Tetris is as ubiquitous as blue jeans and as addictive as jelly beans. But did you ever wonder where it came from? Probably not: Most computer programs have fairly undramatic origin stories. Not Tetris. In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov, a computer scientist working for the USSR government, created a fun little game that became a smash hit among the computer literate population of Moscow. Before long, it was discovered by a British software firm. The rest, as they say, is history...But it's a history full of high stakes business shenanigans and some fundamental questions about the nature of play. Box Brown, author of Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, blows open the secret history of the game that saved Nintendo and delves into what makes puzzles and games so irresistible to human beings.
Tetris is as ubiquitous as blue jeans and as addictive as jelly beans. But did you ever wonder where it came from? Probably not: Most computer programs have fairly undramatic origin stories. Not Tetris. In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov, a computer scientist working for the USSR government, created a fun little game that became a smash hit among the computer literate population of Moscow. Before long, it was discovered by a British software firm. The rest, as they say, is history...But it's a history full of high stakes business shenanigans and some fundamental questions about the nature of play. Box Brown, author of Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, blows open the secret history of the game that saved Nintendo and delves into what makes puzzles and games so irresistible to human beings.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Andre the Giant comes a new nonfiction work about another 198os pop culture icon - Tetris!
Brian "Box" Brown is an Eisner Award-winning author whose comics have appeared in the New York Times, Playboy, and New York magazine. His books include the New York Times-bestselling Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, Tetris: The Games People Play, Is This Guy for Real?: The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman, Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America, Child Star, and Accidental Czar (with writer Andrew S. Weiss). boxbrown.com
Included in NYPL's "Notable 50 Best Books for Teens" list. "The
story never stops moving until its final pieces are in place."--New
York Times "One of gaming's most intriguing tales...A book to
watch." --Nerdist "[A] look at the creation of Alexey Pajitnov's
enduring classic and the drama that ensues when people with big
bags of money try to cash in the game's popularity." --Kotaku "A
rich read that provides valuable context for the rise of video
games in the late 20th century." --A.V. Club
"This is a work about the bittersweet dissonances of artistic
creativity and commercial greed and the ephemeral yet crucial joy
we get from making things fall into place." --io9 "Against the
backdrop of the Cold War, the saga of Tetris played out like a spy
thriller--tragic deaths, corporate conspiracies, the prestige of
nations hanging in the balance." --Boston Globe "A clean and
engaging visual style supports a story that sustains narrative
drive, humanizing the characters and making readers care about
every development. " --Kirkus, starred review "Simply illustrated
in a sequential panel format, the charming black-andwhite drawings
convey high-concept ideas in a clever, succinct manner." --Booklist
"Tetris is a remarkably spare work, cleanly and effortlessly
introducing countless real-life characters and companies that
intersect and tangle together in a game of tug-of-war." --GQ "It
also cleverly mimics the structure of Tetris itself:
straightforward and engaging, without any extra bells and
whistles." --School Library Journal, starred review "The blocky
paneled illustrations are reminiscent of early video game graphics,
and the compact text uses dialogue effectively to break up
narrative sections and keep the unfolding drama personal rather
than historically distant." --Bulletin of the Center for Children's
Books
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