Comments on: Happy 25th birthday, Tetris

Tetris will turn 25 years old later this week. And we have a retrospective on the ups and downs of the famous falling-blocks puzzle game's history.

[Error42]

So is Nintendo going to do some huge birthday party bash? I mean this game made the company bizmillions of dollars.

[yiang]

Happy Birthday indeed. One of the best games ever created and I'm proud to be a huge fan of it.

[bvdon]

i still zone out with tetris.... love it.

[sting7k]

Playing Tetris right now on my iPhone. The original theme music from the 1989 Gameboy version is forever burned into my brain. Everyone thinks Mario is the king of gaming, it should be Tetris. Tetris transends time, generations, platforms, and cultuers. Awesome game, long live Tetris!!!!

[pjscullion]

Happy Birthday Tetris! I recently found an original Game Boy copy I'd left in my bright-green GB Color the other day. Not only do the system and game still work, but the thing worked for 24 hours straight before the ancient (5-6 year old) batteries gave way. What a system!

Congrats to Pajitnov for creating a game that defined the puzzle-game genre, and a THANK YOU as well for getting me started gaming way, WAY back in the day.

[MammothCave]

Several web sites (including Wikipedia, AtariHQ, and Factiva) all state that Tetris was invented June 1985 making this the 24th anniversary, not 25th. EA has announced the 25th celebration starting this month however it doesn't have its official 25th until next June.

[ghostfear]

I am sorry, you are wrong. It says 1984.

[Blacksheep1982]

Everyone is so wrapped up in the Gameboy version, yes, I had the Gameboy version and played it a lot, but lest we forget the Nintendo version? That was the version that both myself and my friends fell in love with as children. The bright colored blocks that told you what level you were in before you could even see the number, the nutcracker theme, which every time I hear now, even when attending the Nutcracker Sweet with my girlfriend, instantly reminds me of Tetris. That's the version I will always remember (and in fact still have along with my original Nintendo). I feel compelled to go play it on my Nintendo right now in fact!

Anyone remember the Russian bear commercial for the NES version? Classic!

[hmdz105]

Tetris vs Super Mario ? Which one you preferred?

[LBVMI]

Congratulations Alexey!
Have many fond memories of Alexey in Russia at the Academy of Sciences & JV Dialogue(2nd Soviet/American JV 1987-1994) and his adventures in bringing Tetris to the States. Many wonderful days with Esther Dyson and everyone from JVD. Alexey is a very thoughtful, kind, intelligent software engineer! We wish him all the best, L&J


http://www.flickr.com/photos/byers-russia/3167260619/in/set-72157612167216244/
(Pictured at the first East-West PC Forum (by Esther Dyson) in Budapest (l-r Jack Byers, Alexey Pajitnov, Laura Byers, Vladimir Pokhilko)

[shurygin]

Had a chance to meet Alexey personally. Very nice guy. Tetris is still a one and only game I play occasionally, for most of these 25 years....

[BoardgameNews]

A boardgame inspired by Tetris, Reiner Knizia's Fits (published by Ravensburger), was nominated for Germany's game of the year award in May 2009. Fits isn't a direct port of Tetris ? players use triominoes and pentominoes in addition to the familiar Tetris pieces, and they try to leave certain spaces uncovered when adding pieces to the board in order to score points ? but the game play is so simple and familiar, that you jump into the game immediately. I'm surprised something like this wasn't introduced to the boardgame world earlier, given the success of Tetris, but of course derivatives like this one are sometimes obvious only in retrospect.

[todd3617]

I wish they would release the original Nintendo version on the Wii Shop Channel.

[robin.lurge]

Hey! Happy birthday Tetris!

A new blog about this subject:
http://tetris.happy-25th-anniversary.com/

Join and enjoy!

[Justin_McCloudPhoto]

Oh, you have to love the great game of Tetris!
<a href="http://www.mccloudphotography.com">Justin</a>