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Is the Sega Megadrive Tetris Japanese legal?
ddp6678 - Dec 18, 2003
  ddp6678 Dec 18, 2003
I read a few videogames history books, (like Kent's Ulimate History of Video Games) and read that Sega was issued illegal rights for Tetris on be made on the Arcade coin-op. Now, if the Sega Megadrive game is based on the coin-op, does this mean its not legal like the NES Tengen Tetris? Thanks

 it290 Dec 18, 2003
I don't know if it's technically 'illegal' or not, but it is pretty rare. I think the production run may have been cut short due to some of those issues. I don't think Sega were ever officially given rights to the game by Elorg, but they were led to believe that they had them.

 RedAngel Dec 19, 2003
I think it was legal in Japan but Nintendo bought the rights of the game and Sega could not release it in the west (but they made Columms).

 it290 Dec 19, 2003
Hmm, well looking at the book 'High Score' (often not that reliable), it basically states that there were seperate rights for computer, console, and arcade renditions. No one officially had the console rights until Nintendo got them, so I guess the MD Tetris would in fact be 'illegal', although again this is kind of murky since Sega may have believed they had the rights.

 halo Dec 27, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by it290@Dec 19, 2003 @ 04:02 PM



 Hmm, well looking at the book 'High Score' (often not that reliable), it basically states that there were seperate rights for computer, console, and arcade renditions. No one officially had the console rights until Nintendo got them, so I guess the MD Tetris would in fact be 'illegal', although again this is kind of murky since Sega may have believed they had the rights.


If I remember correctly from the book "Game Over" by David Sheff, which tells the story, there were 4 sets of rights legally sold by the soviet union:

Handheld rights - No-one had bought these at all, so Bulletproof software got this on behalf of Nintendo (look at the first screen of GB Tetris for proof of this)

Console rights - Pretty sure Bulletproof software got this too

Arcade rights - Given to Atari outside of Japan, Sega within Japan IIRC after negotiation with Elorg. I'm pretty sure Sega were originally selling it illegally but then found a license

Computer - I'm pretty sure Mirrorsoft got these, and they later signed a contract saying that a computer had a keyboard etc

I'm pretty sure Sega's console version was illegal, but they wouldn't have got into a mess because of it - that would be Mirrorsoft's fault as it was them who they licensed it off.

 it290 Dec 28, 2003
Actually, the way I understand it, Mirrorsoft acquired the computer rights illegitimately, and Spectrum Holobyte eventually came in and purchased them.

 Superfamifreak Sep 21, 2004
There are 2 versions - One is a pirate jobby, which is the one that pops up on ebay. There IS an official Sega version with different artwork, but that got recalled. The last known one was sold to a collector for over $2000 from what I've heard.

EDIT: 925000 Yen is what it sold for. That's a hell of a lot of money.