Programmer gives NES Tetris Game “Hard Drop” after three decades

One of the most recognizable versions of Tetris can be found on the original NES, but it has some features that we now consider standard for the puzzle game. One of the biggest omissions is ‘hard fall’, which allows you to save valuable time by putting a piece in position immediately without waiting for it to fall, and programmer Stephen Sherratt took it upon himself to feature in the classic Make NES version work, complete with a “ghost” piece for guidance.

As he explains on his website Grid Bugs, Sherratt decided to add two related features to the NES Tetris game. The first is the hard drop itself, which is achieved by pressing on the directional strip as is done in most other Tetris games. The second amendment he made added an overview of the current controlled piece to wherever it would land, which would make the hard fall more accurate. Again, this is a feature seen in almost all modern Tetris games like Tetris 99 and Tetris Effect. In the challenge video below, one player even dropped every piece he found in Tetris 99 hard.

Sherratt used a program that uses the Rust programming language, and in combination with his own NES emulator made it easier for him to experiment with changes. For example, he had to write instructions for the set ‘ghost piece’ so that it appeared in the right place based on how many movements it would take before the actual piece collided with something.

After adding the hard drop functionality and solving a problem that seemed to slow down due to the clock speed of the game, he made it work properly. Could Sherratt have just played a slightly newer version of Tetris and had a very similar experience? Yes, but it’s neat to see that a game that is a few decades old is undergoing a fundamental change to its mechanics. Others have added a hard fall in the past through modding, but according to what we could find, no one has included the ghost piece before.

Tetris on NES was one of three games included at the Nintendo World Championship, with the other two being Super Mario Bros. and Rad Racer. These patterns were already created in 1990 for use in the competition of the same name, and their scarcity made them extraordinarily expensive collectibles. As of this writing, someone is trying to sell a gold variant – originally given away via Nintendo Power – for $ 1 million.