Tetris celebrates 40 years

Tetris turns 40 today. The popular puzzle game has sold more than 500 million copies over the years.

On June 6, 1984, Russian programmer and mathematician Alexei Pajitnov first published the game.

The name Tetris comes from the Greek prefix tetra, which means “four”, referring to the fact that the blocks consist of four squares. The object of the game is to prevent an infinite number of differently shaped blocks from piling up on the screen.

In 1988, Pajitnov transferred the rights to the then Soviet Union, which then sold the arcade rights to the Japanese company Atari and the console versions to Nintendo. It was also through Nintendo that Tetris became one of the best-selling games in the world, with more than 500 million copies sold across all versions of the game.

Teenager crashed the game

The game is designed to be impossible for players to complete, but that doesn’t stop them from trying. The NES version is often used in tournaments and world record attempts. For a long time it was considered impossible to get past level 29 of the game, but American teenager Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson became the first person to “crash” the game earlier this year, making it all the way to level 157 when the game crashed.

When Willis did an interview with NBC earlier this year, they surprised him by bringing in creator Pajitnov via Zoom, who was impressed with the teen’s achievement. However, he clarified that the game is still not clear and that it crashed because of the older program.

– He didn’t crash my game. He crashed the program which was created 40 years ago by NES engineers. So, the game is not crashable at all, Pajitnov said.

Willis decided to dedicate his Tetris game to his recently deceased father, who proudly supported his son’s gaming interests.

– He would definitely be proud, added his mother, Karin Cox.