Welltris

Publisher: Spectrum HoloByte for PC and Infogrames for Commodore C64 and Amstrad
Developer: Sphere Inc.
Released: 1989

Design Concept (Original Welltris): Alexey Pajitnov, Andrei Sgenov
Product Design, Management and Programming (American Version): Dan Kaufman
Additional Programming: Greg Marr, Kus Pranawahadi, Kevin Seghetti
Graphics / Artwork: Matt Calstrom, Dan Guerra, Jody Sather

"Master the Colours, Rule the Space"

"A Game 100% Glastnost!"

Welltris is a 3D version of Tetris created by Alexey 'The Master' Pajitnov. The aim of the game is to play slot pieces together in such a way that they form solid lines, the lines then dissapear and you score increases. However in Welltris the playing area is a well with an 8X8 square at the bottom. The pieces slide down the side of the well and then slide across the square until being stopped by the edge of the square or another piece (screenshot at http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/gameId,2121/). The pieces can be moved around the four walls and rotated before dropping them into the grid. When a piece cannot fit onto the square entirely and overlaps onto the edge of the well wall the wall that it protrudes onto will turn red. That wall can not be used for three turns and then it will become usable again. The protruding piece remains on the wall until there is space for it to slide onto the grid.

There are three levels of difficutly and five different game speeds. The game speed increases at particular itnervals during the game and with the change comes a new picture to accompany the playing screen until level 5. Each time the speed increases a bonus piece is delivered. These continue to arrive even once the maximum speed has been reached. The level changes on this many lines:

  • 15 lines
  • 30 lines
  • 45 lines
  • 65 lines
  • 85 lines
  • Every 20 lines after this
In level 1 the pieces are all made up of two, three or four squares as follows:
Blue
 _ _     _ _ _    _ _ _ _ 
|_ _|   |_ _ _|  |_ _ _ _| 

Green
 _ _    _ _ _
|_  |  |_ _  |
  |_|      |_|

Red
 _ _
|   |
|_ _|

Purple
 _
| |_
|  _|
|_|

Turquoise
 _
| |_
|_  |
  |_|

This level is an easy starting point for beginners. The bonus pieces for this level, all made up of five squares, are:
Red
 _           _
| |_ _     _| |_
|  _ _|   |_   _|
|_|         |_|
  
Electric Yellow
 _ _
|_  |_ _
  |_ _ _|

Electric Green
 _        _         _ _ 
| |_     | |       |  _|
|  _|    | |_ _    | |
| |      |_ _ _|   | |
|_|                |_|

Electric Pink
 _ _      _         _ _ 
|_  |    | |_ _    |_  |_ 
  | |_   |_   _|     |_  | 
  |_ _|    |_|         |_|

Lavender
 _ _ _ _ _     
|_ _ _ _ _|                 

Electric Blue 
 _        _ _
| |_     |  _|
|   |    | |_
|_ _|    |_ _|

In level two the pieces are made up only of four squares and has the same bonus pieces as level one, this means that it has the same piece set as level excluding
Blue
 _ _     _ _ _    
|_ _|   |_ _ _| 

Green
 _ _   
|_  | 
  |_|  
This level is quite boring as it is not a great deal more challenging than level one. Level three is the best level by far. The pieces are can be made up of anywhere between two and five squares so that the piece set comprises of all regular pieces for level one and the bonus pieces for level one. The bonus piece for level three is also much harder to deal with:
White
 _
|_|_ 
  |_|_ 
    |_|_
      |_|_
        |_|

When pieces are slid down into the grid whilst overlapping the corners of two walls then they will fold into a new shape. This feature is vital to any proficient player and can allow you to get out of some tight spots.

This is a more interesting and challenging version of Tetris. Once a reasonable level of proficiency is reached Level 3, speed 5 is the best place to start. The only problem is the lack of a continually increasing speed. This means that particularly on the easier levels it is possible to continue pretty much indefinitely. Even on level three a good game can last over half an hour.

My personal high scores are:

  • Level 1 - 1094 lines, 297,455 points
  • Level 2 - Who cares - this is a boring level
  • Level 3 - 378 lines, 104,400 points
I bet no one can beat these - download a copy of the game at http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/altespiele/welltris.zip and give it a try.

Welltris also had a password system built in to prevent piracy. The manual contained the flags of 14 countries of the USSR. Each country had it's names, area and capital listed. The game would show you a flag and then request a specific bit of information. You only need to enter the first four characters of the answer as this is all that is stored in the game to save space. The game designers have been subversive here as the outlying smaller republics crop up much more often than the larger republics or Russia herself.

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