Tetris – The Game of the Past and the Future

Fans of gaming of any sort all know a few basic games that formed the foundation of what we know today to be the number one form of entertainment. One of these original games is Tetris. Known around the world since it’s release, Tetris has long been one of the most popular ways for people to waste some time and have a good time in the same breath. Before we can understand why it is such a great game, lets first examine the history of Tetris and how it evolved into this modern day wonder of a game.

A number of lawsuits have been filed to find out who the actual inventor of Tetris is, to avoid confusion we are just going to let that name remain unsaid. The game was invented in the mid-80s in Russia and quickly became a popular device for people to have fun with. After a brief struggle to get the game on the popular PCs that most people in America used, the game was introduced to the United States in 1986. After the game grew in popularity again, a number of new lawsuits were filed to determine who had the rights to the game. After a while, the system Atari was finally awarded these rights for arcades and Nintendo got them for consoles. After that Nintendo began to release a number of highly successful versions of the popular game, and still do so today even for their newer consoles. Tetris remains popular today even as games with better graphics and more advanced controls are released.

So now that we have a little understand towards where the game from, lets look at why it is so popular. Tetris seems like a very simple game, which makes it appealing to many gamers who do not want to or simply do not have the time to spend on learning advanced controls. Because there are only about five keys that a gamer needs to know, anyone can be playing this game efficiently within minutes. Sweet and simple are two words that make Tetris so appealing to players initially.

After playing Tetris, gamers soon find that the game is much more complex than thought before. While there are no controls, different shapes of blocks, obstacles, and speed of drops all add to the confusion and act to make the game harder to play. It becomes frustrating to lose and a challenge to pass the higher levels. Players find themselves addicted and dedicated to beating Tetris, or at least setting a higher score than their friends and family did before.

Another appealing nature of the game is the accessibility of the game. You don’t need to own a Nintendo console of any kind to play the game, unless you prefer the flashier, new versions of Tetris. The game can be found in many different versions online, the easiest being the flash version. Because of that a gamer can quickly locate this game and be playing in no time. When you have only a fifteen-minute span to squeeze some fun in, this works great for you.

Overall Tetris may seem like a simple game but in fact it is much more complex once played. It is a game that has been around for more than two decades and will be around for much longer than that. A granddaddy to all current games, Tetris is a good experience for all gamers of all ages. So if you are one of the few who has not ever experienced this game, go out and try it and you will have a good time for sure.

A brief history of Tetris

Tetris was the first computer game that involved falling tetromino pieces that the game player must align in order to create an unbroken line which subsequently disappears in order to free up more game play space. If the player is unable to make an unbroken line, the game play space quickly gets crowded until the point where no more space is available and the game is over.

The game of Tetris was first programmed in 1985 in the former Soviet Union by Alexey Pazhitnov. It ran on a machine called an Electronica 60 but was quickly ported to run on an IBM PC in the same month of its initial release. One month later and the game had been ported for use on the Apple II and the Commodore 64 by a programming team in Hungary.

The game quickly saw interest from a software house in the UK, Andromeda, who released it in the UK and USA in 1986 although the original programmer Pazhitnov had not agreed to any sale or licensing agreement. Nonetheless, Anromeda managed to copyright licensing for the game and marketed Tetris as ‘The first game from behind the iron curtain’. Tetris was an instant smash hit and had thousands of people hooked.

A new company, ELORG, took up negotiations on behalf of Pazhitnov and eventually the licensing rights were granted to Nintendo in 1989 for a sum of between 3 and 5 million dollars. Nintendo quickly exerted their corporate strength and forbid any other company to market the game that Andromeda had given license to, including Atari. However, Tetris had become the biggest selling game on all formats at that time.

Today Tetris is still hugely popular, with versions running on all formats, and still managing to get people hooked through its simple yet addictive game play.