Tetris

Tetris is a computer game invented by Alexey Pajitnov in 1985 at the Academy of

Sciences in Moscow, Russia. Tetris was part of the classic handheld Game Boy
console.
The objective of Tetris is to complete full solid lines (no gaps). When you make a
line it disappears and all the blocks shift accordingly. If you let the blocks reach
the top of the Tetris board, you lose. You cannot win a Tetris game, though you
can attempt to get the high score.
Tetris Scoring
Tetris has a slightly complicated scoring system. There are four ways of clearing
lines, and each has a different scoring formula:
1. Single. level*40+40
2. Double. level*100+100
3. Triple. level*300+300
4. Tetris. level*1200+1200
Tetris only goes up to level ten, and starts at level zero. This means that the
maximum score per-block is 13,200, while the lowest possible score is 40.
Play Tetris
Think you're ready to play Tetris? Then go ahead and play Tetris!
The controls of Tetris are very easy, and are as follows:
Left arrow and right arrow position the block.
Up arrow changes the rotation of the block.
Tetris
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"Tetis" redirects here. For the versions produced by Atari, see Tetris (Atari).
For the version by Electronic Arts, see Tetris (Electronic Arts).
Tetris

The box art of the NES version of Tetris.
Developer(s)
Alexey Pajitnov (E60 prototype)
Vadim Gerasimov (MS-DOS)
AcademySoft (MS-DOS/TRS-80)
Bullet Proof Software
(Japanese computers)
Elorg
Andromeda Software
(C64/ZX)
Philips (CD-i)
Rowan Software (European
computers)
Spectrum Holobyte (North
American computers/ZX)
Sphere (AIIgs)
Sanritsu Denki (MD)
Sega (Japanese arcade)
ZCT Systems (TRS-80)
Publisher(s)

EU
Infogrames

EU
Mirrorsoft (Home Computers)

EU/NA
Nintendo (NES)

EU/NA
Philips

NA
AcademySoft (MS-DOS)

NA
Spectrum Holobyte

NA
Tandy

JP
Bullet Proof Software
(Home computers)

JP
Sega (AC/MD)

JP
W!Games

KR
DR Korea (AC)
Designer(s) Alexey Pajitnov
Platform(s)
Platform(s):[show]

Release
date(s)
Release Date(s):[show]
o
Genre(s) Puzzle
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Cabinet Upright
Arcade system
System 16
System E
CPU 68000, Z80
Sound
YM2151
2xSN76496
Display
320 x 224
256 x 192
Tetris (Russian: , pronounced [ttrs]) is a tile-matching puzzle video game
originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released
on June 6, 1984,
[1]
while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the
Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow.
[2]
He derived its name from the Greek
numerical prefix tetra- (all of the game's pieces contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov's
favorite sport.
[3][4]

It is also the first entertainment software to be exported from the USSR to the US and
published by Spectrum HoloByte for Commodore 64 and IBM PC. The Tetris game is a
popular use of tetrominoes, the four-element special case of polyominoes. Polyominoes have
been used in popular puzzles since at least 1907, and the name was given by the
mathematician Solomon W. Golomb in 1953. However, even the enumeration of
pentominoes is dated to antiquity.
The game (or one of its many variants) is available for nearly every video game console and
computer operating system, as well as on devices such as graphing calculators, mobile
phones, portable media players, PDAs, Network music players and even as an Easter egg on
non-media products like oscilloscopes.
[5]
It has even inspired Tetris serving dishes
[6]
and been
played on the sides of various buildings.
While versions of Tetris were sold for a range of 1980s home computer platforms as well as
the arcades, it was the hugely successful handheld version for the Game Boy launched in
1989 that established the game as one of the most popular ever. Electronic Gaming Monthly's
100th issue had Tetris in first place as "Greatest Game of All Time". In 2007, Tetris came in
second place in IGN's "100 Greatest Video Games of All Time".
[7]
It has sold more than 70
million copies.
[8]
In January 2010, it was announced that Tetris had sold more than 100
million copies for cell phones alone since 2005.
[9]

Gameplay

The seven one-sided Tetriminos in their Tetris Worlds colors. Top row, left to right: I, J, L, O. Bottom
row: S, T, Z.
Tetriminos are game pieces shaped like tetrominoes, geometric shapes composed of four
square blocks each. A random sequence of Tetriminos fall down the playing field (a
rectangular vertical shaft, called the "well" or "matrix"). The objective of the game is to
manipulate these Tetriminos, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units,
with the aim of creating a horizontal line of ten blocks without gaps. When such a line is
created, it disappears, and any block above the deleted line will fall. When a certain number
of lines are cleared, the game enters a new level. As the game progresses, each level causes
the Tetriminos to fall faster, and the game ends when the stack of Tetriminos reaches the top
of the playing field and no new Tetriminos are able to enter. Some games also end after a
finite number of levels or lines.
All of the Tetriminos are capable of single and double clears. I, J, and L are able to clear
triples. Only the I Tetrimino has the capacity to clear four lines simultaneously, and this is
referred to as a "tetris". (This may vary depending on the rotation and compensation rules of
each specific Tetris implementation. For instance, in the Super Rotation System used in most
recent implementations,
[10]
certain situations allow T, S, and Z to 'snap' into tight spots and
clear triples.)
[11]

