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78-607: Tetris (Russian: Тетрис ) is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov , a Soviet software engineer . It has been published by several companies on more than 65 platforms , setting a Guinness world record for the most ported game. 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. In Tetris , players complete lines by moving differently shaped pieces ( tetrominoes ), which descend onto

156-741: A 15-year license on all mobile phone releases of Tetris , which expired on April 21, 2020. Tetris has been released on a multitude of platforms since the creation of the original version on the Electronika 60 . The game is available on most game consoles and is playable on personal computers, smartphones and iPods . Guinness World Records recognized Tetris as the most ported video game in history, with over 200 variants having appeared on over 65 different platforms as of October 2010. By 2017 this number had increased to 220 official variants. Within official franchise installments, each version has made improvements to accommodate advancing technology and

234-478: A 16-year-old high school student who was known for his computer skills. Pajitnov had met Gerasimov before through a mutual acquaintance, and they had worked together on previous games. Gerasimov adapted Tetris to the IBM PC over the course of a few weeks, incorporating color and a scoreboard. The PC port was written with Turbo Pascal . Alexey Pajitnov has given differing years on when his original version of Tetris

312-483: A Famicom Tetris cartridge. Belikov was surprised, as he believed at the time that the rights to Tetris were only signed for computer systems. The present parties accused Rogers of illegal publication, but Rogers defended himself by explaining that he had obtained the rights via Atari Games, which had itself signed an agreement with Stein. Belikov then realized the complex path that the license had followed within four years because of Stein's contracts, and he constructed

390-547: A combination of "tetra" (meaning "four") and his favorite sport, " tennis ". Because the Electronika 60 had no graphical interface , Pajitnov modelled the field and pieces using spaces and brackets (45 lines of 80 ASCII characters). Realizing that completed lines filled the screen quickly, Pajitnov decided to delete them, creating a key part of Tetris gameplay. This early version of Tetris had no scoring system and no levels, but its addictive quality distinguished it from

468-624: A computer. A friend of Pajitnov, Vladimir Pokhilko , who requested the game for the Moscow Medical Institute, saw people stop working to play Tetris . Pokhilko eventually banned the game from the Medical Institute to restore productivity. Pajitnov sought to adapt Tetris to the IBM Personal Computer , which had a higher quality display than the Electronika 60. Pajitnov recruited Vadim Gerasimov ,

546-411: A favorite puzzle game from his childhood featuring pentominoes , Pajitnov imagined a game consisting of a descent of random pieces that the player would turn to fill rows. Pajitnov felt that the game would be needlessly complicated with twelve different shape variations, so he scaled the concept down to tetrominoes , of which there are seven variants. Pajitnov titled the game Tetris , a word created from

624-569: 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". Henk Rogers told Nintendo World Report 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. He observed that "gratuitous spinning" does not occur in competitive play, as expert players do not require much time to think about where

702-417: A field of play in which pieces of different geometric forms, called " tetrominoes ", descend from the top of the field. During this descent, the player can move the pieces laterally and rotate them until they touch the bottom of the field or land on a piece that had been placed before it. The player can neither slow down the falling pieces nor stop them, but can accelerate them, in most versions. The objective of

780-609: A graphical interface, colored tetrominoes, running statistics for the number of tetrominoes placed, and a guide for the controls. The earliest versions of Tetris had no music. Spectrum Holobyte's version of Tetris in the United States exoticized the game's Soviet origins through elements such as Russian music, including Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 's " Trepak " from The Nutcracker and Reinhold Glière 's " Russian Sailor Dance " from The Red Poppy . This approached differed from other versions of Tetris from other countries at

858-559: A license to Tetris , known as the Tetris guidelines. The contents of these guidelines establish elements such as the correspondence of buttons and actions, the size of the field of play, and the system of rotation. In 2002, Pajitnov and Rogers founded Tetris Holding after the purchase of the game's remaining rights from Elorg, now a private entity following the dissolution of the Soviet Union . The Tetris Company now owns all rights to

