It's a game with a complex history and an intriguing backstory. Here are 30 facts that you might not know about it.
1. The game was created by a Russian engineer called Alexey Pajitnov.
2. Pajitnov made the game while working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences at their Computer Centre in Moscow. The myth/rumour/legend goes that all the floppy disc versions of the game had to be locked away by Moscow officials because the addictive game was distracting all the staff.
3. The game has one of the messiest legal histories in the world of gaming. You can read more details about that here. Pajitnov made it on the Elektronika 60, before it was ported to IBM PC. British company Andromeda sold the rights to Spectrum HoloByte before they technically had any right to, and then it all became a messy circus untilNintendo finally claimed control at the end of the '80s.
The Nintendo incarnations of the game, for the NES and the Game Boy, were the biggest sellers and are generally considered the 'classic' versions or the game.
4. Pajitnov didn't actually get any royalties for the monster-selling game until a decade after it was released. But he didn't mind. "I was happy, because my main priority was to see people enjoying my game," he toldThe Guardian.
"Tetris came along early and had a very important role in breaking down ordinary people's inhibitions in front of computers, which were scary objects to non-professionals used to pen and paper. But the fact that something so simple and beautiful could appear on screen destroyed that barrier."
5. While Pajitnov was waiting for some royalties, he got busy developing others game with falling items; the strangely familiar Welltrisand the quite remarkable Hatris. It has hats. That fall down the screen. Incredible.
6. The famous original Tetris theme tune was inspired by Russian folk song 'Korobeiniki'.
7. The song was based around a 19th-century romance between a peddler and a girl, where they haggle over goods as a way of flirting. As you do.
8. Technically you can't ever actually 'win Tetris' (in it's original NES incarnation). Topping out is unavoidable, no matter how muchTetris addicts would like it to be otherwise.
NES Tetris cannot be defeated, even in a so-called "max-out" game, in which the top possible score of 999,999 points is achieved.
9. As part of a thesis in 1992, John Brzustowski posed the question: 'Would it be possible to play Tetrisforever?' His answer, unsurprisingly, was no.
10. The Tetris World Championshipsare a thing. They really exist. The game they play is NES Tetris, which is considered the canonical classic version of the game by the pros.
11. The highest score on classic NESTetris is 999,999. If you even get close to that, you are an incredible gamer.
12. To score 'a Tetris' means wiping out four full lines at once - it can only be done with the long bar vertical. It is one of the most satisfying moments in any gamer's life.
13. The name Tetris comes from the words tetra (the Greek numerical prefix for four) and tennis, Pajitnov's favourite sport.
14. Tetris was the first piece of entertainment software to ever be exported from the USSR to the USA. So in many ways, it ended the Cold War. Kind of.
15. The game's significance in Russian cultural history was outlined at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games, when Tetris blocks were used to spell out the word 'impossible' in the closing ceremony.
16. Tetris sold over 35 million copies on the Game Boy. Did Tetris make the Game Boy a hit or did the Game Boy make Tetris a hit? Whichever you believe, they sit side-by-side in gaming history.
17. If you own a Mega Drive version of Tetris, you could probably make quite a bit of money out of it. Sega started to produce the game for the 16-bit machine, but had to pull it due to legal wranglings with Nintendo. Versions of the game - and there are rumoured to only be about a dozen floating around - are valued at up to $16,000.
18. Another collector's item is the Atari Games version of the game -TETЯIS: The Soviet Mind Game. It had to come off the shelves because of a legal dispute with Nintendo over the rights and there were only around 100,000 copies made. Lots of gaming fans actually preferred the Atari version to Nintendo's NES game because it featured a two-player simultaneous mode.
19. The 1987 PC version of Tetriscame with a 'boss button'. It pulled up a generic spreadsheet on your screen to make it look like you were working rather than playing a computer game at your desk.
20. Tetris has been reworked and retweaked many times over. However, none of Tetris Party, Tetris: Axis,Tetris: Evolution, Tetrisphere or Tetris Attack (and the rest) have ever come close to replicating the genius simplicity of the original.
21. The Tetris Effect or Tetris Syndrome is actually real. It's based around the sensation of having mental images and dreams based around a game or activity that you have devoted a large amount of time to. If you've ever started stacking up Cornflakes boxes in the supermarket it was probably the Tetris Effect.
22. But don't worry about the Tetris Effect too much. Tetris is actually good for your brain - it's been proven by scientists and stuff. Research from proper people in white coats proves that the game will help players develop a thicker cortex and may also increase brain efficiency. We wish we'd known this when our mum told us to turn it off and go outside all those years ago.
23. Media mogul Robert Maxwell once arranged a meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev to try to buy the rights to the game.
Maxwell's son Kevin was not happy that the Soviet state had sold the rights to Nintendo, when they were willing to pay more for it. Unfortunately for the Maxwells, on the date they were due a meeting about the rights, an earthquake hit the country and the rights remained with Nintendo.
24. Tetris has been translated into more than 50 languages and played in over 50 countries.
25. Fans of the game in Philadelphia played it on a 437-feet skyscraper earlier this year in a stunning stunt, which was organised by game designer Frank Lee. Players were able to drop pieces down the side of the 29-storey building using a joystick. He pulled off a similar architectural stunt in 2013 with Pong.
26. In contrast, the smallest ever version of the game was played with an electron microscope using 42 glass microspheres at the Department of Physics of Complex Systems in Amsterdam.
27. Ported to pretty much every platform possible, the Tetris Company claims that it has sold 186 million copies across the last 30 years.
28. Did you know that the 'soft drop', which allows players to slide the blocks when they hit the floor, was actually only brought in five years after the game was invented? Imagine how hard it was before that!
29. A working version of the 1984 original is owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It's not just a game - it's art!
30. The positive effects of playingTetris are apparently good for people trying to quit smoking and dieting. Well, it would keep us busy and away from the box of doughnuts.