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Tengen Tetris vs Nintendo Tetris

RetroRalph·video·14m 34s·analyzed·Apr 2, 2019
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

RetroRalph compares Nintendo vs Tengen Tetris, explaining rarity and gameplay differences.

Summary

RetroRalph examines the historical and technical differences between the Nintendo and Tengen versions of Tetris for the NES. The video explains why Tengen's version is rare and expensive ($75 vs $5) due to Atari's illegal entry into the Tetris market after circumventing Nintendo's lockout chip, followed by Nintendo winning the official license from the Soviet Union. Through direct gameplay comparison with his friend Brian, RetroRalph demonstrates that while both versions play similarly, Tengen's version features superior presentation, two-player versus modes, cooperative play, handicap options, and more vibrant graphics, ultimately concluding the Tengen version is the better game despite the Nintendo version becoming the cultural standard.

Key Claims

  • Tengen Tetris sells for approximately $75 online while Nintendo version sells for approximately $5

    high confidence · Opening segment where RetroRalph states the price differential directly

  • Tengen (Atari's console subsidiary) circumvented Nintendo's lockout chip using copyright documentation obtained under suspicious circumstances

    high confidence · RetroRalph's historical explanation of Tengen's unlicensed entry into NES market

  • Both Nintendo and Atari initially obtained Tetris licenses illegally because the Soviet Union had not granted licensing rights

    high confidence · RetroRalph explains that Elorg (Russian company) mishandled the license without state authorization

  • Nintendo won the official Tetris license after the Soviet Union entertained competitive bids

    high confidence · RetroRalph states Russia held bidding process and Nintendo won out

  • Atari produced approximately 50,000 units of Tengen Tetris before receiving cease and desist order

    high confidence · RetroRalph provides specific production number before licensing dispute resolution

  • Nintendo version lacks two-player competitive mode while Tengen version includes it

    high confidence · Direct gameplay comparison showing Tengen's one-player vs two-player options

  • Tengen Tetris features cooperative play mode not replicated in other Tetris versions

    high confidence · RetroRalph explicitly states this mode is unique during gameplay demonstration

  • Game Boy's bundling with Tetris (instead of Super Mario Land) was a strategic decision to appeal to broader demographics

    medium confidence · Brian mentions feedback about marketing strategy, but no source attribution for this claim provided

  • The Tengen Tetris arcade version serves as the basis for the Tengen NES version

    medium confidence · RetroRalph mentions Atari did arcade version and Tengen NES 'is almost an exact copy,' but this is stated as observation rather than documented fact

Notable Quotes

  • “Both companies had obtained a license to create their very own version of Tetris illegally. You see, all intellectual property belonging to citizens of the Soviet Union belonged to the communist regime, the Russian state had not granted licensing of Tetris to any company or any country.”

    RetroRalph@ 1:25 — Explains the core legal conflict that made Tengen version rare and valuable

  • “Originally, Game Boy was going to be packed with Super Mario Land, but the feedback they got was that if you want to market it to kids, go ahead and put Super Mario Land with it, but if you want to market it to everybody, you should put Tetris with it.”

    Brian@ 4:17 — Demonstrates how Tetris became cultural phenomenon through strategic bundling decision

  • “You remember there were only two game modes in the Nintendo version. There was Type A and Type B. This one has one-player, two-player... the original Tetris on Nintendo doesn't have two-player. That's almost like a staple with Tetris, right?”

    RetroRalph@ 6:39 — Highlights key gameplay differentiator between versions

  • “I like the graphics of this version better, the Tengen version. I would agree, because I think it's more vibrant. Like, it's not gray. Like, the Nintendo version is just gray.”

    Brian / RetroRalph@ 12:19 — Direct comparative assessment of visual presentation

  • “If the story had been different about the Russian battle for Tetris if it had played out differently I think this one actually would have been better I think this one would have won out.”

