The most successful video game of all time, Tetris , turns 30 today! Since its release in 1984 , it has sold 170 million copies on every platform .
Tetris was created in the Soviet Union by Alexey Pajitnov on an Electronica 60 computer and its blocks were created from ASCII characters, since the system did not have the ability to produce graphics.
Pajitnov worked at the Soviet Academy of Sciences and after creating the game, which at the time had neither scores nor difficulty levels, he gave the code to Vadim Gerasimov, who ported it to the IBM PC.
After its transfer to IBM, versions for Commodore 64 and Apple II , paving the way for success!
The British company Andromeda, without having the rights, sold them (!) to Spectrum HoloByte, and the first commercial version of Tetris was created in 1987.Other "licensings" followed, without anyone having acquired the rights from Pajitnov.
In 1988, the Soviet Union created the Elektronorgtechnica which licensed Tetris, and in 1989 Nintendo purchased a license and included it on its new Game Boy, eventually selling 35 million copies.
This number is the second best-selling record of all time on a single platform, surpassing Super Mario Bros. on the NES and Wii Sports. However, combined across all platforms, Tetris is in first place by a wide margin.
Of course, Tetris clones and various variations have been released on every platform over the years, whether free or paid.
Pajitnov co-founded the Tetris Company in 1996, through which he managed to acquire the rights to the title worldwide, since until then its revenue had been minimal.
Source: e-pcmag.gr
