Tetris, addictive video game, at 35: NPR

Thirty-five years ago in Moscow, Alexey Pajitnov launched a parallel project that became the second-best-selling video game of all time: Tetris, a "naughty Russian" video game. .

At the time, Pajitnov was a young developer and programmer who was particularly interested in a very popular puzzle game consisting of twelve forms composed of five square pieces. The object was to create images and images using pentominoes, he explained. His fascination with this was obvious, but the inspiration for Pajitnov's game came to him when he finished playing one day and put the pieces back in their box.

"When you try to put [them] Back in the box, you have problems because it's really difficult. "And so it is that the idea of ​​Tetris is born.

It's simple and yet has proven to be indomitably addictive. Seven pieces of four blocks of bright colors, tetrominoes, falls from the top of the screen. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, as the player rotates the pieces to create complete lines. When they do, the line disappears. When they do not, the blocks begin to stack on top of each other until they fill the screen and the game is over.

As soon as Pajitnov had finished the prototype, he knew he had received a commercial coup.

"I could not stop playing," he confessed, admitting that at work, he claimed to be busy, but in reality, he was in Tetris trance. "The magic is in her," he says proudly.

Two years later, in 1986, he became the first computer game of the Soviet Union to come out in the West, reports Engadget. Since then, it has sold over 170 million copies worldwide, adapting to a wide range of consoles and platforms over the years. In other words, it was and remained a heavyweight of commerce that touched the lives of hundreds of millions of players.

But Pajitnov did not enrich himself. At least not right away.

In 1984, Russia was still a communist republic within the United States and Pajitnov did not have much choice to give up gambling ownership to what he described as a "shady" government.

"I [granted] the rights to play for 10 years at my computer center. At my place of work, "he explained with a pronounced Russian accent.

Finally, he recovered his rights in 1995 or 1996 after the end of the cold war and still maintains them.

Over the years, Tetris has evolved. The most recent versions – the Tetris effect, which allows players to create their own jazz music as the songs come together, and Tetris 99, which pits the player against 98 other competitors, at the Battle Royal – debuted last year.

Patijov says the current popularity of rudimentary gaming among men and women is inseparable from humans. "Software and hardware [are] changes radically in front of us, but not our brain, "he noted.

He also calls on "the constructive spirit of humanity," he added. "You feel that you can create something rather than destroy."

Happy 35th, Tetris.