Apple’s Tetris clone game discovered inside prototype iPod model

A secret Tetris clone, Stacker, was revealed on Apple’s third-generation iPod prototype. The discovery in question was made by YouTube producer Apple Demo and revealed other games that Apple had not previously released. Block0 ve Klondike Games such as were included in this prototype iPod.

The prototype iPod has a “DVT” (Design Verification Test) label on the back, where storage capacity is usually indicated. This label indicates that the device is in the middle stage of development. The two songs still available in the device’s storage and the playlist called “Battery Test” indicate that the device is being used for battery tests.

Apple Demo was able to transfer the internal hardware of this rare iPod to a second generation iPod and get the device working. Among the games available on the running device, they only showed the Stacker game. Stacker is based on moving the falling blocks left and right using the iPod’s click wheel and dropping the blocks with the center button.

The aim of the Stacker game is to clear the rows by completing them and prevent the blocks from piling up on top of each other, just like in Tetris. As shown in the video, there is a bug in the game where a brick gets stuck on top of the stack when rotated. But overall the game works, which shows off Apple’s potential in game design.

Apple Demo contacted Tony Fadell, former senior vice president of Apple’s iPod division, to learn more about this game. “We added games with subsequent software updates,” Fadell said in a statement in 2022. He said and left the inside story about why the Stacker game was not released for now. Years later, Apple released a licensed Tetris game that could be purchased from the iTunes Store on “Classic” iPod models.