Tetris | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Nintendo R&D1 |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Producer(s) | Gunpei Yokoi |
Composer(s) | Hirokazu Tanaka |
Series | Tetris |
Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Puzzle |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Tetris, also known as classic Tetris, is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released in 1989, based on Tetris (1985) by Alexey Pajitnov. It was published after a legal battle between Nintendo and Atari Games, who had already released a Tetris NES port under a license that was found to be invalid. Bullet-Proof Software had previously published Tetris for the Family Computer in December 1988, [1] while Nintendo had published Tetris for the Game Boy earlier in 1989.
This Tetris port is unusual because the game is designed to end by becoming too fast to play, after a certain number of lines are cleared. Score must be accumulated through efficient play, rather than pure endurance, before the game ends. These circumstances have lead to its use as an esports game. Although the highest game speed was intended to be unplayably difficult, it was shown to be manageable with novel controller grips developed in the 2020s.
This version of Tetris has two modes of play: A-Type and B-Type. In A-Type play, the goal is to achieve the highest score. As lines are cleared, the level advances and increases the speed of the falling blocks. In B-Type play, the board starts with randomized obstacle blocks at the bottom of the field, and the goal is to clear 25 lines. The level remains constant, and players choose the height of the obstacle beforehand. [2]
During play, the tetrominoes are chosen randomly. This leaves the possibility of extended periods with no long bar pieces, which are essential because Tetrises are worth more than clearing the equivalent amount of lines in singles, doubles, or triples. The next piece to fall is shown in a preview window next to the playfield. In a side panel, the game tracks how many of each tetromino has appeared in the game so far. [2]
In A-Type, the level advances for every 10 lines cleared. Each successive level increases the points scored by line clears and changes the colors of the game pieces. [2] All levels from 1 to 10 increase the game speed. After level 10, the game speed only increases on levels 13, 16, 19, and 29, [lower-alpha 1] at which point the speed no longer increases. On level 29, pieces fall at 1 grid cell every frame, which is too fast for almost all players, and it is thus called the "kill screen". [3] The developers of the game never intended anyone to play past the kill screen, as the game does not properly display the level numbers past 29, [4] but with modern speed techniques, skilled players can play past level 29. [5] [3]
When starting a game, players can select a starting level from 0 to 9, but if the A button is held on the controller when selecting a level, 10 additional levels are added, raising the starting options to 0 to 19. [2] When starting on a later level, the level is not supposed to advance until as many lines have been cleared as it would have taken to advance from level 0 to the starting level. [2] Due to a bug, the levels will begin advancing earlier than intended when starting on level 10 or higher. [6]
At the end of an A-Type game, a substantial score yields an animated ending of a rocket launch in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral. The size of the rocket depends on the score, ranging from a bottle rocket to the Buran spaceplane. In the best ending, a UFO appears on the launch pad and the cathedral lifts off. [6] After a high-level B-Type game, various Nintendo characters perform in front of the cathedral. [6] [8]
The definition of "beating the game" has changed over time with the development of novel controller methods designed for high-level play. After clearing around 1550 lines, the game is at risk of crashing due to inefficient multiplication operations. [6] Crashing the game in this way is popularly considered "beating the game", a feat first achieved on 21 December 2023 by 13-year-old Willis Gibson, known by his online alias "Blue Scuti". [9] [10] [11]
The score received by each line clear is dependent on the level. Each type of clear, being a single, double, triple, or Tetris, has a base value which is multiplied by the number 1 higher than the current level. For any level , a single will give points, a double will give points, a triple will give points, and a Tetris will give points. [2] The game also awards points for holding the down key to make pieces fall faster, awarding 1 point for every grid cell that a piece is continuously soft dropped. [2] Unlike line clears, this does not scale by level.
This scoring convention makes scoring Tetrises much more efficient than scoring an equivalent amount of lines through smaller line clears. At level 0, a Tetris awards 300 points per line cleared, a triple awards 100 points per line cleared, a double awards 50 points per line cleared, and a single awards 40 points per line cleared. For example, a single in level 0 is worth 40 points and a Tetris worth 1,200 points. A single in level 9 is worth 400 points and a Tetris worth 12,000 points, and a single in level 29 is worth 1,200 points (same as a Tetris on level 0) and a Tetris on level 29 is worth 36,000 points.
