The first time my father saw the video game Space Invaders, he told me he didn’t like it. “Why would anyone do anything except clear four lines at a time?” Pull off a Tetris and a longer, happier tune plays as the screen flashes momentarily. Each time one, two, or three lines are eliminated, the rows magically disappear and a short tone plays. In early rounds, game pieces fall so slowly that arranging them is relatively simple.
The highest scoring move in the game, literally called a “Tetris,” is achieved by dropping a straight piece into a narrow gap, eliminating four rows at once. Beginners tend to eliminate rows one at a time as quickly as possible, while more experienced players go for the big points. There’s time - so much time! - to make plans. The game starts out deceptively slow, with pieces floating toward the ground as if they were weird, geometrically-shaped feathers. Originally submitted as a joke, the L-shaped block from Tetris was voted the winner. In 2007, GameFAQs ran a contest to determine the greatest video game mascot of all time. Every kid had nicknames for the shapes, although they are frequently referred to as the letters they resemble: I, O, T, J, L, S, and Z. The seven shapes are trademarked, copyrighted, and patented by the Tetris Company. Whether you refer to the pieces as Tetrominoes (their original name) or Tetriminos (their new name), there are only seven of them, each one consisting of four small squares (Minos). In Tetris, players clear horizontal rows by placing falling bricks into position. Some of us had already graduated high school. Which brings things back to us - a group of middle-aged men revisiting Tetris at home during our lunch breaks and in between emails. Some of them - most of them - hadn’t been born when Tetris debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989. As of today, more than 150 people have done the same. In 2009, a Tetris fanatic maxed out the game’s score (999,999), an achievement thought to be impossible. Each year, scores previously assumed to be unobtainable and levels assumed to be unreachable are regularly surpassed. Today, the Classic Tetris World Championship takes place annually as a part of the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. The original national Tetris championship took place at the Nintendo World Championship in 1990. The consoles, games, and controllers are all identical, removing all variables except for a players’ skill. Nintendo’s version of Tetris became the de facto standard for competitions. Neither of these numbers include the hundreds of Tetris spinoffs, sequels, and knock-offs.
Nintendo’s version of Tetris is ranked number 10 with 43 million copies sold, while Electronic Art’s mobile version of Tetris, released in 2006, is number three on the list with 132 million sales. On the list of Top 10 Best Selling Video Games of All Time, Tetris appears twice.
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Nintendo sold an astounding 8 million copies of the game for their Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1989, they packaged the game with their new portable Game Boy and sold another 35 million copies. Licensed and unlicensed versions of the game appeared on every major home computer and video game console. In the beginning of 1988, no one had heard of Tetris by the end of the year, the game was literally everywhere. The first officially licensed version of Tetris, published by Spectrum Holobyte, appeared on US shelves in January of 1988. It took Pajitnov’s game four years to migrate to the United States. Most people know that Tetris was created in the Soviet Union by engineer Alexey Pajitnov. Discussion continued and to make a long story short, a bunch of middle-aged men scattered across the country are once again playing Tetris and comparing high scores. I suggested they watch Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters, a 2011 documentary about the world’s best Tetris players. Last week while chatting with friends, the topic of Tetris came up.