Colors of Tetriminos[edit]
Pajitnov's original version for the Elektronika 60 computer used green brackets to represent
blocks.
[4]
Versions of Tetris on the original Game Boy/Game Boy Color and on most
dedicated handheld games use monochrome or grayscale graphics, but most popular versions
use a separate color for each distinct shape. Prior to The Tetris Company's standardization in
the early 2000s (decade), those colors varied widely from implementation to implementation.
Colors of Tetriminos in various Tetris games
Piece
Vadim
Gerasimov's
Tetris 3.12
Microsof
t
Tetris
Sega/Arik
a
(TGM
series)
The New
Tetris
and Kids
Tetris
The Tetris
Company
standardizatio
n
(beginning
with
Tetris Worlds)
Tetris Party
Atari/
Arcade
TETIS
The
Soviet
Mind
Game
I

dark red red red cyan cyan red red cyan-blue
J
light gray magenta blue
blue-
magenta
blue yellow orange
royal
purple
L
dark
magenta
yellow orange magenta orange
magent
a
magent
a
pink
O
dark blue cyan yellow light grey yellow blue blue red
S
dark green blue magenta lime lime cyan lime lime
T
dark brown
light
grey
cyan yellow dark magenta lime olive blue
Z
dark cyan lime lime red red orange cyan yellow
Scoring[edit]
The scoring formula for the majority of Tetris products is built on the idea that more difficult
line clears should be awarded more points. For example, a single line clear in Tetris Zone is
worth 100 points, clearing four lines at once (known as a Tetris) is worth 800, while a back-
to-back Tetris is worth 1,200 each.
[12]

Nearly all Tetris games allow the player to press a button to increase the speed of the current
piece's descent, rather than waiting for it to fall. If the player can stop the increased speed
before the piece reaches the floor by letting go of the button, this is a "soft drop"; otherwise,
it is a "hard drop" (some games allow only soft drop or only hard drop; others have separate
buttons). Many games award a number of points based on the height that the piece fell before
locking.
Gravity[edit]
Traditional versions of Tetris move the stacks of blocks down by a distance exactly equal to
the height of the cleared rows below them. Contrary to the laws of gravity, blocks may be left
floating above gaps. Implementing a different algorithm that uses a flood fill
[13]
to segment
the playfield into connected regions will make each region fall individually, in parallel, until
it touches the region at the bottom of the playfield. This opens up additional "chain-reaction"
tactics involving blocks cascading to fill additional lines, which may be awarded as more
valuable clears.

Original algorithm

Algorithm with chain reactions
Easy spin dispute[edit]


The very first version of Tetris released in 1984, ran on Soviet DVK-2 computer
Although not the first Tetris game to feature "easy spin" (see The Next Tetris), also called
"infinite spin" by critics,
[14]
Tetris Worlds was the first game to fall under major criticisms for
it. Easy spin refers to the property of a Tetrimino to stop falling for a moment after left or
right movement or rotation, effectively allowing someone to suspend the Tetrimino while
thinking on where to place it. This feature has been implemented into The Tetris Company's
official guideline.
[10]
This new type of play differs from traditional Tetris because it takes
away the pressure of higher level speed. Some reviewers
[15]
even went so far as to say that
this mechanism broke the game. The goal in Tetris Worlds, however, is to complete a certain
number of lines as fast as possible, so the ability to hold off a piece's placement will not make
achieving that goal any faster. Later, GameSpot received "easy spin" more openly, saying
"though the infinite spin issue honestly really affects only a few of the single-player
gameplay modes in Tetris DS, because any competitive mode requires you to lay down pieces
as quickly as humanly possible."
[16]
In response to the issue, Henk Rogers stated in an
interview that infinite spin was an intentional part of the game design, allowing novice
players to expend some of their available scoring time to decide on the best placement of a
piece. Rogers observed that "gratuitous spinning" does not occur in competitive play, as
expert players do not require much time to think about where a piece should be placed.
[10]

History[edit]


Screenshot of the 1986 IBM PC version released by Andromeda


The version designed by Spectrum Holobyte contained Russia related images (Amiga version
screenshot, 1988)
Tetris has been involved in many legal battles in regard to rights ownership. In June 1984,
Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris on an Elektronika 60 while working for the Soviet Academy
of Sciences at their Computer Center in Moscow with Dmitry Pavlovsky, and Vadim
Gerasimov ported it to the IBM PC. Gerasimov reports that Pajitnov chose the name "Tetris"
as "a combination of 'tetromino' and 'tennis'." From there, the PC game exploded into
popularity, and began spreading all around Moscow. The most recent version of this port is
available on Gerasimov's web site.
[4][17]

The IBM PC version eventually made its way to Budapest, Hungary, where it was ported to
various platforms and was "discovered" by a British software house named Andromeda. They
attempted to contact Pajitnov to secure the rights for the PC version, but before the deal was
firmly settled, they had already sold the rights to Spectrum HoloByte. After failing to settle
the deal with Pajitnov, Andromeda attempted to license it from the Hungarian programmers
instead.
Meanwhile, before any legal rights were settled, the Spectrum HoloByte IBM PC version of
Tetris which contained background graphics featuring Russian scenes was released in the
United States in 1987. The game's popularity was tremendous; Computer Gaming World
called the game "deceptively simple and insidiously addictive".
[18]

