Tetris
Developer(s)	Various
Publisher(s)	Various
Designer(s)	Alexey Pajitnov
Release date(s)	1985
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Platform(s)	Various

Tetris (Russian: Тетрис) is a falling-blocks puzzle video game, released on a large spectrum of platforms. Alexey Pajitnov originally designed and programmed the game in June 1985,^[1][2] while working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. Pajitnov has cited pentominoes as a source of inspiration for the game. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix "tetra-", as all of the pieces contain four segments, and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.^[3][2] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 192 × 352 pixelsFull resolution (192 × 352 pixel, file size: 893 B, MIME type: image/png) Emacs Tetris (detail) Based on screenshot de:Bild:Tetris. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... Alexey Pajitnov Alexey Pajitnov (Алексей Пажитнов, born 1956, Russia), whose last name is sometimes transliterated Pazhitnov, is a Russian computer engineer, who developed the popular game Tetris while working for the Computer Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a Soviet government-founded R&D centre. ... This article is about the year. ... Video games are categorized into genres based on their gameplay. ... Minesweeper, a popular computer puzzle game found on many machines. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... A multiplayer game is a video game in which more than one person can play the same game at the same time. ... Alexey Pajitnov Alexey Pajitnov (Алексей Пажитнов, born 1956, Russia), whose last name is sometimes transliterated Pazhitnov, is a Russian computer engineer, who developed the popular game Tetris while working for the Computer Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a Soviet government-founded R&D centre. ... Dorodnicyn Computing Centre was established in 1955 and became a leading research institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences f the Soviet Union. ... Russian Academy of Sciences: main building Russian Academy of Sciences (Росси́йская Акаде́мия Нау́к) is the national academy of Russia. ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... A pentomino is a polyomino composed of five (Greek πέντε / pente) congruent squares, connected orthogonally. ... Tetra is a Greek prefix meaning 4 (in constrast to quad- as in quadruped, which is Latin). ... For other uses, see Tennis (disambiguation). ...

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, and PDAs. Tetris has even appeared as part of an art exhibition on the side of Brown University's 14-story Sciences Library.^[4] It came in third place on the 2005 edition of IGN's 100 Greatest Videogames Of All Time. While versions of Tetris were sold for a range of 1980s home computer platforms, it was the hugely successful handheld version for the Game Boy launched in 1989 that established the reputation of the game as one of the most popular ever. Tetris's popularity has resulted in its appearance in the media. It was referenced prominently in the video-game oriented cartoon Captain N: The Game Master. It was also referenced in Muppet Babies episode "It's Just a Pretendo", The Simpsons episode "Strong Arms of the Ma", Family Guy episode "Prick Up Your Ears", and Futurama episode "Fear of a Bot Planet." Commercials also occasionally parody the game. Police Academy: Mission to Moscow alluded to Tetris by depicting the Russians trying to hypnotize Americans through a puzzle video game referred to as "The Game" in the movie. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... “Game console” redirects here. ... An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... A typical graphing calculator. ... A portable multimedia player (PMP) is a self-reliant electronic device that is capable of storing and playing files in one or more media formats. ... Look up Personal digital assistant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island. ... For other uses, see IGN (disambiguation). ... Children playing on a Amstrad CPC 464 in the 1980s. ... Tetris was a pack-in title included with the Nintendo Game Boy at the handhelds release in 1989. ...

Gameplay

The seven one-sided tetrominoes in their Tetris Worlds colors. Top row, left to right: I, J, L, O. Bottom row: S, T, Z.

A pseudorandom sequence of tetrominoes (sometimes called "tetrads" in older versions) - shapes composed of four square blocks each - fall down the playing field. The object of the game is to manipulate these tetrominoes, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of blocks without gaps. When such a line is created, it disappears, and the blocks above (if any) fall. As the game progresses, the tetrominoes fall faster, and the game ends when the player "tops out", that is, when the stack of tetrominoes reaches the top of the playing field and no new tetrominoes are able to enter. (The exact definition of a top-out varies from version to version.) Image File history File links Tetrominoes_IJLO_STZ_Worlds. ... A pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) is an algorithm to generate a sequence of numbers that approximate the properties of random numbers. ... A tetromino, also spelled tetramino or tetrimino, is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally. ...