One of the most limiting factors in NES Tetris is the speed at which a tetromino can be moved left and right. On the NTSC version, when a movement key is pressed, the piece will instantly move one grid cell, stop for 16 frames due to delayed auto-shift, before moving again once every 6 frames [12] (10 times a second, as the game runs at 60 fps [13] [ better source needed ]). At higher levels, waiting for this delay is not feasible because the pieces fall too fast.
A technique known as "hypertapping" is used to circumvent this delay. When hypertapping, horizontal tetromino speed is maximized by rapidly tapping the D-pad more than 10 times per second. [14] The technique involves flexing the bicep until it tremors, so that the high-speed tremor taps the thumb on the D-pad. [5] Thor Aackerlund was the first hypertapper, [5] but the technique was very rare until it was popularized by Joseph Saelee in 2018. [15] Jacob Sweet of The New Yorker described hypertapping as "turning [the] thumb into a jackhammer." [5]
In 2020, the "rolling" technique was developed by competitive NES Tetris player Chris "Cheez_fish" Martinez. [16] When rolling, a stationary finger is placed on the D-pad, while the other hand's fingers are drummed across the back of the controller, pushing the buttons up into the stationary hand. [17] To reduce friction, a glove may be worn on the drumming hand. [18] This technique is both much faster and less physically straining than hypertapping [17] –it allows pieces to be shifted horizontally up to 30 times per second, enabling play far past level 29. Since 2021, numerous world records have been achieved using the rolling technique, and rolling is used in tournaments such as the Classic Tetris World Championship. [16]
In 2009, Harry Hong became the first independently verified person to achieve 999,999 points on an unmodified cartridge, known as a maxout score. [5] Earlier plausible but unverified max-out scores were claimed by Thor Aackerlund c. 1990 and Jonas Neubauer c. 2002. [5]
The game pieces reach their maximum falling speed on level 29 on the NTSC version and 19 on the PAL version, [3] when the speed suddenly doubles. [5] According to The New Yorker , level 29 "seems intentionally impossible—a quick way for developers to end the game." [5] Because of this "soft wall", efficient play was required to accumulate points before level 29 ended the game. [3] In the 2000s, level 29 came to be known as the game's "kill screen" [5] –though this label was found to be a misnomer when the level was passed in the 2010s. [4]
Aackerlund, a hypertapper, first demonstrated that level 29 could be beaten in 2011; he is shown reaching level 30 in the documentary film Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters . [5] From level 30, the game's level counter stops working correctly, further suggesting that the developers did not believe level 29 could be surpassed. [3] [4] [19] Level 31 was first reached in 2018 by 15-year-old hypertapper Joseph Saelee who eventually cleared four more consecutive levels until level 35, [20] and by 2020 hypertappers had gone as far as level 38. [21] Kyle Orland of Ars Technica explains that because of the rolling technique introduced by Martinez in 2020, "players were getting good enough to effectively play indefinitely on the same 'Level 29' speed that had been considered an effective kill screen just a few years earlier." [21] By 2022, the highest level reached was 95. [15]
The final matchup in the Classic Tetris World Championship in 2022 resulted in competitors Eric Tolt and Justin Yu both reaching two million points in a game and levels 73 and 69, respectively. To prevent extremely prolonged games, the CTWC has modified their competition cartridges in 2023 to include a "super killscreen" at level 39, where pieces reach the bottom of the well in only a sixth of a second - two blocks per frame. [22] [23] [ third-party source needed ]
In 2014, computer researcher Mike Birken published an analysis of Tetris's game code, including details on unexpected behaviors that occur at very high levels. [6]
An integer overflow bug is first encountered at level 138, where color palettes would be loaded from unrelated areas of memory, creating unusual and unintended game piece colors. In particular, levels 146 and 148, nicknamed "dusk" and "charcoal" by players, feature black game pieces that are extremely difficult to see against the black background, hindering further progression. Additionally, the score-counting code could crash the game after about 1550 lines are cleared, corresponding to level 155. [6]
External videos | |
---|---|
Explanatory video of the Tetris crash |
In December 2023, 13-year-old roller Willis Gibson from Stillwater, Oklahoma, was the first to complete the "charcoal" level 148. [25] He continued playing and reached a game crash on level 157, with a score of 6.85 million points.[ citation needed ] Because Tetris had been considered unwinnable (due to games necessarily ending with "topping out"), Gibson is credited with being the first person to "beat the game" since its release in 1989. [26] [27] [28] In a statement, Tetris Company CEO Maya Rogers congratulated Gibson for his "feat that defies all preconceived limits" of Tetris. [29] Cofounders Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers met Gibson in January 2024, calling his playthrough an "amazing, amazing achievement." [30]