The details of the licensing issues were uncertain by this point, but in 1987 Andromeda
managed to obtain copyright licensing for the IBM PC version and any other home computer
system. Their Commodore 64 release (1988) was notable of having 26 minutes long
background music (composed by game musician Wally Beben).
For Amiga and Atari ST two different versions by Mirrorsoft (1987) and Spectrum Holobyte
(1988) became available. The Mirrorsoft version did not feature any background graphics
while the Spectrum Holobyte's version was similar to their PC version and contained the
similar images (it was also distributed by Infogrames at some regions). Games were sold as
budget titles due to the game's simplicity. Spectrum's Apple II package actually contained
three diskettes with three different versions of the game, for the Apple II+ and Apple IIe on
separate DOS 3.3 and ProDOS 5.25 in (133 mm) diskettes, and for the Apple IIgs on a 3.5 in
(89 mm) diskette, none of which was copy-protected: the included documentation specifically
charged the purchaser on his or her honor to not give away or copy the extra diskettes.
[citation
needed]

By 1988, the Soviet government began to market the rights to Tetris, after a promotional trip
to the country by Gerald Hicks, the one time United States champion of the game, through an
organization called Elektronorgtechnica, or "Elorg" for short. Pajitnov had granted his rights
to the Soviet Government, via the Computer Center he had worked at for ten years.
[19]
By this
time, Elorg had still not been paid by Andromeda, and yet Andromeda was licensing and sub-
licensing rights that they themselves did not even have.
[citation needed]
In the same year, an
arcade version was released by Sega in Japan for the Sega's system 16 and system E.
[20]
It
won the Japanese Gamest Award for Game of the Year the following year. Tetris was also
released in late 1988 by Bullet Proof Software (BPS) for several Japanese home computers as
well as the MSX and the Family Computer in Japan. An unlicensed arcade version was
released in Korea as well as an unlicensed Master System (titled Super Tetris (
Syupeo Teteuliseu).
Nintendo[edit]
Main article: Tetris (Game Boy)


Tetris was Nintendo Power's cover story for the 1989 holiday season
By 1989, half a dozen different companies claimed rights to create and distribute the Tetris
software for home computers, game consoles, and handheld systems. Elorg, meanwhile, held
that none of the companies were legally entitled to produce an arcade version, and signed
those rights over to Atari Games, while it signed non-Japanese console and handheld rights
over to Nintendo. Tetris was on show at the January 1988 Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas, where it was picked up by Dutch games publisher Henk Rogers, then based in Japan,
which eventually led to an agreement brokered with Nintendo that saw Tetris bundled with
every Game Boy.
[8]

Tengen[edit]
Main article: Tetris (Atari)


Screenshot of the Atari version of TETIS: The Soviet Mind Game for the Nintendo Entertainment
System.
Tengen (the console software division of Atari Games), regardless, applied for copyright for
their Tetris game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, loosely based on the arcade
version, and proceeded to market and distribute it under the name TETIS: The Soviet Mind
Game (with faux Cyrillic typography incorporating the Cyrillic letter Ya), disregarding
Nintendo's license from Elorg. Nintendo contacted Atari Games claiming they had stolen
rights to Tetris, whereupon Atari Games sued, believing they had the rights. After only four
weeks on the shelf, the courts ruled that Nintendo was the only company which had the rights
to Tetris on home game systems. Tengen's TETIS was recalled with an unknown number of
copies sold.
[21]
The lawsuits between Tengen and Nintendo over the NES version carried on
until 1993.
NES[edit]


Screenshot of the official NES version of Tetris.
Nintendo released their version of Tetris for both the NES and the Game Boy (both versions
were developed by Bullet-Proof Software, Inc., who held the Japanese license, despite
Nintendo's overseas license to the game); The NES version sold 8 million copies
worldwide.
[22]
Some players
[who?]
considered Nintendo's NES version inferior because it
lacked the side-by-side 2-player option featured in Tengen's version. It was featured in
Nintendo's Game Boy Tetris and it became arguably the most well-known version of Tetris,
selling over 33 million copies, as it was bundled with Game Boy when it was released.
Nintendo reviewed its version in the November/December 1989 edition of Nintendo Power.
Sega[edit]
See also: Video game collecting
Sega released a Tetris game for the Japanese Mega Drive similar to their arcade release;
however, the ensuing blitz of litigation ensured that it was hastily withdrawn. It is estimated
that only between 3 to 8 copies were produced.
[citation needed]
.
The Tetris Company[edit]
Main article: The Tetris Company
In 1996, the rights to the game reverted from the Russian state to Pajitnov himself, who
previously had made very little money from the game.
[8]
In 1996, The Tetris Company was
founded, claiming to hold copyright registrations for Tetris products in the U.S.
[23][24]
and
taking out trademark registrations for Tetris in almost every country in the world.
[25]
They
have licensed the brand to a number of companies, and the U.S. Court of International Trade
and the U.S. Customs have at times issued seizure orders to preclude unlicensed Tetris-like
games from being imported into the U.S.,
[26]
though bulletins circulated by the U.S.
Copyright Office state that copyright does not apply to the rules of a game.
[27][28]

