Tetris

Tetris is one of the most iconic puzzle video games ever made. The player controls falling block shapes called Tetriminos, rotating and placing them to complete horizontal lines. When a full line is completed, it disappears, giving the player more space and points. The game is simple, fast, addictive, and instantly recognizable. The game was created in June 1984 by Soviet programmer Alexey Pajitnov while he was working at the Moscow Academy of Sciences. The first version ran on an Electronika 60 computer. It spread through the Soviet Union in 1985, reached PCs in North America and Europe in 1987, and became a global phenomenon after Nintendo launched the Game Boy with Tetris in 1989. Its biggest fame came in the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially because of the Game Boy version. Nintendo’s Game Boy release helped make Tetris a worldwide household name, and the official Tetris history says the Game Boy version sold over 35 million copies. The device in your image looks like a “Brick Game” handheld, a popular 1990s-style portable toy that included Tetris-like block games. It was not the original Tetris release, but many people remember these black plastic handhelds with yellow buttons as part of the same retro puzzle-game era.