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936-534: A piece should be placed. A limitation has been placed on infinite lock delay in later games of the franchise, where after a certain amount of rotations and movements, the piece will instantly lock itself. This is defaulted to 15 such actions. In 1979, Alexey Pajitnov joined the Computer Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences as a speech recognition researcher. While he was tasked with testing

1014-418: A preliminary injunction against Atari Games in the process. The next day, Atari Games withdrew its NES version from sale, and thousands of cartridges remained unsold in the company's warehouses. Sega had planned to release a Genesis version of Tetris on April 15, 1989, but cancelled its release during Nintendo and Atari's legal battle; fewer than ten copies were manufactured. The Game Boy version of Tetris

1092-502: A series of creatures walk into deadly situations, and a player assigns jobs to specific lemmings to guide the swarm to a safe destination. The 1994 MS-DOS game Shariki , by Eugene Alemzhin, introduced the mechanic of swapping adjacent elements to tile matching games. It was little known at the time, but later had a major influence on the genre. Interest in Mahjong video games from Japan began to grow in 1994. When Minesweeper

1170-409: A significant number of lines. Some versions add variations such as 3D displays or systems for reserving pieces. Tetris is often named one of the greatest video games . By December 2011, it had sold 202   million copies—approximately 70   million physical units and 132   million paid mobile game downloads—making it one of the best-selling video game franchises . The Game Boy version

1248-405: A soft drop, the player can also stop the piece's increased speed by releasing the button before the piece settles into place. Some games allow only one of either soft drop or hard drop; others have separate buttons for each. Many games award a number of points based on the height that the piece fell before locking, so using the hard drop generally awards more points. "Easy spin", or "infinite spin",

1326-480: A strategy to regain possession of the rights and obtain better commercial agreements. At that point, Elorg was faced with three different companies seeking to buy the rights. During this time, Rogers befriended Pajitnov over a game of Go . Pajitnov supported Rogers throughout the discussions, to the detriment of Maxwell, who had come to secure the console rights for Mirrorsoft. Belikov proposed to Rogers that Stein's rights would be cancelled and Nintendo would be granted

1404-454: Is one of the best-selling games of all time , with more than 35 million copies sold. Imagery from the game has influenced architecture, music, and cosplay . Tetris has also been the subject of various studies that have analyzed its theoretical complexity and have shown its effect on the human brain following a session, in particular the Tetris effect . Tetris is primarily composed of

1482-662: Is "elegant; easy to play; challenging and addicting; requires quick thinking, long-term strategy, and lightning reflexes" and listed Tetris' cons as "None". The Lessers gave the version 5 out of 5 stars in Dragon No. 141. In their June 1989 issue, Zzap!64 awarded the Commodore 64 version a score of 98%, the joint highest score in the history of the magazine. Spectrum HoloByte's versions for personal computers sold 150,000 copies for $ 6 million ( $ 15 million adjusted for inflation) in two years, between 1988 and 1990. By 1995,

1560-484: Is a feature in some Tetris games where a tetromino stops falling for a moment after left or right movement or rotation, effectively allowing the player to suspend the piece while deciding where to place it. The mechanic was introduced in 1999's The Next Tetris and drew criticism in reviews of 2001's Tetris Worlds . This feature has been implemented into the Tetris Company 's official guideline. This type of play differs from traditional Tetris because it takes away

1638-707: Is a precursor to puzzle-platform games such as Lode Runner (1983), Door Door (1983), and Doki Doki Penguin Land (1985). Blockbuster , by Alan Griesemer and Stephen Bradshaw (Atari 8-bit, 1981), is a computerized version of the Rubik's Cube puzzle. Snark Hunt (Atari 8-bit, 1982) is a single-player game of logical deduction, a clone of the 1970s Black Box board game. Elements of Konami 's tile-sliding Loco-Motion (1982) were later seen in Pipe Mania from LucasArts (1989). In Boulder Dash (1984),

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1716-515: Is simple in concept, simple to play, and a unique design". The Macintosh version also received positive reviews. Macworld praised its strategic gameplay, stating that " Tetris offers the rare combination of being simple to learn but extremely challenging to play", and also praising the inclusion of the Desk Accessory version, which uses less RAM. Macworld summarized their review by listing Tetris' pros and cons, stating that Tetris