In mid-2006,
[29]
and in late 1997,
[30]
TTC's legal counsel sent cease and desist letters to Web
sites on the basis of Tetris-type games infringing the "Tetris" trademark, trade dress, and/or
"look and feel" copyright. Around 2009, TTC and Tetris Holding LLC brought legal action
against BioSocia, Inc., on the grounds that BioSocia's "Blockles" game infringed on
proprietary rights that were held by TTC and Tetris Holding LLC.
[31]
On September 10, 2009,
the legal case against BioSocia was resolved, with BioSocia agreeing to discontinue making
the "Blockles" game available to the public.
[31]
In May 2010, TTC's legal counsel sent cease
and desist letters to Google insisting that 35 Tetris clones be removed from the Android
Market.
[32]
A US District Court judge ruled in June 2012 that the Tetris clone "Mino" from
Xio Interactive infringed on the Tetris Company's copyrights by replicating such elements as
the playfield dimensions and the shapes of the blocks.
[33]

Variations[edit]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by
adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
(June 2012)


A 5th generation iPod featuring Tetris (2006)
Tetris has been subject to many changes throughout releases since the 1980s. Newer Tetris
games have focused on a trend of pace rather than endurance. Older releases such as Game
Boy or NES Tetris offer records according to points. Since the meter for points is restricted to
a specific number of digits, these games' records can be "maxed out" by an experienced
player. The next big Game Boy release after Tetris, Tetris DX, in marathon mode
comparable to mode A in previous releasesallowed an additional digit for the point meter.
Even so, players still maxed it to 9,999,999 points after hours of play. For The New Tetris,
world record competitors have spent over 12 hours playing the same game.
[34]
In Tetris DX
and The New Tetris, the new modes sprint and ultra were added. These modes require the
player to act under a timer, either to gain the most lines or points in that time. Releases like
Tetris Worlds did away completely with point records. This particular game kept records by
how fast a certain number of lines could be cleared depending on the level. Critics of Tetris
Worlds said it was flawed by virtue of the ability of a piece to hover over the bottom for as
long as a player needs.
[15]

