The Sordid Story of Atari's Tetris Arcade Game - What A Beautiful Machine

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[@LyonsArcade]

Get your very own Tiny Arcade Tetris Here: amzn.to/2Hut7aZ ANYTHING! you buy on Amazon after clicking that link doesn't raise your prices but gives us a referral tip, thank you!

[@jasongoodacre]

Your story is incorrect. The Russians NEVER sold the Arcade rights. They only sold PC computer systems rights. Atari stole Tetris fraudulently claiming that they had any rights. They had zero rights to Tetris. They got what they deserved, got sued and went broke. Good riddance Atari.

[@InMyHead]

Ok I'm gonna say it, even if someone else already has or doesn't, the first 20 minutes of this video was GOLD to me. I vote for more history lesson type videos from you!

[@LyonsArcade]

Glad you enjoyed it, see you on the next video!

[@markselvin2230]

In My Head agreed👍

[@Ajaxaxxess]

Got a fresh cup of coffee. Could listen to this type of stuff all morning.

[@jameskenney5623]

I have extremely fond memories of pooping and playing Gameboy Tetris. Our Gameboy lived on the back of our toilette

[@heartland96a]

I believe it's THE game that has no end . It just gets faster and harder till you can't keep the screen from filling and you loose. At least in the arcade version

[@LyonsArcade]

Such a classic! I've never got far enough to know if it ends :)

[@heartland96a]

@@LyonsArcade I think there was something on the internet recently about it.

[@gregoryschmidt1233]

I found a couple of references saying that the game "ends" at 999,999. Not sure exactly what that means, as in is there a "kill screen", or something like that. Edit - found a YT video where someone made a bot to play the game. It goes to 999,999 and then stops scoring any more points. The game play continues, but the graphics get more and more glitchy.

[@chrisfreemesser]

I was a huge Atari fanboi back in the 1980s and remember definitely playing the arcade version of Tetris at the local arcade my friends and I often went to. Important thing to note is that by 1985 the Atari that released the 2600 (Atari Inc.) no longer existed...the home division was sold to Jack Tramiel in 1984 and became Atari Corp while the arcade division was spun off and became Atari Games. I remember the whole Tengen/reverse engineering of the NES thing...it was a pretty impressive feat for them at the time!

[@LyonsArcade]

I didn't realize they had been sold that early, that is wild! I knew they lost a ton of money in 82 83 84 but I didn't know they actually sold out by then. Kind of sad if you think about it...

[@chrisfreemesser]

@@LyonsArcade Super sad...whole industry was riding high in '82, most companies were FUBAR a year later. As a 13-year old kid it was great, as the stores had walls full of carts marked down from $29.99 to like $3.99! Even picked up an Intellivision 2 with voice module brand new for like $20. Closest I've ever come to feeling true bliss! 😂

[@AwesomeGames56]

Came by about a month ago and absolutely loved the layout of the store! You guys were super nice and I was able to find some things there that most of my local shops don’t carry or keep when they buy stuff off of the locals. I drove the 4 hours to see ya, and then visited that pizza place right behind your shop which was pretty good itself too. Definitely worth the trip to see these guys if you’re in the area and want to pick up some games.

[@LyonsArcade]

Glad you made it by, come on back the next time you get a day free for a road trip :) We get different stuff in all the time, we're the only place around here that buys older games.

[@Stawnish83]

Lucky you have Tetris arcade. That's my favorite arcade game playing back in the days

[@LyonsArcade]

It's very fun for sure! Thanks for watching Stawnish!

[@MaxellAdGuy]

I love the fact that Activision started the trend of crediting Developers for console games. Great story btw

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Bill, we appreciate it!

[@dastardlyman]

your channel is amazing. you do the history. you play the games. you do the fault findings and the fixings. wonderful

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Dastardlyman, we appreciate you checking us out :) We'll see you on the next video, we just uploaded a doozy :)

[@Wildfire86872]

I've got Firehawk from Codemasters, Super Sprint, Gauntlet,and After Burner from Tengen, and F-15 City War from American Video Entertainment. I didn't even realize they were unlicensed back when I got them.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah I didn't know anything about that when they were out, I always ended up with the cheapest games anyways because I didn't have any money to buy the good ones, LOL

[@ArtemusWolfwood]

There's an Atari Tetris cab with blank siding they roll out for MAGFest every year that people have doodled on over the years - by the time I laid eyes on it the thing was basically covered in everyone's scrawls. Makes it easy to spot in the lineup. MAGFest is a cool time if you're ever looking to get out to Maryland btw, besides that massive wall-to-wall arcade they set up there's also consoles from every conceivable era, PC games, musicians playing popular tracks from game soundtracks or game-inspired originals, fun panels, the works. Wish I could still make it out there myself but flying cross-country and getting hotel rooms ain't cheap.

