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{{dablink|This is about the video game. For the sport, see [[Duck hunting]].}}

{{Infobox VG
{{Infobox VG
|title = Duck Hunt
|image = [[Image:NES Tetris Box Front.jpg]]<!-- Yes, this image is non-free. No, it is not replaceable with a screenshot from free software. This article is about Tetris, not Emacs, Quadra, Lockjaw, or any other free software project. Those can go in [[List of Tetris variants]] if they are notable enough. Putting a free game's screenshot here might falsely imply that it is an authentic Tetris game. It'd be like putting a screenshot of OpenOffice.org Writer at the top of [[Microsoft Word]]. -->
|image=[[Image:DuckHuntBox.jpg|256px|North American NES box art of ''Duck Hunt''.]]
|developer = [[Alexey Pazhitnov]] (original algorithm), coder [[Vadim Gerasimov]]
|caption=North American NES box art of ''Duck Hunt''.
|publisher = Various
|developer=[[Nintendo Research & Development 1|Nintendo R&D1]]
|designer = Alexey Pazhitnov
|publisher=[[Nintendo]]
|released = {{Vgrelease|[[Soviet Union|USSR]]|June 6, 1984}}<br />{{Vgrelease|[[North America|NA]]|May 1989}}
|designer=
|genre = [[Puzzle video game|Puzzle]]
|modes = [[Single-player]], [[Multiplayer game|multiplayer]]
| composer = [[Kōji Kondō]]<br />[[Hirokazu Tanaka]]
|engine= |released= <small><sup>'''[[Japan|JP]]'''</sup></small> April 21, 1984<br /><small><sup>'''[[North America|NA]]'''</sup></small> October 18, 1985<br /><small><sup>'''[[Europe|EU]]'''</sup></small> August 15, 1987
|platforms = Various}}
|genre=[[Light gun|Light gun shooter]], [[First person shooter]]
|modes=[[Single-player]], [[Multiplayer video game|Two-Player]]
|ratings=
|platforms=[[Nintendo Entertainment System#Regional differences|Famicom]], [[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]], [[Arcade game|Arcade]]
|media=192-[[kilobit]] [[cartridge (electronics)|cartridge]]
|requirements=
|input=[[Light gun]]
}}
{{nihongo|'''''Duck Hunt'''''|ダックハント}} is a [[video game]] for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] (NES) [[video game console|game console system]] in which players use the [[NES Zapper]] to shoot [[duck]]s on screen for points. The game was developed and published by [[Nintendo]], and was released in 1984 in Japan. The ducks appear one or two at a time, and the player is given three shots to shoot them down.


''Duck Hunt'' was one of the two original [[Pack-in game|pack-in title]]s for the first release of the game system.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gamespot.com/nes/action/gyroset/index.html |title= Gyromite|accessdate=2006-12-10|publisher= [[Gamespot]]}}</ref> The game was not initially reviewed often, but given mediocre critical praise and positive gamer reaction.<ref name="Allgame review"/><ref name="Gamespot people"/> Prior to the NES version, Nintendo also made a ''Duck Hunt'' game based on [[Laser Clay Shooting System]] released in 1976.<ref>[http://www.japan-games.com/Database/images/Nintendo/TV-Game/Duckhunt/index.htm Nintendo Duck Hunt (1976)]</ref>
'''''Tetяis''''' ({{Lang-ru|Те́трис}}) is a [[puzzle video game]] originally designed and programmed by [[Alexey Pazhitnov]]. It was created on June 6, 1984,<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5510V020090602</ref> while he was working for the [[Dorodnicyn Computing Centre]] of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences|Academy of Science of the USSR]] in [[Moscow]].<ref>[http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/special/tetrishist.html The Tetris saga] Retrieved August 24, 2007.</ref> He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix "[[tetra-]] (all of the game's pieces, known as [[Tetromino]]es, contain four segments) and [[tennis]], Pazhitnov's favorite sport.<ref name="g4_tetra_tennis">Pajitnov interview, [[G4 (TV channel)|G4]] "[[Icons (TV series)|Icons]]", ep. [http://www.g4tv.com/icons/episodes/1314/Tetris.html 305], originally aired on April 22, 2004.</ref><ref name="vadim">Gerasimov, Vadim. [http://vadim.oversigma.com/Tetris.htm Original Tetris: Story and Download]. Retrieved June 10, 2007.</ref>

The ''Tetris'' game is a popular use of [[tetromino]]es, the four element special case of [[polyomino]]es. Polyominoes have been used in popular puzzles since at least 1907, and the name is given by the mathematician [[Solomon W. Golomb]] in 1953. However, even the enumeration of pentominoes is dated to antiquity.

The game (or one of its [[List of Tetris variants|many variants]]) is available for nearly every [[video game console]] and computer [[operating system]], as well as on devices such as [[graphing calculator]]s, [[mobile phone]]s, [[portable media player]]s, [[Personal digital assistant|PDAs]], [[Internet radio device|Network music players]] and even as an [[Easter egg (media)|Easter egg]] on non-media products like [[oscilloscope]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eeggs.com/items/39244.html |title=HP 54600B Oscilloscope Easter Eggs - Eeggs.com |publisher=Eeggs.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-12}}</ref> It has even inspired Tetris serving dishes <ref> {{ cite news |author=Perets, Abbi |title=Tetris-inspired dishware brings the game to dinner |url=http://www.cnet.com/8301-13553_1-10457461-32.html |work=CNet |date=February 22, 2010 }} </ref> and been played on the sides of various buildings,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bastilleweb.techhouse.org/ |title=La Bastille: A Tech House Art Installation |publisher=Bastilleweb.techhouse.org |date= |accessdate=2008-11-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.geekologie.com/2007/12/huge_tetris_game_played_on_dor.php |title=Huge Tetris Game Played On Dorm Building - [[Geekologie]] |publisher=Geekologie.com |date=December 7 2007 |accessdate=2008-11-12}}</ref> with the record holder for the world's largest fully functional game of ''Tetris'' being an effort by Dutch students in 1995 that lit up all 15 floors of the Electrical Engineering department at [[Delft University of Technology]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Tetris takes over tower block |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/718009.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |date= 19 April 2000<!--, 08:01 GMT 09:01 UK -->|publisher=BBC |location=[[United Kingdom|UK]] |quote=The group, Tech House, says it is currently the world's largest fully functional Tetris game. The current record holder according to the Guinness Book of World Records is a Dutch effort that lit up 15 floors at Delft University in 1995. … The Dutch game was also built by students, from the Electrical Engineering department at Delft University of Technology. It was displayed on 15 floors of a 96-metre tall building and used 3.5 kilometres of cable and 400 lights. Internet users could play the game through a telnet session.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.freshcreation.com/entry/2000_square_meter_of_tetris/ |title=2000 Square Meter Of Tetris |accessdate=2008-02-21 |author=Martijn van Osch |date=2006-04-24 |work=Fresh Creation |quote=In the year 2000 some people came up with the idea of making the world's largest Tetris game (video above). At first they thought they succeeded but later on they found out that some Dutch guys had beaten them by far in November 1995. The Dutch guys of the Delft University Of Technology pulled their stunt in 1995 by making the world's largest Tetris game. They did this using the lights of the officerooms of a 96.2 meters high building which resulted in more than 2000m2 of Tetris.}}</ref>{{Verify credibility|date=November 2008}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.etv.tudelft.nl/vereeniging/archief/lustrum/90/english.html |title=TETRIS for Buildings: Play the game yourself! |accessdate=2008-02-21 |date=18 november 1995<!-- 16:18:18 -->|work=Electrotechnische Vereeniging |publisher=[[Delft University of Technology]] |quote=The Electrical Engineering Student Association ETV celebrated in November 1995 its ninetieth anniversary and used this huge stunt to op its anniversary year. The World largest Tetris Game on a building and of course on the internet. People all over the world could play the game Tetris by using a simple telnet session and all the West of Holland could watch what they were doing on this building. At the same time the Telecom Student Club of ETV used a GSM telephone and a laptop to put every 10 seconds a picture on the Web. So this way you could see the crowd in front of the building watching the game you were playing. … On a 96meters high building, we used 15 floors and each floor had 10 rooms. So we created a huge billboard of more than 2000m2.}}</ref>

