
The Story of Tetris [video] - dested
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fQtxKmgJC8
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jccalhoun
I watched this last night. Pretty well done. Another worth watching is Tetris
- From Russia with Love that aired on BBC a few years ago and is on youtube:
[https://youtu.be/NhwNTo_Yr3k](https://youtu.be/NhwNTo_Yr3k)

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ZenoArrow
Great documentary, I learned a lot.

If anyone wants to hear Alexey Pajitnov speak about Tetris, I can recommend
this section of the Thumb Candy documentary (released in the early 2000s):

[https://youtu.be/UAo4CZTGFQQ?t=40m37s](https://youtu.be/UAo4CZTGFQQ?t=40m37s)

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cm2187
30 years later Tetris is still my most played game on my mobile. I got bored
of Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, even GTA5. But after 10 consecutive years
of continuous iphone Tetris playing it is still as addictive. This game is
just genious.

~~~
ClassyJacket
I played the hell out of Tetris on the Nintendo DS, but I just can't play it
on a touchscreen unfortunately - I do wish I could play it on the way to work,
but you just can't get the speed and reliability you get with clicky buttons.

Fun fact: Tetris has been shown to help with mental burdens such as anxiety,
PTSD, and intrusive thoughts, and anecdotally I have found this to be true.

~~~
CaliforniaKarl
Has Tetris been released for the Switch yet? I’d hope that they could support
the digital inputs (like the D-pad).

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epicide
Puyo Puyo Tetris is pretty decent. Some of the options (like endless mode) are
a little hard to find. The story is weird but interesting.

~~~
voltagex_
and the Japanese Puyo Puyo Tetris might help us archive Switch games for the
future, too...

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epicide
I'm not familiar. Care to elaborate?

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voltagex_
Kinda tongue in cheek as the dumping of Switch cartridges is very rudimentary
and not at the level where say, redump.org would accept them.

There's a flaw in the Japanese Puyo Puyo that allowed unsigned code to run on
firmware version 3 Switches.

The first thing the scene will try to do other than running Doom will be
dumping cartridges. You may immediately jump to piracy, but dumping carts and
especially title updates is really important for preserving games into the
future, as game companies have proven again and again that they either don't
care or don't have the resources for proper archival.

~~~
epicide
I am all for homebrew and archiving.

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blahedo
Ohhhhhh this explains something that confused me at the time and that I never
followed up on. My family had a Nintendo and rented a copy of Tetris, played
it for a few days, liked it. Aside from the gameplay, I remembered that they
had clear level breaks and interludes where tiny Russian figures danced on the
screen. Not that long after, we bought our own copy, and that stuff was
totally not there....

What is now clear, in retrospect, is that the one we rented was the Tengen
version, and the one we bought was the Nintendo release! The year must have
been 1989 just as this was all going down.

~~~
voltagex_
Sidenote: have a look at the eBay prices for Tengen Tetris vs Nintendo Tetris.
Retro collecting is another world.

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stanislavb
And you can play it here
[http://www.goodoldtetris.com](http://www.goodoldtetris.com)

~~~
bringtheaction
That version has neither sound nor colors, but at the same time does not look
like the original shown in the documentary either. At least it's mobile
friendly though.

Does anyone have an online version that is in color and has sound and is also
mobile friendly?

~~~
CaliforniaKarl
There is an online version at [https://tetris.com/play-
tetris/](https://tetris.com/play-tetris/), but I don't know if it's mobile-
friendly. It's also ad-supported, so you'll need to turn ad blocking off.

As for other platforms, I suggest looking here: [https://tetris.com/product-
list-videogames](https://tetris.com/product-list-videogames)

Why am I pointing to tetris.com? Because, those products benefit (either
directly or indirectly) Tetris Holding and the Tetris Company, a co-owner of
which is Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris.

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Andrex
I really enjoyed this and after it was over had no idea I had been watching it
for an hour. This story could make a good movie in the vein of Pirates of
Silicon Valley.

That said, the note at the end about how Vladimir Pokhilko ended up killing
his wife, son, and himself was more dark than I expected. What a shame.

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my_first_acct
Not completely off-topic, a 6-minute video from 2010: Complete History Of The
Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris [1]

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8)

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mwcampbell
If written histories are more your thing, Jimmy Maher did a series on Tetris
for his Digital Antiquarian blog:
[http://www.filfre.net/tag/tetris/](http://www.filfre.net/tag/tetris/)

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zura
A shameful plug from 2001, while we are at it :)

Playable:
[https://archive.org/details/tetris_201801](https://archive.org/details/tetris_201801)

Tetris for DOS, text-mode but with colors! :)

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kyo3
Love this guy's videos, recommend to check out his channel.

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james-skemp
I too watched this the other day, but I still like Chrontendo's telling much
more:
[https://youtu.be/Z0VKg_dJzzQ?t=29m48s](https://youtu.be/Z0VKg_dJzzQ?t=29m48s)

His entire series is very well done, but episodes have slowed down, especially
after starting two more series, Chronsega and Chronturbo.

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jumpkickhit
This documentary is great, I thought I knew the Tetris story, but this filled
in every blank.

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partomniscient
A related documentary, about the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship:

[http://watch.ecstasyoforder.com/](http://watch.ecstasyoforder.com/)

