it was spring in what was then the soviet union when a mathematician in moscow with a penchant for puzzles created the tetris computer game. twenty-five years on, the game is still going strong.
“for me, it was just a moment ago,” said alexey pajitnov, adding that he was 29 years old when he crafted the computer code for tetris in june 1984.
“i was very fascinated with all kinds of puzzles, brain teasers. mainly, it was just a diversion from the main work,” said pajitnov, who was employed at the time at a government institute researching artificial intelligence and computer speech recognition.
he was inspired by a classic puzzle of a box made of five plastic pieces that could be assembled in myriad ways. “it was really hard,” pajitnov said. “i was in love with this puzzle for a number of years. i was just fascinated by how to manipulate the pieces on the screen.”
pajitnov made a computer program that he came to call tetris, which basically involves a player manipulating variously shaped blocks dropping along a screen with the goal of getting them to mesh into rows without gaps.
blue planet software’s chief executive, henk rogers, was at a major consumer electronics show in 1988 when he spied tetris. he was scouring the event for video games for the japanese market.
“my job was to find many games, but i kept coming back to tetris,” rogers said. “i realized i was hooked on it. it totally mesmerized me.”
rogers arranged to publish versions of tetris for computer games. early in 1989, he and minoru arakawa of nintendo went to moscow to license the rights to the video game. nintendo saw tetris as an ideal fit for its game boy handheld devices.
since pajitnov’s game was considered russian property, licensing was negotiated with government officials.
“at that time, russia was a little behind,” arakawa recalled. “we brought computers, printers and lawyers with us so we could type the draft, change it and have a final copy to sign. it took a few days.”
tetris became a computer game hit and has stayed that way, commanding about 10 percent of the market, according to rogers.
“tetris is so popular because it transcends culture,” rogers said. “there is no violence, no ideology; the player creates order out of chaos.”
rogers and pajitnov kicked off a tetris 25th anniversary celebration on tuesday at the opening of a premier e3 video game industry gathering in los angeles.
“it’s awesome when you look at the industry and everyone spending millions on graphics and music and more, and here we are with tetris just kicking ass,” rogers said. “it is an enviable position.”
blue planet is working on international tetris games along the lines of an olympics.
“we are looking to turn tetris into a spectator sport,” rogers said.
pajitnov now divides his time between homes in moscow and seattle.
he and rogers, through blue planet, license tetris rights to game makers such as nintendo and electronic arts. “tetris is the best-selling mobile phone game of all time, showing continued growth year after year all around the world,” said adam sussman, vice president of worldwide publishing for ea mobile. “tetris has had a significant impact on the entire video game industry.”
more than a million tetris games are reportedly played daily at a tetrisfriends.com web site launched in march.
“i never supposed it would be this big” pajitnov said. “i was the best tetris player in the world at one point. now, i’m a good player but not a great player.”
那是在一个春天，苏联莫斯科一位痴迷于智力游戏的数学家开发出了俄罗斯方块这款游戏。25年过后，俄罗斯方块依然获得人们的喜爱，不断发展普及。“对我而言，那就像是刚刚发生。”阿列克谢·帕吉特诺夫补充道，他在1984年六月写出俄罗斯方块的计算机编码时只有29岁。“我对所有的益智游戏都很着迷，但那主要是工作之外的一种消遣。”帕吉特诺夫这样说，他当时是一所研究人工智能和计算机语音识别的政府机构雇员。
他受到一款经典拼图游戏的启发，这个游戏是将五块塑料模样的部件拼成一个盒子，而组合的方式是无限的。“它非常难。”帕吉特诺夫说， “我玩了好几年，我对在屏幕上操控那些部件很着迷。”帕吉特诺夫开发出了一款电脑游戏，他命名为“tetris”（译者按：这个名字来源于希腊语 tetra，意思是“四”），这个游戏由一人操控，屏幕上方会不断下落各种各样的方块，玩家要做的就是改变它们的方位将方块排列起来，最好不要留下缝隙。
在1988年的美国消费电子展（ces）上，蓝星软件（bps）的总裁亨克·罗杰斯发现了这款游戏，他敏锐地抓住机会将俄罗斯方块推向了日本市场。“我的工作就是发现新游戏，但我还是经常回忆起俄罗斯方块。”罗杰斯说，“我意识到自己对它上了瘾，它让我完全入迷了。”罗杰斯打算发行俄罗斯方块这款游戏。在1989年年初，他和任天堂的荒川实一道前往莫斯科去购买游戏的版权。任天堂大发利市，俄罗斯方块在其开发的掌机game boy上风行一时。
因为帕吉特诺夫的这款游戏被认为是俄罗斯的国家财产，版权事宜是与俄罗斯政府官员交涉的。“在那时候，俄罗斯还比较落后。”荒川实回忆说，“我们带去了电脑，打印机还有律师。这样我们可以方便打出合同的草稿，做一些修改并最终签订。这花费了几天时间。”
俄罗斯方块成为了游戏传奇，并继续着自己的神话。据罗杰斯所说，它高踞着10%左右的市场占有率。“俄罗斯之所以这样流行是因为它超越了文化界限。”罗杰斯说，“它没有暴力，没有意识形态，它让玩家从混乱中创造秩序。”
在星期二开幕的洛杉矶e3游戏展上，罗杰斯和帕吉特诺夫共同启动了一项俄罗斯方块25周年的纪念活动。“游戏产商花费巨资开发更炫目更刺激的新游戏，而玩家们也乐于买单，看到这些你觉得棒极了。不过我们有俄罗斯方块，它足以睥睨天下。”罗杰斯说，“它的地位无人可以撼动。”
蓝星软件公司正致力于开发国际通行的俄罗斯方块以争取进入奥运会。罗杰斯表示：“我们希望把俄罗斯方块变成一种能够吸引观众的体育比赛。”
帕吉特诺夫现在奔波于莫斯科和西雅图的两个家之间，他和罗杰斯通过蓝星软件公司向诸如任天堂、美国艺电（ea）这样的游戏产商发放版权许可。“俄罗斯方块是有史以来买的最好的手机游戏，而且它的销量还在逐年增长。”负责ea移动游戏全球发布的副总裁亚当·苏斯曼说，“俄罗斯方块对整个电子游戏工业有着意义重大的深远影响。”
三月刚上线的网站tetrisfriends.com报告说，每天都有超过百万次的点击，他们都是来玩俄罗斯方块的。“我从未想象过它会变得如此流行。”帕吉特诺夫打趣道：“想当年，我是这个世界上俄罗斯方块玩得最好的，现在我可不敢当这个‘最’字喽。”