The year was 1984 when founder and Russian mathematician Alexey Pajitnov was playing one of his favorite puzzles when he got his inspiration to make a computer version. Pajitnov wrote the program in his spare time, simplifying the idea to make it easier for those of us who aren’t mathematicians. He used shapes made of four squares — hence “Tetris,” which comes from the Greek word for four, “Tetra.”
More than 125 million Tetris products have been sold, and Guinness World Records’ 2009 Gamers’ Edition book ranked Tetris No. 2 on its list of the top 50 console games of all time, behind Super Mario Kart. More recently on the mobile market, Tetris is almost reaching 80 million downloads worldwide. Last year 10 percent of all games on mobile phones in this country were Tetris.
Rumor has it that Tetris might be the first virtual sport to enter the Olympics, opening a new realm to sports: physical vs. mental.