While versions of ''Tetris'' were sold for a range of 1980s [[home computer]] platforms, it was the hugely successful [[Tetris (Game Boy)|handheld version]] for the [[Game Boy]] launched in 1989 that established the reputation of the game as one of the most popular ever. ''[[Electronic Gaming Monthly]]'''s 100th issue had ''Tetris'' in first place as "Greatest Game of All Time". In 2007, ''Tetris'' came in third place in [[IGN]]'s "100 Greatest Video Games of All Time".<ref>[http://top100.ign.com/2007/ign_top_game_2.html IGN Top 100 Games of All Time - 2007]</ref> It has sold more than 70 million copies.<ref name=guardian020609>''[[The Guardian]]'', 2 June 2009, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jun/02/tetris-25anniversary-alexey-pajitnov How Tetris conquered the world, block by block]</ref> In January 2010, it was announced that Tetris has sold more than 100 million copies for cell phones alone since 2005.<ref>http://www.maximejohnson.com/techno/2010/01/tetris-atteint-les-100-millions-de-telechargements-payants-et-une-petite-histoire-du-jeu/</ref>


==Gameplay==
==Gameplay==
[[Image:Duck hunt pic.PNG|left|thumb|200px|Players are allowed to shoot up to three bullets at ducks. (Screenshot of NES version.)]]
<!-- Before "correcting" this image, please read the image description page. -->
[[Image:ShottheDuckHunutDog.jpg|left|thumb|200px|The dog being shot in ''Vs. Duck Hunt.'']]
[[Image:Tetrominoes IJLO STZ Worlds.svg|right|frame|The seven one-sided tetrominoes in their ''Tetris Worlds'' colors. Top row, left to right: ''I, J, L, O''. Bottom row: ''S, T, Z''.]]
In ''Duck Hunt'', players utilize the [[NES Zapper|Nintendo Zapper Light Gun]] that must be plugged into their NES consoles, and attempt to shoot down either [[ducks]] or [[Clay pigeon shooting|clay pigeon]]s in mid-flight. ''Duck Hunt'' was also released as an [[arcade game]] in 1984,<ref>[http://www.arcadevault.com/duck_hunt_2.html ''Duck Hunt'' at Arcade Vault] Retrieved November 21, 2006.</ref> as ''Vs. Duck Hunt'', and is included in the [[PlayChoice-10]] arcade console.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository/nes/history/nes_arcade.html|publisher=Playchoice |title= PlayChoice History|accessdate=2006-11-21}}</ref>

A random sequence of [[tetromino]]es (sometimes called "tetrads" in older versions)—shapes composed of four square blocks each—fall down the playing field (a rectangular vertical shaft, called the "well" or "matrix"). The object of the game is to manipulate these tetrominoes, by moving each one sideways and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of blocks without gaps. When such a line is created, it disappears, and any block above the deleted line will fall. With every ten lines that are cleared, the game enters a new level. As the game progresses, each level causes the tetrominoes to fall faster, and the game ends when the stack of tetrominoes reaches the top of the playing field and no new tetrominoes are able to enter. The game can also end if the player is able to get all the way to level 15.

All of the tetrominoes are capable of single and double clears. ''I'', ''J'', and ''L'' are able to clear triples. Only the ''I'' tetromino has the capacity to clear four lines simultaneously, and this is referred to as a "tetris". (This may vary depending on the rotation and compensation rules of each specific ''Tetris'' implementation. For instance, in the Super Rotation System used in most recent implementations,<ref name="tftt"/> called "[[#Easy spin dispute|Easy Spin]]" in ''Tetris Worlds'', certain rare situations allow ''T'', ''S'' and ''Z'' to 'snap' into tight spots and clear triples.)<ref name="tdsmanual">''Tetris DS'' manual. Nintendo, 2006</ref>

===Colors of tetrominoes===
Pajitnov's original version for the [[Elektronika 60]] computer used green brackets to represent blocks.<ref name="vadim"/>
Versions of ''Tetris'' on the original Game Boy/Game Boy Color and on most dedicated handheld games use [[monochrome]] or grayscale graphics, but most popular versions use a separate color for each distinct shape. Prior to The Tetris Company's standardization in the early 2000s, those colors varied widely from implementation to implementation.

{| align="center" style="margin: 0 auto;" class="wikitable"
|+ Colors of tetrominoes in various ''Tetris'' games
|- valign="middle"
! Piece
! Vadim Gerasimov's<br/>''Tetris'' 3.12
! ''[[Microsoft Entertainment Pack|Microsoft <br/>Tetris]]''
! Sega/Arika<br/>([[Tetris: The Grand Master|''TGM'' series]])|| ''[[The New Tetris]]''<br>and ''Kids Tetris''
! [[The Tetris Company|The Tetris<br>Company]]<br>standardization<br>(beginning with<br>''[[Tetris Worlds]]'') <br/>[[Tetris Party]]
! Atari/<br/>Arcade !! TETЯIS The Soviet <br/> Mind Game
! [[Netris]]
|-
| nowrap | I [[Image:Tetris I.svg|40px]]
| nowrap | {{color box|#AA0000}} maroon
| nowrap | {{color box|red}} red
| nowrap | {{color box|red}} red
| nowrap | {{color box|cyan}} cyan
| nowrap | {{color box|cyan}} cyan
| nowrap | {{color box|red}} red
| nowrap | {{color box|red}} red
| nowrap | {{color box|blue}} blue
|-
| nowrap | J [[Image:Tetris J.svg|30px]]
| nowrap | {{color box|#AAAAAA}} white
| nowrap | {{color box|magenta}} magenta
| nowrap | {{color box|blue}} blue
| nowrap | {{color box|#8000FF}} blue-violet
| nowrap | {{color box|blue}} blue
| nowrap | {{color box|yellow}} yellow
| nowrap | {{color box|orange}} orange
| nowrap | {{color box|yellow}} yellow
|-
| nowrap | L [[Image:Tetris L.svg|30px]]
| nowrap | {{color box|#AA00AA}} magenta
| nowrap | {{color box|yellow}} yellow
| nowrap | {{color box|orange}} orange
| nowrap | {{color box|magenta}} magenta
| nowrap | {{color box|orange}} orange
| nowrap | {{color box|magenta}} magenta
| nowrap | {{color box|magenta}} magenta
| nowrap | {{color box|cyan}} cyan
|-
| nowrap | O [[Image:Tetris O.svg|20px]]
| nowrap | {{color box|#0000AA}} dark blue
| nowrap | {{color box|cyan}} cyan
| nowrap | {{color box|yellow}} yellow
| nowrap | {{color box|#C0C0C0}} light grey
| nowrap | {{color box|yellow}} yellow
| nowrap | {{color box|blue}} blue
| nowrap | {{color box|blue}} blue
| nowrap | {{color box|magenta}} magenta
|-
| nowrap | S [[Image:Tetris S.svg|30px]]
| nowrap | {{color box|#00AA00}} green
| nowrap | {{color box|lime}} green
| nowrap | {{color box|magenta}} magenta
| nowrap | {{color box|lime}} green
| nowrap | {{color box|lime}} green
| nowrap | {{color box|cyan}} cyan
| nowrap | {{color box|lime}} green
| nowrap | {{color box|lime}} green
|-
| nowrap | T [[Image:Tetris T.svg|30px]]
| nowrap | {{color box|#AA5500}} brown
| nowrap | {{color box|#C0C0C0}} light grey
| nowrap | {{color box|cyan}} cyan
| nowrap | {{color box|yellow}} yellow
| nowrap | {{color box|#AA00FF}} purple
| nowrap | {{color box|lime}} green
| nowrap | {{color box|olive}} olive
| nowrap | {{color box|#C0C0C0}} light grey
|-
| nowrap | Z [[Image:Tetris Z.svg|30px]]
| nowrap | {{color box|#00AAAA}} cyan
| nowrap | {{color box|blue}} blue
| nowrap | {{color box|lime}} green
| nowrap | {{color box|red}} red
| nowrap | {{color box|red}} red
| nowrap | {{color box|orange}} orange
| nowrap | {{color box|cyan}} cyan
| nowrap | {{color box|red}} red
|}

