A game without graphics
The original Tetris did not even have colours; the blocks were made of square brackets. The game spread on floppy disks from computer to computer and then to the West. As an employee of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Pajitnov received nothing from the sales for a long time.
The battle for the rights
British, American and Japanese companies competed for the Tetris licences. In the end Nintendo won the rights to the Game Boy version and sold it bundled with the console. The story was turned into the 2023 film Tetris.
The endless game that ended
Tetris on the NES was considered endless for years. In December 2023 the 13-year-old American Willis Gibson became the first person to “beat” it: he got so far that the game froze.