Althouse: The game that burned your eyeballs and made you question your sanity in the 1980s.

June 2, 2009

The game that burned your eyeballs and made you question your sanity in the 1980s.

Tetris is 25.

23 comments:

A.W. said...: i saw a fascinating documentary on the problems with its rights. after all, this was mother russia and no one owned any property there...

i think it was called "who stole tetris."; 6/2/09, 2:58 PM
SteveR said...: I've enjoyed playing it, although its never been a habit or caused loss of sleep, etc.

I don't like lying in bed trying to go to sleep and confronting falling shapes. Hated the light blue ones.; 6/2/09, 3:12 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: here, diagnaly.. pretty sneaky sis.; 6/2/09, 3:37 PM
campy said...: My skill at Tetris once earned me a free trip to LA for my whole family of four.

[bows humbly]; 6/2/09, 3:39 PM
KCFleming said...: I have never played the game.

I did try it once, lasted one descent of a shape and began eyeing a girl and forgot all about it.

It's always about a girl.

I tried playing Pong when it first came out; thought I'd die.

Pacman? 2 turns into a blinf alley and quit.

This is no virtue on my part. These games were not for my mind made.; 6/2/09, 3:43 PM
Unknown said...: You are assuming that we were old enough to play computer games in the 80's...; 6/2/09, 3:57 PM
dbp said...: Only 25? It seems longer ago than that.

I played it enough to get the "seeing shapes with my eyes closed" effect as described by SteveR.

Even worse than tetris was Mine Sweeper. We played it so much that it earned our sobriquet: Mind Sweeper...; 6/2/09, 4:07 PM
jayne_cobb said...: Tetris was the only good to ever come from communism.; 6/2/09, 4:07 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: LOVED that game. Played it until I got good enough that I could reach a level where the shapes were falling too fast to be moved to the edges of either side. Then I stopped playing it forever. Great game.

My favorite version was on old PC game that played Russian sounding midis while you played.; 6/2/09, 4:50 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Other greats, but of a totally different style, from that time period were all those old Sierra games like King's Quest, Police Quest, and Space Quest.; 6/2/09, 4:53 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Oh, and then what about Commander Keen and Duke Nukem? Fun stuff.

Not that I played a bunch of computer games or anything...; 6/2/09, 4:53 PM
Anonymous said...: I never played it either. I am hooked on Brick Breaker, tho, on my Bberry.; 6/2/09, 5:00 PM
Christy said...: Loved Tetris and I played it far too much. Like SteveR, during alpha sleep I'd see the falling shapes.; 6/2/09, 5:24 PM
fivewheels said...: Yes, I'm old enough that I got hooked on Tetris before there were free versions everywhere you went, and you actually had to plunk down quarters in a place called an arcade to play it. And I had to walk eight miles through a snowstorm to get there, kids, and I was happy to do it.; 6/2/09, 5:58 PM
knox said...: I had tetris on my old Apple LC. I'd vow to just take a "short" break in the midst of writing a paper...; 6/2/09, 7:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Tetris imprinted itself permanently into the inside of my eyelids. I saw the falling shapes when I tried to fall asleep at night...itching for more!; 6/2/09, 8:14 PM
IgnatzEsq said...: It's one thing to say you love the game and saw blocks fall in front of your eyes.

It's another thing altogether to be a tetris block

Behold, the best Halloween custom I'll ever make:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9656151@N03/943099240/; 6/2/09, 8:22 PM
kentuckyliz said...: I got addicted to a Tetris variant, Dr. Mario, with the falling pills. You had to spin the pills to match the colored ends to clear a block. I still have that game. My niece and I had a Tetris/Mario match going at New Year's. She snapped a pic of me playing it (though I'm wrapped up in a blanket--it was cold at my sister's farm house).

http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1926/63/114/604358375/n604358375_1175322_5513.jpg; 6/2/09, 8:27 PM
Big Mike said...: Dang, Liz, you look hot from that angle.

(Just joshing.)

I got up to where I almost won at the highest speed, and I did that 3 times out of 4 tries. At that point I decided I was as good as I was going to get and quit playing forever.; 6/2/09, 9:12 PM
Kensington said...: Holy crap, Freeman, I had that Russian MIDI Tetris, too, and loved it so much I've often wished I could find that version again.

As for Sierra Games, the only ones I ever played were the Leisure Suit Larry series, which taught me everything I know about how to be a hit with the ladies (or to get hit by ladies).

What's awesome is that you can play online multiplayer versions of many of the old Sierra games here:
http://www.agamesroom.com/

Finally, I never played Duke Nukem, but many an evening at work in the mid-90s was wasted playing Doom II. Unfortunately, Doom gives me motion sickness nowadays.; 6/3/09, 2:30 AM
William said...: It figures that Communism's only contribution to Western Civ was a bigger waste of time than masturbation....I would sometimes play it for several hours and walk away from the console with deep feelings of shame and regret. One time I ran up a phenomenal score. It didn't make me feel proud or accomplished. It just underlined how pointless the whole quest for excellence in Tetris was.; 6/3/09, 10:07 AM
The Den Mother said...: I know play Tetris on Facebook. And, God help me, it's as addictive as ever.; 6/3/09, 11:59 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: What a great and dangerous link, Kensington!; 6/3/09, 2:34 PM