If it is possible to avoid the conditions which crash Tetris, completing level 255 would overflow the level counter back to level 0. [31] Before this level can be reached, players must contend with another bug first encountered at 2190 lines, where an integer underflow causes the level counter to erroneously not increment. The next level is only reached after clearing an additional 810 lines. [6]
The 1990 Nintendo World Championships were based on A-Type Tetris, Super Mario Bros. , and Rad Racer . In each round, contestants were given a total of six minutes to score as much as possible across all three games. As the Tetris score was multiplied 25 times in the final tally, the prevailing strategy was to rush through the other two games to spend all available time in Tetris. [32] [33]
Since 2010, the NES version of Tetris has been featured in the annual Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC), which consists of a one-on-one competition to score the most points. Specialized cartridges give both competitors the option to use the same piece sequence. [23]
Since 2017, the tournament Classic Tetris Monthly (CTM) has run every month with the same one-on-one format as the CTWC. The CTM rules are more relaxed than those of the CTWC, allowing the usage of emulators and third party hardware. [34] [3] In both the CTWC and CTM, there is a cap at level 39, either by stopping play once level 39 is reached, or by a mod which implements a "Super Killscreen", doubling the drop speed at level 39. [35] [36]
By 1989, about six companies claimed rights to create and distribute the Tetris software for home computers, game consoles, and handheld systems. [37] ELORG, the Soviet bureau that held the ultimate copyright, claimed that none of the companies were legally entitled to produce an arcade version, and signed those rights over to Atari Games. Non-Japanese console and handheld rights were signed over to Nintendo.
Tetris was shown at the January 1988 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it was picked up by Dutch-born American games publisher Henk Rogers, then based in Japan. This eventually led to an agreement brokered with Nintendo where Tetris became a launch game for Game Boy and bundled with every system. [38]
The Nintendo home release was developed by Gunpei Yokoi.[ citation needed ] Pajitnov is credited for the "original concept, design and program" [2] but was not directly involved in developing this version. [39]
The NES does not have hardware support for generating random numbers. [40] A pseudo-random number generator was implemented with a 16-bit linear feedback shift register. The algorithm produces a close, but slightly uneven distribution of the seven types of game pieces; for every 224 pieces, there is one fewer long bar piece than would be expected from an even distribution. [6]
The game's code includes an unfinished and inaccessible two-player versus mode, which sends rows of garbage blocks (with one opening) to the bottom of the opponent's board when lines are cleared. This feature may have been scrapped due to a rushed development schedule, or to promote sales of the Game Link Cable which enables a two-player mode in Nintendo's Game Boy Tetris. [6]
The soundtrack was written by Nintendo composer Hirokazu Tanaka, who also scored the Game Boy version. [38] Focusing on Russian classical music, [7] the soundtrack features arrangements of "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker and the overture from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen . The former replaces the arrangement of "Korobeiniki", [6] present in the Game Boy version, which has become strongly associated with Tetris. [38]
Publication | Score |
---|---|
AllGame | [41] |
Aktueller Software Markt | 8.2/12 [42] |
Tetris was marketed extensively for the 1989 Christmas season. [43] Television advertising used the slogan "You've been Tetris-ized!", referring to the Tetris effect. [44] The tagline "From Russia with fun!" appears on the game's cover, referencing From Russia, with Love by Ian Fleming. [45] [46]
In its first six months of release by 1990, Nintendo's NES version of Tetris had sales of 1.5 million copies totaling $52 million (equivalent to $128 million in 2023), surpassing Spectrum HoloByte's versions for personal computers at 150,000 copies for $6 million (equivalent to $15.5 million in 2023) in the previous two years since 1988. [47] As of 2004 [update] , 8 million copies of the NES version were sold worldwide. [48] Unlike the Game Boy version, [49] the NES release was not made available for purchase on Nintendo's Virtual Console. [50]
Michael Suck of Aktueller Software Markt considered the game a success, praising the adjustable starting level and music. Suck considered the graphics to be adequate, noting that they do not overwhelm the senses. [42]
