Tetris is a kind of video games you by no means get uninterested in. You develop up with it and move it on as custom to carry pleasure to a brand new technology. We all know that as a result of the sport remains to be going sturdy at 40 years outdated.
The Tetris gaming household celebrated its historical past yesterday at a celebration in Los Angeles, simply earlier than the Summer season Sport Fest 2024 occasion. Alexey Pajitnov, who created Tetris whereas within the Soviet Union, was there to speak about his child, which has offered greater than 520 million copies worldwide.
Henk Rogers was there. He was the showman who noticed the potential of Tetris and hunted down the rights, made a legally questionable and dangerous journey to the Soviet Union, after which licensed it to Nintendo. He later befriended Pajitnov, serving to him get out of the Soviet Union — they usually grew to become lifelong buddies. For many years, Rogers helped Tetris keep common and unfold pleasure all over the world. Then he turned over The Tetris Firm to his daughter Maya Rogers, who has carried on the work of spreading Tetris.
Maya Rogers helped orchestrate the deal to make the film Tetris, a 2023 film that instructed the story of the “greatest business development deal of all time.” It immortalized the story of one of the crucial iconic and beloved video video games in historical past — and it added lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} to the Tetris coffers.
“Since Alexey created the original game, it’s been 40 years,” mentioned Maya Rogers. “Happy birthday Tetris. Tetris is a global brand and it’s still relevant today.”
Alexey Pajitnov created the sport in 1984. It was easy, straightforward to play, and intuitive but tough to grasp. It was “beaten” lastly final December by a 13-year-old boy, Willis “Blue Scuti” Gibson, who was additionally on the social gathering final night time as he was on the town for a three-day aggressive match that begins as we speak in Pasadena, California — the Basic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) 2024.
Within the crowd had been numerous buddies of the household, together with former sport journalists Tom Russo and Chris Kohler. Tina Kozalewski, founding father of The Arsenal Company and EVP at Big Squid, was there together with her autograph e-book. It had illustrations from luminaries like Shigeru Miyamoto, who sketched a Mario picture and autographed it for Kozalewski a long time in the past. Since then, she has crammed it up with autographed illustrations of different well-known sport builders.
John Vignocchi and a crew of Nintendo leaders had been there. So was Nolan Bushnell, the cofounder of Atari and the elder statesman of the sport business.
Maya Rogers instructed the social gathering crowd that Tetris has debuted because the first-ever branded add-on obtainable within the Minecraft Market, permitting gamers to boost their worlds with Tetris-themed armor, weapons, ornamental blocks, and distinctive monsters.
And on July 30, 2024, the Tetris x Minecraft DLC will launch, providing a groundbreaking expertise that merges Tetris block-dropping puzzling motion with Minecraft’s adventurous dungeon crawling. Gamers will restore the Matrix by strategically putting Tetrimino items after which delve into the dungeons they’ve created, mixing 2D Tetris gameplay with absolutely explorable 3D worlds.
In the meantime, playSTUDIOS has revamped the Tetris app on iOS and Android, giving it a brand new look the place gamers can select traditional or different modes and interact in multiplayer play. And playSTUDIOS simply launched Tetris Block Puzzle, a brand new cellular sport designed to enchantment to a extra informal viewers that mixes the timeless enjoyable of block puzzles with a Tetris twist.
You possibly can have fun World Tetris Day with a particular low cost on Tetris Impact: Related. The sport combines traditional Tetris gameplay with beautiful visuals and immersive soundscapes. The low cost is accessible on all main platforms from June 6 to June 17, 2024. Meta Quest customers can enter promo code TETRIS40-E1F685 at checkout.
And there shall be a brand new Tetris sport to be launched with on the brand new Chromatic handheld by ModRetro, an organization based by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. The record of cool fortieth anniversary objects went on and on: a co-branded Rubik’s Dice, the Tetris Mini gaming gadget, bespoke Tetris-inspired artwork, Tetris collectibles showcasing the artwork of Kenny Wong, and Apmex commemorative cash. You too can give blood to The American Purple Cross and get a Tetris/Purple Cross T-shirt.
However I used to be comfortable sufficient to listen to the battle tales of Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, who spoke along with Maya Rogers and Kohler on the GamesBeat Subsequent 2023 occasion final October. And I used to be delighted to see those who I’ve written tales about for many years speaking about good instances.
Pajitnov was modest and self-effacing. He mentioned, “Thank you very much for coming. It’s a big day for me because it’s for my game. I’m still very modest guy doing my job promoting my game. But for my game, it’s very important day and frankly, I never thought it would be able to survive. Thank you very much for coming. Happy Birthday Tetris.”
Ever the showman, Henk Rogers identified the distinction between him and Pajitnov. He famous how the query that everybody asks him is how a lot of the Tetris film was true.
“I did go to the Soviet Union in 1989 on a tourist visa and walk into a ministry that I really wasn’t supposed to walk into. And I really was thinking that I was surrounded by KGB agents,” Henk Rogers mentioned. “I didn’t know whether I was going to be arrested. I mean, just imagine going to North Korea today and walking into a ministry and trying to talk to somebody. Not a good idea.”
Folks say that was a courageous transfer, however one other method of taking a look at it was it was silly, Henk Rogers joked. Pajitnov broke the legislation by assembly with Henk Rogers. However they hit it off, Henk Rogers mentioned, as they had been each sport designers.
“Alexey and I became friends that day, and we’ve been friends ever since. I couldn’t be more different,” Henk Rogers mentioned. Maya Rogers piped in, “I agree. Oh, my God. They’re like the yin and the yang.”
“Alexey likes classical music. I like rock. He likes to plan things. I like to adventure. And we actually went on a Europe trip together, the two of us. And the way we did it is one day is Alexey’s day. All planned. He figures out exactly where we’re going to stay, where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there. And t”he different day, it’s my flip. And we simply get on a random practice. And we don’t know the place we’re going to finish up or the place we’re going to remain. It’s simply an journey.”
Henk Rogers mentioned he’s bringing Pajitnov to Burning Man this yr.
“Even though we’re completely different, we are best friends,” Henk Rogers mentioned. “I would like to propose a toast to Alexei positive who created the game. Maya alluded to Mr. Tetris. Sometimes people call me this. I am not Mr. Tetris. If you want to call me something, call me Dr. Tetris because I kept Tetris alive all these years. So he created the game and my job was to keep it alive. So now I’ve passed that baton over to Maya.”
Certainly, elevate a toast to Alexey Pajitnov, and all the time bear in mind the sport that has introduced a lot pleasure into the world throughout generations.