4 June 2009

Tetris -- Skills for Life

Hey one and all...

You know, I just love it when these uber-nerd iReports come along (like the Futurama one a few months back...that was FANTASTIC) since it gives me the opportunity to geek out with reckless abandon.  So when TETRIS of all things cropped up on CNN.com today, I went immediately down to storage to rummage for my Nintendo games... 

Plucking my favorite travel game case from between the boxes, I knew that my copy of Tetris was inside along with several other delightful and amazing epic games upon which I spent hours of my youth.  All of these actions spawned a great amount of nostalgia within to be sure...

A few great Tetris moments of my life:

a) There was a sit-down arcade Tetris at a Pizza Hut in Fort Worth, TX, where I grew up.  It was the first place I remember playing Tetris and my middle school football team would always go there following a game.  I was horrendous at football, however I would look forward to each and every game just so I could hone my skills on my favorite Russian video pastime.

b)  From the Nintendo console to the original Gameboy, I spent minute after minute stacking and dropping blocks to the best classical music that 8-bit could supply.  It really makes me wonder how many people were introduced to their first Tchaikovksy or Bach from the Nintendo console version...  Not that there is anything wrong with that at all...music exposure is just that regardless of the source.  Besides, it was great music for block stacking, to be sure!

c)  My favorite aspect of having lived the majority of my life in the "Tetris Age" is that I've had increasing cause over the years to prove my father wrong on one very key point of disagreement between us in my youth.  He always argued that video games provided no real life enrichment or application.  I must staunchly disagree...  ANYONE who has played enough Tetris should know that it helps us all with spatial relationships when packing and storing things or moving through traffic.  Allow me to explain:  I can pack a box full of books, a trunk full of suitcases, or a storage unit full of furniture like some sort of idiot savant.  How?  TETRIS!!!  Remember that opening scene in "Office Space" where Peter Gibbons tries to beat the traffic by "Tetrising" his way through the lanes?  Now you get THAT application...

Therefore, in closing, so very many thanks to Mr. Alexey Pajitnov -- the Russian name with which I was most familiar during the 80s while everyone my parents age was more concerned with Kruschev.  The times, they do change...but Tetris never does...

Make sure you wait to clear until you have all four lines...that's why they call it a TETRIS!!!

Waxing nerdly nostalgic,

PHAmanNYC