I can't remember life without Tetris. Those tetrominos have been invading my dreams since early childhood - falling, falling, forever falling. The game turns 30 years old today, and with it comes the realisation that it's been there for me for almost my entire conscious life.
When Nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, introduced multiplayer Tetris via their Game Boy and high-tech link cable technology, I was able to share my addiction with friends via the medium of emotionally demanding block combat. Nothing is more pleasing to a young mind than cluttering your opponent's screen with unruly blocks: creation leading to chaos and victory. It remains one of the most satisfying multi-player games ever made.
I've never bought any Tetris-related pop singles, won a Tetris world championship or written any Tetris fan-fiction. But it's always been there, as sure as background radiation.
Aged 11, I was hit by a car during a school trip to France. The rumour that immediately did the rounds was I had walked into the road, backwards, while playing Tetris on my Gameboy. Entirely untrue - apart from the bit about being hit by the car - but entirely plausible.
Last winter, I travelled with a friend to Mount Kōya in Japan, to stay with some young monks in their remote monastery, to learn about Shingon Buddhism. We went to bed early in our traditional Japanese room, as there was nothing else to do. All was peace and tranquility.
We ended up playing Tetris.
Do you have any Tetris-related stories or memories of your own? Or was life something that happened while you were playing Tetris? Share your tales in the comments, and we'll post the best above the line.
Here are our favourites so far:
First time I ever played tetris, I was 9 or 10. There were a series of gameboys setup inside a department store.. so of course, being attracted to what is shiny and technological I went straight onto one and started playing away. For some reason, I kept on winning within 2 minutes every time. I thought I was a Tetris God.
Then a pretty sales assistant came and started playing on the gameboy next to me. I found this unfathomable, for why would a girl stand next to me?
And then things started getting weirder.. she laughed as I won, joked as I lost and for the life of me.. I just couldn't figure out how her laughs were perfectly calibrated with what was happening on my screen if she was playing on another gameboy?
I decided to slowly back off because it made no sense a pretty girl would not only stand next to me, but also laugh playfully with me without looking at my screen...
It was only much afterwards I figured out I'd been playing multi-player tetris and that girl was probably just having some fun trying to get me to buy a gameboy. God knows what she must have thought by my freaked out face.
Lines or score? That's the only question you need to answer.
I was a score man, and got about 800,000 if memory serves. That was something like 240 lines - level 20 was a beast and too quick to score heavily.
Tetris boasting. The 86th worst kind of boasting.
Nelson Mandela was released while I was.playing Tetris.
True story.