Tetris Turns 25

Last week celebrated the 25th anniversary of the most influential puzzle game ever created: Tetris.

If you've every played a game in the vain of Dr. Mario or Bejeweled, you have this game to thank. It was created 25 years ago by a man named Alexey Pajitnov while working for a Soviet-funded government R&D center. Unfortunately for Patitnov, the Soviet government claimed ownership of the game and sold off the rights very cheaply and he received nothing for it. Fortunately for Nintendo, they would profit greatly from the game when it released in 1986 for their Nintendo Entertainment System (pictured above).

However, in 1991, Alexey moved to the United States and founded The Tetris Company where he designed puzzles for the Super Nintendo classics Yoshi's Cookie and a lesser known title, Pandora's Box. Five years later Pajitnov began working for Microsoft where he developed the spiritual successor to Tetris, Hexic, where the player must rotate tiles to form certain patterns.

So, the next time you're playing your favorite puzzle game, just remember; chances are that game probably never would have existed if it were not for Alexey Pajitnov and Tetris.