    RetroRalph@ 13:39 — Suggests Tengen version had superior design but lost market dominance due to legal issues rather than quality

Entities

RetroRalphpersonPaul Daniel LeonardpersonBrianpersonBrad FullerpersonTengencompanyNintendocompanyAtaricompanyElorgcompanySoviet Unionorganization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: RetroRalph solicits viewer feedback on which Tetris version is their favorite, encouraging comments and engagement

    high · Closing segment: 'So I'm interested in hearing which one you guys think your favorite. So if you could comment down below...'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Comparison demonstrates superior game design philosophy in Tengen version (multiplayer, cooperation, adaptive AI) versus Nintendo version (single-player focused)

    high · Tengen features two-player competitive, cooperative with human partner, cooperative with adaptive AI computer opponent; Nintendo limited to single-player A/B modes

  • $

    market_signal: Significant secondary market price differential ($75 vs $5) driven by legal/licensing rarity rather than gameplay quality

    high · RetroRalph explicitly states Tengen version fetches high price due to rare production run after cease-and-desist, despite arguably superior design

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Historical shift in cultural perception: Nintendo version became standard despite potential technical inferiority, due to licensing victory and Game Boy bundling strategy

    high · RetroRalph notes 'this is the quintessential version because it's the only one Nintendo was licensed for' and discussion of Game Boy marketing choice

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.044

0:00
When skimming through a Facebook group called the Nintendo Over 30's Club, I know, it's hard to believe, I'm over 30 right? I came across an interesting topic. There was a guy by the name of Daniel Leonard, if that's your real name, he actually asked a very interesting question. What is the difference between the Nintendo version of Tetris and the Tengen version of Tetris? Besides the black cartridge, a lot of people would think that maybe these two games are exactly the same. When in all actualities, this one is worth $5 online and this one is worth $75 online. What's the difference? Well in today's Ralph's Retrospect, we're not only going to go over the differences, but we're going to find out which one is better. And if you're ready, let's do this.
0:40
The reason that the Tenjin Tetris is so rare and fetching a high price is kind of a long story, but in short, Tenjin, which was Atari's console gaming subsidiary, tried to enter Nintendo's gaming market and tried to get a less restrictive licensing deal with Nintendo, but they refused. This led to Tenjin secretly undermining Nintendo's infamous lockout ship as they had obtained the copyright documentation under very suspicious circumstances, and created their own chip to bypass it. When Nintendo found out, they pulled no stops to bringing litigation against Atari. During all this, the Tetris craze had already taken Russia by storm. It was being passed around like the Walking Dead virus and people were eating it up, and in a short period of time, the game passed into Atari's hands. But not just Atari's, Nintendo's as well. In an unfortunate turn of events, both companies had obtained a license to create their very own version of Tetris illegally. You see, all intellectual property belonging to citizens of the Soviet Union belonged to the communist regime, the Russian state had not granted licensing of Tetris to any company or any country, and the Red State wasn't going to stand idly by while they were being cheated out of their compensation. This was all due to a mishandling of the license by a Russian company called Elorg, who thought they had the right to sell the license, but in all actuality did not. Learning quickly how to play the capitalist game, Russia entertained bids for the Tetris license by Nintendo and two other competitors, with Nintendo eventually winning out. Atari soon received a cease and desist order to stop all production of its versions of Tetris, and created about 50,000 units. There's so much more to the story, I highly recommend a documentary called Tetris from Russia with Love. It not only details the history of all the events that were taking place, but it actually interviews the people who were directly involved. So a few questions remain. What are the differences between these two games, and which one is better? Well, since Nintendo won the war, we're going to go ahead and start with that one first. So I'm over here at my friend Brian's house. Brian, say hi. Hi. We're going to start with the Nintendo version, and I want to get your feel on what you think about things like the graphics, the sound, the gameplay, things of that nature. And with that, let's go ahead and start. Go ahead and start.

  • Nintendo version uses monochromatic color palette shifts (entire palette swaps rather than individual piece colors)

