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.
