Codex Gamicus
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For Nintendo's Game Boy version, see here.

Tetris is a puzzle game made by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a variant of Alexey Pajitnov's game of the same name. The game was released shortly after Nintendo won a legal battle with Atari Games over the console rights to Tetris, forcing the Tengen version to be withdrawn from the market. Some players considered this version to be inferior to Tengen's.

The game has sold over 8 million copies.[1] At the latest, copies of the game cost $37.99.

Gameplay[ | ]

It is a game where you control falling shapes each consisting of 4 blocks, each piece randomly selected by the computer. The object is to guide the pieces down to the bottom of the playfield and fill up rows completely with blocks, which causes the row of blocks to disappear and causes whatever blocks are stacked above them to drop down one row or so. The player must prevent the stack of unfilled rows of blocks from reaching the top or else the game will end.

Development and licensing[ | ]

Nintendo licensed the console rights to Tetris directly from Elorg, the owner of Tetris at the time.

References[ | ]

  1. Tetris: From Russia With Love. Director/Producer: Magnus Temple; Executive Producer: Nick Southgate. BBC. BBC Four. Event occurs at 51:23. "The real winners were Nintendo. To date, Nintendo dealers across the world have sold 8 million Tetris cartridges on the Nintendo Entertainment system."
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