===Scoring===
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, while a back-to-back Tetris is worth 1,200.<ref name="tzmanual">[http://zone.tetris.com/page/manual ''Tetris Zone'' manual] as of 2008-11-12</ref>

Nearly all ''Tetris'' games allow the player to press a button to increase the speed of the current piece's descent, rather than waiting for it to fall. If the player can stop the increased speed before the piece reaches the floor by letting go of the button, this is a "soft drop"; otherwise, it is a "hard drop" (some games allow only soft drop or only hard drop; others have separate buttons). Many games award a number of points based on the height that the piece fell before locking.

===Gravity===
Traditional versions of ''Tetris'' move the stacks of blocks down by a distance exactly equal to the height of the cleared rows below them. Contrary to the laws of [[gravity]], blocks may be left floating above gaps. Implementing a different algorithm that uses a [[flood fill]]<ref>"tetanus.c". [http://www.pineight.com/tod/ ''LOCKJAW: The Overdose'', milestone 4].</ref> to segment the playfield into connected regions will make each region fall individually, in parallel, until it touches the region at the bottom of the playfield. This opens up additional "chain-reaction" tactics involving blocks cascading to fill additional lines, which may be awarded as more valuable clears.

{| style="margin: 0.25em auto;"
|-
|[[Image:Tetris gravity (simple).png|center|frame|Original algorithm]]
|[[Image:Tetris gravity (natural).png|center|frame|Algorithm with chain reactions]]
|}

===Easy spin dispute===<!-- This section is linked from [[Tetris Evolution]] -->
Although not the first ''Tetris'' game to feature "easy spin" (see ''[[The Next Tetris]]''), also called "infinite spin" by critics,<ref>[http://www.gamespot.com/gba/puzzle/tetrisworlds/review.html Tetris Worlds for Game Boy Advance Review - GameSpot]</ref> ''[[Tetris Worlds]]'' was the first game to fall under major criticisms for it. Easy spin refers to the property of a [[tetromino]] to stop falling for a moment after left or right movement or rotation, effectively allowing someone to suspend the tetromino while thinking on where to place it. This feature has been implemented into [[The Tetris Company]]'s official guideline.<ref name="tftt">[http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/specialArt.cfm?artid=11267 Tetris from the Top], April 6, 2006. Retrieved on April 28, 2007.</ref> This new type of play differs from traditional ''Tetris'' because it takes away the pressure of higher level speed. Some reviewers<ref name="gsrev">{{Cite web |url=http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/puzzle/tetrisworlds/review.html |title=Tetris Worlds for PlayStation 2 Review |accessdate=12 November 2008 |work= |publisher=[[GameSpot]] |date=19 April 2002 |author=Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis}}</ref> even went so far as to say that this mechanism broke the game. The goal in ''Tetris Worlds'', however, 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 "though the infinite spin issue honestly really affects only 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."<ref>[http://www.gamespot.com/ds/puzzle/tetris/review.html Tetris DS for DS Review - GameSpot]</ref> In response to the issue, [[Henk Rogers]] stated in an interview that infinite spin was part of the guideline, giving a rationale:<ref name="tftt"/>
{{Blockquote|So the problem is you get part way through the game, make one small mistake, 'Aw man, I blew it,' and restart. I think that's an annoying way to play the game. So we decided it's better to give them a way to recover from that small mistake, but you're losing time. So if you sat there and rotated for, I don't know, five seconds, you've just taken five seconds out of the game that you needed to score so many points. So you won't find in the top games any gratuitous spinning going on, it just doesn't happen. It helps the beginning player who's trying to figure out what to do. It's a useless feature (for competitive play); it only helps if you're taking the time to think. The better players don't take that much time to think, that's the difference.<ref name="tftt"/>}}

==History==
[[Image:Tetris DOS 1986.png|thumb|right|250px|Screenshot of the 1986 IBM PC version]]
''Tetris'' has been involved in many legal battles. In June 1984, [[Alexey Pajitnov]] created ''Tetris'' on an [[Elektronika 60]] while working for the [[Soviet Academy of Sciences]] at their Computer Center in Moscow with [[Dmitry Pavlovsky]], and [[Vadim Gerasimov]] ported it to the [[IBM PC]]. Gerasimov reports that Pajitnov chose the name "Tetris" as "a combination of '[[tetramino]]' and '[[tennis]]'." From there, the PC game exploded into popularity, and began spreading all around Moscow. This version is available on Gerasimov's web site.<ref name="vadim"/>

The IBM PC version eventually made its way to [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]], where it was ported to various platforms and was "discovered" by a British software house named [[Andromeda (software publisher)|Andromeda]]. They attempted to contact Pajitnov to secure the rights for the [[Personal computer|PC]] version, but before the deal was firmly settled, they had already sold the rights to [[Spectrum HoloByte]]. After failing to settle the deal with Pajitnov, Andromeda attempted to license it from the Hungarian programmers instead.

Meanwhile, before any legal rights were settled, the Spectrum HoloByte IBM PC version of ''Tetris'' was released in the [[United States]] in 1986. The game's popularity was tremendous, and many players were instantly hooked—it was a software blockbuster, with reviews such as in ''[[Computer Gaming World]]'' calling the game "deceptively simple and insidiously addictive".<ref name="CGW">{{Citation | date = May 1988 | last = Wagner | first = Roy | periodical = [[Computer Gaming World]] | title = Puzzling Encounters | pages = 42–43}}</ref>

The details of the licensing issues were uncertain by this point, but in 1987 Andromeda managed to obtain copyright licensing for the IBM PC version and any other home computer system.

For [[Amiga]] and [[Atari ST]] two different versions by Spectrum HoloByte and [[Mirrorsoft]] became available. The Mirrorsoft version did not feature any background graphics while the Holobyte version had a background picture related to Russian themes for each level. Games were sold as budget titles due to the game's simplicity. Spectrum's [[Apple II]] package actually contained three diskettes with three different versions of the game, for the [[Apple II+]] and [[Apple IIe]] on separate [[Apple DOS|DOS 3.3]] and [[ProDOS]] 5-1/4" diskettes, and for the [[Apple IIgs]] on a 3-1/2" diskette, none of which was copy-protected: the included documentation specifically charged the purchaser on his or her honor to not give away or copy the extra diskettes.

By 1988, the Soviet government began to market the rights to ''Tetris'' through an organization called [[Elektronorgtechnica]], or "Elorg" for short. Pajitnov had granted his rights to the Soviet Government, via the Computer Center he worked at for ten years.<ref name="alexyinterview">Boyes, Emma. [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6181946.html Q&A Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov]. Retrieved October 31, 2007.</ref> By this time Elorg had still seen no money from Andromeda, and yet Andromeda was licensing and sub-licensing rights that they themselves did not even have.

