Mega Drive Tetris - Was it released?

Ok Guys, bear with me on this one...

I want to understand if Mega Drive Tetris ever saw any kind of release at all, or if it was pulled before it went into manafacture?

The reason I ask is that I am convinced (100%) that I saw a copy in a retail computer store here in the UK back in the 1990/1991 timeframe. This WAS NOT the pirate one that does the rounds (I have that cart!)

The story goes there was a software store called Soft Shop in Weybridge, Surrey, UK that used to stock Atari ST/Amiga/PC games. as 1989 went into 1990, they started to do Japanese Mega Drive and Game Boy titles. It was during a trip to the store I remember seeing Mega Drive Tetris, the reason this sticks in my mind some 20 years later is that the price was £60, which I distinctly remember thinking 'how can that be the same price for just the Mega Drive game when a Game Boy comes with it for just a little bit more?' - How I wish I had bought that game for £60, as it has puzzled me for over 10 years now (since I found out MD Tetris never saw an 'official' release). From what I can remember, this was not a pirate cartridge, I can even remember picking the box up and it had the Japanese MD logos on it for how many players, what type of game etc.

I was 14 at the time, and have a pretty good memory...

I know MD Tetris appeared on importer lists in the UK magazines (C+VG, Mean Machines) from the right timeframe, but I am also sure that it was never officially released, so what gives?

Over to you guys!

 

Released but recalled AFAIK.

 

I remember that place. Preferred The Games Room in Epsom though, great importer that.

Anyway, it was manufactured, so legit carts exist. I'm not 100% as to whether it was released and then recalled, or just never sent out to shops at all. But copies obviously got out (way more than the 6-8 BS people spout), and if you really did see it there (fuck me, my feelers are out already) then it would suggest a release.

 

It was only on sale for a few days, if internet folklore is to be believed.

Edit: found this on Wikipedia "Sega also released a Tetris game for the Mega Drive; however, the ensuing blitz of litigation ensured that it was hastily withdrawn"

 

'Preferred The Games Room in Epsom'
I lived in Chertsey, and being 14 did not drive, so could not get anywhere further afield! When I was a couple of years older we just trained it in a group up to Shekana or Computer Exchange in Rathbone Place. I remember a Saturday trip to Tottenham Court Road with £40 in my pocket was like nothing else at the time!

What was The Games Room like?

There was a great second-hand shop in Addlestone called (imaginatively) Surrey Exchange & Mart - the guy in there always seemed to get loads of Japanese Mega Drive games a few months after release, some rich/spoiled brat must have lived around there and cashed them in regularly - I used to LOVE cycling there wondering what I might find (got my Amiga 500, PAL SNES and Game Boy from there over the years) I still have the copy of Devil Crash MD I bought in there!

Anyway, back on topic, it's odd that I have not mentioned this on here before... I think the thing is I am SO sure, but as the years pile on and I read there were only a handful of copies released (as you said likely BS) I start to doubt myself, but I am still certain of what I saw (that £60 price!) - funny thing is I am also sure one of the B&W ads in the back of the mags of the time was selling MD Tetris for £19.99! I could probably track that down if I tried hard enough.

Soft Shop was crap, and staffed by nobs, but most of those shops back then were! I bought my PAL 3DO from there a couple of weeks after launch for £399 which I had saved from my part time job, then a couple of weeks later, Rumbelows went bust and sold off everything for 10% or something of it's original price, so I got a Jaguar for about £30 and had to hide it 'cause my parents would have gone mad if they knew I bought another system after laying down 400 quid a few weeks earlier!

Think what bargains Rumbelows must have flogged off... All that c.1994 SNES and MD stuff for peanuts!

 

Hear is tetris on Mega Drive but i think this cover was made by someone for use with their pirate cart witch is what it only ever was i think..:-(

 

No. There is an 'officially' (ok, they didn't have the licence hence the recall) made Tetris MD. There are numerous threads here with piccies. (I have a legit Tetris MD proto but sadly not the factory made cart / package...yet)

Hell yeah. Shekana was fun. TCR generally was great. I remember seeing a Neo Geo home system for the 1st time up there and being blown away (with a slight sense of nausea at the price!)