There are many different modes of play added in recent years. Modes appearing in more than
one major release include: classic marathon (game A), sprint (otherwise game B or 40 lines),
ultra, square, and cascade.
The field dimension of Tetris is perhaps the least deviated among releases: almost always 10
cells wide by 20 high. Some releases on handheld platforms with small screens have smaller
fields; for example, the Tetris Jr. keychain game has 8 by 12, and Tetris for Game Boy has
10 by 18.
Traditionally, blocks spawn within the four most central columns and the two highest rows.
The I Tetrimino occupies columns 4, 5, 6 and 7, the O Tetrimino occupies columns 5 and 6,
and the remaining 5 Tetriminos occupy columns 4, 5 and 6 (or in some, especially older,
versions, 5, 6 and 7). In some more recent games, pieces spawn above the visible playfield.
In traditional games, a level-up would occur once every ten lines are cleared. After a level-up,
the blocks fall slightly faster, and typically more points are given. In some newer games such
as Tetris Worlds, the number of lines required vary upon each new level. For example, NES
Tetris operates at 60 frames per second. At level 0, a piece falls one step every 48 frames, and
at level 19, a piece falls one step every 2 frames. Level increments either terminate at a
certain point (Game Boy Tetris tops off at level 20) or increase forever yet not in speed after
a certain point. NES Tetris will level up in speed until level 29 (due to limitations of the
game's engine, pieces are not capable of dropping faster than this), but tool-assisted
emulation will show that the level indicator increases indefinitelyeventually leading to a
glitch where the meter displays non-numeric characters. Modern games such as Tetris the
Grand Master or Tetris Worlds, at their highest levels, opt to drop a piece more than one row
per frame. Pieces will appear to reach the bottom as soon as they spawn. As a result, these
games have a delay that lets the player slide the piece on the bottom for a moment to help
deal with an otherwise unplayable fall speed. In some games, the hover time is regenerated
after a piece is moved or rotated.
Soft drops were first implemented in Nintendo releases of Tetris so that pieces would be able
to drop faster while not locking as to slide into gaps. The other option is hard dropping,
which originated in early PC games such as Microsoft Tetris, a game developed by Dave
Edson and bundled with Microsoft Entertainment Pack. With hard dropping, a piece falls and
locks in one frame. Newer Tetris games feature both options. Some games have their locking
roles reversed, with soft dropping making the pieces drop faster and locking down, and hard
dropping making the pieces drop instantly but not lock.
Single direction rotation is an older restriction that has since been ruled out in nearly every
new official release by the favor of separate buttons for clockwise and one for
counterclockwise rotation. In traditional games, the unsymmetrical vertical orientation I-, Z-,
and S-pieces will fill the same columns for each clockwise and counter clockwise rotation.
Some games vary this by allowing two possible column orientations: one for counter
clockwise and one for clockwise rotations. Double rotationonly seen in progressive clones
such as Quadra and DTETrotates the piece 180.
One of the features most appreciated by skilled players is wall kick, or the ability of rotating
the pieces even if these touch the left or right walls. In the NES version, for example, if a Z
piece is "vertically" aligned and falling touching the left wall, the player cannot rotate the
piece, giving the impression that the rotate buttons are locked. In this situation, the player has
to move the piece one position to the right before rotating it, losing precious time. Proper
implementations of wall kick first appeared in the arcade version of Tetris by Atari Games.
Piece preview allows a look at the next piece to enter the field. This feature has been
implemented since the earliest games, though in those early games, having the preview
turned on made the score increase more slowly.
Newest features[edit]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by
adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
(June 2013)
Newer versions of Tetris add different scoring goals not present in traditional Tetris. As
achieving these goals while not topping out becomes more difficult, these games usually add
a few features to help the player.
The New Tetris and The Next Tetris are the first official Tetris games to feature multiple piece
previews, showing 3 in advance. Tetris Worlds for PCs and game consoles add 5 more, while
the GBA version retains the 3 piece preview. Tetris DS uses the 6-piece preview. The New
Tetris also introduced the "ghost piece", an obscuration in the shape of the current piece over
where that piece would drop. The feature reduces mistakes, especially for beginners and
high-speed players.
Hold piece is an optional ability to reserve a piece for later use, allowing a player to either
avoid undesirable pieces or save desirable ones. Some clones featured it as a powerup that the
player could earn and use once. A hold piece available to the player at all times was first
featured in The New Tetris. Most games that have hold piece activate it when the player
presses a dedicated button, often a shoulder button;
[35]
other games activate it when both
rotate buttons are pressed simultaneously. When hold piece is activated, it causes the falling
piece to move to the top and trade places with the hold piece. However, the feature cannot be
activated twice in a row; it is disabled until the piece released from hold locks in the well.
Initial rotation and Initial hold are features that make the game accept rotation/hold button
inputs while the next piece is still in the preview area. With initial rotation, when the player
holds down the rotation button after the previous piece has locked down but before the next
piece comes into the well, the next piece will come into the well in an already rotated state.
Initial hold works similarly, as the piece will be already swapped with the hold piece when it
enters the well. Initial rotation and Initial hold first appeared in the Tetris: The Grand Master
series.
Tetris DS features wireless on-line play through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection system. This
new version also takes advantage of the touch screen in the added "Touch Mode," which has
no time limit. Instead, every block is already placed in a tall tower, and the player uses the
stylus from the Nintendo DS to shift blocks left and right and, in earlier towers, rotate blocks.
The goal is to clear enough lines so that a cage of balloons reaches the ground (this mode is
themed on the NES video game Balloon Fight, hence the cage of balloons).
Tetris DS also introduces the Metroid-themed "Catch Mode". In this mode, the pieces fall
downward from the top screen to the touch screen, but the stack is moved and rotated instead.
As the falling pieces bump against the stack, they get clustered into it. To clear blocks, there
must be a solid area of the stack that is 44 or larger. When this happens, the blocks glow and
the music changes. After ten seconds or upon pressing the X button, these blocks disappear
and shoot a laser beam in a plus-shape, the horizontal part equal to the number of rows
cleared and the vertical equal to the columns. This laser beam will move and rotate with the
stack and destroy falling blocks and Metroid enemies in its path until it disappears a moment
later. The parts of the stack not hit by the laser beam will be pulled in towards the center of
the stack after the laser beam dies. If a piece reaches the bottom of the touch screen, the stack
hits a falling block while rotating, or the stack hits a Metroid, the stack loses Energy. The
player loses if the stack runs out of Energy or if the stack becomes so large that it can no
longer fit on the touch screen.
Tetris Mania by EA Games brings back the Fusion and Sticky modes from Tetris Worlds. In
Fusion, "atom" blocks must be activated, the number of those needing to be activated
increases per level. Activated atoms wills also activate other atoms that they touch, and are
generated two for every seven Tetriminos. Gravity will not be activated until a line is cleared
containing an atom of fusion block. In Sticky, based on The Next Tetris, you need to clear the
bottom row of starting tiles. In each level, there are more starting tiles that are harder to clear.
The pieces in this game are made up of different colored minos that "stick" to those of the
same color. Gravity is always a factor.
The Tetris arcade game by Atari Games offered different "puzzles" for selected rounds. The
first three rounds are played normally, with no obstacles. At the start of round 4, eight bricks
are placed vertically along each side of the well. Round 5 begins with ten bricks scattered
throughout the bottom five rows. Round 6 begins with 20 bricks arranged in a pyramid. In
rounds 7 through 9, the well starts out empty but single bricks will appear at random on top
of your puzzle each time a piece lands that does not clear any lines, potentially thwarting any
planning one may have done. In rounds 10 through 12, incomplete "garbage" lines will
randomly pop up underneath your puzzle, pushing the puzzle upward, when a piece lands
without clearing any lines. Rounds 13 through 15 begin with more blocks arranged in
predetermined patterns, and the cycle continues throughout the remaining rounds in the game
in groups of three.
Tetris variants[edit]
Main article: List of Tetris variants
Several Tetris variants exist. Some feature alternate rules and pieces, and others have
completely different gameplay.
A popular variant called "The Grand Master" eventually becomes so fast players have to use
every second of time optimally, and it even has a mode dubbed "Invisible Tetris", where the
blocks are only shown when falling then finally revealed when the game is over.
Because of its popularity and the relatively simple code required to produce the game, a game
with nearly the same rules as Tetris is often used as a hello world project for programmers
coding for a new system or programming language. This has resulted in the availability of a
large number of ports for different platforms. For instance, Torrent and GNU Emacs contain
similar shape-stacking games as easter eggs.
[36][37]

