Experienced video game historian Norman Caruso has published a new video to his Gaming Historian YouTube channel which breaks down the story of Tetris.
The video covers the history of its creator Alexey Pajitnov and contextualizing the political and social climate in which the game’s was developed under.
What follows is an interesting look into how Tetris eventually came to America, and how it was marketed and published for a Western audience.
In 1984 the Communist Soviet Union struggles with a stagnant economy, the decision to boycott the Summer Olympics, and rising tensions with America from the Cold War.
While the two nations were divided, Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov works diligently on what will later be Tetris.
Originally developed during his spare time at work, Pajitnov creates a prototype of the game using an IBM PC and sennds free copies to friends and colleagues.
From there, it spread across the Soviet Union and eventually made its way to the United States. But how was it discovered?