Five basic shapes, formed by 4 cubes, resembling the letters I, O, Z, T, L. These shapes fall down the display. You can rotate them as they fall so that they fit properly and fill the empty space on the bottom row. A full row will disappear by itself. Those who play well have a clear display. Whoever rolls the dice ends up as the loser.
Moscow native Alexei Pazhitnov got the idea for the development of this video game by looking at ordinary children’s blocks called Pentomina. He simplified the shapes in his game, removed one cube. By combining the Greek four “tetra” and his favorite game of tennis, the successful Tetris was created.
Questionnaire
Do you know and have played or are you still playing Tetris?
No, I’ve never heard of it. I’m not interested in computers.
Yes, I used to be very entertained and engrossed by it.
Yes, it’s my favorite game. I have it installed on my mobile.
A total of 4 readers voted.
The game itself was created during 1984 at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow while testing the capabilities of the new Elektronika 60 computer. At that time, there were still no color graphics, which were later created by a young student, Vadim Gerasimov, whom Pazhitnov approached for this purpose. For the next ten long years, the rights to this game belonged to the Soviet government.
Around the world, Tetris was already making money for someone, while the author was happy that people were enjoying the game. He and his family moved to America in 1991 to work. He worked for Microsoft for 10 years. The money for his original idea helped him gain a friendship with Henk Rogers, who needed to obtain a Tetris license for use in the Game boy. Pazhitnov and Rogers founded The Tetris Company, and in 1996 all rights returned to the hands of its inventor.
Today, the almost seventy-year-old sympathetic bearded old man considers himself a member of our planet rather than a Russian or an American. He publicly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He doesn’t enjoy playing newer and more advanced games. He already feels old for news. However, he also recalled the early days of Tetris’s career, when they had to develop another software in Russia that was able to delete the secretly installed Tetris game from work computers. Across businesses and positions, people played more than they worked. The story of the development of this game and its journey to players all over the world was also captured in a very well-rated film directed by Jon S. Baird, which was created at the end of last year, called TETRIS.
