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Episode 149: Tetris (Patreon)

Published:
2018-04-23 20:32:42
Imported:
2021-08

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Today has been kinda nuts for me, so I'm just gonna leave this here. I think the topic really speaks for itself, honestly. I mean… Tetris. Yeah. And the fact that there's still a lot of uncertainty over the finer points of the history of this extremely popular and well-documented game among four highly read game history experts really speaks to the challenges of documenting this medium!

Music here comes from the BPS Game Boy and NES versions of Tetris, Tetris 2, and Tetris Plus.

Thanks as always to Steve Lin and Frank Cifaldi for lending their time and expertise. Consider supporting the VGHF Patreon — they're doing essential work over there! — Jeremy

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Comments

Anonymous

Episode topics like this one are the reasons I love Retronauts and find the $10/mo totally worth it! The nostalgia and insights on games I both loved, hated, or never had a chance to play excites me every time a new episode appears in my feed. Thanks for the in-depth coverage, sidetracks, music, and commentary!

Zachary Adams

Just started the ep. Always very happy to hear from Frank; one day i'd love to hear you grill him on Gametap (which from the consumer end was a beautiful dream doomed to fail, but sounds like it was a nightmare for the people making it)

Zachary Adams

And on a more relevant note: my first exposure to Tetris was on a Macintosh our Scoutmaster had brought to a fundraiser to keep track of the books. After it had ended, he showed us all Tetris and let each of us have a turn. Later I saw the Amiga version on demo at a short-lived store in our mall; really all I remember is that the high score music was "Polyushka-Polye" (Meadowland), a song I'd learned in 8th grade band class. I managed to see both NES versions of the game but didn't own it until the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows, which included Tetris, the infamous SkiFree, a screen saver and several card games.

Anonymous

This episode just makes me realize that an episode on Henk Rogers in general would be amazing. He's one of the most fascinating figures in game history and could easily fill an hour.

Phillip

I preferred Tengen Tetris over Nintendo's version mostly because of the two player mode, why their version didn't have a two player mode on NES didn't make any sense. Though also I remember the color palette for one of the levels (5 or 6?) really hurt my eyes and always caused me to make mistakes. I remember playing a lot of The New Tetris on N64, was great to have a 4 player Tetris. I never really liked Dr. Mario either, especially as a single player game, but as a two player game it has its charms. Nintendo made a huge mistake when they reskinned Panel de Pon and released it as Tetris Attack, despite the game having absolutley nothing to do with Tetris, since they no longer have a Tetris license they can't re-release the game, so while the Super Famicom mini got Panel de Pon, we didn't get Tetris Attack. Jeremy seemed unsure about Puyo Puyo Tetris domestic release, but it is available on PS4 in the US, but only on a physical disc. There must be some licensing nonsense due to the really bad Ubisoft Tetris already on PS4 digitally, they couldn't release another digital Tetris, which was very frustrating and also why I've barely played the game, it would be much easier to just have it available to boot up instead of having to dig out the disc just to play. You talked about most of the attempts to make "tetris-like" games failing (such as Dr. Mario and Columns, and not even mentioning Yoshi), but the few do stand out are really great. I really wish Nintendo would do more with Panel de Pon, I wasn't even aware there was a N64 one because not being a Pokemon fan, I had no reason to ever look at Pokemon Puzzle League. Puyo Puyo is also excellent, though very difficult and amazing to watch high level play, which takes a lot of planning and setting up combos. The one game worth a mention is Super Puzzle Fighter II, which is actually a really well designed game.

Anonymous

Tetris is probably the best single player falling block game, but not for playing against other people. Puzzle League Panel de Pon / Tetris Attack is the best head to head game; is chains and combos are more accessible than other games, and its mechanic of how the garbage blocks you send to your opponent then provide the ammo for a mighty retribution is unique, and gives a match a terrific see-saw effect. For 4 players, Dr. Mario is the thing - other families do Scrabble, mine does Dr. Mario. The chains are reasonably easy, and the rules for who gets the resulting garbage blocks are weird but workable. It is a shame that Nintendo now says "multiplayer Dr. Mario consists of 4 people on one board with Wii pointer hands", because the lengths my folks have to go to play this (either a GC and an import loader for the Japanese port, or the N64 itself) are silly.

Anonymous

You guys should watch The Gaming Historian's one-hour video on the history of Tetris and the battle to have the game published in the west. <a href="https://youtu.be/_fQtxKmgJC8." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/_fQtxKmgJC8.</a> I enjoyed this latest Retronauts episode and all of the work you guys did to put it together, but I have to admit, I cringed several times in this episode because there were several "I don't know" points regarding the history. I kept wanting to yell "watch Gaming Historian!!" ;) But I digress. Retronauts is awesome. Keep up the good work