1) Why limit yourself to 4x7? The 1988 NES version of Tetris is 10 units wide.
2) There isn't any malicious design, you simply get 1 of each shape (one of the L pieces in the author's photo is reflected, should be turned the other way).
3) In Tetris, a full row is removed immediately so having a complete rectangular shape that occupies the full available width is unrealistic.
Pedantry aside, you'd have to ask Alexey Pajitnov if there was any devilry involved in choosing the shapes since the makers of the lamp have faithfully included a full set. Also, I personally prefer the aesthetic of a lamp arranged in such a way as to leave a hole in each row rather than a plain wall of coloured squares.
> Pedantry aside, you'd have to ask Alexey Pajitnov if there was any devilry involved in choosing the shapes since the makers of the lamp have faithfully included a full set.
No devilry, there's just only so many ways you can connect four squares together to make a shape.
> 1) Why limit yourself to 4x7? The 1988 NES version of Tetris is 10 units wide.
Presumably, the objective is to arrange the tetriminos into a pleasing rectangle shape. Unfortunately, the factors of 28 are 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and 28, so 4x7 is the closest you can get to a square, and 2x14 has a similar problem of having the same number of 'white' squares as 'black' squares. The closest one can get is 5x6 with two holes removed.
Why? A full row in tetris is removed. To someone who knows the game, leaving a hole in each row would be more pleasing. Aesthetically I'd also find it more interesting, but that's an aside.
This is not an exercise in "valid" tetris configurations, per se. It's a matter of arranging these blocks to make a clean square - plain and simple. The "malicious design" is tongue-in-cheek.
Every engineer who has this lamp on their desk has thought of this.
1) Why limit yourself to 4x7? The 1988 NES version of Tetris is 10 units wide.
2) There isn't any malicious design, you simply get 1 of each shape (one of the L pieces in the author's photo is reflected, should be turned the other way).
3) In Tetris, a full row is removed immediately so having a complete rectangular shape that occupies the full available width is unrealistic.
Pedantry aside, you'd have to ask Alexey Pajitnov if there was any devilry involved in choosing the shapes since the makers of the lamp have faithfully included a full set. Also, I personally prefer the aesthetic of a lamp arranged in such a way as to leave a hole in each row rather than a plain wall of coloured squares.