Tetris (found early build of NES game by Tengen; 1988)

Tengen Tetris cover art with official Nintendo seal and NES logo

Status: Found

Date found: 1 Jan 2022

Found by: Hidden Palace

Tetris, is falling blocks puzzle game that everyone should know, was developed by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984.

In June 1986, Robert Stein, president of Andromeda Software, acquired the worldwide distribution rights to Tetris directly from Pajitnov. He later sold the development rights to Tetris, excluding arcades and handhelds, to Mirrorsoft in the European market and to Spectrum HoloByte in the US market. In May 1988, Stein signed a development license agreement with Elorg (Elektronorgtechnica, a state-owned organization that controlled the import and export of hardware and software in the Soviet Union), which owned the copyright to Tetris^[1]. That same month, Atari Games and its subsidiary Tengen acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to Tetris from Mirrorsoft. Atari released Tetris in arcades that same year, and in May 1989 Tengen released its arcade NES port.

However, a legal battle ensued between Tengen and Nintendo over this NES port of Tetris. This case has become a famous event in the history of video games.

Overview

Tengen, sued Nintendo and Nintendo of America for antitrust violations on April 18, 1989, after Nintendo obtained worldwide exclusive rights to Tetris. Tengen claimed that it had acquired worldwide exclusivity from Mirrorsoft, which distributed Tetris in the European market, in May 1988. Pajitnov and Elorg stood on Nintendo's side and explained that Tetris did not belong to Mirrorsoft and that only Andromeda Software had the license to develop Tetris outside of Nintendo.
Howard Lincoln, then vice president of Nintendo of America, also insisted that Nintendo was careful in securing the rights to Tetris and that it secured the rights directly from Pajitnov and Elorg and not through other unauthorized companies, as Tengen did^[2].

As a result, this lawsuit was not allowed and Nintendo won the case. In June 1989, Tengen's Tetris was ordered to cease release, existing copies of the game had to be destroyed, and 268,000 Tetris cartridges were recalled.

Prototype

Jason Wilson (DreamTR), a collector of video game prototypes, owned a Tengen Tetris prototype and posted a photo of it on Photobucket. The screens of the prototype were different from the final version, similar to those developed by Atari for the Vs. System. Interestingly, the game had a Nintendo copyright notice on it that read "Licensed by Nintendo of America Inc." In addition, a Mirrorsoft copyright notice was also present at the top of it, stating "Licensed by Mirrorsoft ltd."^[3]

Tengen was originally created because the Atari name was not available when third parties entered the NES market. Nintendo imposed strict licensing conditions on Tengen, limiting them to five games per year and prohibiting them from developing games for other home consoles for two years. Tengen requested that the conditions be relaxed, but was denied, and on December 21, 1987, the company agreed to Nintendo's terms. The company then released three games under Nintendo's license in 1988, R.B.I. Baseball, Gauntlet, and Pac-Man^[4]. And Tetris was also planned to be released following the three games.

On September 8th, 2012, on the NintendoAge message board, a person named Martin Alessi (retroplayer) reported that he had found a prototype of Tengen's Tetris in his basement^[5]. Alessi says the prototype was a review copy sent to him in the late 80s when he worked for Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine. On January 11th, 2013, Alessi sold the prototype on the auction website GameGavel.com^[6], where the bidding ended on January 20 at $1500, but did not reach the auction minimum and was not sold^[7].

Availability

The prototypes have remained online and unsurfaced since they were found, but on January 1, 2022, Hidden Palace celebrated the New Year in grand style by releasing a variety of game prototypes, including some that had never been released. Among them were four prototypes of Tengen's Tetris, dumped by Steve Lin, finally ready for release^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11].