There was a time in my life when I dreamed of Tetris pieces. I am far from the only one. There are many similar testimonies from keen Tetris players. They talk about how they start to see Tetris shapes in the houses and trees around them. In the groceries that they have to fit in the shopping bag. For my own part, it was especially for a few years in high school when I played enormous amounts of Tetris, and in my quiet mind was convinced that I was probably the best in town, maybe in the municipality. It has subsequently struck me that perhaps I was not alone in thinking this either. THE CLASSIC: Nintendo’s NES version is, in addition to the Gameboy version, perhaps the one most gamers have a relationship with. It also happened to be the version the article author spent many hours at once in the late nineties. Photo: Nintendo For the game Tetris is almost disturbingly captivating. It’s hugely addictive. And so it has been since it was played out by the Russian mathematician and designer Aleksej Pajitnov almost forty years ago. It has, amazingly, remained virtually unchanged since then, despite the huge leaps in technology. This is why it made headlines around the world when thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson this week managed to “round” Tetris, that is, play for so long without losing that the entire game broke down. Across generations and continents, people were filled with awe at what he had achieved. Because Tetris binds us together. The game is simple and complicated at the same time. It has few ingredients and there are few things to do. On a small screen, blocks come sailing from the ceiling. All the blocks consist of four squares, which means that there can be no more than seven different variations. THE REACTION: The picture shows thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson as he realizes that he has managed to “round” the original Nintendo version of Tetris, that is, to play for so long without losing that the game crashes. Photo: AP These must then be stacked as closely as possible, without holes, and one uninterrupted horizontal line will flash and disappear. The more lines you make disappear at once, and the bigger chain reactions you can create, the better you play. But you only have five possible commands: rotate the block right, left, move right, move left, and send the block quickly to the ground. In other words: Anyone trying Tetris for the first time is not doing anything significantly different from the world’s best player. The best player in the world just does the same thing much faster and much more strategically. But still. Why does playing Tetris feel so good? Why have some of us chosen to move blocks for hour after hour instead of, I don’t know, being out in the sun, reading something, learning something? One of the explanations is that Tetris is clearing. It’s hugely satisfying to see the clutter on the screen disappear as if by magic, if you’ve stacked well enough. THE CREATOR: Aleksej Pajitnov invented Tetris and named it after the Greek word for “four” – “tetra” – and the sport of tennis. But it would be many years before he could get anything back financially for the invention. Photo: AP Unlike a lot of other clutter, the chaos of blocks in Tetris is also quite easy to handle. Frustration at work? Quarrel in the family? Much more complicated and unpredictable. But in Tetris, you can trust that the solution will come. Usually in the form of the blessed long block, four bricks in a row, the only one that can melt four rows at once. Another possible explanation is that Tetris gives small rushes that are reminiscent of the aha experiences you get when you see the solution to a problem or understand the answer to a riddle. It is not so much about the clearing process as about the realization. Suddenly, perhaps intuitively, you realize where a block must be for the result to be optimal. It all clicks into place. A third explanation is that Tetris takes you into the flow zone. The flow zone is the long-awaited place where you hardly recognize time and place. Where you don’t think about the past or the future. The game is so engaging that it keeps you in the moment. EASILY RECOGNIZED: Tetris has been one of the world’s most famous and popular games for almost forty years. Photo: Mark Lennihan / AP In this way, much of what one can go and ponder about, fear of what may happen or uneasy memories of what has been, also disappears. It is not surprising that playing Tetris has been shown to have a beneficial effect on people with post-traumatic stress disorder. A fourth and seemingly contradictory explanation is that Tetris allows you to process experiences and come up with new ideas. The game is engaging but relaxing because there is nothing at stake. No one sees you. The result has no consequences for your career or family life, unless you sneak away from your Christmas dinner or work meeting to play. It holds part of your thoughts, while the others can have free rein. Playing can be experienced as very meditative. FILM VERSION: Last year saw the release of “Tetris”, the film about how the Soviet game conquered the world. Nikita Efremov and Taron Egerton played Aleksej Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, who became lifelong friends. Photo: Apple TV+ It’s not bad for the little game that Aleksej Pajitnov invented to test the computers at his workplace, the computer center at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. The name he gave it was based on “tetra”, the Greek word for “four”, and tennis. The game went public, became popular in the Soviet Union and eventually found its way to a technology fair in Las Vegas. It was there that American game designer Henk Rogers discovered it, immediately realized its potential for success, and brought it to the world. After a complicated process, the rights ended with Nintendo. Nintendo just as well decided that the game would come with every single Gameboy they sold. Global success was thus assured. According to Tetris Co, the game has sold over 520 million copies and been downloaded more than 615 million times on mobile devices. TAKEOVER: Nintendo fought for a long time for the rights to Tetris, realizing that the game would be a better fit for the Gameboy handheld console than the company’s own Super Mario. The conclusion was that Tetris would travel more easily across languages and cultures. Photo: Reuters Pajitnov himself had no rights and received no income from the astronomical success until 1995. He himself has insisted that the most important thing for him was that the game has been loved by so many. Perhaps he also feels a small twinge of pride at having managed to penetrate the cerebral cortex of so many, and made them see the seven pieces he designed in shopping bags and fridge shelves.
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Tetris is extremely simple. But it can take over your brain. – Speech
