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Okay, here's the question: Did Tetris rip off Zanac? Zanac predates Tetris by at least a year. Take a look at this screenshot of Zanac's Level 6 and look carefully at the floor patterns: |
 Tetris (1987) |
 Zanac (1986) |
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And that's not all. As my friend James FP pointed out, notice the square thing in the upper right corner of the Zanac screenshot looks suspiciously similar to the square in Tetris.
Update: Here's some more information on the Tetris/Zanac Oddity sent in by site reader The Almighty Guru:
"I noticed that in your Tetris vs Zanac page you list that Tetris is
from 1987. True, the NES version was published in 1987, but the original
computer version was released in 1986, matching their years. This still
holds the question in check, who copied who. Perhaps neither?"
Hmmm...It must be one of those "Great Minds Think Alike" phenomenons.
Here are some other "oddities" about Zanac's Level 6. Take a look at the block formation at the bottom of the screen in this picture. It spells out "COMPILE", the name of the company that made Zanac:
 This is very similar to the hidden word "GAMEBOY" in Snake Rattle n Roll that was mentioned in the Oddities Section. But it doesn't end there. If you beat Zanac, and have a second controller plugged in, wait until the fairy stops moving on the end credits, and press A + B on both controllers. A secret message that says "See you again in Guardic" will appear. Guardic was an MSX game also made by Compile that was not released in America. The Guardian Legend is a sequel of sorts to that game. Its Japanese title is "Guardic Gaiden" (thanks to Magical Yard Gnome for this info.) It's a good bet that this message had to be kept secret because the original Guardic was never released on any Nintendo systems. However, Compile also managed to slip in one more reference to this game. Once again, in Level 6, this time, it's the boss that spells out "GUARDIC", as you can see in this screenshot: 
The top four letters are "GUAR" and the bottom three are "DIC". Interesting stuff! |
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