Tetris game manuals refer to the seven one-sided tetrominoes in Tetris as I, J, L, O, S, T, and Z^[5] - due to their resembling letters of the alphabet - but players sometimes use other names for the pieces.^[6] All are capable of single and double clears. I, J, and L are able to clear triples. Only the I tetromino has the capacity to clear four lines simultaneously, and this is referred to as a "tetris."^[5] (This may vary depending on the rotation and compensation rules of each specific Tetris implementation. For instance, in the Tetris Worlds type rules (see below) used in many recent implementations, certain rare situations allow T, S and Z to 'snap' into tight spots, clearing triples.)

Colors of tetrominoes

Some people refer to the pieces by the color in which they are drawn in a particular implementation of the Tetris game, but prior to The Tetris Company's standardization in the early 2000s, those colors varied from implementation to implementation so this is not very sensible. For example, the cyan piece is a different shape in nearly every version of the game below. The 2000s are the current decade, spanning from 2000 to 2009. ...

The original Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack (WEP) was a collection of simply-designed computer games for the Windows 3. ... The New Tetris was a puzzle video game released for the Nintendo 64 by Nintendo based on the popular Tetris games. ... Tetris DS is a Touch! Generations puzzle game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. THQ announced Tetris DS before E3 2005, and scheduled it to make an appearance at the show. ...

Scoring

The scoring formula for the majority of Tetris products is built on the idea that more difficult line clears should be awarded more points. Nintendo's implementations on the NES, Game Boy, and SNES use what is probably the most widely recognized system.^[7] The Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super NES (also called SNES and Super Nintendo) was a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia, and Brazil between 1990 and 1993. ...

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 the piece fell before locking. If a piece is manually dropped x lines and locked, these versions will typically award points proportional to the number of lines that the player accelerated the piece. If a piece is not accelerated at all the player will gain no points for that piece unless a line is made.

In many games, an animation will complement scoring. For example, in the Game Boy Tetris and Game Boy Color Tetris DX, when the player finishes the A-Type game with at least 100,000 points, the game displays a cut scene of a rocket lifting off from a launch pad; higher scores produce a larger rocket. When playing Mode B, completing the game at any of the level 9 stages rewards you with dancers and musicians. Completing level 9 with the height setting at 5 gets a large NASA-styled shuttle, which may be a reference to the abandoned Soviet Buran shuttle, which was later in development than the original US shuttle. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article is about vehicles powered by rocket engines. ... Illustration of the Buran Shuttle on an Energiya booster rocket Buran_Energia on the launch pad at Baikonur Buran_Energia on the pad Buran on liftoff Buran on touchdown Buran piggybacked on an An-225 carrier The Soviet reusable spacecraft program Buran (Бура́н meaning snowstorm or blizzard...

Gravity

Traditional versions of Tetris move the stacks of blocks down by a distance exactly equal to the height of the cleared rows below them. Unlike in Newtonian gravity, blocks may be left floating above gaps. This behavior is known as "naïve gravity". Some variants implement "recursive gravity", a different algorithm that uses a flood fill to segment the playfield into connected regions and then makes 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. Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ... Flood fill, also called seed fill, is a recursive algorithm that determines connected regions in a multi-dimensional array. ...

File links The following pages link to this file: Tetris Categories: GFDL images ... File links The following pages link to this file: Tetris Categories: GFDL images ...