    high confidence · Direct observation during gameplay comparison

    • Game Boy
    product
    Tetris: From Russia with Loveproduct
    2:41
    Okay, so right off the bat, we've got A-Type and B-Type. A-Type is the kind where basically it'll keep falling, you stack to the top until you die. B-Type is the one where you have to hit so many lines before you go to the next level. So whichever one you want to try is fine, but why don't you try also the music. So we've got...
    3:02
    Now this one is the weird one. This doesn't sound like Tetris. It sounds like Mega Man. It does kind of sound like Mega Man.
    3:15
    So go back to 2. So this one's a very, uh... It's not too bad. Go back to 1. I think this is the one that everybody pretty much knows the best.
    3:34
    Fairly basic Okay pick which type you want to play and let get started Yeah let see what good when it starts
    3:44
    So right off the bat we've got like a gray exterior that looks like the blocks are blue and purple. I think they do change colors once you get so far.
    3:57
    At what point in time do you think... Do you think Tetris was probably the most popular game on the planet at one point in time? I'd say, yeah, probably around the time that it came out on Game Boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Game Boy. That was definitely the first time I played it. Was that the first time you played it, too? Mm-hmm. Yeah, you know, it's funny. They actually have a history of that. Originally, Game Boy was going to be packed in with Super Mario Land, but the feedback they got was that if you want to market it to kids, go ahead and put Super Mario Land with it, but if you want to market it to everybody, you should put Tetris with it. And when they did, that just blew up. People absolutely loved it.
    4:43
    Oh yeah, it does change colors. Okay, so that's interesting. So when it changes colors, the entire palette swaps. So there's no differing colors, like you're not going to get a red piece and a green piece and a blue piece.
    4:59
    Hmm. It's interesting. So this is the quintessential version of Tetris because it's the only one that Nintendo was licensed for and people really... This is the one everybody got acclimated to. There are a lot of people who say this one is the more polished version.
    5:14
    I don't know if I necessarily agree with it. I think it looks good. I think it's fine for what it is. But that's my opinion. I don't know.
    5:23
    Okay, well, we can probably go ahead and stop here. Go ahead and pause. Okay, so what do you think so far? Would you say the gameplay is standard, right? Pretty standard. Okay. We're going to compare that to the Tengen one here in a second. But what do you think about the sounds? Sounds seem fine. Just pretty basic. Okay. And what do you think about the music selection? Music is good. I think the music's okay. I think the first and second one definitely bring out the Russian spirit, but the third one just sounds weird.
    5:59
    Okay, what do you think of the color scheme? The gray with the different changing colors? Like, there's not a variety? Yeah, there wasn't much of a variety, but it's easy to tell what's going on in the screen, so... Cool, all right. Well, we've got the first game down. Now we're going to try the Tenjin version of Tetris. Cool, you ready? Let's do this.
    6:19
    Okay, so immediately right off the bat, we've got the Tenjin Tetris. The music is already going. Sounds pretty good. You've got the Russian themes, the fireworks and stuff.
    6:32
    The presentation, I think, already is kind of better on this one, just from the start screen. So go ahead and hit start. You remember there were only two game modes in the Nintendo version. There was Type A and Type B. This one has one-player, two-player, which I don't know if you noticed, the original Tetris on Nintendo doesn't have two-player.
    6:52
    That's almost like a staple with Tetris, right? You want to play with your friends, you want to play against each other. But you can't do that on the Nintendo version. So go ahead. Oh look, we've also got cooperative where the one and two player can play Play together to try and land blocks. It's pretty interesting versus the computer so you can have You can basically play against the computer or you can play with the computer to try and stack blocks Which is a mode that I don think has actually been replicated on any other version of Tetris So, with that said, let's go ahead and pick two players. I want to go against you. Okay, we'll do level 0. Okay, so you can see with this, the handicap is actually a new thing that the other version didn't have either. Oh, okay. It's automatic. I should have guessed we were going to be four since the first one is that late. Actually, you know what? The funny thing is, Atari did the arcade version of Tetris, and this is almost a copy, exact copy of what they have. I remember this song in the arcade. This is like the second or third level. It changes throughout the arcade, it changes different music when you go through it. Okay, let's go ahead and... Yeah, see, these are all ones I remember from the arcade playing. I love the arcade one. But anyway, so what's the last one?
    8:27
    Audio by Brad Fuller. He did an awesome job, Brad Fuller. Okay, so let's just pick one. All right, so now look, we're playing two players. This is where we couldn't do that before. Prepare to die.
    8:42
