NES Tetris - Fair Edition (Hack) NES ROM

[CSmith327]

Game Description:​

Tetris is a Puzzle video game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and published by Nintendo released on 1989 for the NES.

Hack Credits:​

Released by: Adrian Schiller
Type: Gameplay
Status: Completed
Patch Version: v1.0
Date: 23 March 2026

Source and details: https://github.com/schil227/TetrisFair

This rom hack implements the modern “7-Bag” Random Generator for NES Tetris. Instead of the totally random piece generation which NES Tetris is known for, there is an even distribution of pieces.

This is most easily described as placing the 7 unique Tetrominos in a bag, and drawing them at random. Once the bag is empty, the bag is again refilled with the 7 unique pieces. The result is a more “consistent” game, with no piece droughts or wacky distributions.

The author goes into a lot more detail on the Github page. This might be something a lot of Tetris fans have been wanting for a while now.

Download Links​

• Tetris - Fair Edition (Hack) NES ROM

 

[Bakuma1997]

the very very Short answer, you can get ANY piece within 7 blocks,
so you can get a LINE block every 7, you can basically always setup knowing "i'll get a line piece soon!"
while the ORDER will be random, you can expect every piece to show up evenly.
it's literally impossible to lose modern tetris outside it going too fast, or versus mode stuff
getting two line pieces back to back is incredibly likely and definitely happens more on modern 7bag tetris rules.

older tetris you COULD just not get a line block, it's pure random, you CANNOT plan ahead that much,
so older tetris you have to LEARN how to clear lines with what you're given, going for 4-line clears is incredibly harder. again pure luck, no "guaranteed" pieces, you might need a line block and NOT GET ONE FOR LIKE 30 BLOCKs, i saw a video of someone not getting a line block on tetris NES for 50 straight pieces, it's really really unlucky but it COULD happen.

You're more likely to get an even spread of the pieces and not likely to get the same unwanted 2-3 pieces six times in a row.

Think of it like a random number generator giving you: 1->5->2->7->4->6->3

Instead of: 1->1->1->5->5->2->1

Uh, so that "Little" change makes so much difference, neat to know

 

[Rocket2049]

Any Tetris veteran than can explain how that is "Easier" than the usual RNG and why it counts as "Easy mode"?

Sorry, casul here

the very very Short answer, you can get ANY piece within 7 blocks,
so you can get a LINE block every 7, you can basically always setup knowing "i'll get a line piece soon!"
while the ORDER will be random, you can expect every piece to show up evenly.
it's literally impossible to lose modern tetris outside it going too fast, or versus mode stuff
getting two line pieces back to back is incredibly likely and definitely happens more on modern 7bag tetris rules.

older tetris you COULD just not get a line block, it's pure random, you CANNOT plan ahead that much,
so older tetris you have to LEARN how to clear lines with what you're given, going for 4-line clears is incredibly harder. again pure luck, no "guaranteed" pieces, you might need a line block and NOT GET ONE FOR LIKE 30 BLOCKs, i saw a video of someone not getting a line block on tetris NES for 50 straight pieces, it's really really unlucky but it COULD happen.

 

[MistressRena]

Any Tetris veteran than can explain how that is "Easier" than the usual RNG and why it counts as "Easy mode"?

Sorry, casul here

You're more likely to get an even spread of the pieces and not likely to get the same unwanted 2-3 pieces six times in a row.

Think of it like a random number generator giving you: 1->5->2->7->4->6->3

Instead of: 1->1->1->5->5->2->1

 

[CSmith327]

so this is why "modern" tetris games are incredibly easy!!
like, i remember MAXING OUT tetris DS, like, you have insane amounts of time to slide a piece after it touches anything, i was literally playing it for like 5 hours straight, hit lv99 and max score possible
and tetris effect i swear it's incredibly easy, that's not even factoring the zone mode and the hold pieces...
tetris is a game that scientifically was proven to make you smarter, but i think the newer tetris games do the opposite since you rely on 7-bag RNG and hold pieces and way too much time before blocks lock down.

Do you know if Tetris X for PS1 has the truly random pieces instead of the 7 bag thing? That one was developed by the real people behind Tetris instead of some rando they licensed it to. It's one of my favorite classic style versions.
edit: I looked it up. Google says it uses the random older style instead. "Tetris X for the PlayStation 1 (1998) does not use the modern 7-bag randomizer (where every 7 pieces contain one of each tetromino). It uses a form of pseudo-random number generator (RNG) that selects pieces independently, which can lead to longer droughts of specific pieces, similar to pre-2001 Tetris games."

 

[Bakuma1997]

Any Tetris veteran than can explain how that is "Easier" than the usual RNG and why it counts as "Easy mode"?

Sorry, casul here

 

[Erik Óptero]

The future is now, babies, .

 

[CLAMPEX]

why not upload TetrisGYM? It's the definitive version of NES Tetris used by both casuals and pros from the NES Tetris scene

 

[dada]

Life is not fair. And Tetris taught you that. Making it easy is like cheating life. This is so wrong.

 

[stoicvampirepig]

I'm sorry this totally nerfs tetris.

Modern Tetris is not real Tetris.

 

[Rocket2049]

so this is why "modern" tetris games are incredibly easy!!
like, i remember MAXING OUT tetris DS, like, you have insane amounts of time to slide a piece after it touches anything, i was literally playing it for like 5 hours straight, hit lv99 and max score possible
and tetris effect i swear it's incredibly easy, that's not even factoring the zone mode and the hold pieces...
tetris is a game that scientifically was proven to make you smarter, but i think the newer tetris games do the opposite since you rely on 7-bag RNG and hold pieces and way too much time before blocks lock down.

 

[keefoid]

Thanks for this. Same dude made a couple of other fair hacks for nes games - perhaps they could be posted too?

 

[Super_Meatroid]

It would awesome if someone made a "Rosy Retrospection" version of the NES Tetris like what was done for the Game Boy version.