När vi under gårdagen fick chans att slå oss ner med genierna bakom två av världens mest stilbildande pussel - Tetris och Rubriks kub - så var det inte utan att man fick nypa sig lite i armen. De två ikonerna och tillika filosoferna, reflekterade över sina skapelser och Alexey Pajitnov, mannen som gav världen Tetris på 80-talet, tänkte under samtalet tillbaka på sitt första riktiga "aha"-ögonblick.
Enligt Pajitnov handlade genombrottet inte om det visuella, utan om två enkla grundmekaniken som definierade spelet: rotation och fallande block. Dessa idéer bar utvecklingen, och han minns tre specifika insikter som gjorde att projektet verkligen kom till liv.
Först och främst var det när han på skärmen såg hur elegant allt klickade samman, inte specifikt grafiken utan helheten. Känslan av rytm och kontroll. Där och då förstod han att spelet kunde bli både tidlöst och beroendeframkallande, och resten är ju som man brukar säga - historia.
"Tetris was inspired by a game called Pentomino", he explains in the exclusive Gamereactor interview above. "I tried to make a two-player game out of that set of pieces. I coded it myself and I had no graphics on my computer, so just putting some images on the screen was quite a challenge".
"Once I had the program shifting the pieces, placing them on the screen, shifting and rotating them, that was a different procedure. When I did the rotational stuff it was amazing to watch; you push the keys and the piece immediately turns! It sounds ridiculous now, but at that time it was an exciting moment. That was my first 'aha'. I saw it and decided that a real-time game would be very good with this".
"Then the game started working with all the placement and everything, it would fill up the field in no time, like 20 seconds and the game was over. I was thinking how to extend the game in time... Then I looked at it more attentively and saw that the filled line is kind of dead on the screen; it has no purpose anymore. So if I take it away, I can continue to play the game. That was the main 'aha' for the game. At that moment, the game was done"
"Later in the interview, we talk about the competitive side of Tetris, which has spawned a wider community of pro players that is still active 40 years after the original release. Coincidentally, just next week the very best players from 60 countries will face off in Dubai to decide the first-ever Red Bull Tetris global champion"
"Every game has a competitive component, whatever it is", Pajitnov believes. "Every time you have a challenge, it means some kind of competition: against yourself, against the author, or against other people. I immediately saw the obvious potential of my game in the world of games, because besides all its specific traits it's just a regular game, and people play games to compete".
Minns du första gången du spelade Tetris och vilka är dina bästa minnen från det?