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Tetris·Video Games
Tetris
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Video Games
1 players
controller, monitor
8 essential rules
Tetris is a falling-block puzzle game created by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. Seven piece shapes — tetrominoes — fall into a rectangular well, and the player rotates and positions each one to complete horizontal lines, which then clear.
Marathon / endless: play until top out.; Sprint: clear 40 lines as fast as possible.; Ultra: maximise score in a fixed time.
A piece spawns at the top and falls at the current gravity speed.; Move and rotate it; a soft drop speeds descent, a hard drop places it instantly.; Once it lands and locks, any completed lines clear and the next piece spawns.
The Guideline defines the Super Rotation System, in which a rotation blocked by a wall or the stack is retried at offset positions — a wall kick. This is what makes T-spins possible and is the clearest single difference from classic-era versions.
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Playfield: a well conventionally 10 cells wide and 20 or more visible rows tall.; Seven tetrominoes: I, O, T, S, Z, J and L, each four cells.; Controls: move left and right, soft drop, hard drop, rotate clockwise and anticlockwise, and hold.
Complete horizontal lines to clear them and keep the stack from reaching the top of the well. Tetris has no win condition in its endless form — play continues until the stack tops out, so the objective is to maximise score and survive rising speed.
The Guideline defines the Super Rotation System, in which a rotation blocked by a wall or the stack is retried at offset positions — a wall kick. This is what makes T-spins possible and is the clearest single difference from classic-era versions.
In sprint modes the metric is time rather than score, and in versus modes it is lines sent.
There is no sanctioning federation. Competitive play is organised by event, and the rules that matter are the ones each event fixes: Which version: classic NES play and Guideline-era play are effectively different games. Events specify the exact build.; Randomiser: the 7-bag is standard under the...