If you had to say which Russian-made game was the most fun, some players might think it was Subway or Escape from Tarkov. But if you really want to choose the most fun and classic game, it is undoubtedly Tetris.
Tetris, as a Russian miracle, swept the world in the 90s, and even more than 30 years later, it is still one of the best-selling game series in the world, with nearly half a billion copies sold, and a proper ceiling in the game industry.
As various technologies mature, many players have begun to pay attention to the picture quality of the game, resulting in some very fun, but the average picture quality of the game is ignored by players, including Tetris. Although "Tetris" still has many die-hard fans, and even competitions are still held around the world, it is not difficult to find that Tetris has slowly changed from a game that everyone is playing to a relatively unpopular genre.
The birth of the classic
Turning back to 1984, it was a very special year, with Apple's first computer birth, MJ accidentally burning his hair while shooting an advertisement for Pepsi, and the classic movie "Ghostbusters" becoming the most popular work on the streets. Another most important event was the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, in which in 1980 the Soviet Union qualified to host the Olympic Games, thus becoming the first socialist country in history to host the Olympic Games.
For this sacred moment, the Soviet Union spent billions of dollars to renovate the entire city of Moscow. However, at that time, the Soviet Union chose to invade Afghanistan during the preparation for the Olympic Games, causing half of the world's countries to boycott participation in the Olympic Games hosted by the Soviet Union. Because of this move, in 1984, the Soviet government also called on some countries to boycott the Summer Olympics hosted by the United States.
However, in this environment of war and uncertainty between countries, a Russian named Alexey Pajitnov created a game that was enough to sensationalize the game world. At the age of seventeen, Alexey attended a soviet technology exhibition, where he learned about computers and became obsessed with computers. He first successfully entered the Moscow Aeronautical Institute with his own efforts, obtained a master's degree in the Department of Applied Mathematics, and also worked as a computer engineer at the famous Russian State Scientific Research Institute in Moscow.
But one day, two of his best friends, who were also computer engineers, suddenly discussed topics such as games and programs, and as they talked, the three of them became good friends who talked about everything. At that time, the only popular games in the Soviet Union were "Pac-Man", and they also began to develop the idea of developing games together.
However, alexey thought of the game "Five-Grid Dominoes" that he liked to play as a child (the player must use the dominoes in his hand to fill a rectangular panel, and there is no gap left in it, which is a very brain-intensive game). Alexey wanted to put this game concept into a computer, and it only took him six days to design the game, but the result was a very boring game.
Even so, Alexey didn't give up, filling in the gaps with blocks in the game by falling from above, and if the player managed to line them up, the blocks disappeared. This one change made the whole game addictive, and even Alexey herself was so caught up in it that she played it even at work, occasionally caught, and used the software modification as an excuse to fool the past.
Alexey calls the game Tetris, a name that blends the Greek number 4 "Tetra" with his favorite sporting tennis ball, "Tennis," a two-word fusion. The game quickly spread among the Academy of Sciences, and people were fascinated by it.
Alexey wanted to make the game more engaging and asked his best friends to help him upgrade Tetris using a more advanced computer. In this way, Tetris has become more "mature" after passing the upgrade iteration. The new version not only adds color to the dominoes, but also adds more levels, but also records the highest scores and allows players to compete in scores.
But here's the problem, Alexey can't successfully release the game even if it is done well. Because the Soviet Union at that time was a communist system, it was a very abrupt act to do software business, and the game was made using a computer from the National Academy of Sciences, which was supposedly an asset of the government.
Therefore, Alexey secretly distributed Tetris for free, so that more people would be interested in it. The response to this move greatly exceeded Alexey's expectations, and Tetris suddenly spread throughout the Soviet Union, and almost everyone was addicted to the game. Although he did not make any profit, he was also very happy that so many people liked the Tetris he made by himself.
Copyright scramble
After Tetris became popular in the Soviet Union, some ill-intentioned people refurbished, copied, and ported the game to other platforms. Not only that, but the game gradually spread from the Soviet Union to Europe, Asia and other regions, and slowly became a widely known work. As a result, publishers in both the UK and the US saw an opportunity and wanted to license Tetris.
The problem is that no matter how much the publisher notifies Alexey, he can't make his own decisions because he has to get the consent of the Soviet government to formally authorize it. Although Alexey has always had the will to reach an agreement in the letters, he has always been powerless. One of the businessmen, Robert Stein, kept issuing tetris contracts to be officially released on computer and console platforms, but could not get permission from the Soviet government. Eventually, without soviet consent, Robert himself released a Tetris.
They added a Moscow architectural background to Tetris, and also put a lot of Soviet elements, and also put very classic Soviet music into the game, which successfully attracted the attention of players. Although the Soviet Union at that time did not have such a good impression in the eyes of the world's people, Tetris was really very fun, and soon the game spread around the world, and players gave it a very high evaluation.
The popularity of "Tetris" also spread to Japan, attracting the attention of Nintendo, so Nintendo also went to Moscow to join the copyright scramble. The story of this copyright battle is very complicated, and the involvement of the Soviet government has made the issue of licensing difficult. Eventually, with Nintendo, Atari, Mirror Soft, Spectrum Holobyte, and ELORG vying for the rights, each company got a different distribution rights.
Nintendo got licenses for home consoles, and Atari got licenses for computers. As for the other companies, they had already made a lot of money long before Nintendo and Atari joined. However, in this copyright battle, every publisher and the Soviet government have made a lot of money, but the founder Alexey has no say, let alone get any profit in the game.
Of course, Alexey also left the Soviet Union, and after the end of the Tetris contract in 1995, the Tetris Company was formed, buying 50% of the game, the remaining 50% was owned by ELORG, and Alexey began to enjoy the belated glory and wealth. After this, Tetris also gave birth to a lot of different versions, and launched on major game platforms: Sega Street's machine version, two-player version, Nintendo also sold Tetris and Gameboy bundles, making Gameboy successfully achieve amazing sales.
Tetris became a game that both adults and children love, and was named the "Greatest Game" in 2007. Tetris, a game that requires judgment in a short period of time, requires great concentration, both mentally and mentally, so players can improve their concentration and thinking skills during the game.
Of course, players who have played it should know that after contacting Tetris, they will not be able to stop at all, and it is precisely because of this charm that the player base of Tetris will continue to expand.
The demise of Tetris
But as most handhelds withdrew from the stage of history, Tetris slowly faded from the attention of players and became less popular. However, with the advent of the next generation, Tetris has suffered a bigger blow, players are attracted to a variety of high-quality games, and in the past few years, Tetris has not had a better innovative gameplay, at most only to add some special skills or enhance visual effects. In recent years, only the "Tetris 99" released by Switch, which has a battle royale gameplay, and "Tetris: Effect", which has a good audiovisual experience, have been released.
Of course, the "Tetris" series of games has been countless, although the current "Tetris" series is still in the top few of global sales, but the average sales have been much lower than before, and even the rear there are many popular series IP is following it.
In fact, the decline in the performance of "Tetris" is expected, after all, this casual old IP is more than 30 years old. Not many people may pay attention to it now, but even in 2021, there are still new works in the Tetris series, and even competitions are still being played around the world. For example, the Tetris Competition held in Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States and other regions.
The content of this time is mainly to remind old players of this classic and interesting game, but also to let the new generation of players see the good memories of our time. Finally, I hope that the creators of the game around the world will add more fresh elements to Tetris and not let this game classic fade away.