The original release of the 1988 DOS version of Tetris features an animation on the title screen where a white Cessna airplane flies over the title logo; after the opening scroll, it reappears while dragging a banner that reads "PLAY TETRIS!" This sequence references Mathias Rust, a West German teenager who illegally piloted a Cessna from Uetersen Airfield to Moscow the previous year in an attempt to relieve tensions between the United States and Soviet Union, landing near Red Square.

Rust's flight was a major embarrassment for the Soviet military due to him disproving the notion that their defenses were ironclad. Consequently, later revisions of the game removed the animation on orders from ELORG, the Soviet Union's state-sponsored computer company and the owners of the Tetris license at the time.