Alexey Pajitnov and Tetris: The Story of a Digital Puzzle Game

If there's a video game that has stood the test of time without needing ultra-realistic graphics or complicated stories, it's Tetris. A classic that has been captivating millions of people since 1984, when Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet computer engineer, had the brilliant idea to make falling geometric shapes from the top of the screen an irresistible challenge. And all on a computer that today wouldn't even be able to open a notepad.

The Inspiration: Childhood Games and a Soviet Computer

Alexey Pajitnov was born in 1956 in Moscow and, from a young age, had a passion for puzzles. One of his favorites was Pentominoes, a game where you had to fit together shapes made of five squares. Years later, while working at the Institute of Cybernetics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, he aimed to bring the essence of these puzzles to the digital world, but with a small modification: instead of five-block pieces, he used four-block pieces, which he called tetrominoes.

Now, let's talk about the computer on which the first Tetris was developed: the Electronika 60. Imagine a huge machine, without a color screen and without the ability to display graphics. In fact, the first version of Tetris didn't even have "little drawings"; it used characters to represent the pieces. If you think programming today is difficult, try making a game with text symbols.

Photo: Electronika 60

Programming the First Tetris: A Challenge of Ingenuity

Pajitnov developed Tetris in Pascal (for those who remember it fondly). His basic code focused on moving the pieces sideways, making them fall automatically, and most innovatively, clearing a line when it was completed.

The process of collision detection and line clearing was the most complex, as the Electronika 60 didn't have an advanced sprite rendering system. Everything was done with mathematical calculations and memory lists. Once Pajitnov managed to make the lines disappear correctly, the game became addictive. Literally. His colleagues at the institute couldn't stop playing it, and thus its spread began.

The First Portable Device and the Chaos of Rights

Before Tetris came to the Game Boy and became world-famous, there were black-and-white portable devices with Tetris pre-installed. If you were born in the 80s or 90s, you probably remember that cheap plastic device labeled "Brick Game 1-9999 in 1." Spoiler: there weren't 9999 games, but we all played the same Tetris on them.

But let's get back to the legal drama. Being in the Soviet Union, Pajitnov couldn't keep the rights to his game. These were given to the State and later to the company Elorg. Tetris leaked out of the USSR, and several companies tried to claim the distribution rights, including Atari and Nintendo. There was an impressive legal battle, and in the end, Nintendo secured the license for its Game Boy in 1989. That's when the golden age of Tetris began.

Pajitnov Reclaims His Creation and Legacy

With the fall of the Soviet Union in the '90s, Pajitnov was finally able to claim the rights to his creation. In 1996, he founded The Tetris Company, ensuring that he would now receive royalties for his invention.

Today, Tetris remains an immortal classic, with versions for modern consoles, mobile devices, and even virtual reality. The game has been studied in psychology for its ability to improve memory and reduce anxiety. Who would have thought that a simple game of fitting pieces could be so powerful?

Photo: Pajitnov

The Tetris Story Movie

The movie "Tetris" (2023) tells the true story of how the game created by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union in the 1980s became a global phenomenon. The plot follows Henk Rogers, a Dutch entrepreneur who discovers Tetris.

In my opinion, although the movie is worth watching to learn its story in a more entertaining way, at times its pace becomes slow and hard to follow.

Conclusion

The story of Tetris is about a programmer who, without intending to, changed the world of video games forever. Alexey Pajitnov showed that brilliance isn't in impressive graphics or cinematic stories, but in simple yet addictive gameplay mechanics. And so, thanks to a Soviet computer, a few lines of code, and an engineer with a great idea, the whole world got to know one of the best video games of all time.

And you, how long do you think you could last in a session of Tetris without seeing a piece fall in the worst possible place? 😆