[@LyonsArcade]

I've heard of it on KLOV from time to time, it must be huuuuge.

[@peanutbutterjeff5364]

I have to say, I always like conversion kits in cabinets that the game might have been in if it had a dedicated caninet. This Tetris is what I’ve wanted to see. I’ve either seen dynamo or Track & Field conversions on KLOV and other sites.

[@LyonsArcade]

It's about as close to legit as you can get :)

[@bulldog76472]

Fun little trick: if you hold down the "rotate" button when the little Russian guy does his victory dance, a hook will come out and pull him off screen!

[@LyonsArcade]

Very cool, I'll try that, thanks!

[@scotthayes5933]

Some of those look like games from the old Atari and the Commodore 64, I remember those old games. Those were the best kind of games.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah they were simple but very fun, or nobody would buy them!

[@EV0L13]

Awesome video! Loved the game history.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks amagley for watching!

[@allrock1238]

The TIA or Television Interface Adapter IC in an Atari 2600 is a custom designed Atari chip. a fun fact a few clever game programmers working for Atari did find a way to get there names in Atari published games via some very clever hidden easter eggs like the one in Adventure (search Atari adventure easter egg )

[@HuntersMoon78]

Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum version are harder because when pulling back on the joystick the piece drops where it is, there is no half dropping and moving the piece around. Also the music is awesome on those versions.

[@LyonsArcade]

I never played that one, that's an interesting change :)

[@stphinkle]

Actually you have the story partially right and partially wrong. Tetris was originally developed for the Electronica 60 computer by Alexey Pajitnov at the Russian Academy of Sciences. It was first shown outside Russia at the SCKI Institute of Computer Science in Budapest, Hungry. From there Robert Stein of Andromeda software tries to license Tetris from the Academy of Science and their internal publishing house AcademySoft but goes through the wrong procedure as this is international not domestic. Later he finds out that Russia does not trust him and sends him to Russia to meet with their Electronorgtechnica (ELORG) division which handles international licenses. Andromeda software then makes deals with Mirrorsoft and Spectrum Holobyte to distribute the game in different regions of the world for personal computers but they still have to get the Russians to approve of it. Finally Stein makes a deal with horrible payment terms and gets the rights to port Tetris to "Different types of computers". To the Russians at ELORG, the contract with Andromeda only allows licensing Tetris for computer systems like IBM PC, Apple II Series, Commmodore 64, TRS/80, etc not arcade machines or game consoles. On the other hand, Robert Stein at Andromeda believes that his license covers arcade machines and video game consoles. So what comes next is Mirrorsoft, one of the distibutors of Tetris sublicenses Tetris and sells the console rights to Atari Games for publishing under the Tengen label, which Atari Games used on non-Atari consoles. Atari then ports Tetris to NES and Sega consoles, and arcade machines for the North American Market and eventually sells the sublicensed rights for Japan to Bullet Proof Software. Bullet Proof software creates their own Fanicom version and it is selling well in Japan and wants to obtain the handheld rights to Tetris for the Game Boy. So Henk Rogers of Bullet Proof Software calls Robert Stein and he tries to get the rights through him and Stein calls Elorg. Elorg was not getting paid much and their new director was upset with Stein and would not give him any more rights till he paid them what was owed to them. Meanwhile Henk Rogers, tired of wating decided to directly deal with the Russians as opposed to working with Stein and headed off to Moscow to try to obtain the handheld rights. When Rogers found the Elorg Office and inquired about the handheld rights, and showed Nikolai Belikov, the director of Elorg the cartridge he was producing for the Famicom, he said that Elorg never gave the console rights to anyone. That same day Belikov also met with Robert Stein and Kevin Maxwell from Mirrorsoft. Eventually Belikov decided it would be best to sell the different rights to different companies and made sure that people were aware of who owns what rights for which systems. The Handheld rights went to Henk Rogers Bullet Proof Software. The personal computer rights went to Andromeda Software. Mirrorsoft was not granted a bid for the handheld rights but still could publish it for computers through an andromeda sublicense. The Arcade rights also went to Andromeda Software with sublicenses to Atari and Sega. Elorg added an amendment to Robert Stein's contract defining a computer as a device that "contains a processor, monitor, keyboard, disk drive, and operating system" to distinguish computer from game console. Elorg then asked Henk Rogers and Bullet Proof Software about making them an offer for the home console rights. Henk Rogers then contacted Nintendo and they jumped on the opportunity and sent Rogers back to Moscow to make the offer. Nintendo ended up buying the home console rights to Tetris. Nintendo then sent a notice to Atari Games asking them to stop marketing, selling, or promoting Tetris. Atari then sued Nintendo and lost because an NES does not fit the Russian definition of computer and the fact that Atari's sublicense for Tetris was invalid because Mirrosoft only obtained the rights for computers because it was sublicensed to them from Andromeda which only had the home computer and arcade rights to the game, not the console or handheld rights. Essentially Atari sold pirated copies of Tetris on Nintendo and Sega consoles through their Tengen brand!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you for the info Stephen, and thank you for watching!!!

