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Show HN: Tinytetris – 80 x 23 Terminal Tetris

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Re: Show HN: Tinytetris – 80 x 23 Terminal Tetris

#21

Post by derefr »

bitwize wrote: post #14
cdubzzz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they ever actually ended up in court? I was on the receiving end of one of these letters many years back for a clone I was involved with, but we just kept distributing it for a long time and they just sent basically the same letter a few years later. The primary developer eventually stopped the project only because he moved on to other things. I feel like back then we didn’t find any cases backing up TTC’s claim…

Look up Tetris Holdings, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc. The court found 100% in favor of Tetris Holdings, in particular noting the shape of the tetrominoes, the way the tetrominoes spun and fell, and the dimensions of the game board as protectable elements under U.S. copyright law. Since this ruling was handed down, Tetris has applied for and received U.S. trademarks on the tetromino pieces. The upshot of this is that…

That doesn't sound right. Physical, non-video-game instantiations of tetrominoes exist, and Tetris Holdings, LLC presumably doesn't hold trademark over those.

It'd be like trying to trademark a d20. Sure, one with symbols/numbers on it, as viewed from a certain angle, stylized a certain way, might be trademarkable as a mark (i.e. a logo.) But isocahedrons generally? They're mathematical objects.

Which means that, presumably, you could make a Tetris clone as a board game (which would work a bit like Connect Four, I guess) without any exposure.

Re: Show HN: Tinytetris – 80 x 23 Terminal Tetris

#22

Post by derefr »

bitwize wrote: post #19
defertoreptar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Copyright does not protect game mechanics and rules. In Tetris v. Xio , they successfully argued that the game infringed on trade dress. They claimed that the pieces looked like ones in other games, which in my view is impossible not to infringe on since there have been hundreds of Tetris games with every type of piece design possible. They claimed that they used tetrominos, and the playfield was twice as high as it…

Xio did, in fact, attempt to point out that the shapes of the tetrominos are functional elements and not subject to trade dress. The judge disagreed. The judge also said that while copyright does not protect the abstract concept of a falling block game, he specifically cited the shapes of the blocks and the playfield size as copyrightable. It's settled U.S. case law. If you develop a clone of Tetris, you are infringi…

Does U.S. case law matter if you create and distribute your game in a country that is not the U.S.?

Funny thought: what would happen if a student of the Russian Academy of Sciences created a Tetris clone? ;)

Re: Show HN: Tinytetris – 80 x 23 Terminal Tetris

#25

Post by taylorconor »

zrobotics wrote: post #13
blondin wrote: post #9

amazing op! tetris is one of those game on my need to implement list and never actually finished an implementation :)

Don't let yourself get hung up on doing anything fancy, it's just fun to do. Seriously, just implementing tetris in processing is a fun way to spend an hour, and a great way to remind yourself of why programming is fun. It doesn't involve anything crazy as far as algorithms, but is a fun challenge to do. It's definitely worth it to implement a version, it is just fun to do.

+1! And there are plenty of helpful tutorials around if you get a bit stuck!

Re: Show HN: Tinytetris – 80 x 23 Terminal Tetris

#26

Post by bitwize »

derefr wrote: post #21
bitwize wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look up Tetris Holdings, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc. The court found 100% in favor of Tetris Holdings, in particular noting the shape of the tetrominoes, the way the tetrominoes spun and fell, and the dimensions of the game board as protectable elements under U.S. copyright law. Since this ruling was handed down, Tetris has applied for and received U.S. trademarks on the tetromino pieces. The upshot of this is that…

That doesn't sound right. Physical, non-video-game instantiations of tetrominoes exist, and Tetris Holdings, LLC presumably doesn't hold trademark over those. It'd be like trying to trademark a d20. Sure, one with symbols/numbers on it, as viewed from a certain angle, stylized a certain way, might be trademarkable as a mark (i.e. a logo.) But isocahedrons generally? They're mathematical objects. Which means that, pre…

Trademarks are funny in that they are confined to certain markets. If you do not compete in a trademark owner's business, you can use the mark. You see this in the wild: the word Namco, for instance, is trademarked to a Japanese video game company and an American swimming pool company. The word Shazam can refer to a superhero owned by Warner Bros., an app owned by Apple, or a financial services company called Shazam Inc. with a separate trademark for all three. And there's some interesting trademark history behind the name "Apple" itself!

So yes, while the tetrominos being a Tetris Company trademark precludes their unlicensed use in video games, they can be used in other contexts -- a tetromino pattern on pyjamas or wallpaper, for instance.

However, I would be wary about attempting to use them in a board game, as I seem to recall at least one licensed Tetris board game in the wild. Consult an attorney before proceeding. :)

Re: Show HN: Tinytetris – 80 x 23 Terminal Tetris

#27

Post by benj111 »

taylorconor wrote: post #24
benj111 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? I see no mechanism for outputting anything other that the game board. And theres no mention on the site.

It's not a quine :)

How has the parent not been downvoted to oblivion then?

Edit: I see you're the author, I'll take your word for it :) Nice work btw.

Re: Show HN: Tinytetris – 80 x 23 Terminal Tetris

#29

Post by balodja »

derefr wrote: post #22
bitwize wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xio did, in fact, attempt to point out that the shapes of the tetrominos are functional elements and not subject to trade dress. The judge disagreed. The judge also said that while copyright does not protect the abstract concept of a falling block game, he specifically cited the shapes of the blocks and the playfield size as copyrightable. It's settled U.S. case law. If you develop a clone of Tetris, you are infringi…

Does U.S. case law matter if you create and distribute your game in a country that is not the U.S.? Funny thought: what would happen if a student of the Russian Academy of Sciences created a Tetris clone? ;)

Two fun facts here.

First one. Russian Academy of Sciences(RAS) doesn't hold students. That's an authority that manages the network of research institutes. Educational institutes are separated from that network in Russia.

Second one. Pazhitnov really worked in one of the RAS institutes when created tetris.

Re: Show HN: Tinytetris – 80 x 23 Terminal Tetris

#30

Post by mkl »

baddox wrote: post #7

You could probably go even smaller by using higher resolution characters, like Braille, but without the per-block colors.

One time in high school I made a Tetris clone (in one lunch hour!) with single pixels as the squares, and used the VGA video memory itself as the data structure for the current board state. It was in 320x200 resolution, so the pixels were pretty big (the game area itself was only a small rectangle of them). My version didn't detect when the pieces reached the top or keep score or anything, just the basic playable mechanics.
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