IGN noted that "almost everyone" regarded Nintendo's Tetris as inferior to Atari's Tetris, which was pulled from shelves due to licensing issues. [51] Computer Entertainer recommended Nintendo's Tetris only to consumers who had not played Atari's version, which it says has superior graphics, gameplay and options –further calling its removal from stores "unfortunate for players" of puzzle games. [52] Electronic Gaming Monthly called Atari's version "more playable and in-depth" than Nintendo's. [53]
Tetris & Dr. Mario (1994) features an enhanced remake of Tetris. [54] Tetris Effect: Connected (2020) includes a game mode that simulates the rules and visuals of Tetris for the NES. [55] [56]
The events that lead to Nintendo acquiring the license to publish a Tetris game for consoles are explained in BBC's TV documentary Tetris: From Russia with Love (2004), as well as a dramatic retelling in Tetris (2023). [57]
Since 2018, Nintendo's Tetris has experienced a resurgence in popularity with a younger audience. In 2020, more people attained a max-out score than from 1990 to 2019 combined. [5]
In 2018, 11 classic Tetris experts were instructed to play with the next piece preview window disabled ("no next box"). Their average score was found to drop dramatically, from 465,371 in control games to 6,457 with no next box. The author notes that even though one participant went on to become that year's world champion, no player was recorded scoring a Tetris [lower-alpha 3] during any of the no next box games. [58]
In a 2023 study, 160 people were recorded playing classic Tetris. The recordings suggested that novice players blink less than usual while playing Tetris, whereas experienced players remained closer to their normal blinking rate. The study concludes that a person's Tetris ability can be assessed by their blink rate during the first minute of play. [59] In contrast, seven-time world champion Jonas Neubauer manually suppressed his blink reflex while playing, leading to health concerns and his regular use of eye drops. [60]
Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov is a Russian-born American computer engineer and video game designer who is best known for creating, designing, and developing Tetris in 1985 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. After Tetris was released internationally in 1987, he released a sequel in 1989, entitled Welltris.
Tetris is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s. After a significant period of publication by Nintendo, in 1996 the rights reverted to Pajitnov, who co-founded the Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing.
Dr. Mario is a 1990 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom, and Game Boy. It was produced by Gunpei Yokoi and designed by Takahiro Harada. The soundtrack was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka.
Yoshi's Cookie is a 1992 tile-matching puzzle video game developed by Tose and published by Nintendo for the NES and Game Boy platforms in 1992. A Super NES version was released the following year, developed and published by Bullet-Proof Software.
Tetris Attack, also known as Panel de Pon in Japan, is a puzzle video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A Game Boy version was released a year later. In the game, the player must arrange matching colored blocks in vertical or horizontal rows to clear them. The blocks steadily rise towards the top of the playfield, with new blocks being added at the bottom. Several gameplay modes are present, including a time attack and multiplayer mode.
Tetris Worlds is a version of the video game Tetris. Originally released in 2001 for Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Advance, it was later released for Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 in 2002. In 2003, an Xbox Live version titled "Tetris Worlds Online" and a single-disc compilation version were released for the Xbox. The latter was bundled with Xbox systems.
Tetris & Dr. Mario is a 1994 puzzle video game compilation published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It contains enhanced remakes of Tetris (1989) and Dr. Mario (1990), which were originally released for both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy in North America. Both games include split-screen multiplayer and a "Mixed Match" mode that transitions between the two games.
Tetris is a puzzle game developed by Atari Games and originally released for arcades in 1988. Based on Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris, Atari Games' version features the same gameplay as the computer editions of the game, as players must stack differently shaped falling blocks to form and eliminate horizontal lines from the playing field. The game features several difficulty levels and two-player simultaneous play.
Tetrisphere is a puzzle video game developed by H2O Entertainment and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in North America on August 11, 1997, and in PAL regions in February 1998. The game, originally named Phear, was slated for release on the Atari Jaguar in early 1995, but was reworked into a Tetris game for the N64 after Nintendo obtained its publishing rights.