[@InfectiousGroovePodcast]

My home arcade (Area Code 313 in Waterford Michigan) had that Atari cab and I played it a ton. So when the Tengen cart was released, I grabbed it quickly!

[@retroforce6919]

Nice gameplay video and the history lesson. I remember playing it in the arcades, it was a pretty addictive game. 👍 When gameboy came out if I'm not mistaken Tetris was the game to buy. I know I did. 😉

[@pezjohnson]

Tetris was the pack in game when the original gameboy came out, so everyone had it. And the game link allowed two players, which was awesome.

[@retroforce6919]

@@pezjohnson 👍

[@LyonsArcade]

We still sell every Tetris game we get in pretty much, people still have fond memories of it....

[@thomasmickle7289]

Wow. Thanks for the history on all this mess. Interesting story

[@LyonsArcade]

No problem Thomas, it's even more convoluted than I got into but I think I hit most of the high points :)

[@danijelcar5184]

Nice Tetris Arcade, I still have my old Nintendo GameBoy from 1990 and have Tetris game I like this game still today 😎👍

[@LyonsArcade]

When we test out our gameboy systems for sale I always use good ol Tetris :)

[@RAMChYLD]

I am well aware of this version of Tetris, and I loved it as a kid.

[@markt6199]

All your videos are Cool by the way!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Mark, we appreciate it!

[@Gogettor]

25:45 BOOM TETRIS FOR JOE

[@LyonsArcade]

I got them skillz, yo!

[@Jamesamong007]

My favorite version of Tetris, i recently added it to my hacked SNES mini. This one has some good tunes too.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah all that Russian music is pretty cool!

[@pezjohnson]

Video/Game rental place in my hometown had the Tengen version of Tetris. It was a blast.

[@LyonsArcade]

What was the name of the place, we had "Pic A Flick Video" around here, pretty cool place....

[@markselvin2230]

I love all your videos about video arcade game cabs👍😎 Thanks for the history lesson with Atari Vs Nintendo 😂👏👍

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Mark, we appreciate you watching!

[@chaddentandt9868]

Thanks for the Atari history. I never knew all the issues/ law suits that had occurred.

[@LyonsArcade]

There's even more, but this was some of the highpoints :)

[@cklinejr]

This makes me want to get my Tetris cab together!

[@LyonsArcade]

You can do it :)

[@northtustinsteamworks5172]

Fascinating history!

[@spidermcgavenport]

I love Tengen games, Gauntlet is my favorite.

[@LyonsArcade]

Arcade version coming soon :)

[@spidermcgavenport]

@@LyonsArcade seeing the original cabinet art with Gauntlet, wasn't that made by Midway game's?

[@POOHBEAR2170]

I love the history lesson. Thanks

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks PoohBear, I always thought it was a great story....

[@gothamcityarcade]

I love this version of Tetris, how come they never release this version on home console or handheld?

[@BaccarWozat]

I must point out Tengen was not from the Atari consumer/console division. Atari Corp. sold the arcade division (which was renamed Atari Games so as not to confuse with the consumer division) because Jack Tramiel was trying to compete with his former company Commodore and focus entirely on computers. He threw the Atari 7800 prototype on the floor and shouted, "We don't do video games!" Atari Games had been the only part of Atari Corp. that was turning a profit too. Eventually Namco bought Atari Games and they renamed themselves Tengen. Namco didn't want to pay for a license to make NES games because of the limit of 5 games a year (they were a big company). Thus the fake litigation and the NES10 code theft. Namco was eventually burned by the association and paid for a license, re-releasing Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man themselves. (The re-release of Ms. Pac-Man removed Tengen's speedup button and the crazy mazes.) Tengen Tetris was a mistake. They thought they had made a deal with Elorg for the console rights, but they had spoken with the wrong guy who didn't have the authority. Nintendo had sent their associate Henk Rogers (IIRC) who swooped in and grabbed the rights.

[@scotthayes5933]

My Utopia tablet has a game similar to this that includes Pentomino pieces.

[@LyonsArcade]

There's a couple phrases you don't hear too often anymore :)

[@arcadeclawpro2851]

I wish the Rack N Roll arcade would still have this game but they took that game out of that arcade years ago.

[@LatitudeSky]

My family had an Atari and I remember well the revolt that created Activision. It was a huge upset at the time. And bam other companies flooded the market mostly with awful games and eventually caused the game collapse.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah they always overdo a good thing!

