The New Tetris (thing)

1. Start with Tetris.
2. Standardize the tetramino colors.
3. Port it to the Nintendo 64. Unlike older console systems (NES, Sega Genesis, etc.), N64 frees graphics from a rigid grid by allowing easy access to the framebuffer, allowing for rich backgrounds (created by a highly paid art staff) and for scaling the playfields down so as to fit four players on screen simultaneously.
4. Drastically reduce the score for making a tetris. single: 1 point; double: 2 points; triple: 3 points; tetris: 5 points
5. Four whole pieces (no partial pieces after clearing a line) arranged to make a 4x4 square will make a solid square that is worth five bonus points per row when cleared (ten if all four pieces were the same shape). To take advantage of this rule, see four-column Tetris strategy.
6. Increase the number of visible next pieces from 1 to 3 and add a reserve piece that can be swapped with the falling piece (but not repeatedly).
7. Have your lawyers sue everybody who clones Tetris.
8. Test, debug, test, debug, get Nintendo's approval, and release it as "The New Tetris."

Most glaring bugs in TNT

• Floating blocks can remain after a row is cleared, but this bug is also present in most other versions of the game.
• When trying to slide a piece in like this:

   _______
  |_______|   _____
  | |___  <- |___  |
  |_____|_       |_|
  |_______|
  

  the subpixel physics engine will not allow the piece to slide in two or more blocks' width. (Tetris clones without subpixel motion do not suffer from this; neither does the physics engine in Vitamins, my Dr.M clone, which is based on Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo's behavior; Vitamins allows a slight overlap between the top of the falling piece and the bottom of the piece under which it is sliding.)