Easy spin dispute

Although not the first Tetris game to feature "easy spin" (see The Next Tetris), also called "infinite spin" by critics,^[8] Tetris Worlds was the first game to fall under major criticisms for it. Easy spin refers to the ability of a tetromino's lockdown time to regenerate after left or right movement or rotation, and this has been implemented into The Tetris Company's official guideline. This new type of play differs from traditional Tetris because it takes away the pressure of higher level speed. Some reviewers^[9] even went so far to say that this mechanism broke the game. The goal in Tetris Worlds, however, has to do with completing a certain number of lines as fast as possible, so technically the ability to hold off a piece's placement will not make achieving that goal any faster. Later, critics would receive "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." ^[10] In response to the issue, Henk Rogers stated in an interview that infinite spin was part of the guideline, giving a rationale:^[11] The Next Tetris is a tetromino based puzzle video game released for the Playstation by Hasbro based on the popular Tetris games. ... Tetris on the Nintendo Game Boy Tetris is a computer game invented by Alexey Pajitnov in 1985, while he was working for the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, inspired by a pentominoes game he had purchased earlier. ... A tetromino, also spelled tetramino or tetrimino, is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally. ... RUSSIAN OMPANY, PRODUCED SMALL MACHINES, WHICH WHERE SIMILAR TO GAME BOY, BUT NO CARTIGES, WAS MADE 20 YEARS B4RE GAMEB0Y ... Henk Rogers licensed the computer game Tetris directly from the Russian Government organisation ELORG for handheld games and consoles, beating Robert Maxwells empire to the licence rights of the game. ...

So the problem is you get part way through the game, make one small mistake, 'Aw shit, I blew it,' and restart. I think that's an annoying way to play the game. So we decided it's better to give them a way to recover from that small mistake, but you're losing time. So if you sat there and rotated for, I don't know, five seconds, you've just taken five seconds out of the game that you needed to score so many points. So you won't find in the top games any gratuitous spinning going on, it just doesn't happen. It helps the beginning player who's trying to figure out what to do. It's a useless feature (for competitive play); it only helps if you're taking the time to think. The better players don't take that much time to think, that's the difference.

^[11]

Despite this, some recent games are not implemented in the way he meant for it to work. Modes lacking a timer such as marathon in Tetris Deluxe or also marathon and line mode in Tetris DS make problems for his statement. The claim that "you've just taken five seconds out of the game that you needed to score so many points" isn't true. Losing time by gratuitously spinning a piece will not hurt the player in modes that do not reward better times with better scores.

History

Tetris has been embroiled in a large number of legal battles since its inception. In June 1985, Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris on an Electronika 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 portmanteau of "tetromino tennis".^[2] Alexey Pajitnov Alexey Pajitnov (Алексей Пажитнов, born 1956, Russia), whose last name is sometimes transliterated Pazhitnov, is a Russian computer engineer, who developed the popular game Tetris while working for the Computer Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a Soviet government-founded R&D centre. ... The Electronika 60 was a terminal computer made in the Soviet Union by Elektronika. ... Russian Academy of Sciences (Росси́йская Акаде́мия Нау́к) is the national academy of Russia. ... Vadim Gerasimov is a research scientist at Emotiv Systems. ... IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... A portmanteau (IPA: ) is a word or morpheme that fuses two or more words or word parts to give a combined or loaded meaning. ...

From there, the PC game exploded into popularity, and began spreading all around Moscow. This version is available on Gerasimov's web site.^[2]

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. For other uses, see Budapest (disambiguation). ... A personal computer (PC) is a computer whose price, size, and capabilities make it useful for individuals. ... Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. ...

Meanwhile, before any legal rights were settled, the Spectrum HoloByte IBM PC version of Tetris was released in the United States in 1986. The game's popularity was tremendous, and many players were instantly hooked—it was a software blockbuster.

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.

For Amiga and Atari ST two different versions by Spectrum Holobyte and Mirrorsoft became available. The Mirrorsoft version did not feature any background graphics while the Holobyte version had a background picture related to Russian themes for each level. Games were sold as budget titles due to the game's simplicity. This article is about the family of home computers. ... The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ... Mirrorsoft was game software publish in the United Kingdom it was owned by Mirror Group Newspapers. ...

By 1988, the Soviet government began to market the rights to Tetris through an organization called Elektronorgtechnica, or "Elorg" for short. Pajitnov had granted his rights to the Soviet Government, via the Computer Center he worked at, for ten years. ^[12]By this time Elorg had still seen no money from Andromeda, and yet Andromeda was licensing and sub-licensing rights that they themselves did not even have. Elektronorgtechnica (also spelled Electronorgtechnica), better known abbreviated as ELORG, is the former Soviet Ministry of Software and Hardware Export [1] [2] that was responsible for the licensing and development of the popular video game Tetris [3]. As the game was owned by the state (Tetris was written by salaried programmers...

