Welcome to another installment of a column dedicated exclusively to Old School Gamers and Old School Games from the Golden Age of gaming. These gamers, back in the day, had to physically use a coin or token to start a video game. The earning of these coins was mostly accomplished after some form of work, usually the hard or difficult variety. After earnings were paid to the gamer, there was the trip to the ARCADE. ARCADE is written in ALL CAPS because it is the Old School Gamer’s origin and sanctuary. It was, and shall always be remembered, as a hallowed place. Respect your origins.
THE GAME
In 1984, during the height of the cold war, at approximate- ly the same time as President Reagan was making open mic comments about launching nuclear missiles towards the Soviet Union, TETRIS was born in Moscow. The game was invented by Alexey Paijitrion, who worked for Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. According to author Box Brown, he designed the game “for fun” and “he was doing this just do see if he could do it.”1 The game was copied and shared (on floppy disks) between friends across the country and became a smash hit. Ultimately, it ended up on display at software exhibit that Robert Stein was attending, who was the owner of Andromeda Software, Ltd.
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