This month, Tetris turns 25. Let's ponder that thought for a moment. That means back in 1984 the game was created by Alexey Pajitnov while he was working at the Moscow Academy of Sciences. The cold war ended right after that. Could Tetris have meant that much to the world? Well, I'm not sure about that coincidence, but it sure meant a ton to the lot of us. I think I speak for every geek, mild gamer and well, pretty much everyone else when I say that Tetris is the greatest game ever created. So after 25 years of playing Tetris we have to take a moment to reflect on one of man's greatest gaming accomplishments.
First, let's talk history. As we all know, a young Alexey Pajitnov created the game while working for the Moscow Academy of Sciences. If you didn't know that, I mentioned it in the previous paragraph. The rights to the game were owned at that time by the Motherland Russia herself, as it was created under a communist state. Eventually word spread like wildfire across the early BBS boards and the fledgling internet that this game was simply the best, most of us just didn't quite know it yet. Then in 1989 a company you may have heard of packaged the game (paying the Motherland for rights) with their Gameboy hand held system. Nintendo was looking for a game that wasn't Super Mario, that wasn't Zelda - that was something that every type of gamer could enjoy. They found it in Tetris Since then, over 125 million different versions of the game have been sold.
Second, what effect did Tetris have on your life? Feel free to respond in the comments. For me, Tetris brought more than just an early onset of carpal tunnel syndrome in my thumbs. It brought me peace of mind. Here was a game where there were no characters, no shooting, no confusing story lines or muddled plots. Instead, you positioned randomly selected blocks to form lines. It was basic and complex at the same time. Basic because of the objectivity of the game. Complex because of the mathematics behind the game. To this day, there is no supercomputer on Earth that could accurately predict which block is going to come next. Every single game is different. The goal is the same.
With that peace of mind came concentration and focus. Tetris created a plane of existence that could take you away from reality more so than any other game. You weren't just distracted, you were focused. You blink, and the block doesn't fit or isn't in the right row as intended. As the pace of the falling blocks increased, so did your concentration and Tetris then became a tool for regaining focus and honing your concentration skills. I still take Tetris breaks to this day to re-center myself, especially during a hectic day at the office. That's something that you can't say about most games. There wasn't a lot of skill needed to play, but you felt better after playing.
Tetris was the first game I played on Gameboy, on the old black and gray screen. It's the only game that I've played now for 21 years. Name me another game that you've played for that long? Not a series, but one single game. Tetris helped shape the way I looked at life. Every problem, every situation was simply a random arrangement of blocks moving at increasingly more difficult speeds. Decision making became more precise, box stacking became more efficient. Overall though, it improved on the logical portion of the brain.
Third, and this is an important one, Tetris is nearly impossible to master. There have been a few that have come to completely dominate the game, their exploits can be found on the internet and YouTube. Unless you have Flash like reflexes, after level 10 most people can't keep up. However, this hasn't deterred them from trying and trying again. This is the key item with Tetris. No matter how many times you fail to crack the level 10 barrier you'll try over and over. I'm saying level 10 because that's when the speed of the blocks picks up the most from the gradual speeding up of the previous nine levels. Your personal level 10 might be level 19, but you get the point. If you were one of the lucky ones to see any form of rocket blasting off (the original Gameboy version had multiple rockets blast off after busting out of the game, the size was based on points and levels - I haven't seen it since but I haven't played every single version of Tetris,) it was truly a great feeling. Other than that, there never seemed to be an end in sight. This gave the game ultimate re-playability, a genius move. I can't think of the highest level I ever reached on the original, whatever it was - it was very fast. A couple years ago I cracked level 36 & over 500,000 points on my cell phone, I had only stopped due to my thumbs cramping. I had been playing for several hours. I have a picture.
Lastly, it's not over. We're still playing Tetris. I play it several times a day on my phone. I have it for the Wii, my kids play it. Everyone I know plays it. Everyone knows it. Tetris is a game for the ages. There are franchises that have been around just as long, but not one single game that has such a broad reach. This is why Tetris is the greatest game ever made. Tetris is something more than just a game. It's a permanent piece of pop culture and now, of history as a gaming icon. Here's to Alexey and an infinite shelf life for Tetris. So now, if you'll excuse me - I have to take a Tetris break.