1794-435: Is that the player must experiment with mechanisms in each level before they can solve them. Exploration games include Myst , Limbo , and The Dig . Escape room games such as The Room involve detailed exploration of a single location. Sokoban games, such as its namesake title, or block-pushing puzzle games, involve pushing or pulling blocks on a grid-like space to move them into designated positions without blocking

1872-494: Is the basis of the game's title. If the player cannot make the blocks disappear quickly enough, the field will start to fill; when the pieces reach the top of the field and prevent the arrival of additional pieces, the game ends. At the end of each game, the player receives a score based on the number of lines that have been completed. The game never ends with the player's victory, as the player can complete only as many lines as possible before an inevitable loss. The pieces on which

1950-442: Is worth 1,200. In conjunction, players can be awarded combos that exist in certain games which reward multiple line clears in quick succession. The exact combo system varies from game to game. Nearly all Tetris games allow the player to press a button to increase the speed of the current piece's descent or cause the piece to drop and lock into place immediately, known as a "soft drop" and a "hard drop", respectively. While performing

2028-475: The Tetris brand, and it is mainly responsible for removing unlicensed clones from the market. Since the 2000s, internet versions of the game have been developed. Commercial versions not approved by the Tetris Company tend to be purged due to company policy, and the company regularly calls on Apple Inc. and Google to remove illegal versions from their mobile app stores . In one notable 2012 case, Tetris Holding, LLC v. Xio Interactive, Inc. , Tetris Holding and

2106-552: The Tetris rights, with Stein retaining rights for home computer versions. The Soviet Union's Elorg was still unaware of the deals Stein had negotiated, which did not bring money to them. Tetris was a commercial success in North America, Europe and Asia. The same year, Nintendo was preparing to launch its first portable console, the Game Boy . Nintendo was attracted to Tetris by its simplicity and established success on

2184-539: The 1860s Russian folk tune " Korobeiniki " for Music A, an original composition by Hirokazu Tanaka for Music B, and the Menuet of Johann Sebastian Bach 's French Suite no. 3 for Music C. "Korobeiniki" has become primarily associated with Tetris as its main theme and would be used in most significant versions of the game, as mandated by the Tetris Guidelines. Doctor Spin 's 1992 Eurodance cover (under

2262-577: The Academy ten years earlier and following an agreement with Rogers, the rights to Tetris reverted to Pajitnov. Pajitnov and Rogers founded the Tetris Company in June 1996 to manage the rights on all platforms, the previous agreements having expired. Pajitnov now receives a royalty for each Tetris game and derivative sold worldwide. Since 1996, the Tetris Company has internally defined specifications and guidelines to which publishers must adhere to be granted

2340-464: The American rights to sister company Spectrum HoloByte . The latter obtained the rights after a visit to Mirrorsoft by Spectrum HoloByte president Phil Adam in which he played Tetris for two hours. At that time, Stein had not yet signed a contract with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, he sold the rights to the two companies for £3,000 and a royalty of 7.5 to 15% on sales. Before releasing Tetris in

2418-629: The Famicom. Rogers, who was close to then Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi , sought to obtain the handheld rights. After a failed negotiation with Atari, Rogers contacted Stein in November 1988. Stein agreed to sign a contract, but explained that he had to consult Elorg before returning to negotiations with Rogers. After contacting Stein several times, Rogers began to suspect a breach of contract on Stein's part, and he decided in February 1989 to go to

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2496-700: The Japanese arcade rights to Sega and the console rights to BPS, which published versions for Japanese computers, including the MSX2 , PC-88 and X68000 , along with a console port for the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom), known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System . The Japanese port was written in C and in 6502 assembly language for Nintendo. At this point, almost a dozen companies believed they held

2574-470: The London-based firm Andromeda Software, saw the game's commercial potential during a visit to Hungary in June 1986. After an indifferent response from the Academy, Stein contacted Pajitnov and Brjabrin by fax to obtain the license rights. The researchers expressed interest in forming an agreement with Stein via fax, but they were unaware that this fax communication could be considered a legal contract in

