| Tetris | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Tetris_(Atari)_cover.jpg) North American console game cover, illustration by Marc Ericksen. | |
| Developer(s) | Atari Games |
| Publisher(s) | Atari Games (arcade) Tengen (NES) |
| Designer(s) | Ed Logg Kelly Turner Norm Avellar |
| Programmer(s) | Ed Logg Kelly Turner Norm Avellar |
| Artist(s) | Kris Moser |
| Composer(s) | Brad Fuller |
| Series | Tetris |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) |
| Release | Arcade
|
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer (up to two players) |
Tetris (styled TETЯIS) 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.
In 1989, Atari Games released a port of their arcade version under their Tengen label for the Nintendo Entertainment System, despite it not being licensed by Nintendo for the system. There were also issues with the publishing rights for Tetris, and after much legal wrangling, Nintendo itself ended up with the rights to publish console versions, leaving Atari with only the rights to arcade versions. As a result, the Tengen game was only on the shelf for four weeks before Atari was legally required to recall the game and destroy any remaining inventory of its NES version.
Nintendo produced its own version for the NES as well as a version for the Game Boy. Both versions were commercially successful and Nintendo held the Tetris license for many years. With fewer than 100,000 copies known to exist, the Tengen release has since become a collector's item, due to its short time on the market. Various publications have since noted that Tengen's Tetris was in some ways superior to the official NES release, especially since the Tengen game featured a two-player simultaneous mode not available in Nintendo's version.