Tetris (Game Boy video game)

Tetris
Developer	Nintendo R&D1
Publisher	Nintendo
Platforms	NES, Nintendo Switch
Released	Tetris Game Boy Japan: June 14, 1989 Game Boy North America: July 31, 1989 Game Boy EU, Oceania: September 28, 1990 3DS (VC) AU/EU/NA: December 22, 2011 3DS (Virtual Console) JP: December 28, 2011 Switch (Online) Worldwide: February 8, 2023 Tetris DX Game Boy Color Japan: October 21, 1998 Game Boy Color NA: November 18, 1998 Game Boy Color Europe: July 1, 1999 Game Boy Color Oceania: 1999
Added to Museum	3DS Virtual Console: March 17, 2014

Tetris is a puzzle video game for Game Boy that was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1. It is the first variation of Tetris published by Nintendo.

Development

As the Game Boy was being prepared by Nintendo for launch, Henk Rogers, founder of Bullet-Proof Software met with Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa and suggested that Tetris should be the pack-in game for the console. Rogers sought to acquire the handheld rights to Tetris for Nintendo by trying to negotiate with the computer rights holder of Tetris, Robert Stein. However, Rogers learned Stein had not secured the arcade or console rights from Elorg.

Henk Rogers, Robert Stein, and Kevin Maxwell, the son of the founder of Maxwell Communications Corporation, all traveled to the Soviet Union to negotiate directly with Nikolai Belikov, the director of Elorg for the console Tetris publishing rights.

When Henk Rogers met with Elorg director Belikov, the latter was angered upon seeing a Bullet-Proof Software cartridge of Tetris for the Family Computer console, as he had thought that only the rights to home computer versions had been signed. Belikov originally claimed Bullet-Proof Software had released the game without a contract, but Henk Rogers explained that he had acquired the rights from Atari Games, who had acquired the rights from Robert Stein.

After learning of the complex licensing agreements, Belikov sought to regain the rights and obtain more financially lucrative contracts. During this period, Rogers befriended Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov, and Pajitnov supported Rogers during the contract negotiations. Belikov proposed that Stein would not gain console and handheld licenses, the console rights sublicensed through Stein would be invalidated, and Nintendo would be granted the rights to Tetris for both consoles and handheld systems.

Elorg claimed Stein had not made all the required payments for Tetris sales and had accrued penalties for late payments. Stein signed forms for these payments but overlooked the section that defined a computer as a machine with a monitor and a keyboard.

Rogers flew to the United States so that he could get Nintendo of America to sign the contracts. Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa and its lawyer Howard Lincoln signed the contracts, which had also been signed by Belikov and Rogers.

Console rights dispute

Tengen, the console division of Atari Games, published a console port of the arcade version of Tetris for the Nintendo Entertainment System in May 1989. The Tengen version of Tetris was released for the system on a cartridge that was not licensed by Nintendo.

As the Nintendo and Tengen versions were released on the same system, this led to a complicated rights dispute. Atari Games held the rights from Mirrorsoft to publish an arcade version of Tetris. Elorg, the division under the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR that held the Tetris rights, assigned the rights to publish handheld and console versions to Nintendo.

Atari Games argued that the Nintendo Entertainment System was a computer rather than a console due to the fact that it was called the Family Computer in Japan. On June 22, 1989, a United States federal judge did not accept the argument that the Family Computer was not a console and issued an injunction blocking the sale of the Tengen version of Tetris for the Nintendo Entertainment System, affirming that the exclusive rights to publish handheld and console versions of Tetris belonged to Nintendo.

As a result, publication of the Tengen version of Tetris had to cease and existing copies of the game had to be recalled.

The fact that Nintendo was affirmed to own the exclusive handheld and console versions of Tetris allowed for the uncontested publication of the Game Boy version as a pack-in game with the North American and European releases of the console, which helped sell the system. In turn, the Game Boy helped increase the popularity of Tetris worldwide.

Releases

Tetris was released for the Game Boy in Japan on June 14, 1989, in North America on July 31, 1989, and in Europe and Oceania on September 28, 1990.

A backward-compatible enhanced port for Game Boy Color titled Tetris DX was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, in North America on November 18, 1998, in Europe on July 1, 1999, and in Oceania in 1999.

The original monochrome version of Tetris, without multiplayer support, was released for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console emulation service in North America and Europe on December 22, [[2011] and on December 28, 2011 in Japan.

The monochrome version of Tetris, with multiplayer support, was released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy emulation service on February 8, 2023.