Tetris

Tetris is the falling-block puzzle that defined a genre and probably the most-played video game in human history. Created in 1984 by Soviet computer scientist Alexey Pajitnov at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, it has been sold or distributed on virtually every game platform ever made — over 520 million copies of paid versions, plus billions of free plays. Seven tetromino shapes (I, O, T, S, Z, L, J) fall from the top of a 10-wide playfield; rotate and shift them to complete horizontal lines, which then clear; survive as long as you can while the speed climbs.

How to play

• Left / Right arrows — shift the falling tetromino horizontally.
• Up arrow — rotate clockwise.
• Down arrow — soft drop (move down faster while held).
• Space — start a game, then hard drop (slam the piece to the bottom instantly).
• Esc — end the current game.
• On touch screens — tap the board to start or rotate, drag left or right to move, drag down to soft drop, and flick down quickly to hard drop.
• Fill a complete horizontal row to clear it. Multiple rows clear simultaneously for bonus points.
• The panel beside the well shows the next piece, your score and rows cleared. The fall speed creeps up with every row you clear.
• Game ends when a new piece has no room to enter the playfield.

Scoring in this version

• Each piece that lands — 10 points
• Single (1 line) — 100
• Double (2 lines) — 200
• Triple (3 lines) — 400
• Tetris (4 lines, using the I-piece) — 800
• There are no levels, T-Spin bonuses or back-to-back bonuses here. Modern guideline games score differently (Single 100, Double 300, Triple 500, Tetris 800, all × level, plus T-Spin and back-to-back bonuses).

Beginner strategy

• Keep the stack flat. Tall single columns are tetromino traps — they limit where future pieces can land. A flat, even surface gives you placement flexibility.
• Build for line clears, not for safety. Filling rows clears them. Stacking pieces neatly without clearing just brings the ceiling down faster.
• Don’t fear the right column. Beginners over-protect column 10 (saving for the I-piece Tetris). Holes you leave waiting for that I-piece often kill you first. Take available doubles and triples.
• Hard drop sparingly at high levels. Hard drop locks instantly. Slow falling pieces let you slide them into corners; hard drop forfeits that flexibility.
• Watch the Next piece. This version previews one piece ahead (modern Tetris shows 3-7). Plan for it, not just the current one.
• Check where each piece appears. Here new pieces enter at a random column, not always the middle, so look before you start steering.

Intermediate strategy

• Reserve column 10 for I-pieces, but only if your stack is otherwise clean. A 4-row well on the right side is the classic Tetris setup — when the I-piece arrives, slot it in for 800 points.
• Know the T-spin. In modern guideline games, rotating a T-piece into a slot that’s only reachable by rotation (the standard “T-slot”) counts as a T-Spin and scores a big bonus. This version has no T-Spin bonus.
• No Hold here. Modern Tetris lets you “Hold” the current piece for later. This version doesn’t, so keep a spot ready for awkward S and Z pieces instead.
• Recognize danger heights. Once the stack reaches the top 4 rows, you’re in survival mode. Stop optimizing for points; start clearing every line you can to bring the stack back down.
• Multi-line clears compound. A Tetris (800) is worth twice as much as four Singles (400). Set up scoring opportunities, don’t just clear linearly.

Advanced strategy

• Rotation has no wall kicks here. Modern Tetris uses SRS (Super Rotation System) “wall kicks”, trying several offset positions if a rotation collides. In this version a rotation that would overlap a wall or a block simply doesn’t happen, so rotate before you push a piece against the side.
• Speed control. The drop speed starts at one row every 0.6 seconds and gets faster with every row you clear, reaching its top speed after 100 rows. Late in a game, decide on a spot early and hard drop.
• Stack from the bottom. Never leave gaps under blocks — they become holes you have to dig down to. If you must leave one, keep the rows above it easy to clear.
• T-Spin Doubles in battle modes. In multiplayer Tetris, a T-Spin Double clears two lines beneath an existing stack and sends “garbage” rows to your opponent.
• Perfect Clear (All Clear). In modern guideline games, clearing the entire playfield to zero blocks gives a large bonus, and some high-level players use opening patterns built to get one.

History and notable moments

• 1984 — Soviet Union: Pajitnov writes Tetris in Pascal on an Elektronika 60 computer. It spreads through Soviet institutions before reaching the West.
• 1989 — Game Boy: Tetris ships bundled with the original Game Boy. Nintendo sells 35 million units of the Game Boy version alone — the moment Tetris becomes a worldwide phenomenon.
• 1988-89 — the rights battle: console and handheld rights were fought over by Elorg (the Soviet state agency that held them), Atari’s Tengen and Nintendo, which ended with Nintendo winning in court. Pajitnov regained his rights in 1996 and co-founded The Tetris Company, which now licenses all official Tetris.
• 1994 — “Tetris effect” named: the term for the game’s imagery lingering in thoughts and dreams after long play appeared in Wired in 1994, and sleep researchers later studied it.
• December 2023 — first human “beats” Tetris: 13-year-old Willis Gibson played NES Tetris until the game crashed at level 157, the first human to do so. Before that, only an AI program had got there.

Common mistakes

• Building too high before clearing. Beginners stack tetrominoes neatly without ever clearing — then panic when the top approaches.
• Creating unreachable holes. Dropping an L or J without considering rotation often leaves a single-block gap underneath. That row can’t clear until you dig back down to the hole.
• Ignoring the Next piece. Treating each piece as an independent decision instead of planning combinations.
• Trying for a Tetris when one isn’t possible. If your right-most column is blocked, the I-piece can’t slot there. Take the available clears.

Tetris variants worth knowing

• Tetris 99 — 99-player battle royale (Nintendo Switch, 2019). Sends garbage to other players when you clear lines.
• Tetris Effect: Connected — musical/visual Tetris by Mizuguchi Tetsuya. Pieces sync to music. Praised for accessibility and meditative pacing.
• Puyo Puyo Tetris — crossover with the Puyo Puyo color-match game.
• NES Tetris — the 1989 NES version, still actively competed at the Classic Tetris World Championship. No hold piece, no SRS, brutal at level 19+.

FAQ

• Q: How many tetromino shapes are there? A: Seven — I, O, T, S, Z, L, J. The bag system in modern Tetris guarantees one of each every 7 pieces in random order. This version draws from a bigger bag of 28 pieces (four of each), so the same piece can turn up several times in a row.
• Q: What’s the maximum score? A: There’s no cap in this version. The score counter shows five digits and adds a sixth once you pass 99,999. NES Tetris stops counting at 999,999, which players call a “max-out”.
• Q: Is the I-piece always vertical for a Tetris? A: The I-piece can be horizontal (4 wide, 1 tall) or vertical (1 wide, 4 tall). For a 4-line Tetris you place it vertically into a 4-deep well.
• Q: What’s a T-spin? A: Rotating a T-piece into a slot it couldn’t reach by horizontal movement. Modern guideline games detect this and award bonus points for it. This version doesn’t score T-spins.

For other puzzle games, try 2048, Block Puzzle, Minesweeper, or Sudoku.