Tetrix

This Czech version of the all-time classic (not to be confused with the multimedia-enhanced Tetrix II, nor with the Amstrad game of the same name of 1989, nor TetriX by the Jareed) must be one of the least known Tetris clones around. There was a review on 21st Century Oldies, since that is gone, this page here might be the only one that mentions it on the whole web, except Miroslav Nemecek's own site (a google image search on 2007-08-28 brought only these two relevant results). And that is a pity, because Tetrix is really not a bad Tetris clone as Tetris clones go.

The first remarkable feature is its size, which is only 14kB (yes, unzipped the three files are a bit smaller than the archive). While there were Tetris clones smaller than that at its time, they all used ASCII graphics. Tetrix, on the contrary, has lush high-resolution EGA graphics. Note the dropshadow of the TETRIX in the right column! Overall the look and feel is pretty similar to the Windows version from the Entertainment Pack. Meanwhile, there have been smaller graphic Tetrises: Marko Kleine Berkenbusch's Tätris (1997) and Ben Hanke's TinyTris. But the graphics of Tetrix are still outstanding.

Unlike Vlak, Tetrix will not run properly on a too fast computer. Where too fast starts I do not know yet. And note that these are high-resolution EGA graphics with extremely oblong pixels. If you have a fully adjustable monitor, I recommend you reduce the screen height for this resolution so that the pixels become once again square. Most games will look and play a lot better this way, and the other resolutions won't be affected.