===Nintendo===
{{anchor|Tengen}}
By 1989, half a dozen different companies claimed rights to create and distribute the ''Tetris'' software for home computers, game consoles, and handheld systems. Elorg, meanwhile, held that none of the companies were legally entitled to produce an [[Arcade game|arcade]] version, and signed those rights over to [[Atari Games]], while it signed non-[[Japan]]ese console and handheld rights over to [[Nintendo]]. Tetris was on show at the January 1988 [[Consumer Electronics Show]] in Las Vegas, where it was picked up by Dutch games publisher [[Henk Rogers]], then based in Japan, which eventually led to an agreement brokered with Nintendo that saw Tetris bundled with every Game Boy.<ref name=guardian020609/>

[[Image:TETЯIS The Soviet Mind Game.png|thumb|right|250px|Screenshot of the Atari arcade version of ''TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game'']]
[[Image:Tetris NES play.png|thumb|right|250px|Screenshot of the official [[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]] version of ''Tetris'']]

[[Tengen (company)|Tengen]] (the console software division of [[Atari Games]]), regardless, applied for copyright for their ''Tetris'' game for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]], loosely based on the arcade version, and proceeded to market and distribute it under the name ''TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game'' (with [[faux Cyrillic]] typography incorporating the [[Ya (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Ya]]), disregarding Nintendo's license from Elorg. Nintendo contacted Atari Games claiming they had stolen rights to ''Tetris'', whereupon Atari Games sued, believing they had the rights. After only four weeks on the shelf, the courts ruled that Nintendo had the rights to ''Tetris'' on home game systems, and Tengen's TETЯIS game was recalled, with an unknown number of copies sold. <ref>{{Cite journal |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2002 |month= |title=The Wish List |journal=Edge presents Retro |volume= |issue= |pages= |id= |url= |accessdate= |quote=}}</ref>

Nintendo released their version of ''Tetris'' for both the [[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]] and the [[Game Boy]] (the Famicom and Game Boy versions were developed by [[Bullet-Proof Software|Bullet-Proof Software, Inc.]], who held the Japanese license, despite Nintendo's license to the game) and sold more than three million copies; some players considered Nintendo's NES version inferior because it lacked the side-by-side simultaneous play of Tengen's version, but Nintendo's [[Tetris (Game Boy)|Game Boy ''Tetris'']] became arguably the most well-known version of ''Tetris'', selling over 33 million copies. The lawsuits between Tengen and Nintendo over the Famicom/NES version carried on until 1993.

[[Sega]] also released a Tetris game for the [[Mega Drive]]; however, the ensuing blitz of litigation ensured that it was hastily withdrawn.

===The Tetris Company===
{{Main|The Tetris Company}}
In 1996 the rights to the game reverted from the Russian state to Pajitnov himself, who previously had made very little money from the game.<ref name=guardian020609/> In 1996, [[The Tetris Company]] was founded, claiming to hold copyright registrations for Tetris products in the United States<ref>Blue Planet Software, Inc. v. Pajitnov, 334 F. Supp 2d 425 (S.D.N.Y. 2004).</ref><ref>See, e.g., Copyright Registration Nos. PAu 1-214-036; PAu 1-214-035; PA 412-169; PA 412-170, among others.</ref> and taking out trademark registrations for Tetris in almost every country in the world.<ref>See, e.g., Trademark Registration Nos. 1,753,062 (USA); 1,657,499 (USA); 1,742,325 (USA); 1,382,544 (UK); 1,382,543 (UK); 507644 (Taiwan); 498703 (Taiwan); 098,381 (Peru); 097, 244 (Peru); 266/36 (Saudi Arabia), among others.</ref> They have licensed the brand to a number of companies, and the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Customs have at times issued seizure orders to preclude Tetris-like games from being imported into the U.S.,<ref>See [http://www.cit.uscourts.gov/slip_op/Slip_op00/00-27.pdf Luxury Int’l, Inc. v. U.S., No. 99-02-00093, Slip Op. 00-27] (Ct. Int’l Trade 2000), holding that Luxury violated Customs' administrative procedure; U.S. Customs Service Memorandum Order, ENF-4-02-RR:IT:IP 470343 GFM (Dec. 19, 2000); U.S. Customs Service Memorandum Order, ENF4-02-RR:IT:IP 469107 GFM (July 31, 2000).</ref> though bulletins circulated by the U.S. Copyright Office state that copyright does not apply to the rules of a game.<ref name="17usc102">U.S. Copyright Office. [http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html Title 17, United States Code, section 102]. Accessed March 12, 2009.</ref><ref name="fl108">U.S. Copyright Office. [http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.pdf "Publication FL-108: Games."] June 2008. Explanation of how {{usc|17|102}}(b) limits the extent to which copyright applies to the rules of a game. Accessed June 2, 2009.</ref>

In late 1997<ref>[http://abednarz.net/wp/category/tetris-copyright/ Andrew James Bednarz. "The Tetris Company's Activities".] Retrieved August 13, 2006.</ref> and in mid-2006,<ref>[http://www.pcpro.co.uk/macuser/news/90129/tetris-blocks-mac-quinn-game.html "Tetris blocks Mac Quinn game".] ''MacUser''. Retrieved August 13, 2006.</ref> TTC's legal counsel sent [[cease and desist]] letters to web sites that misused the ''Tetris'' trademark to refer to homemade tetromino games.

==Variations==
[[Image:242603074 2e1f768324.jpg|250px|thumb|A [[iPod classic|5th generation]] [[iPod]] featuring ''Tetris'' (2006)]]
''Tetris'' has been subject to many changes throughout releases since the 1980s. It is difficult to place a standard on the game, as newer releases frequently progress it either to make the game better or to keep players interested. Newer ''Tetris'' games have made the trend of pace rather than endurance. Older releases such as Game Boy or NES ''Tetris'' offer records according to points. Since the meter for points is set to only a certain number of digits, these game's records can be "maxed out" by an experienced player. The next big Game Boy release after ''Tetris'', ''Tetris DX'', in marathon mode—comparable to mode A in previous releases—allowed an additional digit for the point meter. Even so, players still maxed it to 9,999,999 points after hours of play. For ''[[The New Tetris]]'', world record competitors have spent over 12 hours playing the same game.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=12&id=635 |title=Welcome to Twin Galaxies |publisher=Twingalaxies.com |date= |accessdate=2008-11-12}}</ref> In ''Tetris DX'' and ''The New Tetris'', the new modes sprint and ultra were added. These modes require the player to act under a timer, either to gain the most lines or points in that time. Releases like ''Tetris Worlds'' did away completely with point records. This particular game kept records by how fast a certain number of lines could be cleared depending on the level. A drawback of this deviation, along with some other newer features, is that many traditional players rejected these advances all together. Critics of ''Tetris Worlds'' said it was broken due to how a piece is able to hover over the bottom for as long as a player needs.<ref name="gsrev"/>

There are many different modes of play added in recent years. Modes appearing in more than one major release include: classic marathon (game A), sprint (otherwise game B or 40 lines), ultra, square, and cascade.

The field dimension of ''Tetris'' is perhaps the least deviated among releases: almost always 10 cells wide by 20 high. Some releases on handheld platforms with small screens have smaller fields; for example, the ''Tetris Jr.'' [[Handheld electronic game|keychain game]] has 8 by 12, and ''Tetris'' for Game Boy has 10 by 18.

Traditionally, blocks spawn within the four most central columns and the two highest rows. The ''I'' tetromino occupies columns 4, 5, 6 and 7, the ''O'' tetromino occupies columns 5 and 6, and the remaining 5 tetrominoes occupy columns 4, 5 and 6 (or in some, especially older, versions, 5, 6 and 7). In some more recent games, pieces spawn above the visible playfield.

In traditional games, a level-up would occur once every ten lines are cleared. During a level-up, the blocks fall slightly faster, and typically more points are given. In some newer games such as ''Tetris Worlds'', the number of lines required vary upon each new level. For example, NES ''Tetris'' operates at 60 frames per second. At level 0, a piece falls one step every 48 frames, and at level 19, a piece falls one step every 2 frames. Level increments either terminate at a certain point (Game Boy ''Tetris'' tops off at level 20) or increase forever yet not in speed after a certain point. NES ''Tetris'' will level up in until the speed of level 29 (due to limitations of the game's engine, pieces are not capable of dropping faster than this), but tool-assisted emulation will show that the level indicator increases indefinitely—eventually leading to a glitch where the meter displays non-numeric characters. Modern games such as ''Tetris the Grand Master'' or ''Tetris Worlds,'' at their highest levels, opt to drop a piece more than one row per frame. Pieces will appear to reach the bottom as soon as they spawn. As a result, these games have a delay that lets the player slide the piece on the bottom for a moment to help deal with an otherwise unplayable fall speed. In some games, the hover time is regenerated after a piece is moved or rotated.

