Hi all, I've been trying to do a bit of definitive research regarding the specific terminology of the "Tetris pieces" within licensed Tetris games. Here's what I know so far: - They were called "Tetrads" (with first letter capital) in a Nintendo Power magazine article about Nintendo NES Tetris in 1989 (see the scans Edo posted here). - They were inconsistently called "Pieces", "blocks", "Falling Blocks", etc. in a bunch of games pre-1999. - 2001's Tetris Worlds first used the "Tetrimino" term (along with all of its sci-fi backstory e.g. Minos are a species found on the planet Hadar 4, Tetrions are Gateways to planets orbiting distant stars, etc.) Here's what I want to find out: - 1999's The Next Tetris was released while TTC's internal Guidelines were a work in progress (then called "What is Tetris?). Did they use the term "tetramino" for this title as the wiki suggests? I can't find any proper instruction manual scans online. The New Tetris (also 1999) just called them "variously shaped pieces". - Did any of the earlier licensed games have any such distinctive terminology in their instructions? Do any licensed games ever actually refer to them specifically as "tetromino"?
tetromino - math term tetramino - alternate spelling -- I quickly checked my The Next Tetris manual and see it used there. Since there are both "tetraminoes" and "multiminoes," -- the latter of which have the colored gem segments -- the controls section still uses an overarching term "piece" to refer to both. Tetrimino™ - TTC spelling
I'd like to add to that that while the plural of "tetromino" is "tetrominoes" (think "dominoes"), the plural of "Tetrimino™" is "Tetriminos™".
Some lols from the back of the NES box: Beams, boxes, zig-zags, and "L" shaped building blocks drop relentlessly down a narrow passage.
I believe the definitive authority on the matter has already determined that they are called pieces: http://www.collegehumor.com/video/5767906/the-tetris-god
He says 'block' more than 'piece' There's zero doubt than 'line piece' is the funniest terminology though.
Thanks for confirming! AFAIK this is the only game where this alternate spelling is used, since they standardized on "i" soon after (probably for a better trademark claim, since "tetramino" is the generic spelling in some countries). Correct, both Golomb and Gardner (inventor and popularizer of the term) have consistently used the plural "tetrominoes" in their publications. Wikipedia was wrong on this so I've updated it. lol! the back of the Tengen Tetris box is also hilarious: "Warning: Although TETRIS may be great food for thought, it's so much fun, it's positively addictive. So don't forget to eat something to fuel your body (maybe apple pie?) TETRIS and apple pie. Now that's detente!"
TGM1 also uses "tetramino", however the English version of the word is not shown as the game is Japan region only (there appears to be a rare US version though, at least one has been sighted in the wild). If you dig around the ROM you can find it in the unused English strings. In the Japanese strings, "テトラミノ" (tetoramino) is used.
Interesting! So this possibly puts the first-sighted date of "tetramino/テトラミノ" to 1998 in TGM1, then.. anyone have instruction manuals for TGM1-2? (There was a PSX version of TGM1 right?) I'd be interested in seeing which term was used in those. I also found that テトラミノ is consistently used in Arika's "Tetris with Card Captor Sakura" game which was released in 2000.
