The screen slowly fills up with "Tetrads", shapes made up of four blocks. Move and rotate the blocks and stack them so they form a solid line across the width of the screen. The completed row will vanish and you will score points. Clear more than one row at a time and you are rewarded with a bonus multiplier. If the blocks stack up to the top of the screen then the game ends.
Game Modes
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Game A
Play an endless game and aim for the high score. The blocks will fall faster as you clear more rows.
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Game B
Clear a set number of lines in order to win the game.
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VS. Mode
Two players control Mario and Luigi in a competition to remove the blocks from the screen. When the opponent clears several rows, indestructible blocks rise from the bottom of the screen and reduce the play area.
NES Version
When Tetris was first launched, there was confusion over who owned the rights to develop and distribute the game on home consoles. In Japan, Bulletproof Software developed and published a version of the game on the Famicom, as they had discovered Tetris and negotiated for it to be sold outside of Russia.
In the United States, Tengen believed they had acquired the rights to the NES version through Atari when they signed exclusive home computer rights, and they developed a version of the game for the system. When Nintendo showed the Tengen NES version to the representative from the Soviet Ministry of Software and Hardware Export (ELORG) he grew angry at being deceived by Atari. Together with Nintendo, they renegotiated for the NES version, and took steps against Atari and Tengen.
The case went to court, where Nintendo had to show that the NES was not a home computer, and should be classified as a videogame console. The terms of the contract that ELORG had drafted worked in Nintendo's favour, and they were rewarded the license to develop the game on the NES outside of Japan, while the Tengen version of Tetris was pulled off the shelves.
