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THE TETRIS EFFECT

Dan Ackerman

The Game that Hypnotized the World

The definitive story of a game so great, even the Cold War couldn't stop it.
Tetris is perhaps the most instantly recognizable, popular video game ever made. But how did an obscure Soviet programmer, working on frail, antiquated computers, create a product which has now earned nearly 1 billion in sales? How did a makeshift game turn into a worldwide sensation, which has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, inspired a big-budget sci-fi movie, and been played in outer space?

A quiet but brilliant young man, Alexey Pajitnov had long nurtured a love for the obscure puzzle game pentominoes, and became obsessed with turning it into a computer game. Little did he know that the project that he labored on alone, hour after hour, would soon become the most addictive game ever made.

In this fast-paced business story, reporter Dan Ackerman reveals how Tetris became one of the world's first viral hits, passed from player to player, eventually breaking through the Iron Curtain into the West. British, American, and Japanese moguls waged a bitter fight over the rights, sending their fixers racing around the globe to secure backroom deals, while a secretive Soviet organization named ELORG chased down the game's growing global profits.

THE TETRIS EFFECT is an homage to both creator and creation, and a must-read for anyone who's ever played the game - which is to say, everyone.

Dan Ackerman is a former radio DJ turned journalist. An editor at leading technology news website CNET, he writes about hot-button consumer technology topics, from virtual reality to cybersecurity, and appears regularly as an in-house tech expert on CBS This Morning. He lives in Brooklyn with his family and a large collection of vinyl records.
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Book

Published 2016-09-06 by Public Affairs

Book

Published 2016-09-06 by Public Affairs

Comments

Ackerman doles out intrigue worthy of Robert Ludlum or Tom Clancy. It's a behind-the-Iron Curtain nail-biter.

Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... When Ackerman evokes this clunkier era ruled by DOS, IBM PCs and Soviet bureaucrats clueless about property rights, the story shines.

"Ackerman doles out intrigue worthy of Robert Ludlum or Tom Clancy. It’s a behind-the-Iron Curtain nail-biter. The bumbling ELORG, the simple Soviet programmer, the haphazard Dutch-American-Japanese businessman — the whole of it feels like a delightful milkshake of Jason Bourne and Mr. Bean."

UK: OneWorld ; Japanese: Hakuyo-Sha ; Korean: Hanbit Media

Tetris on the Gameboy has been the major hand-held game of my life, and it’s still a daily addiction for me. I take maybe 200 flights a year to random places, long and short, and Gameboy Tetris is an excellent way to spend some of the time. This morning I awoke tired so I played a couple of games of Tetris to get my neurons going and I was then wide awake; I do this frequently. The Tetris Effect is a great read on a game that has hypnotized my brain and probably yours too.