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. Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... Atari Games was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari Inc. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (任天堂 or ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ...

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 TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game (with faux Cyrillic typography incorporating the Cyrillic letter Ya), disregarding Nintendo's license from Elorg. Tengen was a video game publisher and developer that was created after the video game crash of 1983-1984 by Atari Games. ... Atari Games was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari Inc. ... “NES” redirects here. ... Tengen released a version of Tetris for the Nintendo Entertainment System that was recalled due to legal complications, related to an official release of Tetris on the same console. ... Graphic designers sometimes employ faux Cyrillic typography to give a Slavic feel to English text, by replacing Latin letters with Cyrillic letters resembling them. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Screenshot of the NES version of TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game

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 had the rights to Tetris on home game systems, and Tengen's TETЯIS game was recalled, with an unknown number of copies sold.^[13] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... “NES” redirects here. ...

Screenshot of the NES version of Tetris

Nintendo released their version of Tetris for both the Famicom and the Game Boy (the Game Boy version was developed by Bullet-Proof Software, Inc., who held the Japanese license, despite Nintendo's license to the game) and sold more than three million copies; some players considered Nintendo's NES version inferior because it lacked the side-by-side simultaneous play of Tengen's version, but Nintendo's Game Boy Tetris became arguably the most well-known version of Tetris. The lawsuits between Tengen and Nintendo over the Famicom/NES version carried on until 1993. Image File history File links Tetris_NES_play. ... Image File history File links Tetris_NES_play. ... “NES” redirects here. ... “NES” redirects here. ...

Sega also released a Tetris game for the Mega Drive, however the ensuing blitz of litigation ensured that it was hastily withdrawn - possibly before it even reached shop shelves. A handful of copies remain, which now change hands for as much as 800,000 yen ($6600) making it probably the most expensive Tetris game in the world. This article is about the video game company. ... Sega MegaDrive 2 European version with joypad, game cart + box Sega Mega Drive (Japanese: メガドライブ Mega Doraibu) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega. ...

Pajitnov himself made very little money from the deal even though Nintendo was able to profit from the game handsomely.

In 1996 when Russian restrictions expired, he and Henk Rogers formed The Tetris Company LLC and Blue Planet Software in an effort to get royalties from the Tetris brand, with good success on game consoles but very little on the PC front. The Tetris Company (TTC) managed to secure trademark registrations for the Tetris mark in several countries and has licensed the brand to a number of companies, but courts have not decided on the legality of tetromino games that do not use the Tetris name. Blue Planet was later purchased by JAMDAT Mobile, in turn purchased by Electronic Arts. Henk Rogers licensed the computer game Tetris directly from the Russian Government organisation ELORG for handheld games and consoles, beating Robert Maxwells empire to the licence rights of the game. ... RUSSIAN OMPANY, PRODUCED SMALL MACHINES, WHICH WHERE SIMILAR TO GAME BOY, BUT NO CARTIGES, WAS MADE 20 YEARS B4RE GAMEB0Y ... Blue Planet Software is a video game developer. ... “(TM)” redirects here. ... JAMDAT Mobile, Inc. ... Electronic Arts (EA) (NASDAQ: ERTS) is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games. ...

According to circulars available from the United States Library of Congress, a game cannot be copyrighted (only patented), which would invalidate much of TTC's copyright claim on the game,^[14] leaving the trademark on Tetris as TTC's most significant claim on any government-granted monopoly. Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is one of four official national libraries of the United States (along with the National Library of Medicine, National Agricultural Library, and National Archives and Records Administration). ... “(TM)” redirects here. ... In economics, a government-granted monopoly (also called a de jure monopoly) is a form of coercive monopoly in a government grants exclusive privilege to a private individual or firm to be the sole provider of a good or service; potential competitors are excluded from the market by law, regulation...

Some players prefer Tetris brand games; others prefer homemade tetromino games downloaded from the Internet, which are given names such as "N-Blox" or "Lockjaw" so as not to infringe trademarks. In late 1997^[15] and in mid-2006,^[16] TTC's legal counsel sent cease and desist letters to web sites that misused the Tetris trademark to refer to homemade tetromino games. Cease-and-desist is a legal term meaning essentially stop: It is used in demands for a person or organization to stop doing something (to cease and desist from doing it). ...

