Contents
Overview
AA Tetris is a free game that was created to provide a fun way to learn the
names, abbreviations and symbols of the 20 biological amino acid residues. The
side chains of the amino acids are displayed on blocks of various shapes. The
blocks fall, one at a time, from the top of the screen. In order to stack the
blocks, the user must first identify the name, abbreviation or symbol of the
falling amino acid side chain, depending on the current game goal. After
entering the current identification, the user can then use the arrow keys to
stack the blocks to create filled rows, as in the original tetris game.
However, unlike the original game, AA-Tetris introduces some additional
constraints that reflect the nature of amino acid side chains. The amino acids
can be divided into 4 groups: non-polar (hydrophobic), polar (hydrophilic),
positively-charged and negatively charged. Only certain kinds of
pairwise-interactions between blocks are permitted in the game.
Rules
- Unlock the falling amino acid residue by pressing [Enter] and entering the
correct name/abbr/symbol, depending on the game goal. Once a residue is
unlocked, it can be moved with the arrow keys.
-
The residue must be stacked according repulsion rules, where repulsions occur
based on residue type. There are 4 residue types:
- non-polar (yellow)
- polar (green)
- pos-charged (blue)
- neg-charged (red)
-
If a residue receives 3 or more repulsions from adjacent blocks, the most recent move will be
undone. Repulsive interactions:
- (non-polar, polar)
- (non-polar, pos-charged)
- (non-polar, neg-charged)
- (pos-charged, pos-charged)
- (neg-charged, neg-charged)
Screenshots
| | Falling histidine residue.
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| | Repulsion of stacked asparagine residue by lipid blocks.
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| | Game over.
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Download
Platforms
The game currently runs on the following platforms:
Files
Building and Running
- Installation instructions are in the INSTALL file.
- To play the game, run or double-click on the file 'aat' or 'aat.exe', depending on the platform.
Credits
AA-Tetris was created by William Knight
(willkn@users.sourceforge.net) and inspired by the game Tetris,
created by Alexey Pajitnov.
Last updated: 2005-08-21
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