Tetris in PostScript
18 comments
·February 19, 2025beefburger
yodsanklai
Cool! I didn't know that postscript supported interactive content. I thought the code would be generating the document and that's it.
cenamus
PS was actually used for OS graphics multiple times (with more adaptions of course)
hamburglar
Yes but using raw postscript in this perverse way to get interactivity is truly inspired. My hat is off to the author.
hamburglar
Well, it really doesn’t. This uses a clever hack where you write the input to a text file that the PS program is continuously reading. Very cool.
WCSTombs
This is very cool! To run this on a modern Linux, install Ghostscript and run it like this:
gs -dNOSAFER tetris.ps
stty raw -echo; cat >> t.txt
zzmmm
Anyone remember NeWS - Network extensible Window System? It was built in Postscript.
pjmlp
I surely do, all my favourite UNIXes went the extra mile to not be yet another clone, embraced better GUI development approaches, and additional userspace stack.
Unfortunately only one of them survives to this day.
codr7
It's actually a pretty cool language, a forthy lisp/lispy forth.
redbell
Somehow, this reminds me of Tetris in a PDF: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42645218
cafeinux
In two weeks we'll see "Doom in PostScript" pop on the homepage.
OhMeadhbh
There's already Doom in PDF... https://github.com/doom-pdf/ And Linux in PDF... https://github.com/ading2210/linuxpdf
cafeinux
...but not in PostScript (I didn't know about Linux in PDF, gotta check it out)
kristianp
Is there a C to PS transpiler?
bobajeff
This is pretty neet. Tried running it with ghostscript under Linux and it crashes pretty much after the first tetromino falls a square.
DrNosferatu
Is there any PS web reader that can run it?
(WASM or otherwise)
null
I've just implemented Tetris in PostScript, pushing the limits of a document-processing language to run a realtime game. It works in GhostView on macOS.
* 600 lines / 10 KB * 69 different PostScript operators, no external libs * Realtime input, direct drop, increasing speed levels * 7-tetrimino random bags * Nintendo-style scoring and high score tracking
This project builds on my earlier experiments with PSChess and PSSokoban.
It show that PostScript is a lightweight, expressive, and surprisingly interactive programming language. A perfect tool for hacking on unexpected platforms.