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  • Tetris.

  • It transcends age, culture, and language.

  • It's a gamer and nongamer's game.

  • But did you know Tetris has a Soviet past?

  • Tetris is the brainchild of this man, Alexey Pajitnov.

  • Alexey was a computer programmer in Russia.

  • He worked for the Soviet Union, at the Moscow Academy of Sciences.

  • Alexey always had a propensity for math, computers, and puzzles.

  • It was that propensity that led him to the creation of the best video game of all time.

  • He drew inspiration from a little known game, Pentominoes.

  • Pentominoes was a puzzle board game in which you had to fit geometric shapes together.

  • Alexey took the principles from Pentominoes, upgraded them, and created a computer game.

  • Originally only intended for himself, he named the game Tetris for two reasons.

  • It's a combination of tetra, the Greek word meaning four, and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport.

  • Because Tetris was created during work hours, the Soviet Union claimed all rights to both Tetris, and all royalties.

  • Fast forward to 1996, the rights to Tetris were finally signed over to Pajitnov.

  • Tetris taps into our universal need to create order out of chaos, which is ultimately why it's one of the most iconic games in history.

Tetris.

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