Tetris: Tengen (NES)

Tetris

Platform: NES Year: 1988 Developer: Tengen Buy: Amazon

This page is for the NES game developed by Tengen, for other releases see Tetris.

Tetris created a rights war when it was released. Several different companies attempted to secure publishing rights to various consoles, and due to some miscommunication, Atari (owners of Tengen) thought they had the rights to publish Tetris on the NES. After selling a great number of copies, they found out that they didn't own the rights and they had to pull the remaining copies off the shelf. There was a licensed version planned but never released. This is quite a shame because the Tengen version of Tetris is considerably better then the later Nintendo version. Tengen's version has split-screen multi-player, 2 player versus mode, computer versus mode, and co-op mode.

The game was previously released for the Vs System; Nintendo's series of arcade versions of NES games. It has some distinctive differences from the final NES game that Tengen released.

Screenshots

The title screen. Playing head-to-head.

This page needs more screenshots.

Music

The Tengen version of Tetris has wonderful music. The music was taken directly from the arcade version which was also developed by Atari and composed by Brad Fuller. The NES version adds the polish of a percussion part for some of the tracks. Like the later Nintendo release, some Traditional Russian tunes are used including Kalinka, Troika, and Katyusha. This gives the game a more authentic Russian feel and adds character. These songs were also used in the Bullet-Proof Software versions, and are the same exact arrangements. Interestingly, most of the bass intro to Troika was omitted from the arcade version. However, its entirety was used in the BPS version. According to Brad, he both wrote and adapted Russian-sounding themes to fit with the atmosphere of the game.

The music was written in Music-V Language. Brad said that the song Loginska was written in honor of the game's programmer Ed Logg and Bradinsky was named after himself. The song Kalinka in-game is misspelled as Karinka. The 9th track, Victory is not used in this game. It originally played in the arcade version when a round was cleared. The song Loginska uses motifs from the Slovak folk song Tancuj, Tancuj, Tancuj, Vykrúcaj!

The VS version of the game has a few differences, and one of the NES prototypes has a song that was never used. These should be recorded and added onto the normal soundtrack.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Introduction	Brad Fuller	Brad Fuller	0:18		Download
02	Loginska	Brad Fuller	Brad Fuller	3:29		Download
03	Bradinsky	Brad Fuller	Brad Fuller	2:29		Download
04	Kalinka	Ivan Larionov	Brad Fuller	0:52		Download
05	Troika	Traditional	Brad Fuller	2:11		Download
06	End of Stage	Brad Fuller	Brad Fuller	0:02		Download
07	Katyusha	Matvei Blanter	Brad Fuller	0:31		Download
08	Game Over	Brad Fuller	Brad Fuller	0:02		Download
09	Victory	Brad Fuller	Brad Fuller	0:03		Download

Credits

• Ripper: wombatman
• Recorder: Doommaster1994
• Game Credits:
  • Audio By: Brad Fuller
  • Not Credited Composer: Matvei Blanter
  • Not Credited Composer: Ivan Larionov
  • Not Credited Composer: Traditional

(Source)

Interestingly, the game's credits are scattered throughout the menus. The audio credit is aptly shown on the music selection screen.

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Ripping NES music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.

Releases

USA Title: Tetris Platform: VS Released: 1988-??-?? Publisher: Tengen     USA Title: Tetris Platform: NES Released: 1988-??-?? Publisher: Tengen

Links

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris - Wikipedia.
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/arcade/569162-vs-tetris/data - GameFAQs (VS).
• gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/587696-tetris-tengen - GameFAQs (NES).