{"id":2044501,"date":"2026-07-13T18:50:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2044501"},"modified":"2026-07-13T18:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:50:33","slug":"it-turns-out-that-theres-way-way-more-to-know-about-tetris-than-you-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2044501","title":{"rendered":"It Turns Out That There\u2019s Way, Way More to Know About \u2018Tetris\u2019 Than You Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tetris-1200&#215;675.png&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"post-2000784941 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-culture tag-acerola tag-tetris\">\n<div class=\"entry-content prose dark:prose-invert lg:prose-xl prose-main dark:prose-main\">\n<p>We all know <em>Tetris<\/em>. Or, at least, we think we do. But while the core concept of the game hasn\u2019t changed over the years, the implementation of that concept has a surprisingly rich history, starting with the game\u2019s original release in the West\u2014for MS-DOS, in January 1988\u2014and continuing right through to the bewildering assortment of versions available today. This history is explored in minute detail during the newest video from YouTuber Garrett \u201cAcerola\u201d Gunnell, who usually makes (excellent) content about graphics programming. This video is something different for his channel, and it\u2019s both minutely detailed and impressively comprehensive.<\/p>\n<div class=\"not-prose video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Entire History Of TETRIS Game Design\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mGuYUEuVDYc?feature=oembed\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Watching this video is a strange experience in a personal sense because the version I played most was the original DOS version from the 1980s. I\u2019ve devoted a few idle minutes to various versions in the decade since, but they all seems basically the same\u2014which made sense, because the original was pretty much perfect on arrival. Wasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>Nope, says Gunnell. And he\u2019s right, too. Once he points out the flaws of the 1980s version, they seem glaring and inexplicable: you can\u2019t rotate the block until it\u2019s fallen a couple of rows, because the game won\u2019t allow it to \u201ccollide\u201d with the top of the screen. If you choose to drop the block currently in play, it\u2019ll plummet straight to the bottom of the playfield (referred to as a \u201chard drop\u201d. ) The UI kinda sucks. And so on.<\/p>\n<p>So how has <em>Tetris<\/em> changed in the nearly four decades since? It\u2019s that question that Gunnell sets out to answer over the course of the three-hours-and-40-odd minutes of his video\u2014recreating various key versions in Godot as he goes\u2014and the answer is surprisingly nuanced. While you might assume that every new version seems to come with some new gimmick or other, that\u2019s not really the case. There have certainly been attempts to add entirely new gameplay modes or features\u2014take <em>Tetris Battle Gaiden<\/em>, for example, which is a multiplayer game featuring various characters that can cast their own individual set of spells to affect the gameplay, or <em>Tetris II<\/em>, with its various levels and challenges. (Inevitably, there\u2019s even something called <em>Sextris<\/em>, but it\u2019s honestly so lame that it doesn\u2019t even really qualify as being NSFW.)<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not to say that there haven\u2019t been key innovations over the years; it\u2019s just that they\u2019re more subtle improvements than radical overhauls. The game\u2019s evolution has come mostly via a process of slow iteration on the minutiae of the game\u2019s deceptively simple mechanics: the extension of the playfield off the top of the screen to allow blocks to rotate immediately; the advent of the \u201cwall kick\u201d; the replacement of the hard drop with a more progressive, forgiving alternative.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that these minutiae are the real Tetris rabbit hole. Did you know that there are multiple rotation systems used by various versions, and that these fall into rough lineages based on which company\u2019s implementation the version is based on? Or that the simple question of how the next piece is chosen\u2014randomly, from a pool, or some more complex approach\u2014has caused all manner of angst? Neither did I, and it\u2019s fascinating to learn how much thought has gone into these questions over the years.<\/p>\n<p>The only thing missing from the video is the game\u2019s sequel. I don\u2019t mean Tetris 2, a game almost indistinguishable from Tetris, or any of the other games that billed themselves as a sequel in some sense or other; I mean Tetris creator Alexei Pajinitov\u2019s actual follow-up project, the almost-forgotten pseudo-3D game <em>Welltris<\/em>, which placed four <em>Tetris<\/em> fields on the four sides of a rectangular well, and was just as fiendishly addictive as its predecessor. I\u2019ve never understood why it didn\u2019t catch on like Tetris did\u2014but if there\u2019s a story there, it\u2019ll have to wait for this video\u2019s sequel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"entry-content prose dark:prose-invert lg:prose-xl prose-main dark:prose-main\">\n<p>We all know <em>Tetris<\/em>. Or, at least, we think we do. But while the core concept of the game hasn\u2019t changed over the years, the implementation of that concept has a surprisingly rich history, starting with the game\u2019s original release in the West\u2014for MS-DOS, in January 1988\u2014and continuing right through to the bewildering assortment of versions available today. This history is explored in minute detail during the newest video from YouTuber Garrett \u201cAcerola\u201d Gunnell, who usually makes (excellent) content about graphics programming. This video is something different for his channel, and it\u2019s both minutely detailed and impressively comprehensive.