Recap: Tetris was originally designed and developed by Russian programmer Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov. Its name is derived from the words "tetromino" which is a geometric shape comprised of four squares, and "tennis," reportedly Pajitnov's favorite sport.
Thursday marks the 35th anniversary of Tetris, the iconic puzzler that originally dropped (no pun intended) on June 6, 1984.
Your first experience with Tetris probably occurred on Nintendo's original Game Boy handheld console circa 1989 but the title has appeared - in some fashion or another - on virtually every platform since. Sega earlier this week even announced it as a bonus game for its upcoming Genesis Mini retro console.
Tetris held the crown as the world's best-selling video game for years before being unseated by Minecraft just last month. According to the most recent figures on Wikipedia, Tetris has sold 170 million units worldwide compared to Minecraft's 176 million. The next closest competitor, Grand Theft Auto V, has only moved 110 million units.
As iconic as Tetris itself is, the game's soundtrack is just as memorable. Once stuck in your head, its jingles are nearly impossible to shake. The game has even influenced actual songs like the intro to Coheed and Cambria's Welcome Home. There's even talk of a three-part Tetris movie in the works although not much has emerged regarding the project in recent years.
Perhaps most impressive, however, is the fact that Tetris continues to reinvent itself and remain fresh as evident by recent remakes such as Tetris 99.
Image credit: brick retro game by designmaestro