Tetris Turns 25

teh.f4ll3n writes "25 years ago a Russian (Soviet) researcher thought of one of the world's most popular games. It is now that we celebrate its 25th anniversary. 'Twenty-five years ago, inside the bowels of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow, a young artificial intelligence researcher received his first desktop computer — the Soviet-built Elektronika 60, a copy of an American minicomputer called a PDP-11 — and began writing programs for it.'"

Re:Summary

[jellomizer]

Well that is the problem of a Communism and even socialism to some extent. Sometimes people deserve to to be rich, and sometimes people deserve to be poor (sad but true).

Re:Summary

[Jurily]

I think this history of litigation and the international scene of respect for software rights had a lot more to do with it than him being Soviet.

As a Hungarian, I think if we knew he was a Russian, we'd spread it even faster across the globe. (Note this is 1985, before the fall of the Iron Curtain. We didn't like those guys.)

Re:Summary

[LWATCDR]

Why? I doubt that the authors of Adventure, Rouge, and Nethack got even that. Programs should be free.
Actually I do agree with you. He should have been set for life if not filthy rich.

Re:Summary

[FishWithAHammer]

Programs should be free.

Yeah, it's not like they take any effort to make and it's certainly not like the creators shouldn't be compensated if they so wish.

NetHack's DevTeam doesn't want money for what they do--awesome. Somebody else does--it's their call.

Re:Summary

[Maximum Prophet]

Philo I Farnsworth got screwed out of the rights to Television. Inventors almost always get the short end of the stick, unless they sell out and become businessmen. Who's richer Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak? Edison got rich because he was a great businessman.

Re:Pajitnov bad man

[bonch]

Uh, why should he make his game "more freely available?" Why would you hate him for protecting his property so that he can make a living?

Another kind of Twilight Zone

[dword]

Wait a minute... are you implying that intellectual property should be considered property? People should get paid for their ideas? On Slashdot? And you're getting modded Informative? *

* the ideas expressed in this post are not my beliefs, they are presented only for their ironic humor

Re:Summary

[Jurily]

Wow, you disapproved of the Soviet regime so you were prepared to punish those innocents suffering under it? You sound like a real jerk.

We were the innocents suffering under it, moron.

Re:Summary

[timeOday]

I don't think striking it rich by writing a simple but hugely entertaining video game was a road to riches for any citizen of the Soviet Union... was it? Which is the downfall of communism, in a nutshell.

Though he probably wouldn't have got rich in the US either. The school or company would have asserted ownership rights since the computer he developed it on, was theirs. Which is the downfall of capitalism, in a nutshell :)

Re:Summary

[LWATCDR]

Wow that is scary. Not only can't people tell when your kidding but they can not bother reading more than one line!!!!

Re:Summary

[shutdown -p now]

We were the innocents suffering under it, moron.

All citizens of all countries of the Warsaw Pact were suffering under it. Russians were no exception. In fact, if you go by the numbers of victims, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians took the worst of it.

It is rather sad to see the Soviet oppression - which applied to everyone, regarding of their nationality or ethnicity - being recast as Russians oppressing other nations nowadays in Eastern Europe, and the associated Russophobia.

Re:Summary

[Snarf You]

Tetris is SO unrealisitc

I can't figure out if you were trying to be funny or not, but Tetris (and its "opposite" Jenga) were great practice for many things to be encountered later in life:

• Packing a box or suitcase
• Loading a trunk or truck with items of different shapes and sizes
• Fitting frozen goods of various shapes and sizes into a small freezer, and later, extricating one of them without having all of the others come with it