I really rated it, but looking back it wasn't much different from many import gaming stores. Very friendly owners who would look out for their customers etc. Couple of cabs. I really started going there at the release of the MD in Japan. For 3-4 years (including a move from a 'plot' in the covered market to an actual store in Epsom, with a second branch in Croydon I think) they were the nuts afaiwc. JP MD goodness covering one wall, with PAL / US very much an afterthought. OK SFC selection, a good pce selection, and contacts for pretty much anything. Awesome trade prices too, you could rock in there with 3 newish releases and walk out with 2 brand new ones and no cash changing hands. Went down hill a bit by the time the Saturn / PS1 / N64 gen hit (I remember paying £375 for an import saturn and VF and being so happy lol..almost dropped £900 for a release day N64 (in the UK!!!) but saw sense thankfully). Got out of gaming for a couple of years, and then when I returned the place was dead, MD games being fifa this and nhl that, and folded shortly after, like so many great import stores.

Another one I have fond memories of was Barkman Computers in Kingston. used to be above the Woolies (RIP), I could have bought a Golden Axe board / cab the amount I spent there. Another fine importer, and the main dude was an MD freak too who knew his stuff. Sadly that went to shit, and although still open as a business down the road it's not an importer any more, just a few crappy games and cheap pc accs.

Awesome. Wish I'd kept my games from my youth but it was usually a case of trading in for newer titles.

What I meant was that now most people you ask think that there are only 6-8 surviving legit Tetris MD copies. (Obviously more were made, but I guess were destroyed / converted to other games when recalled.) But that figure is complete BS according to every Japanese collector I have ever been lucky enough to ask. Hell I know of more copies that have changed hands than that.

 

I have my doubts that the game even went on sale, even for a few hours. Just think about it. Even after only a few hours sales a title like Tetris in 1989 would have sold more than a few hundred copies all over Japan. And let's not forget importers to foreign countries who get stock before Japanese release dates.

What I'm trying to say is that if the game was ever sold there would be more of them on the net than there is. The most rare Saturn titles turn up far more often and they're meant to be limited to very low numbers.

Yakumo

 

so is that the real box art

 

yes, that is the real deal

 

WHAT :drool: i always thought it was fake
unreleased complete box art a very rare thing...:-0:-0:-0

 

Loads of copies were made, but due to licencing issues they were recalled. So the whole package (cart, manual and insert) exists.

(As an aside I can think of examples for most main formats where legit box art / boxes / inserts exist for games that were never released), but yes, they are rare as a rule!)

 

Here's the pictures of the legit version. I think they originated on here a few years ago.

 

heh, then the version I gave away was definitely a bootleg. Just gave me a slight heart attack, since I gave away most of my MD collection to another collector due to space issues when moving.

 

Great scot that is the real deal :drool::drool::drool: nice

 

jesus!

that's insane, what was the RRP of an N64 here in the UK at launch?

what would of the £900 got you, games too?

 

Probably the core bundle and maybe they chucked a game in for free.

 

If he was referring to a Japanese N64 at launch day it could hardly have come with anything else but Mario 64 and Pilotwings. Or Shougi

 

Hello folks,

AFAIK for my chat with Alexei, MD Tetris never was sold in stores also never left Japan. I got mails almost everyweek of people saying they have an original MD Tetris bought here and there (as the first post here), but a few questions proved all of them to be fake.

I'm not certain about the nº of copies out there thought... I can say in all my collecting years I haven't seen more than 3 games 100% legit (mine, mandarake and a japanese collector friend of mine). I would be very happy if any of you can show me screenshots of an auction of MD Tetris I'm not aware of.

I'm pretty sure they were never put on sale, also I'm sure in just one day a lot of Tetris would have been sold, and I mean A LOT. Tetris was THE GAME in those days.