The first tokens of Tetris They began to fall forty years ago today, and it was June 6, 1984 when Alexey Pajitnov created the original version of this popular video game while working as a researcher for the Academy of Soviet Sciences in Moscow. This Russian engineer’s love for traditional puzzles was the seed that led him to program a computer game that replaced the five-block pieces of his favorite puzzle, the pentomino, with figures made up of four squares.
From the Greek word tetrawhich means four, came out with a name that would end up being authentic history of the interactive medium. As in the game it was inspired by, the goal of Tetris was still to fit all the tiles without leaving any gaps, but with a twist to the formula: the tiles would fall infinitely from the top of the screen and each line completed would be deleted to make more space.
Russian Alexey Pajitnov, inventor of the popular Tetris, in an image from 1997
A movie story
Tetris and the fierce fight to take over their rights
Alexey Pajitnov programmed the first version of Tetris on a Russian Electronika 60 computer and the game was so addictive that neither he nor his companions could get off. Without knowing it, a phenomenon had begun that would make this title one of the most popular (and best-selling) of all time.
Created during the last years of the Soviet Union, Tetris exported Russian iconography around the world through game covers. He also starred in one of the fiercest legal battles that the interactive medium has ever experienced, a fight to obtain distribution rights that faced companies such as Nintendo or Atari, and that practically gave rise to a geopolitical conflict between countries. The recent film Tetris (2023, Jon S. Baird) reflects the intricate story behind the game.
The version of Tetris for Game Boy is one of the most iconic
500 million units sold and versions for almost all platforms
With nearly 500 million units sold, Tetris ended up having versions for practically all consoles, computers and mobile phones to this day, but none of them were as iconic as the Game Boy, which Nintendo included as standard with its laptop in 1989. .
Today, Tetris remains a phenomenon thanks to a very active community of players. From tournaments that surprise each year with the feats of the best players, to amazing news, such as the one that was known at the beginning of 2024, when a 13-year-old American boy achieved what seemed impossible: he went so far that the game ended up blocking .
All of this is not to mention the so-called “Tetris effect”, a widely studied phenomenon that occurs when a person dedicates so much time and attention to an activity that they end up mentally seeing images related to it in everything around them, even in their dreams. .
This is a symptom identified two decades ago by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and, as its name indicates, it is related to what is perhaps the most popular video game of all time. In fact, from its name comes what is the most recommended version of the game today, Tetris Effect, a celebration of the noble art of fitting pieces together to make as many lines as possible.
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