audience most developers think of when plotting their games.
They're not who Nitzan Wilnai of VGViews originally built for either when the Tetris-like games Tatomic ($4.99) and Tatomic Lite (free) first became available for iPhone and iPod Touch. Yet enough players requested a color-blind mode that Wilnai got to work.
In color-blind mode, green atoms become purple. Too bad the background still looks red, orange, or brown.
(Credit: CNET)The color-blind mode, found in the Options menu, swaps Tatomic's green-colored atoms with purple ones. In the free version, players must connect chains of same-hued atoms to clear the row, reminiscent of Tetris's iconic puzzle. The full version of Tatomic, however, gives you 30 levels and two additional modes--one in which you must create puzzle shapes, and another that will only clear an atomic chain when you attach a radioactive atom catalyst.
We tested both of Tatomic's color modes on one of CNET's own color-afflicted, who appreciated the difference right away, but still registered the blue atoms as white in both schemes.
It mattered little--he proclaimed the game "All the fun of the Large Hadron Collider, but without the risk."
A simple-looking block-building game, Blocksum differs in a few regards from other Tetris clones. First, the blocks rise from the bottom, instead of falling from the top. When they fill up the screen to the top, your game is over. Second, instead of matching colors or shapes, you are matching numbers, and a heck of a lot of them. The result is a frenetic and unique puzzle game that will appeal to those with serious Tetris and counting skills.
There aren't any instructions in the game, so you'll have to figure it out for yourself. Here's some help: The default PC keys are Z and X. The arrow keys move your cursor, the Z key lets you join blocks, and the X key speeds up blocks. The object of the game is to match X number of blocks together, where X is the number of the block and how many you need to match. For example to remove a "7" block, you'll need seven "7" blocks touching each other. Any two blocks can be combined, though if it does result in a match, you'll lose those blocks.
The game is much easier to start playing than to explain, and it is awfully addictive. Our only complaints were that there is no difficulty level (once the 9's showed up, we were in trouble), and some confusion about the key controls. The instructions say to use the "A" key instead of "Z," which doesn't work. Aside from some basic presentation issues, Blocksum is a top-class freeware puzzle game.
If you're looking for a fun and retro way to kill a few minutes this weekend, The Tetris Game offers up a simple freeware version of the classic game. There's no frills here, but anybody who's got a craving for that four-block goodness will probably find this rendition instantly satisfying.
The controls are mapped to your keyboard's arrow keys. Up rotates the piece, left and right shift it in one direction or another, and down accelerates the rate of descent. Pieces come in red, green, gray, yellow, and blue. You can save your high scores or submit them to The Tetris Game Web site, pause the game, and start a new one, and that's about it. The main page of the Web site also features a lengthy history of the video game.
Along with the lack of complex features that newer versions of Tetris might feature, The Tetris Game has a tiny installer that weighs in at around half a megabyte and it sucks up a wonderfully underwhelming 7MB of RAM while running. The only thing missing is the minimalist electronica of the game's original soundtrack. But for a fast dose of old-school nostalgia, this game doesn't mess around.
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