Tetris (NES, Nintendo)

Nintendo's Tetris for the NES is the system's third port of the famous puzzle game created by Alexey Pajitnov, following those of Bullet-Proof Software's Famicom port and Tengen's unlicensed NES port, and is by far the most well-known of the three.

In recent years, this particular version of Tetris is the go-to version used in competitive play, with the Classic Tetris World Championship hosting competitions since 2010. Players have also discovered new ways of playing, such as rolling the back of the controller to move Tetrominoes faster,⁸ a playstyle that ultimately resulted in a 13-year-old player "beating the game" by crashing the game at Level 157.⁹

A classic mode was included in Tetris Effectː Connected which is based on this version of Tetris, and in 2024 the game would be added as part of the Nintendo Classics library for Nintendo Switch Online.

Sub-Pages#

Prerelease Info Bugs

Unused Sprites#

An airplane and helicopter can be found among the ending sprites. These aren't used in any of the endings of the game.

They do have valid sprite indices, and can be made to appear via hacking. To see the airplane, use Game Genie code AUYZLY (US version) or ALAXSA (European version) and finish a Level 0 B-Type game. To see the helicopter, use the code TOYZLY (US version) or TPAXSA (European version) instead. The helicopter skids are cut off in-game due to a programming error and are thus unused, but the main and tail rotors are nicely animated.

To do: When using the code TOYZLY or TPAXSA above, the palette of the helicopter does not match the image above.

Unused Music#

The first track in the NSF is unused, and was presumably intended for the title screen (which is normally silent). It can be heard by setting RAM address $6F5 to 01 at any time. Alternately, use Game Genie code PEIAZI (US version) or PESAZI (European version) to replace music type 1 with this track.

The European/Asia version doesn't play the song correctly, meaning the notes go out of sync. In particular, the drum track is faster than it should be.

Two-Player Mode#

Setting RAM address $BE to 02 (or using Game Genie code ZALAPP) activates an unfinished two-player competitive mode, a rather surprising omission that was present in Tengen's rendition. The basic rules are in place and garbage attacks are fully implemented, but there are numerous issues:

Leftover Demo Recording Code#

The game has an unused subroutine that records the player's input for use in the gameplay demo. This subroutine is activated when $00D0 in RAM is set to $FF. However, since the game tries to write the captured inputs directly to ROM ($DD00-$DEFF), it doesn't work correctly on actual NES hardware or unmodified emulators. This area may have been mapped to PRG-RAM during development, similar to Dr. Mario.

Regional Differences#

European/Asia Version#

Speed Differences#

The European/Asia version changes the speed of Tetrominoes to account for the PAL video standard. The drop speed is the number of frames it takes for the tetromino to fall.

Cheat Codes#

The European/Asia version has cheats not present in the North American version. To activate the cheats, hold Select while a piece is landing. In A-Type, you get 10,000 points. In B-Type, you get "Success" and instantly finish the level.

Revisional Differences#

3-in-1 Super Mario Bros. / Tetris / Nintendo World Cup#

An official multicart released exclusively in Europe and Australia featuring Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Nintendo World Cup.

This release of Tetris is nearly identical to the original European/Asia version, with one change.

Tetris	3-in-1 Super Mario Bros. / Tetris / Nintendo World Cup

The high score table in A-Type changes the name for the default top score from "HOWARD" to "------". This may have been because "Howard" referred to Nintendo of America consultant Howard Phillips, who had left the company in 1991.

Nintendo World Championships 1990#

Tetris	Nintendo World Championships 1990

The "PUSH START" text is removed from the title screen.

Additionally, pressing Start to start the game doesn't work; the game instead starts by itself after a few seconds.

• The game automatically starts in Type-A at Level 0.
• Levels increase every 5 lines cleared instead of every 10 lines.
• The RNG is seeded based on the score achieved in Super Mario Bros..
• If the player tops out; the game stops and cannot be restarted.

References#