End of play[edit]
Players lose a typical game of Tetris when they can no longer keep up with the increasing
speed, and the Tetriminos stack up to the top of the playing field. This is commonly referred
to as topping out.
Possibility of infinite gameplay[edit]
The question Would it be possible to play forever? was first encountered in a thesis by John
Brzustowski in 1992.
[38]
The conclusion reached was that the game is inevitably doomed to
end. The reason has to do with the S and Z Tetriminos. If a player receives a large sequence
of alternating S and Z Tetriminos, the nave gravity used by the standard game eventually
forces the player to leave a hole in a corner.
Supposing that the player then receives a large sequence of alternating S and Z Tetriminos,
they will eventually be forced to leave holes throughout the board. Back and forth, the holes
will necessarily stack to the top and, ultimately, end the game. If the pieces are distributed
randomly, this sequence will eventually occur. Thus, if a game with an ideal, uniform,
uncorrelated random number generator is played long enough, any player will top out.
[39][40]

In practice, this does not occur in most Tetris variants. Some variants allow the player to
choose to play with only S and Z Tetriminos,
[41]
and a good player may survive well over 150
consecutive Tetriminos this way. On an implementation with an ideal uniform randomizer,
the probability at any given time of the next 150 Tetriminos being only S and Z is one in
(2/7)
150
(approximately 210
82
). Most implementations use a pseudorandom number
generator to generate the sequence of Tetriminos, and such an SZ sequence is almost
certainly not contained in the sequence produced by the 32-bit linear congruential generator
in many implementations (which has roughly 4.210
9
states). The "evil" algorithm in Bastet
(an unofficial variant) often starts a game with a series of more than seven Z pieces.
Modern "official" versions of Tetris use a bag-style randomizer that guarantees that players
will never receive more than two S or Z pieces in a row.
Recent versions of Tetris such as Tetris Worlds allow the player to repeatedly rotate a block
once it hits the bottom of the playfield, without it locking into place (see Easy spin dispute,
above). This permits a player to play for an infinite amount of time, though not necessarily to
land an infinite number of blocks.
Computational complexity[edit]
In computer science, it is common to analyze the computational complexity of problems,
including real life problems and games. It was proven that for the offline version of Tetris (in
which all the pieces are known in advance) the following objectives are NP-complete:
Maximizing the number of rows cleared while playing the given piece sequence.
Maximizing the number of pieces placed before a loss occurs.
Maximizing the number of simultaneous clearing of four rows.
Minimizing the height of the highest filled grid square over the course of the sequence.
Also, it is not possible to find a polynomial time approximation algorithm for the first 2
problems and it is hard to approximate the last problem within 2 for every > 0.
To prove NP-completeness, it was shown that there is a polynomial reduction between the 3-
partition problem, which is also NP-Complete, and the Tetris problem.
[42]

Music[edit]
See also: Tetris (Game Boy) Music and Tetris (Game Boy)#Music
Music A in version 1.1 of the Game Boy edition of Tetris has become very widely known, to
the point that Level 20 in Tetris DS is based on this Game Boy version of Tetris and uses that
theme. It is an instrumental arrangement of a Russian folk tune called "Korobeiniki" (the
most widely used of several Romanized spellings), which has been covered by UK dance
band Doctor Spin, US alternative rock band Ozma, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Basshunter
the Swedish Eurodance DJ, Doctor P,and also the German techno group Scooter on their
2007 album Jumping All Over the World. It was also sampled in "21 Concepts" by MC Lars.
Music A and B are also remixed and arranged for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and can be
selected for the stage "Luigi's Mansion", as well as being used in custom stages. The song
has also been remixed for two dance games, under the name "Pumptris Quattro" in Pump It
Up NX2 and "Happy-hopper" in Dance Maniax 2nd Mix. Ronan Murray has recorded an
arrangement of the tune for pipe organ. A remix was also made by the Hip-hop group
Decav5. The A theme was adapted by Australian jazz/folk group Flap!, with original lyrics
added, on their debut album Flap!.
[43]

Music B in the Game Boy version is likely by Hirokazu Tanaka.
Music C in the Game Boy version is an arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's French Suite
No. 3 In B Minor, BWV 814, IV. Menuett Trio.
Music 1 in the NES version is "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", a tune noted to be scene 14c
of act two of The Nutcracker, composed by Tchaikovsky.
One song in the BPS and Tengen versions is the "Kalinka", a famous Russian song written by
Ivan Petrovich Larionov.
A 6.06 minute concert version has been composed by Nikolai Aleeksevich Nekraov.
[44]

Effect of Tetris on the brain[edit]
According to research from Dr. Richard Haier, et al. prolonged Tetris activity can also lead to
more efficient brain activity during play.
[45]
When first playing Tetris, brain function and
activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by glucose
metabolic rate. As Tetris players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced
consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity for this task.
[46]
Even
moderate playing of Tetris (half-an-hour a day for three months) boosts general cognitive
functions such as "critical thinking, reasoning, language and processing" and increases
cerebral cortex thickness.
[47]

In January 2009, an Oxford University research group headed by Dr. Emily Holmes reported
in PLoS ONE that for healthy volunteers, playing Tetris soon after viewing traumatic
material in the laboratory reduced the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following
week. They believe that the computer game may disrupt the memories that are retained of the
sights and sounds witnessed at the time, and which are later re-experienced through
involuntary, distressing flashbacks of that moment. The group hopes to develop this approach
further as a potential intervention to reduce the flashbacks experienced in posttraumatic stress
disorder, but emphasized that these are only preliminary results.
[48]