Soft drops were first implemented in Nintendo releases of ''Tetris'' so that pieces would be able to drop faster while not lock as to slide into gaps. The other option is hard dropping, which originated in early PC games such as ''Microsoft Tetris'', a game developed by Dave Edson and bundled with [[Microsoft Entertainment Pack]]. With hard dropping, a piece falls and locks in one frame. Newer ''Tetris'' games feature both options. Some games have their locking roles reversed, with soft dropping making the pieces drop faster and locking down, and hard dropping making the pieces drop instantly but not lock.

Single direction rotation is an older restriction that has since been ruled out in nearly every new official release by the favor of separate buttons for clockwise and one for counterclockwise rotation. In traditional games, the unsymmetrical vertical orientation I-, Z-, and S-pieces will fill the same columns for each clockwise and counter clockwise rotation. Some games vary this by allowing two possible column orientations: one for counter clockwise and one for clockwise rotations. Double rotation, only seen in progressive clones such as ''Quadra'' and ''DTET'', rotates the piece 180 degrees.

One of the features most appreciated by skilled players is ''wall kick'', or the ability of rotating the pieces even if these touch the left or right walls. In the NES version, for example, if a Z piece is "vertically" aligned and falling touching the left wall, the player cannot rotate the piece, giving the impression that the rotate buttons are locked. In this situation, the player has to move the piece one position to the right before rotating it, losing precious time. Proper implementations of wall kick first appeared in the arcade version of ''Tetris'' by Atari Games.

Piece preview allows a look at the next piece to enter the field. This feature has been implemented since the earliest games, though in those early games, having the preview turned on made the score increase more slowly.

===Newest features===
Newer versions of ''Tetris'' add different scoring goals not present in traditional ''Tetris''. As achieving these goals while not topping out becomes more difficult, these games usually add a few features to help the player.

''[[The New Tetris]]'' and ''[[The Next Tetris]]'' are the first official ''Tetris'' games to feature multiple piece previews, showing 3 in advance. ''Tetris Worlds'' for PCs and game consoles add 5 more, while the GBA version retains the 3 piece preview. ''Tetris DS'' uses the 6-piece preview.

''The New Tetris'' also introduced the "ghost piece", an obscuration in the shape of the current piece over where that piece would drop. The feature reduces mistakes, especially for beginners and high-speed players.

Hold piece is an optional ability to reserve a piece for later use, allowing a player to either avoid undesirable pieces or save desirable ones, usually the I piece or a piece needed to complete another goal. Some clones featured it as a powerup that the player could earn and use once. A hold piece available to the player at all times was first featured in ''The New Tetris''. Most games that have hold piece activate it when the player presses a dedicated button, often a shoulder button;<ref>''The New Tetris'', ''Tetris Worlds'', ''Tetris DS'', and ''Tetris Party'' assign hold to the L button.</ref> other games activate it when both rotate buttons are pressed simultaneously. When hold piece is activated, it causes the falling piece to move to the top and trade places with the hold piece. However, the feature cannot be activated twice in a row; it is disabled until the piece released from hold locks in the well.

Initial rotation and Initial hold are features that make the game accept rotation/hold button inputs while the next piece is still in the preview area. With initial rotation, when the player holds down the rotation button after the previous piece has locked down but before the next piece comes into the well, the next piece will come into the well in an already rotated state. Initial hold works similarly, as the piece will be already swapped with the hold piece when it enters the well. Initial rotation and Initial hold first appeared in the ''[[Tetris: The Grand Master]]'' series.

''Tetris DS'' features wireless on-line play through the [[Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection]] system. This new version also takes advantage of the touch screen in the added "Touch Mode," which has no time limit. Instead, every block is already placed in a tall tower, and the player uses the stylus from the [[Nintendo DS]] to shift blocks left and right and, in earlier towers, rotate blocks. The goal is to clear enough lines so that a cage of balloons reaches the ground (this mode is themed on the NES video game ''[[Balloon Fight]]'', hence the cage of balloons).

''Tetris DS'' also introduces the ''[[Metroid]]''-themed "Catch Mode". In this mode, the pieces fall downward from the top screen to the touch screen, but the stack is moved and rotated instead. As the falling pieces bump against the stack, they get clustered into it. To clear blocks, there must be a solid area of the stack that is 4×4 or larger. When this happens, the blocks glow and the music changes. After ten seconds or upon pressing the X button, these blocks disappear and shoot a [[laser beam]] in a plus-shape, the horizontal part equal to the number of rows cleared and the vertical equal to the columns. This laser beam will move and rotate with the stack and destroy falling blocks and [[Metroid (series)#Metroids|Metroid]] enemies in its path until it disappears a moment later. The parts of the stack not hit by the laser beam will be pulled in towards the center of the stack after the laser beam dies. If a piece reaches the bottom of the touch screen, the stack hits a falling block while rotating, or the stack hits a Metroid, the stack loses Energy. The player loses if the stack runs out of Energy or if the stack becomes so large that it can no longer fit on the touch screen.

''Tetris Mania'' by [[Electronic Arts|EA Games]] brings back the Fusion and Sticky modes from ''Tetris Worlds''. In Fusion, "atom" blocks must be activated, the number of those needing to be activated increases per level. Activated atoms wills also activate other atoms that they touch, and are generated two for every seven Tetrominoes. Gravity will not be activated until a line is cleared containing an atom of fusion block. In Sticky, based on ''The Next Tetris'', you need to clear the bottom row of starting tiles. In each level there are more starting tiles that are harder to clear. The pieces in this game are made up of different colored minos that "stick" to those of the same color. Gravity is always a factor.

The ''Tetris'' arcade game by Atari Games offered different "puzzles" for selected rounds. The first three rounds are played normally, with no obstacles. At the start of round 4, eight bricks are placed vertically along each side of the well. Round 5 begins with ten bricks scattered throughout the bottom five rows. Round 6 begins with twenty bricks arranged in a pyramid. In rounds 7 through 9, the well starts out empty but single bricks will appear at random on top of your puzzle each time a piece lands that does not clear any lines, potentially thwarting any advance planning you may have done. In rounds 10 through 12, incomplete "garbage" lines will randomly pop up underneath your puzzle, pushing the puzzle upward, when a piece lands without clearing any lines. Rounds 13 through 15 begin with more blocks arranged in predetermined patterns, and the cycle continues throughout the remaining rounds in the game in groups of three.

==''Tetris'' variants==
{{Main|List of Tetris variants}}
Several ''Tetris'' variants exist. Some feature alternate rules and pieces, and others have completely different gameplay.

A popular variant called "The Grand Master" eventually becomes so fast players have to use every second of time optimally, and it even has a mode dubbed "Invisible Tetris", where the blocks are only shown when falling - then finally revealed when the game is over.

Because of its popularity and the relatively simple code required to produce the game, a game with nearly the same rules as ''Tetris'' is often used as a [[hello world]] project for programmers coding for a new system or programming language. This has resulted in the availability of a large number of [[Porting|ports]] for different platforms.
For instance, [[µTorrent]] and [[GNU Emacs]] contain tetromino stacking games as easter eggs.<ref>[http://www.eeggs.com/items/47291.html µTorrent Easter Egg: Tetris in µTorrent]</ref><ref>[http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050103201954271 macosxhints.com - Play Tetris in Terminal via emacs]</ref>

==End of play==
Players lose a typical game of ''Tetris'' when they can no longer keep up with the increasing speed, and the tetrominoes stack up to the top of the playing field.

