Tetris, the landmark pack-in game for the Nintendo Game Boy and several other platforms, coded by Alexey Pajitnov, is officially celebrating its 40th birthday, according to the Tetris Company.
Although There is some controversy Regarding the date when the first playable version of the classic puzzle game became available, The Tetris Company, founded by Pajitnov and Dutch entrepreneur Henk Rogers, says June 6, 1984 is the game’s birthday, meaning it turns 40 years old today.
Gaming historian Norman Caruso traces the game’s origins back to 1984 in a 2018 video that’s well worth watching.
There was Tetris First year induction into the World Video Game Hall of FameIt was unveiled at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, in 2015. The game was first developed by Pajitnov on the Soviet-made Elektronika 60, later ported to IBM personal computers of the time and then eventually as a launch title for the Game Boy when that handheld gaming system was released in 1989. Guinness World Records lists it as the most ported video game of all time, with versions on 65 different platforms.
Where can I play Tetris today?
Games Original ASCII-based version Tetris can be played on the web via its official website. As the story goes, Rogers and Pajitnov originally smuggled the addictive game out from behind the Iron Curtain in the final days of the Soviet Union, before striking a gold mine by offering it as the base game on the Game Boy when Nintendo first launched the platform.
After nearly seven years of publishing under Nintendo, the rights reverted to Pajitnov, who started The Tetris Company with Rogers in 1996 and has managed and licensed the game and its many adaptations ever since. The story of Tetris’ origins made for an unexpected – and very entertaining – Cold War spy thriller that premieres on Apple TV Plus in 2023.
“The enduring appeal of Tetris lies in its simplicity,” Tetris Company chief executive Maya Rogers, Hank Rogers’ daughter, said in a statement. “Easy to play and highly intuitive.” The franchise’s most recent adaptation was in 2019
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