25 years young today! Alexey Pajitnov released Tetris on June 6, 1984.
Originally launched in the Soviet Union, the history of Tetris intersects with the cold war, of course.
In the history of video games, Tetris is sometimes claimed to be the first casual game (subject to discussion).
There are now so many versions of Tetris that it feels like a folk game in the public domain – it’s a kind of hello world of games. Yet, the Tetris company is also trying to assert a legal right to the game, threatening some people who implement it. It is one of the those things – Tetris feels universal, like chess or crossword puzzles, that it is counter-intuitive that someone could own or control it. I wish there was a clear solution to this issue.
Happy birthday!