Nintendo developed and published the 1989 Game Boy version of Tetris. The game was produced by Nintendo R&D1 and adapted Alexey Pajitnov’s 1985 Soviet puzzle design for Nintendo’s new handheld system.
Its path to release was unusually complicated. Henk Rogers secured the handheld rights after negotiating with ELORG, the Soviet organization that controlled Tetris licensing. Rogers then licensed those rights to Nintendo, helping the company release Tetris for the Game Boy in Japan on June 14, 1989, and in North America as a pack-in game on July 31.
A common mix-up is confusing this edition with other 1989 Tetris releases. Atari Games developed an arcade version, while Tengen released an unauthorized NES version. Mirrorsoft and Spectrum HoloByte were involved with computer-market licensing, not development of Nintendo’s Game Boy edition. Nintendo’s version became one of the system’s defining games and helped make the Game Boy a worldwide success.