===Possibility of indefinite gameplay===
The question ''Would it be possible to play forever?'' was first encountered in a thesis by John Brzustowski in 1988<ref>John Brzustowski. [http://www.iam.ubc.ca/theses/Brzustowski/brzustowski.html Can You Win at Tetris?] Retrieved February 25, 2007.</ref> The conclusion reached was that the game is inevitably doomed to end. The reason has to do with the S and Z tetrominoes. If a player receives a large sequence of alternating S and Z tetrominoes, the naïve gravity used by the standard game eventually forces the player to leave a hole in a corner.

Supposing that the player then receives a large sequence of alternating S and Z tetrominoes, they will eventually be forced to leave holes throughout the board. Back and forth, the holes will necessarily stack to the top and, ultimately, end the game. If the pieces are distributed randomly, this sequence will eventually occur. Thus, if a game with an ideal, uniform, uncorrelated [[random number generator]] is played long enough, any player will top out.<ref>[http://www2.math.uic.edu/~burgiel/Tetris/explanation.html Dr. Burgiel's Tetris Research Page, Explanation] Retrieved February 25, 2007.</ref><ref>Heidi Burgiel. [http://www.geom.umn.edu/%7Eburgiel/Tetris/tetris.PS How to Lose at Tetris], Mathematical Gazette, vol. 81, pp. 194-200 1997</ref>

In practice, this does not occur in most Tetris variants. Some [[List of Tetris variants|variants]] allow the player to choose to play with only S and Z tetrominoes,<ref name="lj_options">[http://www.pineight.com/lj/README#options LOCKJAW - Options] Retrieved February 25, 2007.</ref> and a good player may survive well over 150 consecutive tetrominoes this way. On an implementation with an ideal uniform randomizer, the probability at any given time of the next 150 tetrominoes being only S and Z is one in (2/7)<sup>150</sup> (approximately 2×10<sup>-82</sup>). Most implementations use a [[pseudorandom number generator]] to generate the sequence of tetrominoes, and such an S–Z sequence is almost certainly not contained in the sequence produced by the 32-bit [[linear congruential generator]] in many implementations (which has roughly 4.2 × 10<sup>9</sup> states). The "evil" algorithm in [[List of Tetris variants#Notable unofficial games|Bastet]] often starts a game with a series of more than seven Z pieces.

Recent versions of Tetris such as ''Tetris Worlds'' allow the player to continuously rotate a block once it hits the bottom of the playfield, without it locking into place (see [[Tetris#Easy spin dispute|Easy spin dispute]], above). This permits a player to play for an infinite amount of time, though not necessarily to land an infinite number of blocks.

The increasing speed of a Tetris game would eventually make it impossible to play unless capped at some reasonable value. Even given arbitrarily good reactions, a player would be limited by the frame rate of the computer or console on which they were playing. Consoles have a finite [[frame rate]] for both recording user input and drawing screen updates, so tetrominoes move down the screen in discrete steps. Depending on the algorithm used, this may result in tetrominoes appearing and landing within the period of a single frame, thereby preventing the player from repositioning the tetromino before it lands.<ref>[http://bsixcentdouze.free.fr/tc/tgm-en/tgm.html]</ref>

== Computational complexity ==
In [[computer science]], it is common to analyze the [[Computational complexity theory|computational complexity]] of problems, including real life problems and games. It was proven that for the offline version of Tetris (in which all the pieces are known in advance) the following objectives are [[NP-complete]]:
* Maximizing the number of rows cleared while playing the given piece sequence.
* Maximizing the number of pieces placed before a loss occurs.
* Maximizing the number of simultaneous clearing of four rows.
* Minimizing the height of the highest filled grid square over the course of the sequence.

Also, it is not possible to find a [[polynomial time]] [[approximation algorithm]] for the first 2 problems and it is hard to approximate the last problem within 2&nbsp;&minus;&nbsp;ε for every ε&nbsp;>&nbsp;0.

To prove NP-completeness, it was shown that there is a polynomial [[Reduction (complexity)|reduction]] between the [[3-partition problem]], which is also NP-Complete, and the Tetris problem.<ref>
{{cite conference
| url = http://erikdemaine.org/papers/Tetris_COCOON2003/paper.pdf
| title = Tetris is Hard, Even to Approximate
| last1 = Demaine
| first1 = Eric D.
| last2 = Hohenberger
| first2 = Susan
| last3 = Liben-Nowell
| first3 = David
| date = July 25–28, 2003
| conference = Proceedings of the 9th International Computing and Combinatorics Conference (COCOON 2003)
| conferenceurl = http://www.cs.montana.edu/bhz/cocoon03.html
| location = Big Sky, Montana }}
</ref>

== Music ==
{{See also|Korobeiniki#Modern cover versions|l1=Korobeiniki — Modern cover versions}}
* Music A in the Game Boy edition of ''Tetris'' has become very widely known, to the point that Level 20 in ''Tetris DS'' is based on the Game Boy version of ''Tetris'' and uses that theme. It is an instrumental arrangement of a Russian folk tune called "[[Korobeiniki]]" (with various Latin spellings), which has been covered by UK dance band [[Doctor Spin]], US alternative rock band [[Ozma (band)|Ozma]], [[Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra]], [[Basshunter]] the Swedish [[Eurodance]] DJ, and also the [[Germany|German]] [[techno]] group [[Scooter (band)|Scooter]] on their 2007 album ''[[Jumping All Over the World]]''. It was also sampled in "21 Concepts" by [[MC Lars]]. Music A and B are also remixed and arranged for ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', and can be selected for the stage "Luigi's Mansion", as well as being used in custom stages. The song has also been remixed for two dance games, under the name "Pumptris Quattro" in ''[[Pump It Up NX2]]'' and "Happy-hopper" in ''[[Dance Maniax]] 2nd Mix''.
* Music B in the Game Boy version is [[Katyusha]] by [[Matvei Blanter]]
* Music C in the Game Boy version is an arrangement of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]'s [[French Suites, BWV 812-817|French Suite No. 3 In B Minor, BWV 814, V. Menuett - Trio]].
* Music 1 in the NES version is "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", a tune noted to be scene 14c of act two of ''[[The Nutcracker]]'', composed by [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]].
* One song in the BPS and Tengen versions is the [[Kalinka (song)|"Kalinka"]], a famous Russian song written by Ivan Petrovich Larionov.
* [[Nintendocore]] band [[Powerglove]] used Music A & B in the 1st track of their 2nd album, 'Total Pwnage', naming the song 'Tetris (Themes B And C)' It opens playing Theme B normally, quickly followed by the 2 themes being played on guitars with numerous effects.

==Effect of ''Tetris'' on the brain==
According to research from Dr. Richard Haier, et al. prolonged ''Tetris'' activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity during play.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Richard J Haier, Sherif Karama, Leonard Leyba and Rex E Jung |title=MRI assessment of cortical thickness and functional activity changes in adolescent girls following three months of practice on a visual-spatial task |journal=BMC Research Notes |year=2009 |url=http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/2/174}}</ref> When first playing ''Tetris'', brain function and activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by [[glucose]] metabolic rate. As ''Tetris'' players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity for this task.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Haier RJ, Siegel BV, MacLachlan A, Soderling E, Lottenberg S, Buchsbaum MS |title=Regional glucose metabolic changes after learning a complex visuospatial/motor task: a positron emission tomographic study |journal=Brain Res. |volume=570 |issue=1-2 |pages=134–43 |year=1992 |month=January |pmid=1617405 |url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0006-8993(92)90573-R}}</ref> Even moderate playing of tetris (half-an-hour a day for three months) boosts general cognitive functions such as "critical thinking, reasoning, language and processing" and increases [[cerebral cortex]] thickness.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6122290/Tetris-could-boost-brain-power.html Tetris 'could boost brain power'] Telegraph news, 02 Sep 2009</ref>

In January 2009, an Oxford University research group headed by Dr. Emily Holmes reported in PLoS ONE that for healthy volunteers, playing ‘Tetris’ soon after viewing traumatic material in the laboratory reduced the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following week. They believe that the computer game may disrupt the memories that are retained of the sights and sounds witnessed at the time, and which are later re-experienced through involuntary, distressing flashbacks of that moment. The group hopes to develop this approach further as a potential intervention to reduce the flashbacks experienced in [[posttraumatic stress disorder]], but emphasized that these are only preliminary results.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Holmes EA, James EL, Coode-Bate T, Deeprose C |title=Can playing the computer game "Tetris" reduce the build-up of flashbacks for trauma? A proposal from cognitive science |journal=PLoS ONE |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=e4153 |year=2009 |pmid=19127289 |pmc=2607539 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0004153 |url=http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0004153}}</ref>

The game can also cause a [[repetitive stress symptom]] in that the brain will involuntarily picture tetris combinations even when the player is not playing the game (the [[Tetris effect]]; for citations see the references in the article [[Tetris Effect]]), although this can occur with any computer game or situation showcasing repeated images or scenarios, such as a [[jigsaw puzzle]].