Variations

A 5th generation iPod with a tetris game. (2006)

Tetris has been subject to many changes throughout releases since the 1980s. It is difficult to place a standard on the game, as newer releases frequently progress it either to make the game better or to keep players interested. Newer Tetris games have made the 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 set to only a certain number of digits, these game's 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 releases — allowed 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. ^[17] It is probably for this reason of seemingly everlasting play that in both 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. Recent 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. A drawback of this deviation, along with some other newer features, is that many traditional players rejected these advances all together. Critics of Tetris Worlds said it was broken due to how a piece is able to hover over the bottom for as long as a player needs; ^[18] although, players of the game generally do not mind this feature because exploiting it will only hinder play, which is unfavorable to making a record time. Tetris LLC has been juggling different features with different modes of play in past years trying to satisfy traditional and newer players alike. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The iPod classic is the flagship iPod digital audio player designed and marketed by Apple Inc. ... iPod is a brand of portable media player designed and marketed by Apple and launched in October 2001. ... The New Tetris was a puzzle video game released for the Nintendo 64 by Nintendo based on the popular Tetris games. ...

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, with the exception of some releases on handheld platforms with small screens. (For example, the Tetris Jr. keychain has 8 columns and 12 rows.) It is almost always 10 blocks wide by 20 blocks high. However, the original Tetris for Game Boy is an exception with a 10 by 18 field of play. The field height may have been decreased to fit within the Game Boy screen. As a result, Tetris for Game Boy had an increased level of difficulty compared to some of its counterparts. Game Boy Tetris is also subject to faster speeds at lower levels. A key with a simple text label keychain A keychain or key chain is a small chain, usually made from metal or plastic, that connects a small item to a keyring. ...

Traditionally, blocks spawn within the four most central columns and the two highest rows. The I tetromino occupies columns 4, 5, 6, and 7, the O tetromino occupies columns 5 and 6, and the remaining 5 tetrominoes 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. During 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. The fall speed also varies but is usually no more than 20 milliseconds faster for each step per 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. This means for each level, pieces fall 16 milliseconds faster per step. Level increments will either terminate at a certain point (Game Boy Tetris will top off at level 20) or will increase forever yet not increase in speed after a certain point. NES Tetris will level up in until the speed of level 29 (due to frame restrictions, pieces are not capable of dropping faster than this), but tool-assisted emulation will show that the level indicator will increase indefinitely-- eventually 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, a hover or slide feature is often implemented into these games 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 lock 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. The original Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack (WEP) was a collection of simply-designed computer games for the Windows 3. ...

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 counter clockwise 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 rotation, only seen in progressive clones such as Quadra and DTET, rotates the piece 180 degrees.

Piece preview allows a look at the next spawn. 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

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 were the first official Tetris games to feature multiple piece previews, showing 3 in advance. Tetris Worlds for PCs and game consoles added 5 more, while the GBA version retained the 3 piece preview. Tetris DS uses the 6-piece preview.

The "phantom piece" (referred to in some versions, such as the Tetris Mania cell phone game, as the "ghost") is a feature that shows an obscuration in the shape of the current piece over where that piece would drop. The feature disposes with the old problem of misdrops and is relatively new.

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, usually the I piece or a piece needed to complete another goal. 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. Games that have hold piece generally activate it when the player presses both rotate buttons simultaneously or when the player presses a dedicated button, depending on the game. 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; a piece released from the hold must be dropped into 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.) Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection logo Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is an online service run by Nintendo to facilitate free Internet play in compatible Nintendo DS and Wii games. ... NDS redirects here. ... Balloon Fight ) is a 1984 arcade game developed by Nintendo. ...

Tetris DS also introduces the Metroid-themed "Catch Mode." In this mode, the pieces still fall downward, 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's 4x4 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 destroy falling blocks and Metroid enemies in its path. 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 falls below of the bottom 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 bottom screen. This article is about the first game in the series. ... For alternative meanings see laser (disambiguation). ... The Metroid ) games are a series of video games produced by Nintendo. ...

