Classic Video Games- Tetris




 
Addiction has a name and its name is Tetris.

Vintage Classic Tetris.



Tetris is a game that has been around for over three decades. It has spread from the hand held consoles of the mid 1990's into becoming a staple of everyone's mobile phones.
The first version of the game surfaced in 1984. It was developed at a Russian Science Centre by Alexey Pajitnov and Vladimir Pokhilko. Alexey Pajitnov made very little money from the game as he signed over the rights to the product to the then Soviet Government for ten years. Tetris was one of the first computer exported to the USA from the Soviet Union. The game's aim is to sort the seven geometric shapes into perfect lines that will disappear and award you points. If the lines are broken, they remain where they are and stack up until they reach the cut off line that signifies the end of the game.

It is estimated that over 50,000,000 physical units of the game have been sold across numerous game platforms and a further 100,000,000 downloads of the game have been made available on a huge variety of electronic devices.   
  
Tetris was released in the home computer market in the late 1980's. It was released across the PC, Commodore and Spectrum devices with a number of different publishers laying claim to the title. It was widely acclaimed by its audience but the game really came to prominence when the game was linked up with Nintendo and their new product - 
the Nintendo Game Boy.
Nintendo Game Boy Tetris Screenshot.


The first time I played the game was on the Nintendo Game Boy and I immediately loved the game. Previously I had enjoyed another classic puzzle game called Columns, this was by Sega and was a direct rival to Tetris. Once I had tried Tetris on the Game Boy, there was no going back.

 Tetris is accepted as one of the most recognizable puzzle games and is rightly called one of the most addictive games of all time. There have been many variations and gimmicks added to the game yet the fundamental design of the game has changed little over the passage of time. The game music has also made its impact in the music charts of the USA and the UK. A remixed version of the theme made it into the top 40 in the United Kingdom at a time when dance music was extremely popular.

 The great thing about Tetris is its game play, addictiveness and enduring appeal. For as long as there is technology, I am sure that there will be a version of this game to be played.

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