# Tetris, 30th anniversary **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 7, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tetris-30th-anniversary/690236 "2014-06-07T00:32:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tetris-30th-anniversary/690236/1 "2014-06-07T00:32:21Z")
Ah, yes. Tetris, which dropped our department’s productivity to almost zero for a week. Even our VP was playing it. I managed to 'hack" the high scores file so that his admin assistance had an almost improbably high first score and watched him retreat into his office trying to best it. Good times. As _Engineering and Technology Magazine_ [reports](http://eandt.theiet.org/news/2014/jun/tetris-thirty.cfm), Dr. Tom Stafford from Sheffield University has commemorated this anniversary with a Tetris-themed [lecture](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l3C_jayokw). He argues that Tetris taps into the basic human mental instinct to tidy things: > **[It's the 30th Birthday of Tetris, the World's First Electronic Drug](https://gizmodo.com/its-the-30th-birthday-of-tetris-the-worlds-first-elect-1587209226)** > > Happy Birthday, Tetris! Alexey Pajitnov released the block-stacking, productivity-killer on June 6, 1984—and it has been available on nearly every gaming device since. Why has this simple game endured while so many others ended up in 8-bit heaven? A... ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tetris-30th-anniversary/690236/2 "2014-06-07T00:48:49Z")
Reported for forum change. Lets see if the mod comes up with an appropriate joke. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tetris-30th-anniversary/690236/3 "2014-06-07T00:51:29Z")
I guess I haven’t really got that “tidying up” gene, then. 🙂 I was in the U.S. Navy from 1989 - 93. One time when I was in Japan I remember watching a local play Tetris® in the arcade. That S.o.B. BROKE Tetris®!! Well, not sure if he actually _broke_ it but I seem to recall that he got to the highest level. What a wonder. For his sake I hope he was as good at his schoolwork as he was at Tetris®!! ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tetris-30th-anniversary/690236/4 "2014-06-07T00:55:16Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Reported for forum change. > Lets see if the mod comes up with an appropriate joke. 🙂 Reported for what? ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tetris-30th-anniversary/690236/5 "2014-06-07T01:36:16Z")
Dropping this like a red piece into the Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tetris-30th-anniversary/690236/6 "2014-06-07T04:59:26Z")
You thought you were pretty good on your NES, I’ll bet. [Then you see this and realize what a piker you were.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwC544Z37qo)