The game has been noted to cause the brain to involuntarily picture tetris combinations even
when the player is not playing (the Tetris effect), although this can occur with any computer
game or situation showcasing repeated images or scenarios, such as a jigsaw puzzle.
Hasbro Games[edit]
In 2013, the Tetris company signed a contract with Hasbro to make a Bop It and a Jenga
themed version of Tetris. The games were first shown to the public at the New York Toy Fair
and Bop It Tetris was first sold on Amazon.com in June 2013.
Jenga Tetris is just like Jenga but using Tetris shapes.
Bop It Tetris is an audio game. It has several game modes including Marathon and Pass It. In
the Marathon Mode, the player has four lives and has to complete the puzzles with the
squared lights. The game unit has two slam buttons and the top screen can slide from left to
right. If the player fails to complete the puzzle, the voice of Buddy Rubino will make a Santa
Claus type laugh and will encourage the player with a comment such as: "Squares man!
They're just squares!" or "Shapes are hard!" and Buddy will then say "Life lost" and one of
the four squares on the top screen will disappear. After every stage is completed Buddy will
tell the player with a comment such as: "Level up!" and there will then be a 45 second bonus
round which the player can score two or more bonus points.
In the Pass It Mode it is the same as the Marathon mode except Buddy Rubino will say "Pass
It" to let other people join in.
Legacy[edit]
Reception[edit]
[hide]Reception
Review scores
Publication Score

Computer and
Video Games
94%
[52]


Crash 77%
[50]


Sinclair User
[51]


Your Sinclair 9/10
[49]


Zzap!64 98%
[54]


ACE 95%
[53]


Awards
Publication Award
Zzap!64 Gold Medal
Sinclair User SU Classic

Compute! called the IBM version of Tetris "one of the most addictive computer games this
side of the Berlin Wall ... [it] is not the game to start if you have work to do or an
appointment to keep. Consider yourself warned".
[55]
Orson Scott Card joked that the game
"proves that Russia still wants to bury us. I shudder to think of the blow to our economy as
computer productivity drops to 0". Noting that Tetris was not copy-protected, he wrote
"Obviously, the game is meant to find its way onto every American machine".
[56]
The IBM
version of the game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon No. 135 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk
Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4.5 out of 5
stars.
[57]
The Lessers later reviewed Spectrum HoloByte's Macintosh version of Tetris in 1989
in Dragon No. 141, giving that version 5 out of 5 stars.
[58]
In 1993, the Spectrum version of
the game was voted number 49 in the Your Sinclair Official Top 100 Games of All Time.
[59]
In
1996, Tetris Pro was ranked the 38th best game of all time by Amiga Power.
[60]

Computer Gaming World gave Tetris the 1989 Compute! Choice Award for Arcade Game,
describing it as "by far, the most addictive game ever".
[61]
The game won three Software
Publishing Association Excellence in Software Awards in 1989, including Best
Entertainment Program and the Critic's Choice Award for consumers.
[62]
On March 12, 2007,
The New York Times reported that Tetris was named to a list of the ten most important video
games of all time, the so-called game canon.
[63]
After announced at the 2007 Game
Developers Conference, the Library of Congress took up the video game preservation
proposal and began with this 10 games, including Tetris.
[64][65]

In 2007, video game website GameFAQs hosted its sixth annual "Character Battle", in which
the users nominate their favorite video game characters for a popularity contest in which
characters participate. The L-shaped Tetris piece (or "L-Block" as it was called) entered the
contest as a joke character, but on November 4, 2007, it won the contest.
[66]
On June 6, 2009,
Google honored Tetris' 25-year anniversary by changing its logotype to a version drawn with
Tetris blocks the "l" letter being the long Tetris block lowering into its place,
[67]
seen
here.
[68]
In 2009, Game Informer put Tetris 3rd on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All
Time", saying that "If a game could be considered ageless, it's Tetris".
[69]

Guinness World Records has recognised the game as being the most ported in the history of
video gaming, appearing on in excess of 65 different platforms by 2011.
[70]

In research[edit]
Tetris has been the subject of academic research. Vladimir Pokhilko was the first clinical
psychologist to conduct experiments using Tetris.
[71]
Subsequently, it has been used for
research in several fields including theory of computation, algorithmic theory and cognitive
psychology.
During the game of Tetris, blocks appear to adsorb onto the lower surface of the window.
This has led scientists to use tetrominoes "as a proxy for molecules with a complex shape" to
model their "adsorption on a flat surface" to study the thermodynamics of nanoparticles.
[72][73]

Game Description
The objective of Tetris, like so many other single-screen video games, is to stay alive for as long as
possible while scoring as many points as you can. The game begins with one of seven differently
shaped blocks falling down the playfield. This block is followed by another, and another. Each of the
seven block shapes is composed of four small squares.

You manipulate these blocks, which fall one at a time, by moving them left and right and rotating
them as they descend. One randomly selected block after another falls down the screen, and you
must arrange these blocks to prevent them from stacking up to the top of the play field.

Every time you fill in an unbroken horizontal line across the play field, that line disappears, clearing
the way for more blocks. With enough practice, you will figure out how to fill in double, triple, and
quadruple lines with the drop of a single block, maximizing your score. By not allowing the blocks to
reach the top of the screen, you will reach higher and higher levels, meaning an increase in the rate
at which the blocks fall.
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Roots & Influences
When Tetris burst onto the scene in 1987, it was a puzzle game like no other. It seemed like
everyone with a PC was hooked to this game. Shortly thereafter, Tetris was produced for the Game
Boy and the NES.
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Review: Overall
Tetris is arguably the single most addictive video game of all timemore addictive than even Pac-Man
or Space Invaders. With the exception of maybe Doom, Tetris has spawned more sequels and
copycats than just about any other game.

