Video Game Classic, Tetris Turns 30 Years Old
Russian game designer and computer engineer Alexy Leonidovich Pajitnov, now 58 years old, created Tetris while working for the Dorodnitsyn Computer Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He made the game on an Electronika 60 with help from Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov, the latter of which ported the game over to the IBM PC a year later.
Simplicity is the key and is probably the primary reason why the title became so popular. The game mechanics are within reach of all types of gamers, young and old, male and female. Yet it's a highly addicting title, especially when you introduce competition -- I didn't play Tetris an awful lot when I was a kid, but got hooked going up against anonymous opponents on the Wii a few years back.
Tetris has spawned several follow-ups, knockoffs, and even some amusing 'outside-the-box' renditions, such as when gamers played a game of Tetris on the side of Philadelphia's Circa Centre, a 29-story building.