==Popular culture==
{{Trivia|date=February 2010}}
''Tetris''' popularity has resulted in its appearance in the media. It was featured in two episodes of the video-game oriented cartoon ''[[Captain N: The Game Master]]''. It was also referenced in the ''[[Jim Henson's Muppet Babies|Muppet Babies]]'' episode "[[It's Only Pretendo]]", ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Strong Arms of the Ma]]" (where Homer uses the Tetris effect on his brain to fill his car with family and his shopping goods but fails to leave room for him) as well as "[[Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo]]", ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' episode "[[Game Over (Dexter's Laboratory)|Game Over]]", ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "[[Prick Up Your Ears (Family Guy)|Prick Up Your Ears]]", and ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "[[Fear of a Bot Planet]]." Commercials also occasionally parody the game. ''[[Police Academy: Mission to Moscow]]'' alluded to Tetris by depicting the Russians trying to hypnotize Americans through a puzzle video game referred to as "The Game" in the movie. In the movie [[Office Space]], Peter is playing Tetris on his computer in one scene. On ''[[The Colbert Report]]'', [[Stephen Colbert]]'s right-wing [[Stephen Colbert (character)|character]] mourned the passing of a more innocent time by remarking that in today's America, among other divisive factors, there is "no one game where when we close our eyes we still see the shapes falling." A [[Honda]] commercial showed pieces similar to the blocks in the ''Tetris'' games along with electronics, suitcases, pieces of furniture, and a [[hamster]] cage into a [[Honda Fit]], the automobile the commercial was advertising. The commercial ends with a robotic voice proclaiming, ''"The Fit is Go!"''. Even other videogames have shown tributes to Tetris such as the character Ai from NeoGeo Battle Colosseum, who can summon and attack characters with various Tetris blocks.

In 2007, video game website [[GameFAQs]] hosted its sixth annual "[[GameFAQs#Contests|Character Battle]]", in which the users nominate their favorite video game characters for a popularity contest in which characters participate. The L-shaped Tetris piece (or "L-Block" as it was called) entered the contest as a joke character, but on November 4, 2007, it won the contest.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/contest/cb6 | title=Fall 2007: The Great GameFAQs Character Battle VI | publisher=GameFAQs | accessdate=2007-11-29}}</ref>

In Japan, a hugely popular live-action game called ''[[Brain Wall]]'' (also referred to commonly as "Human Tetris") ran for a number of seasons on a Japanese variety show. Contestants would be assigned to teams (Red or Blue) and paired with recurring characters. Each team would then, in turn, face a wall of painted styrofoam with a Tetris-like shape carved out. The wall would advance on the contestant, who must pass through the opening by posing, squeezing or jumping. Later levels have a pool of water at the end of the run (the effect being to force the contestant into the pool if they fail.) The recurring characters provide running commentary, built-in rivalry and comic relief. Due to the game's popularity as a [[viral video]], versions of the game have been exported around the world as a dedicated show, commonly known in English regions as ''Hole in the Wall''.

Other viral video versions of the game have been created using [[stop-motion animation]] with [[Lego]] blocks.

In Thomas Pynchon's 2006 novel, ''[[Against the Day]]'', mention is made of a "Captain Igor Padzhitnoff" (presumably pronounced the same as Pajitnov) whose preferred method of causing trouble was "to arrange for bricks and masonry, always in the four-block fragments which had become his 'signature,' to fall on and damage targets designated by his superiors".<ref>Pynchon, T: "Against The Day", page 123. The Penguin Press, 2006.</ref>

In 2008, the [[New Zealand Army]] published recruitment advertisements depicting troop movements and supply drops in Tetris-style formations. [http://www.army.mil.nz/careers/solutions-hub/print/tetris.htm][http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2008/nz-army-tetris-test/]

In 2009, songwriter Jonathan Mann depicted the history of the game's development as a [http://www.rockcookiebottom.com/post/84319612/66-the-history-of-tetris-in-song humorous musical narrative] from the perspective of Tetris creator [[Alexey Pajitnov]]. The account mentions several of the major players in Tetris' commercial success including [[Robert Maxwell]], [[Robert Stein (computer pioneer)|Robert Stein]] and [[Henk Rogers]].

On June 6, 2009, Google honored Tetris' 25-year anniversary by changing its logotype to a version drawn with Tetris blocks - the "l" letter being the long Tetris block lowering into its place.<ref>{{cite web |title=Google Features TETRIS Look For Game’s 25th Anniversary |url=http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090605005609/en |publisher=Electronic Arts |date=5 June 2009 |quote=Google will roll out the TETRIS-inspired design in 24-hour periods, starting first at 1:00 PM EDT in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. From 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT, the TETRIS-inspired design will begin appearing in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Starting June 6th, at 12:00 AM EDT, the TETRIS-inspired design will be available in North and South America. |accessdate=25 September 2009}}</ref>

At the 2009 [[Edinburgh Festival Fringe]], Pig With The Face Of A Boy performed their song 'The Complete History Of The Soviet Union As Told By A Humble Worker Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris', the worker's role being the manual labour of moving giant Tetris pieces into place as they fall.<ref>[http://www.edfringe.com/ticketing/detail.php?id=15147 Edinburgh Fringe]</ref>

[[CollegeHumor]] made a video called The Tetris God in which a God of the game announces what block enters the playing field and uses this power to purposely make it impossible for the player to win.

==Reception==
The IBM version of the game was reviewed in 1988 in ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' #135 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.<ref name="Dragon135">{{cite journal
|title=The Role of Computers
|author=Lesser, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk
|journal=Dragon
|issue=135
|date=July 1988
|pages=82-89}}</ref> The Lessers later reviewed Spectrum HoloByte's [[Macintosh]] version of Tetris in 1989 in ''Dragon'' #141, giving that version 5 out of 5 stars.<ref name="Dragon141">{{cite journal
|title=The Role of Computers
|author=Lesser, Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk
|journal=Dragon
|issue=141
|date=January 1989
|pages=72-78}}</ref> In 2009, ''[[Game Informer]]'' put ''Tetris'' 3rd on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time", saying that "If a game could be considered ageless, its Tetris".<ref name="gi_best">{{cite journal|author=The ''Game Informer'' staff|title=The Top 200 Games of All Time|pages=44–79|issue=200|month=December|year=2009|journal=[[Game Informer]]|issn=1067-6392|oclc=27315596}}</ref>

==Awards==
Guinness World Records has awarded the franchise nine world records in the Gamer's Edition. These records include "Most Ported Video Game", and "Game With the Most Official and Unofficial Variants".

