What is "tetris"

Tetris (, pronounced ) is a tile-matching puzzle video game, originally designed and programmed by Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- (all of the game's pieces contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.

Tetris was the first entertainment software to be exported from the USSR to the US, where it was published by Spectrum HoloByte for Commodore 64 and IBM PC. The Tetris game is a popular use of tetrominoes, the four-element special case of polyominoes. Polyominoes have been used in popular puzzles since at least 1907, and the name was 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 many variants) is available for nearly every video game console and computer operating system, as well as on devices such as graphing calculators, mobile phones, portable media players, PDAs, Network music players and even as an Easter egg on non-media products like oscilloscopes. It has even inspired Tetris serving dishes and been played on the sides of various buildings.

While versions of Tetris were sold for a range of 1980s home computer platforms as well as arcades, it was the hugely successful handheld version for the Game Boy launched in 1989 that established 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 second place in IGN's "100 Greatest Video Games of All Time". In January 2010, it was announced that the Tetris franchise had sold more than 170 million copies, approximately 70 million physical copies and over 100 million copies for cell phones, making it the best selling paid-downloaded game of all time. On 14 March 2014, The Tetris Company announced a deal to bring Tetris to two of the latest hardware platforms, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, in partnership with Ubisoft (publishing) and SoMa Play (development), to coincide with the franchise's 30th anniversary.

1. redirect Tetris

Tetris (styled TETЯIS) is a puzzle game developed by Atari Games and originally released for arcades in 1988. Based on Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris, Atari's version features the same gameplay as the computer editions of the game, as players must stack differently shaped falling blocks to form and eliminate horizontal lines from the playing field. The game features several difficulty levels and two-player simultaneous play.

Atari later ported the game to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and released an unlicensed NES version in 1989 under its Tengen brand. However, there were issues with the title's publishing rights. After much legal wrangling, Nintendo itself ended up with the rights to publish console versions of Tetris, leaving Atari with only the rights to arcade versions. As a result, the Tengen game was only on the shelf for four weeks before Atari was legally required to recall the game and destroy any remaining inventory of its NES version.

Nintendo produced its own version for the Game Boy as well as the NES. Both versions were commercially successful and Nintendo held the Tetris license for many years. With less than 100,000 copies known to exist, the Tengen release has since become a collector's item, due to its short time on the market. Various publications have since noted that Tengen's Tetris was in some ways superior to the official NES release, especially since the Tengen game featured a two-player simultaneous mode not available in Nintendo's game.

Tetris is the Soviet tile-matching puzzle video game released in June 1984.

Tetris may also refer to other variations of the 1984 game:

• Tetris (Atari), 1988 version developed by Atari Games, released for arcade and the NES
• Tetris (Game Boy), 1989 version released for the Game Boy
• Tetris (Electronic Arts), 2006 version released by Electronic Arts for multiple platforms
• Tetris (Nintendo 3DS), 2011 version also known as Tetris: Axis, released for the Nintendo 3DS

is a puzzle video game for the Game Boy released in 1989. It is a portable version of Alexey Pajitnov's original Tetris and it was bundled in the North American and European releases of the Game Boy itself. It was the first game compatible with the Game Link Cable, a pack-in accessory that allowed two Game Boys to link together for multiplayer purposes. A colorized remake of the game was released on the Game Boy Color entitled . A Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console version of Tetris was released in December 2011, and lacks the multiplayer functionality. It was delisted from the Nintendo eShop after December 31, 2014.

Tetris is a puzzle video game developed by EA Mobile and published by Electronic Arts for the iOS, Android, BlackBerry OS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and Windows Phone. It was first released on September 12, 2006. The game featured gameplay like other Tetris titles, but with a new soundtrack.

The game had reached 100 million paid downloads by 2010, at a price of $0.99 per download. As of 2014, it reached 425 million paid downloads, making it the best-selling paid mobile game of all time.