Tetris Romhack Adds Familiar Hard Drop Mechanic To Retro Game
One of the earliest versions of Tetris can now use a popular function from the later games in the series, as a rom hack for the NES version of the game has added the hard drop mechanic. The hard drop mechanic allows the player to instantly drop a piece into place, rather than guiding it down manually as usual.
There are a number of different versions of Tetris, but the core gameplay remains the same across the series. There are differences to the multiplayer, like Puyo Puyo Tetris, which incorporates Puyo Puyo alongside the Tetris mechanic, and Tetris 99, which pits 99 players against each other, but at the end of the day, it's still just Tetris. The later Tetris games added two mechanics that have become a staple of the series. One is hold piece, which allows the player to store a single piece for later use and swap it with whatever piece they're working with at the moment, and the other is hard drop, which instantly sends a piece to the bottom of the screen.
The older versions of Tetris lack the hard drop option, but one of them has gained it through a mod. A Github user named Stephen Sherratt has uploaded two rom hacks for Tetris on the NES, both of which add the hard drop mechanic to the game for the first time. Sheratt described the process for creating the hack in an article on Grid Bugs. Once the hack is applied to a Tetris rom, the hard drop can be activated by pressing the up button on the controller.
One version of the rom hack adds a ghost outline to the bottom of the screen, showing where the piece will drop from its current position. The other version of the rom hack lacks the ghost outline, making it more difficult to use, as the player will be more likely to make a mistake as the game gets faster. The players who want to use mechanics like the T-Spin will want to guide the pieces manually, so the hard drop will only be used in situations where there's a clear shot to the bottom.
There are numerous versions of Tetris on the market, which is why it's the second best-selling video game of all time (behind Minecraft). Chances are, any mobile device or system will have an official version of Tetris or a knock-off copy available to download. The NES version of Tetris didn't require a hard drop mechanic, but its addition is another example of the dedication and hard work of the Tetris fanbase.