<\/p>\n<div class=\"not-prose video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Entire History Of TETRIS Game Design\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mGuYUEuVDYc?feature=oembed\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Watching this video is a strange experience in a personal sense because the version I played most was the original DOS version from the 1980s. I\u2019ve devoted a few idle minutes to various versions in the decade since, but they all seems basically the same\u2014which made sense, because the original was pretty much perfect on arrival. Wasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n<p>Nope, says Gunnell. And he\u2019s right, too. Once he points out the flaws of the 1980s version, they seem glaring and inexplicable: you can\u2019t rotate the block until it\u2019s fallen a couple of rows, because the game won\u2019t allow it to \u201ccollide\u201d with the top of the screen. If you choose to drop the block currently in play, it\u2019ll plummet straight to the bottom of the playfield (referred to as a \u201chard drop\u201d. ) The UI kinda sucks. And so on.<\/p>\n<p>So how has <em>Tetris<\/em> changed in the nearly four decades since? It\u2019s that question that Gunnell sets out to answer over the course of the three-hours-and-40-odd minutes of his video\u2014recreating various key versions in Godot as he goes\u2014and the answer is surprisingly nuanced. While you might assume that every new version seems to come with some new gimmick or other, that\u2019s not really the case. There have certainly been attempts to add entirely new gameplay modes or features\u2014take <em>Tetris Battle Gaiden<\/em>, for example, which is a multiplayer game featuring various characters that can cast their own individual set of spells to affect the gameplay, or <em>Tetris II<\/em>, with its various levels and challenges. (Inevitably, there\u2019s even something called <em>Sextris<\/em>, but it\u2019s honestly so lame that it doesn\u2019t even really qualify as being NSFW.)<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not to say that there haven\u2019t been key innovations over the years; it\u2019s just that they\u2019re more subtle improvements than radical overhauls. The game\u2019s evolution has come mostly via a process of slow iteration on the minutiae of the game\u2019s deceptively simple mechanics: the extension of the playfield off the top of the screen to allow blocks to rotate immediately; the advent of the \u201cwall kick\u201d; the replacement of the hard drop with a more progressive, forgiving alternative.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that these minutiae are the real Tetris rabbit hole. Did you know that there are multiple rotation systems used by various versions, and that these fall into rough lineages based on which company\u2019s implementation the version is based on? Or that the simple question of how the next piece is chosen\u2014randomly, from a pool, or some more complex approach\u2014has caused all manner of angst? Neither did I, and it\u2019s fascinating to learn how much thought has gone into these questions over the years.<\/p>\n<p>The only thing missing from the video is the game\u2019s sequel. I don\u2019t mean Tetris 2, a game almost indistinguishable from Tetris, or any of the other games that billed themselves as a sequel in some sense or other; I mean Tetris creator Alexei Pajinitov\u2019s actual follow-up project, the almost-forgotten pseudo-3D game <em>Welltris<\/em>, which placed four <em>Tetris<\/em> fields on the four sides of a rectangular well, and was just as fiendishly addictive as its predecessor. I\u2019ve never understood why it didn\u2019t catch on like Tetris did\u2014but if there\u2019s a story there, it\u2019ll have to wait for this video\u2019s sequel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/it-turns-out-that-theres-way-way-more-to-know-about-tetris-than-you-thought-2000784941&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tetris-1200&#215;675.png&#8221;] We all know Tetris. Or, at least, we think we do. But while the core concept of the game hasn\u2019t changed over the years, the implementation of that concept has a surprisingly rich history, starting with the game\u2019s original release in the West\u2014for MS-DOS, in January 1988\u2014and continuing right through to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-2044501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2044501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2044501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2044501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2044501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}