The New Tetris

1. Start with Tetris.
2. Standardize the tetramino colors.
3. Port it to the Nintendo 64. Unlike older console systems (NES, Sega Genesis, etc.), N64 frees graphics from a rigid grid by allowing easy access to the framebuffer, allowing for rich backgrounds (created by a highly paid art staff) and for scaling the playfields down so as to fit four players on screen simultaneously.
4. Drastically reduce the score for making a tetris. single: 1 point; double: 2 points; triple: 3 points; tetris: 5 points
5. Four whole pieces (no partial pieces after clearing a line) arranged to make a 4x4 square will make a solid square that is worth five bonus points per row when cleared (ten if all four pieces were the same shape). To take advantage of this rule, see four-column Tetris strategy.
6. Increase the number of visible next pieces from 1 to 3 and add a reserve piece that can be swapped with the falling piece (but not repeatedly).
7. Have your lawyers sue everybody who clones Tetris.
8. Test, debug, test, debug, get Nintendo's approval, and release it as "The New Tetris."

Most glaring bugs in TNT

• Floating blocks can remain after a row is cleared, but this bug is also present in most other versions of the game.
• When trying to slide a piece in like this:

   _______
  |_______|   _____
  | |___  <- |___  |
  |_____|_       |_|
  |_______|
  

  the subpixel physics engine will not allow the piece to slide in two or more blocks' width. (Tetris clones without subpixel motion do not suffer from this; neither does the physics engine in Vitamins, my Dr.M clone, which is based on Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo's behavior; Vitamins allows a slight overlap between the top of the falling piece and the bottom of the piece under which it is sliding.)

A superbock in TNT is a 4x4 square made of 4 unbroken tetris pieces. There are 43 superblocks known to man:

0000   0000    0000    0000    0000    0000    0000
0000 = 0000 or 1111 or 1000 or 0001 or 0011 or 1100
0000   1111    1111    1110    0111    0011    1100
0000   1111    1111    1111    1111    1111    1111

where
0000 = 1111 or 1122 or 1222 or 1112
0000   2222    1122    1112    1222
(16 here)

and
0000   1332    1122    1233    1123
0000 = 1332 or 1332 or 1223 or 1223
0000   1122    1332    1123    1233
(4 here)

and
0000   1111    1112    1122
 000 =  222 or  122 or  112
   0      2       2       2
(9 here)
plus appropriate mirror images thereof, another 9

and
0000   2111    1111
00   = 21   or 22
00     22      22
(5 here, if we count mirror images of the first one)

Note that we don't count rotations as distinct, but we do count certain mirror-images distinct (if it is not the case that a rotate will accomplish the same transformation, i.e., the J and L pieces and the 2 S pieces).

The key to having a 600+ Sprint game is to make partial superblocks whose top row is complete. That way, you can stack up to 5 uncompleted superblocks on each side, and fill them in with whatever pieces come. Variety is also key, especially when it comes to using S pieces. Make as many superblocks as you can that have S pieces (there are quite a few, but are non-trivial to make).