==See also==
*[[Tetris effect|''Tetris'' effect]]
*[[List of Tetris variants|List of ''Tetris'' variants]]
*[[Game Over (book)|Game Over]] — 1993 book covering Nintendo history, including interviews with Alexey Pajitnov and others regarding Tetris licensing.
*[[Lumines]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
<!--
Blockbox and other playable tetromino games that aren't authentic Tetris products don't belong here. They might belong in [[List of Tetris variants]].
-->
*[http://www.tetris.com/ Official website]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0gAgQQHFcQ Original Tetris video]
*[http://vadim.oversigma.com/Tetris.htm Original Tetris: Story and Download], Story told by [[Vadim Gerasimov]], who helped Pajitnov with ''Tetris'' early on
*''[http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000EB124-AE08-1DBD-94E2809EC5880108 Mathematicians prove Tetris is tough]'', [[Scientific American]], October 2002
*''[http://www.themindinstitute.org/docs/TetrisBrainStudy_083109.pdf Brain imaging show playing Tetris leads to both brain efficiency and thicker cortex]''
*[http://www.nindb.net/tetris_series.html ''Tetris'' series] at [http://www.nindb.net NinDB]
*[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2007/08/19/bizarro_world/ My Wife is the Tetris World Champion], story and video by ''[[The Boston Globe Magazine]]'', August 19, 2007.
*[http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-Celebrates-Tetris-039-s-Birthday-113551.shtml Google Celebrates Tetris Birthday]



The game has three modes: one and two-duck variations on the above formula, and a third mode called "[[clay pigeon shooting]]". The clay pigeons are much smaller [[sprite (computer graphics)|sprites]] than the ducks, and, in later rounds, require faster [[reaction time]] to shoot down than in comparably numbered duck modes. In ''[[Nintendo Vs. Series|Vs. Duck Hunt]]'', Clay Shooting mode appears as the second round with the first round being the two duck variation (the arcade version never had one duck).
{{Tetris}}


Throughout the game, the player is accompanied by a nameless [[bird dog|dog]]. Before every level, the dog sniffs around a grassy area, then jumps into it barking excitedly when he smells ducks. After that, he either does one of two things for a player: retrieves the ducks a player shoots and congratulates them, or laughs at them for missing (as well as for failing to advance to a higher level). Since then, the nameless dog has passed into video gaming folklore. The dog has become so infamous for his laugh that [[ScrewAttack]] rated him first in their "Top 10 Douchebags" list.<ref>http://screwattack.com/videos/Top-10-Douchebags-in-Gaming</ref>
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[[Category:Tetris|*]]
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According to [[urban legend]], the dog can be shot. While correct, it cannot be done on the NES ''Duck Hunt''.<ref>{{cite web|title='Duck Hunt'|url=http://www.nindb.net/duck-hunt.html|accessdate=2006-11-21|date=|work=[http://www.nindb.net NinDB]}}</ref> During bonus stages in ''Vs. Duck Hunt'' the dog jumps out from the grass as a distraction to the player as they try to shoot ducks, thus putting himself in the line of fire and enabling a player to inadvertently shoot him. If the dog is shot, his carefree and happy expression becomes angry and glaring, and his entire face becomes covered in black. The bonus round ends at this point, with the dog hobbling back onto the screen on a broken leg with crutches. He glares at the player and barks angrily, saying "Ouch! Shoot the ducks, not me!"
[[ar:تتريس]]
[[be-x-old:Тэтрыс]]
[[br:Tetris]]
[[ca:Tetris]]
[[cs:Tetris]]
[[da:Tetris]]
[[de:Tetris]]
[[es:Tetris]]
[[eo:Tetriso]]
[[fa:تتریس]]
[[fr:Tetris]]
[[fy:Tetris]]
[[gl:Tetris]]
[[gu:ટેટ્રીસ (રમત)]]
[[ko:테트리스]]
[[hr:Tetris]]
[[id:Tetris]]
[[is:Tetris]]
[[it:Tetris]]
[[he:טטריס]]
[[lv:Tetris]]
[[lt:Tetris]]
[[nl:Tetris]]
[[ja:テトリス]]
[[no:Tetris]]
[[nn:Tetris]]
[[pl:Tetris]]
[[pt:Tetris]]
[[ro:Tetris]]
[[ru:Тетрис]]
[[simple:Tetris]]
[[sk:Tetris]]
[[sl:Tetris]]
[[sr:Tetris]]
[[sh:Tetris]]
[[fi:Tetris]]
[[sv:Tetris]]
[[th:เตตริส]]
[[tr:Tetris]]
[[uk:Тетріс]]
[[vi:Tetris]]
[[fiu-vro:Tetris]]
[[yi:טעטריס]]
[[zh:俄羅斯方塊]]

Revision as of 23:43, 13 April 2010

This is about the video game. For the sport, see Duck hunting.
Duck Hunt
North American NES box art of Duck Hunt.
North American NES box art of Duck Hunt.
Developer(s)Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Composer(s)Kōji Kondō
Hirokazu Tanaka
Platform(s)Famicom, NES, Arcade
ReleaseJP April 21, 1984
NA October 18, 1985
EU August 15, 1987
Genre(s)Light gun shooter, First person shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, Two-Player

Duck Hunt (ダックハント) is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game console system in which players use the NES Zapper to shoot ducks on screen for points. The game was developed and published by Nintendo, and was released in 1984 in Japan. The ducks appear one or two at a time, and the player is given three shots to shoot them down.

Duck Hunt was one of the two original pack-in titles for the first release of the game system.[1] The game was not initially reviewed often, but given mediocre critical praise and positive gamer reaction.[2][3] Prior to the NES version, Nintendo also made a Duck Hunt game based on Laser Clay Shooting System released in 1976.[4]

Gameplay

Players are allowed to shoot up to three bullets at ducks. (Screenshot of NES version.)
File:ShottheDuckHunutDog.jpg
The dog being shot in Vs. Duck Hunt.

In Duck Hunt, players utilize the Nintendo Zapper Light Gun that must be plugged into their NES consoles, and attempt to shoot down either ducks or clay pigeons in mid-flight. Duck Hunt was also released as an arcade game in 1984,[5] as Vs. Duck Hunt, and is included in the PlayChoice-10 arcade console.[6]

The game has three modes: one and two-duck variations on the above formula, and a third mode called "clay pigeon shooting". The clay pigeons are much smaller sprites than the ducks, and, in later rounds, require faster reaction time to shoot down than in comparably numbered duck modes. In Vs. Duck Hunt, Clay Shooting mode appears as the second round with the first round being the two duck variation (the arcade version never had one duck).

Throughout the game, the player is accompanied by a nameless dog. Before every level, the dog sniffs around a grassy area, then jumps into it barking excitedly when he smells ducks. After that, he either does one of two things for a player: retrieves the ducks a player shoots and congratulates them, or laughs at them for missing (as well as for failing to advance to a higher level). Since then, the nameless dog has passed into video gaming folklore. The dog has become so infamous for his laugh that ScrewAttack rated him first in their "Top 10 Douchebags" list.[7]

According to urban legend, the dog can be shot. While correct, it cannot be done on the NES Duck Hunt.[8] During bonus stages in Vs. Duck Hunt the dog jumps out from the grass as a distraction to the player as they try to shoot ducks, thus putting himself in the line of fire and enabling a player to inadvertently shoot him. If the dog is shot, his carefree and happy expression becomes angry and glaring, and his entire face becomes covered in black. The bonus round ends at this point, with the dog hobbling back onto the screen on a broken leg with crutches. He glares at the player and barks angrily, saying "Ouch! Shoot the ducks, not me!"

  1. ^ "Gyromite". Gamespot. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Allgame review was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gamespot people was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Nintendo Duck Hunt (1976)
  5. ^ Duck Hunt at Arcade Vault Retrieved November 21, 2006.
  6. ^ "PlayChoice History". Playchoice. Retrieved 2006-11-21.
  7. ^ http://screwattack.com/videos/Top-10-Douchebags-in-Gaming
  8. ^ "'Duck Hunt'". NinDB. Retrieved 2006-11-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
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