Tetris: The Grand Master is a series of puzzle arcade video games created by Arika.
Tetris is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy in 1989. It is a portable version of Alexey Pajitnov's original Tetris and it was bundled with the North American and European releases of the Game Boy itself. It is the first game to have been compatible with the Game Link Cable, a pack-in accessory that allows two Game Boy consoles to link for multiplayer purposes. A remaster, Tetris DX, was released on the Game Boy Color in 1998. A Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console version of Tetris was released in December 2011, lacking multiplayer functionality. The game was released on the Nintendo Switch Online service in February 2023.
Magical Tetris Challenge is a puzzle game by Capcom for the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, and PlayStation. It is a version of Tetris featuring Disney characters. It is one of the few Nintendo 64 games to be entirely in 2D, in addition to being Capcom's first game for the console.
Tetris Classic is a 1992 puzzle video game developed and published by Spectrum HoloByte for DOS systems. It is an adaptation of the 1985 Soviet video game Tetris, which was first released in North America in 1988. Spectrum HoloByte subsequently developed a series of annual spin-off titles for Tetris, and intended to take advantage of improvements in computer technology since the original game's release; for Tetris Classic, they showcased the Video Graphics Array (VGA) standard via illustrations depicting scenes from Alexander Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Ludmila, as well as a soundtrack consisting of selections from Mikhail Glinka's opera adaptation of the poem. The game additionally includes competitive and cooperative two-player modes and an option to set a time limit on games. The game received mixed critical commentary; while reviewers appreciated the enhanced presentation and new multiplayer modes, they noted that the gameplay was unchanged from the original version.
Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters is a 2011 American documentary film that follows the lives of several gamers from around the country as they prepare to compete in the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship held in Los Angeles, California. It recounts the development and rise of Tetris as one of the most-played video games of all time, the role it has played in shaping the lives of the gamers it chronicles, the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of former Nintendo World Champion Thor Aackerlund, and the conception and execution of the first-ever Classic Tetris World Championship by gaming enthusiast Robin Mihara.
The Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) is a video game competition series, hosted by the Socal Gaming Expo. The competition launched in 2010, during the filming of Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters to determine the world's greatest Tetris player. In its first two years, the competition was held in Los Angeles, California, but was moved to Portland, Oregon, in 2012, and was held there annually through 2023. The 2024 edition will be held in Pasadena, California.
Tetris 99 is a 2019 battle royale puzzle video game developed by Arika and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch, and is an online multiplayer adaptation of Tetris. Players move and drop puzzle pieces called tetrominoes onto a playing board, and must clear rows by filling them completely with pieces. Players lose if tetrominoes overflow off the top of the board or their next piece is not able to spawn because it overlaps an existing block on the playfield. Matches contain 99 players, who send additional rows to other players' boards by clearing a row on their own board; whoever is the last man standing without an overflowed board wins the match.
Willis Gibson, also known online as Blue Scuti, is an American classic Tetris player from Stillwater, Oklahoma. He is best known for becoming the first person to "beat" the game on December 21, 2023, after he triggered a killscreen on the previously-unreached level 157, crashing the game.
Justin Yu, known online as fractal161, is an American student and Tetris player from Texas. While also a student at MIT, Yu has competed in several competitive Tetris tournaments, and is the current Classic Tetris World Champion. On January 3, 2024, Yu became the second person to "beat" the game and first person to achieve the earliest possible game crash on level 155.
Michael Khanh Artiaga, known online as DogplayingTetris or simply Dog, is an American Tetris player from Texas. He is best known for back-to-back victories in the 2020 and 2021 Classic Tetris World Championships (CTWC), the former of which led him to set the Guinness World Record for the "Youngest Tetris World Champion" at 13 years old.
Andrew Artiaga, known online as P1xelAndy, is an American Tetris player from Texas. Competitively, Artiaga has placed second in the 2020 Classic Tetris World Championships (CTWC) and third in the 2022 CTWC. On January 4, 2024, Artiaga also became the third person to ever "beat" the game, only days after his competitors did so for the first time.
The real winners were Nintendo. To date, Nintendo dealers across the world have sold 8 million Tetris cartridges on the Nintendo Entertainment system.