    Both trying to go for that Tetris. Okay, so this is interesting. So you'll notice that when the blocks hit, they're different colors, but when the blocks hit, they all turn gray. So that's something to consider.
    8:59
    You know, it's funny, my kids started, I just introduced them to Tetris over the weekend because they'd never seen it or played it before. And my youngest daughter had the Tetris, the first song, like, memorized. She was humming it while she was playing. It was so funny. It's like, I know it's so addictive to think that it gets stuck in your head.
    9:21
    The sound effect when you clear a line kind of reminds me of Friday the 13th for some reason. 30 lines. It stops. So you get your little dancers out. It goes up and tallies up our totals.
    9:41
    And then when you hit start, they're all like, see ya. And then it starts you off right where you left off. Is that a little jarring? Yeah, a little bit. It is a little jarring. It's definitely different. Yeah, because you're used to either the thing starting over, which doesn't type B of the Nintendo version, even in the Game Boy version it does that. When you've beaten a level, it starts you over. It starts you from scratch. But in this one, it just makes you keep going.
    10:13
    Okay, so we're going to go ahead and do the actual cooperative version and see how we can do working together to clear the lines.
    10:21
    This is just something you normally don't see. There you go, let's do that one. Oh my goodness, this is crazy.
    10:30
    Follow my lead, Brian. Just kidding, you can do whatever you want. Okay. Get out of my way, Brian! I'm trying to clear some lines! So we always get the same pieces, apparently. It looks like you can actually block the other player if you want to. Working together right Yeah right Oh Oh my Brian We supposed to be working together
    11:01
    Hold on. Kill me, Billy. Sometimes it can get a little confusing as to who you are because you get the same pieces at the same time. Oh, this is so weird.
    11:11
    That's kind of cool, though. It's definitely challenging. Where are our line pieces? What does this game have against line pieces? I'm kidding. This is... Yeah, this is definitely... This is insane! Wow. We got all of three lines. So, I mean, it's crazy. Like, so you're trying to work with other people. You're trying to think what they're going to do. And then they go do something and you're like, No, what are you doing? But, uh... So that was interesting. So, uh... Why don't you play against... Why don't you play cooperative with the computer? See what happens with that. Go with computer.
    11:44
    So the computer is playing. And it's going to do whatever it wants to do. So you kind of have to work around that. I see it's changing its pattern. Oh, see, it changed its pattern there. It's like, ooh, this is better. So it looks like it does adapt to the player somewhat. That's cool. That's actually really neat. So there you have it. So those are the differences. So now let me ask you this. What do you think of the gameplay of this one? Is it fairly similar to the other one? Yeah, I'd say gameplay-wise they're both very similar. There's not a lot of variation between them. Okay.
    12:16
    The graphics, the overall presentation, what do you think? Which one do you think is better? I like the graphics to this version better, the Tension version. I would agree, because I think it's more vibrant. Like, it's not gray. Like, the Nintendo version is just gray. But I do think that the colors are more vibrant. What do you think about the music choices?
    12:34
    I kind of like the music to both. They're a little different, so I think it's just going to be dependent on the mood you're in at any given time. They both have a couple songs that are, you know, you can tell they're Russian. They have a Russian theme. Sure. the Tengen version doesn't have the Mega Man one that's fine because that's probably not what I would play often when I'm wanting to play Tetris anyway overall I would say the Tengen version is better just the extra options the ability to play two player adds a whole new element to the game makes it a lot more challenging and so far in the test play I had the most fun with the two player modes you know it's funny because my daughters and my kids are trying to get into Tetris I think the cooperative mode would actually be very good for them because they're trying to wrap their head around it and I think if I could play with them and help them I think that would actually be better and honestly I'm going to say overall I think the Tengen one is better had the story been different about the Russian battle for Tetris if it had played out differently I think this one actually would have been better I think this one would have won out I think people would have enjoyed this one Not to say that they don't enjoy the original Tetris, but there's some things lacking in it. But that's just our overall opinion. I think that if you think that the Nintendo version 1 is better, I mean, that's fine too. I think they both serve their purpose. I just think that the presentation is a little bit better in the tension.
    14:04
    But still, but yeah. All right, Brian, thanks for playing Tetris with us, and we're going to go ahead and finish this segment. So those are the differences between the games, and it is pretty significant. So I'm interested in hearing which one you guys think is your favorite So if you could comment down below and if you did like this video Give us a thumbs up subscribe to the channel and we'll see you guys on the next Ralph's retrospect. See ya