Tetris is an addicting puzzle game played by both children and adults at the turn of the 2000s. However, few people know that the game itself was invented in the USSR. It was produced on a rectangular game console with rounded corners Brick Game 8 in 1. However, it was the puzzle with figures that was the most popular game, for which the people called the device Tetris. How did the game take over the world and why was there a serious struggle for a license to release it? Tell Novate.ru.
How did tetris come to be
The computer game was invented by a programmer from the USSR Alexei Pazhitnov. June 6, 1984 the puzzle was released on the Soviet microcomputer "Elektronika-60". And in 1987, the US firm Spectrum HoloByte launched the sale of the game.
In fact, Tetris is a geometric puzzle, the essence of which is the joining of different shapes. The name itself consists of the words "tetrimino" and "tennis". Tetraminos are the very figures falling from above, which consist of four squares. The idea of Tetris did not come to Pajitnov by accident. In the 60s, in the Soviet Union, they often played pentamino - a puzzle, the essence of which was the connection of figures from five squares. The magazine "Science and Life" published a periodical column dedicated to pentamino, and in stores, although in short supply, plastic analogs were sold.
Alexey wanted to transfer the game to a computer, but at that time the devices did not have the capacity to process figures for five cubes. Then Pajitnov made one square less, and it turned out to be a tetrimino. Alexey continued to experiment, which resulted in the first version of Tetris, written in Pascal. Then the programmer did not even think that in the future his brainchild would be transferred to various consoles, PCs, and even more so smartphones.
Puzzle conquers the world
In 1985, schoolboy Vadim Gerasimov adapted Tetris for the world's first IBM-branded PC. A 16-year-old guy rewrote the game in the improved Turbo Pascal language, thanks to which Robert Stein, a Hungarian software importer, became aware of Tetris. Stein immediately went to Moscow in order to conclude an agreement with Pajitnov on the purchase of a license, and the programmer presented him with a device with a game. The Hungarian thought that this meant consent, and now he can dispose of the rights. Then Stein immediately sold the license to Mirrorsoft and its subsidiary Spectrum HoloByte. However, after a second visit to Moscow, it turned out that no one agreed to sell the rights.
In parallel with this, American companies launched their own version of Tetris, but with sound and improved graphics. And the main "trick" was the screensaver, on which the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the German pilot Matthias Rust appeared. Tetris became a real sensation as the first game to penetrate from the closed Union. However, Stein did not manage to agree on the rights, and thanks to CBS journalists, the whole world learned that the inventor of the game was Alexey Pajitnov, and not American developers.
Fight for rights
After that, lengthy proceedings and courts began to find out to whom Electronorgtechnika was ready to transfer the license. In the end, the rights went to the Japanese development company Nintendo. While the whole world was playing the puzzle, Pajitnov received the first dividends only in 1996, when the license expired. At the same time, the programmer joins forces with Henk Rogers, head of Bullet-Proof Software, and together they found The Tetris Company LLC and Blue Planet Software. Tetris is becoming a trademark, so companies now have to buy first-hand licenses.
Gamedev, as Pajitnov would now be called, moved to the States and got a position at Microsoft. There he started creating Pandora's Box puzzles. In 2005, Alexey left Microsoft, and today he works at Yandex. According to the portal Engadget, over 170 million copies of Tetris have been sold worldwide. And in 2007, the puzzle entered the top 10 legendary computer games. The device itself was placed as an artifact in the US Library of Congress. Today Tetris is adapted for various platforms and has not lost its popularity at all.
Continuing the topic, we advise you to read about 10 recognizable things for those who grew up in the era of the 90s.