2652-682: The Rope , as well as projectile collision games such as Angry Birds , Peggle , Monster Strike , and Crush the Castle . Programming games require writing code, either as text or using a visual system, to solve puzzles. Examples include Rocky's Boots (1982), Robot Odyssey (1984), SpaceChem (2011), and Infinifactory (2015). This sub-genre includes point-and-click games that often overlap with adventure games and walking simulators . Unlike logical puzzle games, these games generally require inductive reasoning to solve. The defining trait

2730-584: The Soviet Union and negotiate the rights with Elorg. Rogers arrived at the Elorg offices uninvited, while Stein and Mirrorsoft manager Kevin Maxwell made an appointment the same day without consulting each other. During the discussions, Rogers explained that he wanted to obtain the rights to Tetris for the Game Boy. After quickly obtaining an agreement with Elorg president Nikolai Belikov, Rogers showed Belikov

2808-560: The Soviet Union. Pajitnov wanted to export Tetris , but had no knowledge of the business world. His superiors in the Academy were not necessarily happy with the success of the game, since they had not intended such a creation from the research team. Furthermore, copyright law of the Soviet Union created a state monopoly on import and export of copyrighted works, and the Soviet researchers were not allowed to sell their creations. Pajitnov asked his supervisor Victor Brjabrin, who had knowledge of

2886-417: The Tetris Company defended its copyright against an iOS clone, which established a new stance on evaluating video game clone infringements based on look and feel . In December 2005, Electronic Arts acquired Jamdat, a company specializing in mobile games. Jamdat had previously bought a company founded by Rogers in 2001 which managed the Tetris license on mobile platforms. As a result, Electronic Arts held

2964-503: The Tetris Company's standardization in the early 2000s, those colors varied widely from implementation to implementation. 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 each subsequent back-to-back Tetris

3042-467: The United States, Spectrum HoloByte CEO Gilman Louie asked for an overhaul of the game's graphics and music. The Soviet spirit was preserved, with fields illustrating Russian parks and buildings as well as melodies anchored in Russian folklore of the time. The company's goal was to make people want to buy a Russian product. The game came complete with a red package and Cyrillic text, an unusual approach on

3120-513: The Western world". Carlston regretted turning down what he described as "the worldwide rights to Tetris for $ 50,000 ... People have tried to make me feel better about my decision by telling me about everything Henk Rogers went through to get the rights, but yeah, I should have accepted the game". Stein ultimately signed two agreements: he sold the European rights to the publisher Mirrorsoft and

3198-573: The Western world; Stein began to approach other companies to produce the game. Stein approached publishers at the 1987 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas . Gary Carlston, co-founder of Broderbund , retrieved a copy and brought it to California. Despite enthusiasm amongst its employees, Broderbund remained skeptical because of the game's Soviet origins. Likewise, Mastertronic co-founder Martin Alper declared that "no Soviet product will ever work in

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3276-417: 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". Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column of Dragon No. 135 gave the version 4.5 out of 5 stars. Roy Wagner reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World the same year, and said that " Tetris

3354-461: The board such as Zuma . Puzzle games based on Tetris include tile-matching games where the matching criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the same type so that they adjoin each other. That number is often three, and the corresponding subset of tile-matching games is referred to as match-three games. The Next Tetris The Next Tetris is a puzzle video game in the Tetris series developed by Blue Planet Software . The game

3432-430: The capabilities of new hardware, his ambition was to use computers to make people happy. Pajitnov developed several puzzle games on the institute's computer, an Electronika 60 , a scarce resource at the time due in part to CoCom . For Pajitnov, "games allow people to get to know each other better and act as revealers of things you might not normally notice, such as their way of thinking". In 1984, while trying to recreate

3510-509: The contract between Elorg and Nintendo. Despite the threats to Belikov, Elorg refused to give in and highlighted the financial advantages of their contract compared to those signed with Stein and Mirrorsoft. On June 15, 1989, Nintendo and Atari Games began a legal battle in the courts of San Francisco. Atari Games sought to prove that the NES was a computer, as indicated by its Japanese name "Famicom", an abbreviation of "Family Computer". In this case,

