Tetromino
The various types of Tetrominoes.
Vital statistics
Type	Piece
Effects	They fall, can be rotated, and used to break lines.
Source	The "sky"
Cost to buy	N/A
Cost to sell	N/A

Tetrominoes, occasionally known alternately as Tetrads, Blocks, or Tetriminoes, are the blocks used in every known Tetris game. They come in seven shapes, all of which can be rotated and then dropped. Tetrominoes all have an area of four squares. In certain Tetris games, the colors of them vary.

A tetromino, is a polyomino made of four square blocks. The seven one-sided tetrominoes are I, O, T, S, Z, J, and L.

The spelling "tetromino" is standard among mathematicians. The Tetris Company had preferred tetramino around 1999 and has used tetrimino since 2001.

Contents 1 The basic tetrominoes 1.1 I 1.2 O 1.3 T 1.4 S 1.5 Z 1.6 J 1.7 L 2 Multimino 3 "Poly"-mino 4 The "Heaven" Polymino 5 List of Tetrominos 6 See also 7 External links

The basic tetrominoes Edit

Each tetromino has a letter name and several alternative names.

In most games other than Tetris for NES, Tetris & Dr. Mario, or black-and-white systems, each tetromino has a different color. However, before about 2001, these colors varied from product to product, making it difficult for people who play different games to discuss "the blue piece". Since then, the color schemes associated with SRS and TGM Rotation have dominated new games, and "the blue piece" is always J.

IEdit

Other names include straight, stick, and long. This is the only tetromino that can clear four lines outside of cascade games.

OEdit

Other names include square and block.

TEdit

SEdit

Other names include inverse skew and right snake.

ZEdit

Other names include skew and left snake.

JEdit

Other names include gamma, inverse L, or left gun.

LEdit

Other names include right gun.

Multimino Edit

In The Next Tetris, Sticky mode of Tetris Worlds and Tetris Mania, and Jewelry Master, some tetrominoes are multiminoes, that is, the tetromino itself is divided into visible components. Though the tetromino is moved and rotated as a unit, once it locks, the components separate by colors and fall.

"Poly"-mino Edit

In some games like Magical Tetris Challenge, there have Minos that consist of 5 to 25 squares to make the gameplay challenging yet tricky.

The "Heaven" PolyminoEdit

In "Tetris Heaven" as concieved of by Randall Monroe in xkcd.com/888/, the "Heaven Block" is the exact size and shape required to eliminate every open row up to the highest column.  In most fanmade adaptions, the piece is  portrayed as a single square when shown as coming next. 

List of TetrominosEdit

• I-Block
• J-Block
• L-Block
• O-Block
• S-Block
• T-Block
• Z-Block

See alsoEdit

• Piece
• Orientation

External linksEdit

• Mathworld
• Wikipedia:Tetromino
• The Tetris Taxonomy: The Pieces (Adult audience)