The Tetris arcade game 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 twenty 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 advance planning you 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

Main article: List of Tetris variants

A number of Tetris variants exist. Some feature alternate rules and pieces, and others have completely different gameplay. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

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, most of which are not endorsed by The Tetris Company and are given away freely. For instance, µTorrent and GNU Emacs contain tetromino stacking games as easter eggs.^[19][20] A hello world program is a computer program that prints out Hello, world! on a display device. ... In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... µTorrent (also microTorrent or uTorrent) is a freeware proprietary BitTorrent client for Microsoft Windows written in C++[1] and localized for many different languages. ... GNU Emacs is one of the two most popular versions of Emacs (see also XEmacs). ...

Is it possible to play forever?

Players may lose a game of Tetris for the following reasons:

• They can no longer keep up with the increasing speed, or
• A specific implementation of the game without very responsive control and without lock delay fails to keep up with itself when the pieces' downward velocity is much more than the maximum lateral velocity the player can apply to a tetromino. In other words, the possibilities for tetrominoes' movement are limited to the shape of a triangle in the playfield on faster levels. Once the triangle no longer covers the entire bottom rows of the playfield, as in level 29 of the NES version, this ceases to be the game's inherent challenge and becomes what some players call a design flaw.

The question Would it be possible to play forever? was first encountered in a thesis by John Brzustowski in 1988^[21] and has been more recently investigated in published articles by Walter Kosters. The conclusion reached was that a player is inevitably doomed to lose.

Tetris on the Nintendo Game Boy system, which uses the original randomizer.

The reason has to do with the S and Z tetrominoes. If a player receives a large sequence of S tetrominoes, the naïve gravity used by the standard game eventually forces the player to leave a hole in a corner. screenshot Game Boy Tetris by me This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... screenshot Game Boy Tetris by me This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ... For the entire Game Boy series of handheld consoles, see Game Boy line. ...

Suppose that player then receives a large sequence of Z tetrominoes. Eventually, that player will be forced to leave a hole in the opposite corner without clearing the previous hole. Back and forth, the holes will necessarily stack to the top. Since the pieces are distributed randomly, this sequence will eventually occur. If played long enough, and the random number generator is theoretically perfect, any player will lose the game.^[22] A random number generator is a computational or physical device designed to generate a sequence of elements (usually numbers), such that the sequence can be used as a random one. ...

Practically, this may not occur. Some variants allow the player to choose to play with only S and Z tetrominoes,^[23] and a good player may survive well over 150 consecutive tetrominoes this way. On an implementation with an ideal uniform randomizer, the probability at any given time of the next 150 tetrominoes being only S and Z is one in (2/7)¹⁵⁰ (approximately 2×10^-82). The expected wait until such a sequence occurs has the same order of magnitude as the number of atoms in the known universe.^[24] Most implementations use a pseudorandom number generator to generate the sequence of tetrominoes, and such an S–Z sequence is almost certainly not contained in the sequence produced by the 32-bit linear congruential generator in many implementations (which has roughly 4.2 × 10⁹ states). In fact, newer Tetris brand games from 2001 and later tend to follow a new guideline such that the randomizer generates all seven tetrominoes in a permutation at one time, guaranteeing an even distribution over the short term,^[25] and this randomizer allows the player to continue a game indefinitely in theory, often clearing all blocks from the playfield.^[26] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) is an algorithm to generate a sequence of numbers that approximate the properties of random numbers. ... Linear congruential generators (LCGs) represent one of the oldest and best-known pseudorandom number generator algorithms. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Permutation is the rearrangement of objects or symbols into distinguishable sequences. ...

Several of the subproblems of Tetris have been shown to be NP-complete on a playing field of size n. In complexity theory, the NP-complete problems are the most difficult problems in NP, in the sense that they are the ones most likely not to be in P. The reason is that if you could find a way to solve an NP-complete problem quickly, then you could use...