3588-523: The contract without paying attention to this clause and later realized that all the contract's other clauses, notably on payments, were only a "smokescreen" to deceive him. In March 1989, Nintendo sent a cease and desist to Atari Games concerning production of the NES version of Tetris . Atari Games contacted Mirrorsoft and were assured that they still retained the rights. Nintendo maintained its position. In response, Mirrorsoft owner Robert Maxwell pressured Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to cancel

3666-739: The directors of Nintendo of America. He marveled at the freedom and the advantages of Western society, and, upon returning to the Soviet Union, he spoke often of his travels to his colleagues. He realized that there was no market in Russia for their programs. In 1991, Pajitnov and Pokhilko emigrated to the United States. Pajitnov moved to Seattle, where he produced games for Spectrum HoloByte. Several versions were produced during this time, including Spectrum Holobyte's Welltris (1990) and Super Tetris (1991), Bullet-Proof Software's Tetris 2 + BomBliss (1991) and Tetris Battle Gaiden (1993), and Nintendo's Tetris 2 (1993). In April 1996, as agreed with

3744-483: The falling pieces increases with each level, leaving the player with less time to think about the placement. The player can clear multiple lines at once, which can earn bonus points in some versions. It is possible to complete up to four lines simultaneously with the use of the I-shaped tetromino; this move is called a "Tetris", and along with the fact that its seven different pieces (tetrominoes) are made up of 4 squares,

3822-400: The game is to use the pieces to create as many complete horizontal lines of blocks as possible. When a line is completed, it disappears, and the blocks placed above fall one rank. Completing lines grants points, and accumulating a certain number of points or cleared lines moves the player up a level, which increases the number of points granted per completed line. In most versions, the speed of

3900-418: The game of Tetris is based around are called "tetrominoes". Pajitnov's original version for the Electronika 60 computer used green brackets to represent the blocks that make up tetrominoes. Versions of Tetris on the original Game Boy/Game Boy Color and on most dedicated handheld games use black-and-white or grayscale graphics, but most popular versions use a separate color for each distinct shape. Prior to

3978-478: The game rights for both home and handheld consoles. Rogers flew to the United States to convince Nintendo's American branch to sign up for the rights. The contract with Elorg was signed by executive and president Minoru Arakawa for $ 500,000, plus 50 cents per cartridge sold. Elorg then sent an updated contract to Stein. One of the clauses defined a computer as a machine with a screen and keyboard, and thus Stein's rights to console versions were withdrawn. Stein signed

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4056-497: The game was already on sale and that Stein had claimed to own the rights prior to the agreement. Although Pajitnov did not receive any percentage from these sales, he said that "the fact that so many people enjoy my game is enough for me". In 1988, Spectrum HoloByte sold the Japanese rights to its computer games to Bullet-Proof Software 's Henk Rogers , who was searching for games for the Japanese market. Mirrorsoft sold arcade rights to Atari Games subsidiary Tengen , which then sold

4134-496: The game, which he considered "an electronic ambassador of benevolence". In January 1990, Pajitnov was invited by Spectrum HoloByte to the Consumer Electronics Show, and he was immersed in American life for the first time. After a period of adaptation, he explored American culture in several cities, including Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York City and Boston. He engaged in interviews with several hosts, including

4212-504: The goal is to collect diamonds while avoiding or exploiting rocks that fall when the dirt beneath them is removed. Chain Shot! (1985) introduced removing groups of the same color tiles on a grid, causing the remaining tiles to fall into the gap. Uncle Henry's Nuclear Waste Dump (1986) involves dropping colored shapes into a pit, but the goal is to keep the same color tiles from touching. Tetris (1985) revolutionized and popularized

4290-430: The goal to provide a more complete game. Developers are given freedom to add new modes of play and revisit the concept from different angles. Some concepts developed on official versions have been integrated into the Tetris guidelines in order to standardize future versions and allow players to migrate between different versions with little effort. The IBM PC version was the most evolved from the original version, featuring

4368-402: The import and export of computer software, was unconvinced and requested 80% of the revenue. Stein made several trips to Moscow and held long discussions with Elorg representatives. Stein came to an agreement with Elorg on February 24, 1988. On May 10 he signed a contract for a ten-year worldwide Tetris license for all current and future computer systems. Pajitnov and Brjabrin were unaware that

