1989 · Puzzle · Tetris variant

Welltris

Welltris is a puzzle video game, developed by Doka and licensed to Bullet-Proof Software. Adaptations were made by Sphere, Inc for Spectrum Holobyte, and by Infogrames. It was originally released for DOS and Macintosh in 1989. It was subsequently ported to the Amiga and Atari ST in 1990 and the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 in 1991.

Released: 1 December 1989
Platforms: Amiga Amstrad CPC Arcade Atari ST Commodore 64 Commodore C64/128/MAX MS-DOS ZX Spectrum macOS
Genres: Puzzle Tetris variant
Developers: —
Publishers: Spectrum HoloByte
Modes: Single-player
Country: Soviet Union

About

Welltris is a puzzle video game developed by Doka and licensed to Bullet-Proof Software. It is an official game in the Tetris series. Adaptations were made by Sphere, Inc. for Spectrum HoloByte.

It was released for MS-DOS compatible operating systems in 1989. Ports for Macintosh, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST followed in 1990, then ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 in 1991.

Keywords

blocks

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Welltris was the first Tetris sequel designed by original designer Alexey Pajitnov, with Andrei Snegov. It retains that game's falling-block puzzle gameplay but extends the pit into three dimensions while the blocks remain two-dimensional, with the board viewed from above.

As blocks descend into the well, they can be rotated or moved left or right along the walls, from one wall to another if desired. Once a block reaches the floor (an 8×8 square), it will slide as far as possible until stopped by an edge or another piece. Whenever the player completes a solid horizontal or vertical line, it disappears and the remaining squares slide to fill the open space.

Development

Welltris was inspired by another puzzle game titled Blockout (1989). Alexey Pajitnov said he did not like the game, stating that its wireframed blocks only showed the edges and that he "thought a lot about how it could be possible to it myself. I decided to essentially make Welltris a 2D game with real strong sense of 3D by having flat pieces fall down the surface of the walls."