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Seventeen Years of Tetris
thefalconer writes "It all happened 17 years ago on a whim and an addiction of sorts. Alexey Pazhitnov created the one game that has caused so many people around the world to just about go nuts trying to win a game that has the ability to slowly drive you to insanity one small misshappen block at a time. Since the creation of the original Tetris game on an Electronica 60, there have been dozens of different incarnations of Tetris that have dazzled the eyes, boggled the mind, frustrated the emotions, and fried more than their fair share of braincells. There is also a very interesting history of tetris online that details its evolution from innocent game to insane addiction. Plus it's one of those games that never grows old. :D"
17 years of Tetris, 17 years of those damn little Z shaped ones coming at the exact wrong time.
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
All the different shaped pieces come together to (hopefully) form perfect, straight, uniform lines. Individualism of each piece fades as it becomes part of the whole.
However, the longer it goes, the more pieces that come, and the faster they go. Pretty soon, the system begins the breakdown! Things are out of control, and lines stop forming, until you just can't continue any longer.
Game over.
.....I think everything is starting to fall into place. ;)
You've finally figured it out, all those years of silence at the chess club, when what we really needed was blasting techo track (with light effects) to get the punters in.
Microsoft - Where would you like to go today, Maybe Jail?
Oh dear god - the music from Gameboy Tetris. I hope there is special spot in hell reserved for the bastard that wrote that tune. One summer during college I worked at the factory that built all the Nintendo in-store displays. I must have built a couple of thousand of these couter top Gameboy displays. They had a modded Gameboy that drove a black and white monitor in addition to the LCD, and amplified speakers. Of course, they all had to be tested before shipping, with the only cart they shipped out with - Tetris. Imagine the Tetris theme spewing from 4 Gameboys, out of sync with each other, and at higher than normal volume, for 8 hours a day. It's enough to drive you up the freaking wall.
22 was my max in my prime. I was fortunate enough to have played in the preliminary Nintendo World Championships on stage (hey - I was young and video games weren't *as* dorky). Tetris was the last of three back to back games that were played, so I did a lot of "training" beforehand.
*sigh* If I only had time for that sort of stuff now... I still find time to sneak a gameboy round in, though.
I always had the biggest trouble with the square shaped pieces.
They never seemed to be oriented right, so I had to keep rotating them.
</dry humor>
My freshman year at college, the campus paper did a survey on love/sex/etc.
This was 1989 and Tetris was quite the late-night procrastination tool before looking for MP3s, etc.
Included was a series of anonymous quotes about the stare of love on campus. I'll never forget, one female student said:
Love here is like Tetris. You never get the long piece when you need it.
"Never bullshit a bullshitter" All That Jazz