Created by Russian designer Alexey Pazhitnov in 1987, Tetris (and Tetris ripoffs) for the personal
computer captivated gamers and nongamers everywhere. Office workers across the world wasted
millions of hours at their desks playing Tetris while pretending to work. Just one more game, and
then I'll finish those reports, was a common sentiment during the height of the Tetris craze. Tetris
(in all its incarnations) has made such an impact in the gaming industry that it has appeared near the
top on dozens of all-time favorite game lists as voted on by fans and professionals.

Tetris for the Nintendo Entertainment System loses nothing in the translation from the PC. It's a fun
game with crisp, accurate controls. The music is cheerful without being corny, and it flows smoothly
with the game play. While a handful of gamers claim that Tetris is boring because you don't kill
anyone, most people love this game.

Tetris, by design, has simple (although elegant) graphics. Some may see this lack of graphic
sophistication as a problem, but with Tetris it doesn't matter. You'll be having so much fun you won't
notice.

Whether you're playing it on Nintendo's Game Boy, the Sony PlayStation, an IBM computer, your
NES, or most any other platform, Tetris is simply a great game that is easy to learn, but infinitely
challenging. Don't play it a work, though. Your boss may fire you, so he or she can take a turn (or
two, or three, or....).
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Review: Enjoyment
This is a fun game that the whole family will enjoy.
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Review: Graphics
The colors are a little washed out, but that doesn't present much of a problem.
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Review: Sound
The music and sound effects are clear, light, and whimsical, which is exactly what you need for this
kind of game.
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Review: Replay Value
{*Tetris} is frighteningly addictive. It practically forces you to push the start button again and again.
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Review: Documentation
The instruction book does an admirable job of telling you how to play the game. Also, this game is so
popular that you'll have no trouble finding information about it on the Web.
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Production Credits
Concept and Design: Alexey Pazhitnov; Programming: Alexey Pazhitnov


Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/tetris-game-1#ixzz2ml0Buk66
Heres 12 facts about Tetris that you probably didnt know of:
Tetris has sold over 40 million copies worldwide, since it began in 1982. That provided the creator 800 million in
revenues
Tetris was created by a Russian computer engineer named Alexey Pajitnov and released in 1985 by Nintendo. He
profited very little from the game, while Nintendo, profited greatly. Perhaps that is what inspired Pajitnovs
development of the game called Hatris, released in 1990.
The most recognizable Tetris theme music is based on the popular Russian folk song called Korobeiniki. The original
is based on a poem about a young pre-revolutionary Russian haberdashery seller. The song has been covered
several times, most recently by an American band called Powerglove (Nintendo nerds will not miss the reference).
Tetris has inspired many scholars to ask the question: Can Tetris be won? While even the best players can take it
far, the conclusion of John Brzustowski, in this research project conducted while completing his M.Sc. at UBC, was
no, no you can not.
Brain imaging shows playing Tetris leads to a thicker cortex and may also increase brain efficiency, according to
research published in the open access journal BMC Research Notes
The Tetris Effect can occur when someone plays Tetris for an extended period of time. After leaving the game,
players may find themselves habitually strategizing about ways to put everyday objects together, or dream about
playing the game while falling asleep.
The name Tetris is a combination of the words tetramino and tennis.
Tetris is played in more than 50 countries and has been translated into more than 50 languages
Over 75 million Tetris products have been sold on mobile devices and still growing
Tetris has been released on over 30 platforms
The worlds smallest game of Tetris took place under and electron microscope using 42 glass microspheres at the
Department of Physics of Complex Systems in Amsterdam
Tetris is Still played over 1 million times a day
Resources:
http://www.tetris.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCdnBmQz6_s
http://www.tetrisconcept.net/wiki
http://www.tetrisfriends.com/help
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2009/06/03/tetris-at-25-five-things-you-didn-t-know-about-the-
puzzling-game.aspx#ixzz1TdyoesTx


Tetris originated in Russia around 1985 and was never patented, at the time intellectual property
rights were not established in then communist Russia for private individuals.
Tetris Authors Alexey Pajitnov, Dmitry Pavlovsky, and
Vadim Gerasimov
The original author of Tetris was Alexey Pajitnov (Pazhitnov), assisted by Dmitry Pavlovsky and
Vadim Gerasimov. Computer engineers, Alexey Pajitnov and Dmitry Pavlovsky worked together at
the Computer Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Alexey Pajitnov had already published
and sold several psychology based games. Dmitry Pavlovsky had written computer games for
mainframes. High school student, Vadim Gerasimov (only sixteen at the time) had just written a
directory encryption program for MS DOS when he introduced to the pair. It was Alexey Pajitnov
who first conceived of the game Tetris based on another game of his called Genetic Engineering.
Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers later founded the Tetris Company.
Tetra means Four
The name Tetris comes from the Greek work tetra or "four". Tetris is a computer puzzle game in
which various shapes each made of four squares are falling down a well. The user turns the pieces
around and moves them left or right in order to arrange them on top of the other. When a solid
line of squares is made from edge to edge, the line dissolves and all the pieces move down by one
square. When the lines dissolve points are won, when the well fills up the game ends. Players work
hard to keep the well as empty as possible, but as the game progresses the pieces fall faster and
faster making that harder.