The Tetris Effect, Dan Ackerman
The Tetris Effect, Dan Ackerman
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The Tetris Effect
The Game that Hypnotized the World

Author: Dan Ackerman

Narrator: Dan Ackerman

Unabridged: 6 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/06/2016


Synopsis

Tetris is perhaps the most instantly recognizable, popular video game ever made. But the fascinating story of its origins is lesser known. How did an obscure Soviet programmer, working on frail, antiquated computers, create a product that has earned nearly $1 billion in sales? How did an inspired, makeshift game turn into a worldwide sensation, which has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, inspired a Hollywood movie, and been played in outer space?
In this surprising, trivia-filled audiobook, tech reporter Dan Ackerman describes how, as a teenager behind the Iron Curtain, Alexey Pajitnov was struck with inspiration, then meticulously worked for years to bring the game he had envisioned to life. Ackerman shows how Tetris worked its way first through Pajitnov's office and then out into the world, entrancing player after player with its hypnotic shapes. Then, tracing the stories of the British, American, and Japanese moguls who raced each other for the rights, Ackerman recounts the game's complex and improbable path to global success. The Tetris Effect is an homage to both creator and creation, and a perfect gift for anyone who's ever played the game-which is to say everyone.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Matthias on August 11, 2017

My grandfather once boasted to me that back in the day children could fill a whole afternoon of fun and frolicking using only two bricks. The day that I have grandchildren, I'll be vaunting I needed only eight to occupy myself during an entire Christmas holiday. The seven bricks provided by Tetris,......more

Goodreads review by Fábio on October 13, 2016

There are three interesting things about Tetris: its rights were temporarily owned by the USSR government, it was ported and sold around the world before the USSR actually gave anyone the rights to do so and Atari lost the rights to distribute it in courts and thus had to absorb huge deficits for al......more

Goodreads review by Kressel on February 07, 2017

Remember Tetris, the most popular video game of the nineties? Well, it turns out to have a pretty interesting back story that will take you behind the Iron Curtain and into the highest echelons of the gaming industry. The book is similar in style to Michael Lewis’ in that it’s a David and Goliath st......more

Goodreads review by Gorab on June 21, 2023

A marvelous case study for a game which turned out to be much more than just a video game. The science behind the game, its evolution into different avatars, the fate of its creator, the business deals, contracts, difficult circumstances behind the iron curtain, court cases, legal corporate cases bet......more

Goodreads review by Naomi on December 11, 2016

low 3, it was kind of dry, and filled with long bits of buisness dealings that were super boring to me. the actual conception of the game, and why it appealed to people, and the physiological effect it has is interesting, BUT the whole book could've been 50 pages and had a better effect than 300.......more