Tetris: Type A - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl Music

This video explains the history behind the Tetris: Type A music track that plays on the Luigi's Mansion stage.

In this video, these are played:

1. The arrangement of Korobeiniki that I found
2. The Tetris A-Type arrangement
3. The Super Smash Bros. Brawl arrangement
4. The mixture of Korobeiniki and the Brawl arrangement
5. Screenshots edited in Paint showing how the Tetris A-Type arrangement and Brawl arrangement were arranged

The fifth item I added as an afterthought after I had almost completed the video.

Everything should be sufficiently explained in the video.

(Peddlers were basically street merchants selling things out of boxes, trays, etc.)

One reason this Russian folk song is used is because Tetris was originally developed by a Russian and "Tetris" is a Russian word. That's why it says "From Russia with fun!" at the bottom of the art, boxes and labels on the Tetris games for Game Boy and NES.

And no, I don't know anything about Russian. This is my first experience with the Russian language. I matched up the transliterated Russian as best as I could to what was sung. Then cross referenced that with the melodies in both arrangements.

So yes, Type A (or A-Type) in Tetris was originally a Russian folk song that was originally a poem written by a (obviously Russian) poet in the mid-1800's. To show this in the video, I needed an arrangement of it to showcase. I searched around many Russian language websites for "Коробе́йники mp3" and the "folksy-est" sounding arrangement I could find. The best one I found I used in this video, but cut out most of the slow 1-minute intro before the song picks up. (It's just too bad that it has that lull in the middle, so I filled it in with some background information. Then I wish the next verse was faster.) Whether this song represents how the poem was *originally* arranged the first time it was made into a song or not, I have no idea. All I do know is that the last two lines of most of the verses are repeated where in the poem they are not. (However, in the Brawl arrangement, the last two lines of a few of the verses are repeated as well.)

I figured staring at Nikolay Alexeyevich's bald head for three minutes would have been a bit boring, so I decided to sort of follow along with the song with some related pictures I found on the web, plus pictures I took with my own digital camera. Trying to find or take a picture for every line would have been difficult and time consuming, so I think what I have is sufficient. 5000 Russian Rubles is about 145 US Dollars on 03/18/09. I don't know who the people are in my pictures (other than myself.) I took what I found because trying to find a picture of a dark-eyed woman and kissing always lead me into some type of porn. And yes, I am well aware there weren't plastic laundry baskets, refrigerators and V8 in Pre-Revolutionary Russia. I didn't even notice the V8 until I put the video on YouTube. :P And the laundry basket was the closest thing I had to a crate. Also, chintz and brocade are basically types of cloth, so that's why I put the towels and still-wrapped bedsheets in the laundry basket.

All of that being said, there are some things about this poem that don't make sense. First the woman is paying the peddler, obviously because he's selling things. But then he's asking her to raise the price after they sneak off into the rye at night. But then again, if he's paying her, that's probably why they had to sneak off in the first place. Also, "Only the deep night knows what they agreed upon" so it's implied that they worked out some sort of bargain since they were trying to pay each other. And... if he's selling cloth, where did the turquoise ring come from? Many different things can be taken from that. I think this is one of those things that has to be read and thought about subjectively instead of objectively, meaning that what happens in the poem changes depending on individual interpretation.

Anyway, I think that's enough typing for now....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korobeiniki

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Tetris
• Type
• History
• Behind
• Super
• Smash
• Bros.
• Brawl
• Music
• A-Type
• Game
• Boy
• Nintendo
• SSBM
• Bros
• Brothers
• Korobeiniki
• Korobushka
• The
• Tray
• Peddlers
• Коробе́йники
• Nikolay
• Alexeyevich
• Nekrasov
• Никола́й
• Алексе́евич
• Некра́сов
• Russian
• Language

[alienmasterfrich]

im willing to forgive them for the whole cold war thing just because they gave us this

[AdmiralPrussia]

That video is amazing someone took the time to truly explain a unique piece of history

[CzarCarlton]

You must mean, Tetris Type A, that play in the game tetris...

[Fredrik1ST]

Wonderful video! The comparisons towards the end are played in two different keys, by the way.

[SNIPERGUY9294]

The is the most interesting history lesson I've ever watched.

[OniYoshiable]

Someone needs to find the link for the Russian version

[Silv3rDrag]

@ThePoketrix According to Wiki, it was released in 1984 so yep

[ThePoketrix]

@skully367 :Sorry... I never look at the age of comments... heheh... (note to self: punch self in the face later.)

[skully367]

@ThePoketrix That comment was half a year ago and I can't even remember posting it. I know that Tetra- means four

[ThePoketrix]

@skully367: To defend @friendlyoreo, he's partially right, Tetra- is a Greek prefix meaning four and is the source of the name of Tetris. Look it up on Wikipedia. But yes, Tetris blocks are tetrominoes. (score 1 for ThePoketrix, 0 for trolls who fail to research themselves and yet say, and I directly quote from skully367, "No research, absolute bullshit". Oh, I'm in love with Wikipedia...)

[ThePoketrix]

@Silv3rDrag: I know, we're evil...

Tetris should've been released during the cold war, it would've snapped it in two!

(was it?)

[Silv3rDrag]

We gave them war....they give us this game