Music

• Music A in the second (version 1.1) Game Boy edition of Tetris (Music A) has become very widely known, to the point that Level 20 in Tetris DS is based on the original Game Boy version of Tetris and uses that theme. It is an instrumental arrangement of a Russian folk tune called "Korobeiniki" (with various Latin spellings), which has been covered by UK dance band Doctor Spin, US alternative rock band Ozma and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra
• 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, which was composed by Tchaikovsky.
• One song in the BPS and Tengen versions is the Kalinka, a famous Russian song written by Ivan Petrovich Larionov
• Music C in the Game Boy version is an arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach's French Suite No. 3 In B Minor, BWV 814, V. Menuett - Trio.

Korobeiniki, also called Korobeyniki and Korobushka (Russian: ), and The Peddlers, is a Russian song based on a poem with the same name written in 1861 by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov and printed in the Sovremennik magazine in 1861. ... Doctor Spin was a pseudonym used by Andrew Lloyd Webber and music producer Nigel Wright for their 1992 hit novelty single Tetris. ... Ozma is a rock band from Pasadena, California. ... Founded in 1985 by the percussionist Asa-Chang, the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (東京スカパラダイスオーケストラ), commonly abbreviated as Skapara, was initially comprised of more than 10 veterans of Tokyos underground scene. ... (left to right) Sergei Legat, as the Nutcracker, an unidentified child as a gingerbread soldier, and Lydia Rubtsova as Marianna in Vsevolozhskys costumes for the Ivanov/Petipa/Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker, St. ... “Tchaikovsky” redirects here. ... Kalinka (Калинка in Cyrillic) might be the best-known Russian song of all time. ... “Bach” redirects here. ...

Effect of Tetris on the brain

According to Richard Haier, et al. prolonged Tetris activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity during play.^[27] 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.^[28] The game can also cause a repetitive stress symptom in that the brain will involuntarily picture tetris combinations even when the player is not playing the game (the Tetris effect), although this can occur with any computer game showcasing repeated images or scenarios. Glucose (Glc), a monosaccharide (or simple sugar), is an important carbohydrate in biology. ... The Tetris effect is the ability of any activity to which people devote sufficient time and attention to begin to dominate their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. ...

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Ai, a character from the fighting game Neo Geo Battle Coliseum can summon Tetris pieces from the sky to fall over the enemy.
• In the October 1996 Issue of Microsoft Interactive Developer (MIND) Magazine, Dave Edson's Fun and Games column published a version of Tetris that was written in 300 lines of 80 column code by Rok Yu... it even had comments.
• The idea of "Tetris: The Movie" was the winning idea on the final episode on the second series of the radio four program Genius

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Ai ) is a fictional character from SNK Playmores fighting game Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, being one of the 3 new and inedit characters of the game (along with Yuki and Goodman). ... Neo Geo Battle Coliseum (abbreviated NGBC or NBC) is a 2 on 2 tag team fighting game for the Atomiswave arcade board. ... Genius is a BBC Radio 4 comedy gameshow presented by comedian Dave Gorman. ...

See also

• Tetris effect
• List of Tetris variants
• Game Over - 1993 book covers the legal wrangling with interviews from Nintendo staff

The Tetris effect is the ability of any activity to which people devote sufficient time and attention to begin to dominate their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children is a non-fiction book written by David Sheff and published by Random House, New York in 1993. ...

References

is the 236th day of the year (237th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 161st day of the year (162nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... G4 is an American cable and satellite television channel originally geared toward male viewers aged 12–34, devoted to the world of video games and the video game lifestyle. ... Icons is a documentary TV show on G4 that used to focus on the history of a video game franchise, a video game company, a video game genre, a video game character, a video game console, notable moment in video game history, or a notable person in the video game... is the 121st day of the year (122nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 331st day of the year (332nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 96th day of the year (97th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 225th day of the year (226th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 225th day of the year (226th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

External links

• Tetris.com, the official website maintained by The Tetris Company
• TetrisConcept.com, a web site operated by fans with a forum and wiki relating to Tetris
• Original Tetris: Story and Download, Story told by Vadim, who helped Pajitnov with Tetris early on
• "Mathematicians prove Tetris is tough", Scientific American, October 2002
• BBC documentary video
• Tetris played using micrometre-sized glass spheres.
• My Wife is the Tetris World Champion, story and video by The Boston Globe Magazine, August 2007

Scientific American is a popular-science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly) since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ...