PIPETRIS
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By Ross McNaughton, January 1994.
Requirements: 512K ST/STe, TOS 1.62 or lower, colour, joystick controlled.
As its name suggests, PIPETRIS is a cross between Tetris and Pipemania. As in
Pipemania, your task is to create a pipe for a liquid to flow through, but
whereas in that game the pipe sections can be placed anywhere on screen, in
PIPETRIS they fall into a well Tetris-fashion. Unlike Pipemania, they can be
rotated.
When the game starts, you'll see the main playfield on the left. At the bottom
right of the playfield is the starting point of the liquid, and up the right
hand side are eight targets. Each target has an associated score, the higher
targets having higher scores. On the right of the screen are the game stats:
score, lives remaining, level and high score.
The falling sections are controlled with the joystick. Left and right move the
sections, the fire button rotates them. When you have a section in the right
place you can make it fall faster by pulling down on the stick.
As soon as a piece lands above the red line, the liquid starts to flow. Points
are awarded for every section it passes through. If it reaches one of the
targets, the points for that target are added to your score and you progress
to the next level. If the path is not complete, you will lose a life and
replay the level. Once all your lives are lost, the game ends. Press fire to
start a new game.
An extra life is awarded every 10,000 points.
The levels increase in difficulty in several ways:
- The range of available pieces increases. New types appear, and the
standard straights and corners become more scarce.
- The pieces fall faster.
- Some pieces may already be in place at the start of the level.
- Eventually, the lower scoring targets are removed. When you reach
level 20, only the top four are available.
The game will go on forever if you're good enough, but the difficulty stops
increasing at about level 25.
Pipe Sections
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Straights, corners and crossovers work as you would expect.
One-way straights have a blue direction arrow: the liquid can only flow in
that direction.
Bonus sections are marked with a green '100' and making the liquid flow
through them scores extra points.
Blank sections just get in the way!
Bombs are the most useful piece. When they land they disappear, taking with
them the piece underneath. This is often the only way out of a seemingly lost
level.
Scoring
-------
Each section placed earns 10 points.
Each section through which the liquid flows scores as follows:
Straights and corners: 25 points.
Crossovers and one-way sections: 50 points.
Bonus sections: 100 points.
Getting the liquid to one of the targets scores between 250 and 2000 points
depending on the position of the target.