Tetris (Nintendo)

Tetris

Game Boy - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Nintendo R&D1 Publisher Nintendo Published 1989-06-14 Platforms Game Boy, NES Genres Action, Active puzzle, Puzzle, Single-screen Series Tetris Multiplayer Simultaneous versus Distribution Commercial

Tetris is an active puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo and released on 1989-06-14 for Game Boy, then ported to the NES in November 1989. It is a port of the original Tetris. The Game Boy version was supported by the Super Game Boy. The Famicom did not see this release in Japan because Bullet-Proof Software held the publishing rights there.

While later releases of Tetris would have many different variations, this earlier release only contains two types of game play which are referred to as A-Type and B-Type. A-Type is endless game mode, and B-Type requires you to get 25 lines to win. Each mode supports starting at any level from 1-10 and has the option of an empty well, or a well filled with a variable level of garbage. Paradoxically, the NES port doesn't support multiplayer, but the Game Boy port does with a Link cable. The NES game has a the code for a 2-player version, but it's unfinished and unimplemented. The game was also included in a multicart released in the NES Super Set in Europe.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. B-Type game, level 10, height 5.
Finished	Game Boy: 2017-12-09 / NES: 2017-12-18.

This was the second version of Tetris that I had access to, and I spent a lot of time playing both the NES and Game Boy ports. I first played the Game Boy port on a Game Boy my brother had stolen from someone at school, but then a lot more on my high school girlfriend's Game Boy when we vacationed in Florida for a week. I first played the NES port at my friend Chris's house, he had borrowed it from a neighbor, and I was able to beat the in-game high score. My cousin later borrowed it from his friend, and he and I played it a lot. Throughout my childhood, I almost exclusive played A-Type games, but I never kept any of my high scores. The last time I played A-Type, my high score on the NES port was 96,038.

Review

7	6	5	6	8

Best Version: 8

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game is a pretty faithful port of the original Tetris, just with better window dressing.
• The game is a lot of fun, and I rarely get tired of it even after decades of playing.
• Both versions have great music composed or arranged by Hirokazu Tanaka, though I prefer the songs on the NES port.
• I really enjoy the changing color-palette across levels in the NES port. I wish later Tetris games would follow this innovation, but The Tetris Company has since created an invariable color set that must be followed.

Bad

• The controls on both the Game Boy and NES versions are a bit stiff and difficult to work with sliding.
• The NES port has code for a 2-player mode, but it was strangely scrapped before the game was released. Which means the Game Boy has 2-player mode, but the NES, which had built-in 2-player controls, does not!
• The NES port annoyingly clears the screen when you pause. I assume they did this to prevent cheating, but it essentially guarantees failure on the harder difficulty levels making the feature pointless.
• The NES port has a few bugs, though most of them are difficult for a human to see. Clearing a line when all the top lines are full actually clears a line at the bottom of the well. There is also a kill screen around level 237, though no human has ever reached it.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The Japanese Game Boy box uses a theme popularized in Atari covers: placing abstract shapes out in space. I like the super-imposed Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood over the shapes, and color choice fits the Russian flag. Unfortunately, the nice art is framed with the ugly gray Japanese Game Boy box.

• 

  The American and European Game Boy box art, still in space, shows dozens of colorful blocks falling down. I like the use of perspective and appreciate the varied color palette. This is my favorite design.

• 

  The American NES box uses the same art as the Game Boy release, but the taller box allows more of the original art to be seen. It would be my favorite, but they weakened the title text by removing the attractive outline and gradient.

• 

  A vector of the Game Boy logo I created.

• 

  A vector of the NES logo I created.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Game Boy - UK - Rev 4.

• 

  Manual - Game Boy - USA - Rev 1.

• 

  Manual - NES - USA.

Videos

Review - Game Boy World.

Record progression to kill screen.

Why the NES game crashes at level 155.

Tool assist - History of tool assists.

Longplay - NES. A-Type max score, B-Type level 9 all heights.

Tool assist - Level 19 start to kill screen.

Play Online

Game Boy, NES (Europe), NES (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	In the NES port, Peach and Samus appear. In the Game Boy port, some female Russian folk dancers appear. None are important.
Bechdel test?	Fail	No women ever talk.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Everyone in the game is white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Port Differences

• The NES game features ten color palettes that cycle across the levels.
• The NES has three musical options, the Game Boy only two, all five songs are different.
• The NES version is slightly harder at identical difficulty levels.
• Strangely, the NES port, which has two built-in controller ports, is strictly a 1-player game, but the Game Boy, which only has an optional connection port, features 2-player mode.

Palettes

The NES port alters the color of the tetrominoes as you progress through the levels. It has 10 programmed palettes which cycle through as the levels progress. The game has a bug after level 137 where the color palette becomes garbled. I've created a graphic which shows the 10 normal palettes and ranked them below.

Palette	Rank	Colors	Notes
0	2	Blue / Cyan	Very crisp colors and reminiscent of Mega Man.
1	4	Forest / Chartreuse	A nice combo, very fresh and comforting.
2	5	Magenta / Pink	This one always makes me think of cotton candy.
3	6	Blue / Green	Reminds me of the old Seattle Seahawks logo.
4	9	Red / Seafoam	Christmasy colors, pastel but just as clashing. Ugly.
5	7	Seafoam / Cornflower	I looks nice together if you like boring pastels lacking contrast.
6	1	Red / Gray	This one reminds me of lava and ash. I'm always happy to see this palette.
7	3	Purple / Burgundy	Nice combo, and the only double-dark set.
8	8	Blue / Red	Makes me think of the American flag, except the colors aren't dark enough.
9	10	Red / Orange	Yuck. It makes me think of clowns or fast food logos.

I've created a hack of the NES port of Tetris which features ten new colors palettes which you can download below. While creating the hack, I gained respect for the designers who created the original color set. The NES's color palette is so limited, it was quite difficult to come up with colors that both harmonize and contrast enough.

• Download (Info) - Download.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Tetris
Japanese	テトリス	Tetorisu	Tetris
Russian	Тетрис	Tetris

Links

             

• mobygames.com/game/nes/tetris_nes - MobyGames (NES).
• tcrf.net/Tetris_(Nintendo,_NES)/en - The Cutting Room Floor (NES).