Video games have been a key component in the electronics industry since the creation of gaming platforms. Of all the thousands of titles developed by literally hundreds of companies, one game has continuously stood out from competition. Tetris is available in over fifty languages. You can find it in stores in over fifty countries. And now, to top it all off, there are free Tetris games online too.
Originally, the game was designed and released in Russia in 1984. Alexey Pajitnov was the man responsible for its creation. He was a Russian scientist. Somehow, the title ported to the IBM PC computer and from there it found its’ way all over the Soviet Union. How it got to the IBM without the consent of the company where Alexey worked, turned out to be a consistent controversy for a many years.
The main reason behind the continued troubles was basically that a great many people kept claiming rights to the software. But none of their claims were valid. Because of this, from the time it was first created, until close to a decade later, controversy surrounded it. There were a host of lawsuits concerning the legal rights to license and distribute it.
But, at the core of these arguments was the fact that the game was a goldmine waiting to happen. No matter where it was introduced, no matter what platform it was designed for, it’s popularity was instantaneous. While at a trade show in 1988 in Las Vegas, a man named Henk Rogers stumbled upon it and instantly loved it.
His impact on the title would be felt for years. Between 1989 and 2006, the title went from being introduced on Nintendo’s Game Boy platform, through mobile device integration, to being a featured game on multiple airlines. It became the number one most popular game for mobile phones in Japan.
And, it spread to Korea, Europe and North America via the burgeoning hand held devices market. The minute it became available for the iPhone and iPod touch, it became the number one most downloaded game for Apple. One of the things about the unparalleled success of this game is the fact that it’s so simple. It is essentially a puzzle game.
It’s played by turning different shapes as they drop into a rectangular playing field. The shapes [called tetriminos] are rotated by the player as they fall. The goal is to employ the shapes to create a straight line across the bottom of the ‘field’. The only rule is the lines can have no gaps. The minute you create a clean line, it disappears. The shapes that were atop it, drop, and the goal becomes to ‘clear’ more lines. For every ten lines ‘cleared’ the player gets to another level. But with every level, there’s more speed to the falling shapes.
Although it is ridiculously simple, it has proven time and again to be equally incredibly addictive. With the advent of online gaming, the title has become even more successful. It’s received several awards, it’s available on a multitude of gaming platforms on all manner of electronic devices and now there are even places on the web where several free Tetris games that can be played online.
Tetris is either a game you love or hate. If you’re a Tetris lover then you can play the Tetris Game online for free. Just do a search for free Tetris games online.