Tetris - A Perfect Game?

Some brief thoughts on Tetris, one of the most prolific computer games ever made.

[namelessfire]

Tetris is so perfect, so universal, it feels like it was discovered instead of invented.

[DozyBinsh]

Watching somebody else play Tetris is one of the most intense frustrations any human being can experience.

[Priderage]

0:20 "I'm probably not going to blow anyone's mind in this video..."
1:30 - 2:16 "So that's why it's likely that aliens from other planets have also made Tetris already."

YOU LIED TO ME, MATT.

[uknownada]

Here's something that might make the game change drastically: the size of the board.

When a board is wider or taller, it might be more difficult or easier to get points, or to lose. The Gameboy Tetris, measuring the size of the blocks, has a board size of 10 x 18(?). But if a Tetris board was something like 20 x 36, would the game be much easier? If it is, then it probably takes longer to achieve points, and also makes it more difficult to lose. But what about other board sizes? Is there a "perfect" board size, or is that the one element of Tetris that can change?

[Bloggerboy]

So when League of Legend players tell me to uninstall the game and go play Tetris it's actually a compliment?

[cannonfodder]

The story behind the creation of Tetris is insane too, imagine a Russian developer releasing a mega successful game in America, during the cold war

[onotoley]

Fun fact: Alexei Pajitnov initially planned to design the game with pentominoes but due to lack of RAM the soviet computer he ran the code in couldn't handle such INTENSE GEOMETRY.
So we have Electronica-60 to thank for one of the most noteworthy design decisions in game design history.

[weebsportsresort]

I would just like to point out that, on what is probably my fifth rewatch of this video over the years, I just now paid enough attention to notice Matthew's totally intentional Tetris blueballs. He's right about to get a Tetris: long piece is next, exactly four in a row, it's perfect, and then it's cut off. At 3:30 and 6:23. This happens not once, but twice.

[MissAshley]

The scoring system doesn't just "keep people coming back." It provides a risk/reward system that wouldn't otherwise exist. Without it, there would be no rational reason to stack blocks high or clear multiple lines.

[QuickSmasherEXE]

"The designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

[chrisxdeboy]

Another key to Tetris' success is portability. It's easy to port to new systems, and is quite possibly the most ported game to new systems, with DooM trailing in second(This is due to the original DooM engine being open sourced).

[nathaneskin]

I once played a version with pentominoes and wow... I've never seen a great game be completely ruined so easily

[wonderguardstalker]

This is probably one of my favorite videos of yours. Great, short, concise explanation of a game.

[SumeaBizarro]

"Some version of pentris exists on internet" - I used to have one of those random LCD tetris games that were tetris with calculator display - just some third party release of it. Anyway, it had a mode 2 to it which had few pentominoes - but not ALL possible ones from the image @ 4:10 timestamp it had first, second, 6th and it's counterpart, and the plus shaped pentominoe mixing up the game. And this was some 3rd party LCD tetris game back from mid 90's - my grandmother had the machine to the day she died - making tetris always feel special to me since as a kid I never really liked it but for whatever reason my grandmother did (this what I at least thought as a kid)

[spawnermaster]

This got me into Tetris. And I'm really happy that I did. Thank you so much

[MXDash]

I'm glad that someone finally talked about how all the shapes we are given in Tetris are all the possible combinations that can be done with tetrominoes. Not very many people are aware of this fact.

[Todd_Coward]

What if these alien races use non-euclidean geometry?

[orlandofurioso]

I was amazed to find out as a kid that this game actually had a story, when i saw the shuttle for the first time i thought "Oh that is the reason why i did all that".

[S-Nova]

2:05 That just blew my mind.

I've always believed in the idea that there has to be other intelligent civlisations in our galaxy, as I'm sure many of you have. But that... that just really put it into perspective though, thank you Matthew.

[damienshamaney]

So... this was the game that should have been given to the Pope instead of Undertale?