Chaotris was meant to be my first 100% pure Assembler code program. As the name says it was a Tetris clone. It wasn't the first time I tried to convert Tetris to the CPC, but the first try was a Basic-Assembler mixture that didn't mix very well. Instead of calculating the positions and collisions of the objects in the memory I tried to locate on the screen where the falling object would hit the ground. But that method proved to be unreliable and since I had to rework the whole code to implement a better collision test I abandoned the first try.
In Chaotris I did a better job: I wrote the whole gameplay in Assembler with correct collision detection, removal of the filled lines and an Assembler keyboard scan without using system calls. I also created a highscore table, a menu to select the input options and define the keys. The only thing lacking were sound effects.
Chaotris wasn't meant to be a regular Tetris version. I wanted to spice the gameplay up a little and thus created additional objects besides the five standard shapes. One of them was a big X consisting of 5 squares, another one was a block with an additional square in one corner, another item was a bar with five squares, or a T-shape where the base was 4 squares, not three.
In the game all shapes where in white color in Mode 1. The program wasn't able to display colored shapes. But that wasn't the problem of Chaotris. After I had finished the whole game (besides the sound effects) I played it several times and realized that my new shapes were just too weird and didn't fit into the game at all. I was almost never able to put the big X in any place on the screen so that I wouldn't loose two or thee fields on the screen. The long T-shape was hard to put anywhere without blogging other gaps on the screen. I had to realize that the original 5 shapes of Tetris were not only simple, but just the best possible shapes and that my new shapes would diminish the joy of playing Tetris since they were way too hard.
So I didn't bother to create sound effects for this game anymore. Still it was my first 100% pure Assembler game...
For this game I cannot provide a download link or screenshots as the source data for the game is incomplete. Due to a read error on the original disc the font cannot be loaded anymore and thus the menus are all just gibberish and you cannot enter the game anymore. Too bad!