TETЯIS

a.k.a. TETRIS / ТЕТРИС / ТЕТРИ☭ / ТЕТРИІС / テトリス / The Soviet Mind Game: TETЯIS

published by Tengen in 1989, developed by AcademySoft / Tengen, running on Nintendo Entertainment System
type: puzzle
genre: Falling blocks
series: Tetris
perspective: side view
player options: single player, split-screen
languages: eng
4.1/5

Official description

From the game box:

From the land that has produced the greatest chess minds comes a very different mind game.
Developed by two Soviet programmers, TETRIS is the first computer game to breach the Iron Curtain. It now stands before you, not as a test of crude brawn, but an intense battle of wits.

TETRIS is a dynamic puzzle that seems easy enough; Rotate and flip moving geometric blocks into unbroken rows. When you completely fill up the bottom row, it disappears from the screen and the score rises. When enough rows vanish, the block descend faster and faster.
Nothing to it, right? Wriong! When you can't find the way to make the pieces together and more blocks tumble down to clog your screen, you'll wish you had ten hands ― and ten brains.
Warning: Although TETRIS may be great food for thought, it's so much fun, it's positively addictive. So don't forget to eat something to fuel your body (maybe apple pie?).
TETRIS and apple pie. Now that's détente!


# 2007-09-11 23:38:13 - official description

Description

Pieces are made from 4 connected squares in 7 variations and can be rotated 90 degrees as they slowly drop until they hit bottom of 'the bucket' or other squares. Fill in all 10 squares in a row to make it vanish for points. Completing 2 or 3 rows at once results in bonus points. Completing 4 rows at once is called a 'tetris' and scores the most.
In this version of the game, 2 players can compete or cooperate in separate buckets or the same bucket. Also, AI players are provided for all 2 player modes. This version also has Russian music and dancers.
Enter the Konami code to change any piece to an I brick (the 'straight line' piece). This works while the game is paused. It only works once per game.

Trivia:
It is widely assumed in North America that 'TETЯIS', with the backwards 'R' (Cyrillic letter 'Ya') is the Russian spelling of the title. But this was simply faux Cyrillic typography. The correct Cyrillic is ТЕТРИС (ТЕТРИІС). Some packaging is shown ТЕТРИ☭, with the Cyrillic (Ukrainian) 'І' crossing a backwards 'С' to form a backwards ☭ (Unicode U+262D, ). Otherwise known as the hammer and sickle (Сърп и чук), A symbol of communism made famous on the Soviet flag.

According to a Tengen programmer, 200,000 unsold cartridges were "landfilled" after Nintendo sued Tengen.

(Zerothis) - # 2006

Technical specs

display: raster

Authors / Staff

Related games

port of
TETЯIS (Arcade)

was remade as
Mr.Tetris (Linux)

Contributors (4)

teran01
zerothis
dandyboh
Sanguine

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TETЯIS in-game screen.
TETIS
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