Falling blocks

Two of my favorite tings are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. the first is Battletech, a Game of Armored combat. the other is Tetris.

Tetris was perhaps the greatest invention to come out of the Soviet Union, after the Automat Kalashnikov model 1947. it was created by a mathematician, Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov in 1984. though popular rumor is that it was made on an oscilloscope, it was in fact made on a Russian Elektronika 60 mainframe terminal. being the soviet union, the government claimed ownership of the software, and sold the publishing rights on the cheap, leaving Alexy with no royalties. The result of this caused Alexy and his friend and co worker to move to the United States, where he was honestly shocked that his simple "exercise the brain" program was a smash hit, and little children were playing it on Game Boys with an expertise many adults could not match.

it is estimated that over 70 million copies of the game Tetris have been sold in one format or another, and it can be argued that the Game Boy, which originally came with a copy of Tetris, was made the leading platform by the game. It has been ported, and made to freeware on several systems, and even been played on the side of skyscrapers.

The Music is just as timeless. the Original Game boy version used a Russian folk tune called Korobeiniki, as well as "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Faeries" and Bach's "French Suite no 3."

my personal opinion as to the success of Tetris is that for a puzzle game, it does not end. there is no clock, no goal, it is a race against yourself to last as long as possible. even mathematicians have stated that eventually even with reflexes bordering on precognition, the nature of the game itself prevents you from playing indefinitely. yet this makes it easy to compete, not only against friends, but yourself. that such a competitive piece of software came from the Soviets is nearly miraculous.

I for one, plan on celebrating this wonderful game with a glass of vodka and my circa 1986 gameboy (still functions!). everyone else should at least play the classic, and raise a glass to our comrade Alexy, now living in hawaii, for starting an international phenominon