A third-generation iPod prototype from 2003 that features a scrapped Tetris clone has been discovered, revealing Apple’s earlier plans to bring one of the most popular games of all time to its handheld jukebox.
AppleDemoYT is a prolific collector of unreleased Apple products who created a YouTube video of this unreleased Tetris clone on May 24. Called ‘Stacker’, the game leveraged the iPod’s click wheel to move the blocks, as well as the middle button to change a block’s shape. The iPod is labeled DVT (Design Validation Testing) — this means it was a late-prototype model. AppleDemoYT explains in his video that the device was manufactured around the beginning of April 2003, which puts the prototype a month before the third-generation iPod was released on May 2. One could suspect that scrapping this Tetris clone could have been a last-minute decision by Apple, although we don’t know why.
An official version of Tetris debuted on the iPod several years later in 2006, taking advantage of the fifth-generation iPod’s improved color display. When the third-generation iPod was released, a collection of games were available to play. For example, Breakout, a game created by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, required you to bounce a ball in order to break rows of bricks. Other games included were Music Quiz, which used your music library, and Parachute, where you could control a cannon to shoot down helicopters.
What other games were featured on iPod?
Way back in 2006, Apple released a plethora of games to coincide with a new software update for its fifth and sixth-generation iPods:
- Bejeweled
- Cubis 2
- Mahjong
- Mini Golf
- Pac-Man
- Texas Hold 'Em
- Vortex
- Zuma
Sonic would later be made available in 2007 for $4.99 / £4.99, though its control scheme was awkward. You had to hold the fast-forward button to make Sonic run and use the middle button to make him jump. Games like Tetris made sense for the click-wheel iPod, but once the App Store arrived on the iPhone in 2008 with its touch display, the accelerometer, and more, the device signaled the end of these iPod games. Regardless, this third-generation iPod prototype showcases what was possible with the iconic click-wheel design, as well as showing how we could have had one of the greatest games on our iPods in 2003.
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