[@jukeboxwiz]

Also the Tengen cartridge had the original music too - so night and day from the later NES version

[@LyonsArcade]

I never heard the original music though, so I only know the Nintendo music, LOL

[@METALMAN4Wii]

I just watched Goodbye Arcade Boy Creepypasta so I'm here.

[@LyonsArcade]

I might have to check that out :)

[@hardlucknate6769]

Tetris was created by Soviet Russian software in 1984 before the 1987 release of the arcade release

[@hardlucknate6769]

Did you know that Atari quit the Japanese business building so Namco could take over

[@memyopinionsche6610]

There also was a cocktail version of Tetris as.

[@LyonsArcade]

I don't think I ever saw that one, that would be interesting...

[@Deez-Master]

I have 7th place on my local arcade's machine trying to get to top 5 by end of 2023

[@scooterthefrog]

The short version of the story is a guy bought the rights in an extremely back door and questionable fashion from a organization in Soviet Russia. Then he sold those rights in a MORE questionable way. Then Nintendo showed up to the party, rolled up to the figurative punch bowl and put their dick in it by talking stright to the Russian government. They also actually paid millions of dollars to the Russians, which oddly enough nobody had ever bothered to do up until this point. 😆 then all of the sudden a lot of people who bought rights from the first guy, including Atari, found out that they had paid a lot of money for a bag of dreams. Finally Nintendo ate everybody's lunch, made love to their wives and stuck them with a bill for the time. Check out the gaming historian for a longer, more accurate and less snarky telling of this tale.

[@LyonsArcade]

Unfortunately Atari never really had their stuff together, even back in the late 70's. A Japanese company like Nintendo is run on competence, if you're in a negotiation scenario against something like that you really have to bring your A game....

[@ACatKrom]

The Tengen version for the NES was far superior to the Nintendo one

[@faceduro6719]

If they make this into an Arcade 1up I buy it

[@Pehr81]

Boom! Tetris for Joe!

[@LyonsArcade]

:) I still got it! I still got it!!!

[@phillip5245]

I recommend The Gaming Historian's excellent in depth documentary made on the complete convoluted story of Tetris and the various licensing battles. A fascinating watch. kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZe0pauBosx9eZo

[@LyonsArcade]

I'm watching it now, thanks for the link!

[@CullenCraft]

This is an extremely cool video! Thank you so much! There is one at my local arcade that I always assumed was a bootleg... And it may still be. All the artwork seems right and the game is the same except for the strangest thing - A line that shows at the very bottom of the idle screen saying "1989 VIDEO GAMES" that can't be official from Atari... Can it?

[@SwowChowsk]

I’ve got one in a Dynamo cab!

[@LyonsArcade]

Very cool, it's a fun 'filler' game.

[@SwowChowsk]

Joe's Classic Video Games it’s probably the single hardest version of the game! It does this thing where it’ll give you the same piece 5 times in a row! And it does other shifty stuff (like only letting you rotate clockwise). Which makes sense, quarters and all 😄

[@LyonsArcade]

Yup, and like I mentioned in the video, the way I always played was rotating counterclockwise, LOL

[@GustafStechmann]

it is FALSE that the Atari VCS 2600 is made from off-the-shelf components. the chips were in truth designed by engineers at Atari, most prominently Jay Miner (who later also designed the chipset for the Atari 5200 and the Commodore Amiga). the chips were very sophisticated for their time, giving the Atari VCS an edge over the competition.

[@LyonsArcade]

Ok

[@hauntedspaceship4175]

❤️

[@snooks5607]

surprised nobody brought up Gaming Historian's hour long Tetris documentary yet kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZe0pauBosx9eZo it goes into much more detail about the licensing mess

[@LyonsArcade]

A couple people turned me onto it after I made this video, he does a really good job on his videos!

[@HeSavesMankind]

That you David?

[@serqetry]

You explained very well why I hate Nintendo so much. Most unethical company in video game history. I hope they pay for their crimes someday. Atari Tetris has always been and will always be the real Tetris.

[@jessiecoville3899]

What would a original tetris game be worth

[@JohnDoe-uq3mx]

just ran into this. another atari lawsuit, and other stuff en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Computer_Corporation

[@cnfuzz]

rampart was a much better cabinet

[@jasongoodacre]

Atari deserved to die, they even went so low to actually steal Tetris. To think you could roll out cabinets for Tetris when you don't have a single signed contract by the owners is disgusting. Screw Atari, their greed led to the takeover of the video console market by Nintendo.

[@Lucastgtf]

Hi This is Me Lucas, I want You To Buy Me What You Have: baby pac man, pac man, ms pac man, galaga, galaxian, donkey kong, donkey kong jr.,paper boy,tetris,dig dug,pengo,and,mappy,and super pac man,and jr. pac man.

[@Lucastgtf]

and buy me centipede and millipede arcade

[@LyonsArcade]

OK!