Rotating a colorful shape before
slotting it into the perfect position is such a satisfying experience that
Tetris has joined chess in the pantheon of universally recognizable games.
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Less familiar is the true story of how a
prototype created in 1984 by a software engineer for the Soviet Union’s Academy
of Sciences ended up reaching millions of players across the world. The movie
“Tetris”, which stars Taron Egerton and was released on Apple TV+ on Friday,
explores those humble beginnings.
The addictively simple puzzle game features
seven uniquely shaped pieces, each composed of four square blocks. Players
move, rotate, and position the pieces to form solid lines, which are then
cleared away, allowing for potentially endless play. The game’s name — derived
from the words “tetra” (Greek for “four”) and “tennis” (the sport enjoyed by
the game’s creator, Alexey Pajitnov) — has even pervaded culture as a verb,
like when you “Tetris” your luggage into the overhead bin on a plane.
Pajitnov described Tetris as “the game which appeals to everyone” and said he hoped that its future included esports and the integration of artificial intelligence.
In an interview with the New York Times,
Pajitnov described Tetris as “the game which appeals to everyone” and said he
hoped that its future included esports and the integration of artificial
intelligence. He is also working on making “a very good” two-player version of
the game but said “we are not there yet”.
Before Tetris was able to cement itself as
a household name with releases on consoles like the Nintendo Game Boy, Henk
Rogers, the character played by Egerton, had to journey to the Soviet Union and
fend off competitors to secure the game’s rights. As the film shows, that was
an arduous task that paid off immensely.
Here are more details about the game’s
creation and why it has resonated with so many for so long:
The Nintendo Game BoyIn the nearly four decades since Pajitnov
created Tetris using the Pascal programming language on the Electronika 60, a
Soviet-made computer, more than 215 officially recognized versions of Tetris
have been released.
Perhaps the most notable variant is the one
that was packaged with each copy of the Nintendo Game Boy when the hand-held
gaming console was released in 1989. But that incredibly successful pairing —
the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color have combined for about 120 million unit
sales — almost did not happen.
The president of Nintendo of America,
Minoru Arakawa, initially wanted to bundle Super Mario Land with the Game Boy,
following the company’s success packaging Super Mario Bros. with the Nintendo
Entertainment System. Rogers, however, was able to convince Arakawa that Tetris
should be included instead, in part because it would appeal to a broader group
of demographics.
Pajitnov described the partnership as “two creatures
created for each other: Game Boy for Tetris and Tetris for the Game Boy”.
The Tetris effectAs anybody who has spent hours playing
Tetris knows, it is an incredibly addictive game. Many people who play for
extended periods of time have reported seeing Tetris pieces outside of the
game, such as in their mind when they close their eyes, or in their dreams. It
is a phenomenon known as the Tetris Effect.
Many people who play for extended periods of time have reported seeing Tetris pieces outside of the game, such as in their mind when they close their eyes, or in their dreams.
You may have experienced the Tetris Effect
yourself if you have ever seen tetrominoes, officially known as Tetriminos,
when you are trying to bag your groceries.
In professional studies, psychologist
Richard Haier found that regularly playing Tetris resulted in an increased
thickness of the cerebral cortex. Haier’s studies also demonstrated how Tetris
can affect the plasticity of cortical gray matter, potentially enhancing a
person’s memory capacity and promoting motor and cognitive development.
A study in 2017 by researchers at Oxford
University and the Karolinska Institutet showed that Tetris had the potential
to provide relief for people with post-traumatic stress disorder, if they
played the game after an incident while recalling a stressful memory.
The quest for perfectionDecades after it was invented, Tetris
continues to have staying power. Newer versions of the game include Tetris
Effect, which builds a Zen experience via music, and Tetris 99, in which
players try to outlast opponents who are meddling with their boards.
In competitive play, new methods of moving
the pieces are still being discovered. The standard way to play the Nintendo
Entertainment System version of Tetris — yes, the game first released in 1989
is still used at the Classic Tetris World Championships — is by holding the
gray rectangular controller so that the left hand controls the movement of the
pieces, and the right hand manages the rotation. But that method, known as
“delayed auto shift” in the competitive community, has been usurped in recent
years by “hypertapping” and “rolling”.
In professional studies, psychologist Richard Haier found that regularly playing Tetris resulted in an increased thickness of the cerebral cortex.
Hypertapping involves rapidly pressing the
buttons, countering the traditional sensation that pieces are slowly being
dragged into position. Rolling lets pieces be moved even more quickly, by
flicking the fingers of one hand along the back of the controller.
The power of hypertapping became clear in
2018, when a 16-year-old named Joseph Saelee used the method to defeat Jonas
Neubauer, a seven-time world champion. But in the years since, the rolling
method has dominated the competitive scene. Not only is it incredibly
effective, but it seems to be less strenuous on fingers and hands.
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