March 17, 2007 5:58 AM PDT
Tetris tests gamers' geometric thinking and motor skills. Designed in 1984 by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov--whose favorite sport was tennis, according to Wikipedia--the falling-blocks puzzle game was an early Nintendo Game Boy favorite.
The objective of Tetris is to fit the four-segment pieces together such that a complete horizontal line--sans any gaps--is filled and thus disappears. When that happens, the blocks above that line drop. Over time, the differently shaped blocks start falling more rapidly, giving players less time to rotate and shift them properly before they permanently nestle on top of other blocks. Once the window gets filled to the top, game over.
Photo by GameSpot
Caption by Zoë Barton