4446-690: The initial license would authorize Atari Games to release the game. The central argument of Atari Games was that the Famicom could be converted into a computer via the Family BASIC peripheral. This argument was not accepted, and Pajitnov stressed that the initial contract only concerned computers and no other machine. Nintendo brought Belikov to testify on its behalf. Judge Fern M. Smith declared that Mirrorsoft and Spectrum HoloByte never received explicit authorization for marketing on consoles, and, on June 21, 1989, ruled in Nintendo's favor, granting them

4524-431: The interactive Nuon technology. The game features two modes. "Classic Tetris" has gameplay fundamentally unchanged from the earliest in the series, and is only playable in single-player. In "The Next Tetris" mode the familiar tetromino pieces consist of different colored blocks called "multiminoes". If a block is multi-colored and placed with a gap below the piece, then the colored squares will separate and drop into

4602-405: The latter, IGN 's Anthony Chau described the new cascading gameplay as "an interesting play mechanic" and praised the "industrial-like menu presentation" and " trancy , dreamy melodies" of the soundtrack. Official Dreamcast Magazine 's Alex Huhtala dismissed the game as "a poorly conceived and executed version of a classic", pointing to "sluggish controls" and "gameplay tweaks [compared to

4680-399: The movement of other blocks. Similar games include Baba is You and Patrick's Parabox . A hidden object game, sometimes called hidden picture or hidden object puzzle adventure (HOPA), is a genre of puzzle video game in which the player must find items from a list that are hidden within a scene. Hidden object games are a popular trend in casual gaming . In tile-matching video games,

4758-525: The name " Tetris ") reached #6 on the UK singles chart . The IBM version received positive reviews. Compute! called it "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". Orson Scott Card joked that the game "proves that Russia still wants to bury us . I shudder to think of

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4836-468: The other puzzle games Pajitnov had created. Pajitnov wrote the game using Pascal for the RT-11 operating system on the Electronika 60. Pajitnov had completed the first playable version of Tetris c. 1985. Pajitnov presented Tetris to his colleagues, who quickly became addicted to it. It permeated the offices within the Academy of Sciences, and within a few weeks it reached every Moscow institute with

4914-575: The other side of the Berlin Wall . The Mirrorsoft version was released in Europe on January 27, 1988, and the Spectrum HoloByte version was released on January 29, 1988. The game was first released for IBM PC DOS , with other platforms following over the next year. Mirrorsoft ported Tetris to platforms including the Amiga , Atari ST , ZX Spectrum , Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC . Tetris

4992-431: The player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion. The genre began with 1985's Chain Shot! and has similarities to falling-block games such as Tetris. This genre includes games that require pieces to be swapped such as Bejeweled or Candy Crush Saga , games that adapt the classic tile-based game Mahjong such as Mahjong Trails , and games in which pieces are shot on

5070-434: The playing field. The completed lines disappear and grant the player points, and the player can proceed to fill the vacated spaces. The game ends when the uncleared lines reach the top of the playing field. The longer the player can delay this outcome, the higher their score will be. In multiplayer games, players must last longer than their opponents; in certain versions, players can inflict penalties on opponents by completing

5148-469: The pressure of higher-level speed. Some reviewers went so far as to say that this mechanism broke the game. The goal in Tetris Worlds 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 that "the infinite spin issue honestly really affects only

5226-421: The puzzle game genre. The game was created by Soviet game designer Alexey Pajitnov for the Electronika 60 . Pajitnov was inspired by a traditional puzzle game named Pentominos in which players arrange blocks into lines without any gaps. The game was released by Spectrum Holobyte for MS-DOS in 1987, Atari Games in arcades in 1988, and sold 30 million copies for Game Boy . In Lemmings (1991),

5304-610: The space below. This "cascading" feature allows players to drop blocks down after initially making a horizontal line disappear, allowing for larger combos. The Next Tetris mode is playable in single-player, two-player, and online in the North American Dreamcast release only. The game was developed in 15 months. The Next Tetris received a score of 6.5/10 in IGN , while the Dreamcast version scored 8/10. Reviewing

