VS. Tetris

Vs. Tetris
VS. Tetris running on a Nintendo VS. Unisystem
Developer(s)	Tengen
Publisher(s)	Tengen
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	1988
Gameplay info
Next pieces	1
Playfield size	10 × 20
Hold piece	No
Hard drop	No
Rotation system	Atari

VS. Tetris is a game developed by Tengen for the Nintendo VS. System arcade platform. The game would be the basis for Tetris (NES, Tengen) released some time later, and is noticeably less developed (e.g. the piece graphics use only solid colored or striped blocks).

Gameplay

Modes

• 1-player: Standard endless mode.
• 2-player Cooperative: Co-operate to clear lines on a common playfield. Both players will get the same sequence of pieces.
• 2-player Competitive: Simultaneous endless mode, aim to outlast the other player. Both players receive the same sequence of pieces.

Levels

The level up points are fixed regardless of starting level.

Level	Lines	Gravity (frames per row)
0	0	20
1	5	17
2	10	14
3	15	11
4	20	9
5	30	7
6	50	6
7	75	5.5
8	100	5
9	200	4.5

ARE is 20 frames.

Scoring

The score for each tetromino that the player places is $d\times \min(r\times (r+h),250)$, where

• d = 1 for normal gravity or 2 for soft drop when the tetromino lands
• r = the level number plus 1
• h = the row on which the tetromino was placed, minus 1 (0 = bottom)

Note that the tetromino must have been accelerating for a certain number of rows (~6) for the soft drop bonus to count.

There are no extra points for clearing lines.

Rotation

Rotation is the same as in Tetris (Atari), however there is no wallkick.

See also

• Tetris (Atari)