Tetris, also known as classic Tetris, is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released in 1989, based on Tetris (1985) by Alexey Pajitnov. It was published after a legal battle between Nintendo and Atari Games, who had already released a Tetris NES port under a license that was found to be invalid. Bullet-Proof Software had previously published Tetris for the Family Computer in December 1988, while Nintendo had published Tetris for the Game Boy earlier in 1989.
North American box art
Saint Basil's Cathedral appears in the title screen and ending, alluding to the Soviet origin of Tetris.
A hypertapper (left) competes with a roller (right)
In the North American release, level 29 is associated with an extreme increase in piece gravity. In the PAL release that level is level 19.
Tetris is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s. 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.
Alexey Pajitnov in 2024
Tetris on a Nintendo Game Boy
A 5th generation iPod running Tetris (2006)