5382-670: The time: Mirrosoft's Commodore 64 version in Europe used an atmospheric soundtrack, and Sega's arcade version in Japan used a synthesized pop-influenced soundtrack. Nintendo's versions for NES and Game Boy continued the pattern of using Russian music. The NES version uses Tchaikovsky's " Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy " from The Nutcracker as Music A, with the Russian-influenced Music B and the mellow Music C having unclear origins. The Game Boy version consists of

5460-544: The versions sold more than 1 million copies, with women accounting for nearly half of Tetris players, in contrast to most other PC games . Puzzle video game Puzzle video games owe their origins to brain teasers and puzzles throughout human history. The mathematical strategy game Nim , and other traditional thinking games such as Hangman and Bulls and Cows (commercialized as Mastermind ), were popular targets for computer implementation. Universal Entertainment 's Space Panic , released in arcades in 1980,

5538-474: The world outside the Soviet Union, to help him publish Tetris . Pajitnov offered to transfer the rights of the game to the Academy, and was delighted to receive a non-compulsory remuneration from Brjabrin through this deal. In 1986, Brjabrin sent a copy of Tetris to Hungarian game publisher Novotrade . From there, copies of the game began circulating via floppy disks throughout Hungary and as far as Poland . Robert Stein, an international software salesman for

5616-809: Was a commercial success in Europe and the United States: Mirrorsoft sold tens of thousands of copies in two months, and Spectrum HoloByte sold over 100,000 units in the space of a year. According to Spectrum HoloByte, the average Tetris player was between 25 and 45 years old and was a manager or engineer. At the Software Publishers Association 's Excellence in Software Awards ceremony in March 1988, Tetris won Best Entertainment Software, Best Original Game, Best Strategy Program, and Best Consumer Software. Stein

5694-464: Was complete. In an interview published in 1993, he stated the game was not in a playable state until 1985 Henk Rogers stated that the only information about the release is from Pajitnov's recollections, that he first developed it on the Electronica 60 in 1984 during a time when copyright notices were not a thing in the Soviet Union and that in 1985, Pajitnov says the IBM PC version was distributed in

5772-421: Was faced with a problem: the only document certifying a license fee was the fax from Pajitnov and Brjabrin, meaning that Stein sold the license for a game he did not yet own. Stein contacted Pajitnov and asked him for a contract for the rights. Stein began negotiations via fax, offering 75% of the revenue generated by Stein from the license. Elektronorgtechnica ("Elorg"), the Soviet Union's central organization for

5850-558: Was followed by other physics-based puzzle games. A physics game is a type of logical puzzle video game wherein the player must use the game's physics and environment to complete each puzzle. Physics games use consistent physics to make games more challenging. The genre is popular in online flash games and mobile games . Educators have used these games to demonstrate principles of physics. Physics-based logic puzzle games include The Incredible Machine , Portal , The Talos Principle , Braid , Fez , World of Goo , and Cut

5928-555: Was originally released for the PlayStation by Hasbro Interactive on June 16, 1999. In 2000 a version for the Dreamcast which included online multiplayer called The Next Tetris: On-Line Edition was published by Crave Entertainment in the United States. The Dreamcast version was released in Europe the following year with online functionality removed. A version was also included with Toshiba -manufactured DVD players using

6006-666: Was released in Japan in June 1989 and as a pack-in title in the United States in July 1989. The NES version was released the same year. Both versions achieved much commercial success, with the Game Boy version selling more than 40 million sales and the NES version selling more than 7 million. Through the legal history of the license, Pajitnov gained a reputation in the West. He was regularly invited by journalists and publishers, through which he discovered that Tetris had sold millions of copies, from which he had not made any money. He took pride in

6084-520: Was released with Windows 95 , players began using a mouse to play puzzle games. In 2000, PopCap Games released Bejeweled , a direct clone of the 1994 tile-matching game Shariki with improved visuals. It sparked interest in the match-three mechanic which became the foundation for other popular games, including Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (2007), Candy Crush Saga (2012), and Puzzle & Dragons (2012). Portal (2007)

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