Tetris - Getting Into Shape
There are some games that you think you can always remember that first go on. For some games that involves Christmas or Birthday, memories of wrapping paper, having that first go at the game sat in your dressing gown and slippers. For other games it's seeing the game being played at a friend's house and just sitting awestruck by the whole concept of the game and for me that was Tetris. Or so I thought, I was certain I first encountered Tetris on an Atari ST in about 1993 in a friend's living room, but I found a game play video which made me remember my first encounter differently.
I realised my addiction to this game had started much earlier than I previously had thought . I must admit when I think about Tetris it's not the ZX Spectrum that springs to mind. But, it is the perfect game for the Speccy, especially thinking back to the late 80's , before it appeared on every single platform, handheld, phone and possibly washing machine (alright I made that last bit up, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time!) The game is quirky, it was unusual and also had brightly coloured shapes, all the things the Speccy excels at , so of course it would also be on the Spectrum.
I am hoping that I don't need to explain the rules of Tetris, surely everyone has played it or a variant of it by now. Thinking back I can remember my first go on this version on the Spectrum, surprisingly I wasn't a fan at that point. Sometimes a game comes into your life at the wrong point and it takes a few years and life experience to make you realise how important it is. At the age of 15 or 16 I possibly didn't need the stress relief that this game brings, my brain wasn't yet sufficiently anxious enough , but that was going to change.
It's hard to look back at this version through the eyes of that 15/16 year old to understand why she didn't like it. Possibly she just didn't have the attention span , she was too used to running around mazes, collecting keys and poking hippos. The Spectrum version plays smoothly , the 48K version does lack that addictive music, perhaps that particular piece of music would have made the difference. Or perhaps ( like many other games) I needed to see it being played first. Either way , I put it aside as an interesting curio , but not one I had intended to revisit.
Fast forward 4 years and I again encountered Tetris , this time on a friend's Atari ST , this time I became hooked instantly . Was it the gameplay? Was it the colours ( nope, it was a black and white monitor !) Or was it me?
It took me less than a week to get hold of a PC version on a cover disc, then the different versions started to follow. As the PC became upgraded , so did the version of Tetris , add a soundcard and a whole new dimension was added, that addictive music.
The calming influence of the game got me through so many frustrating times as I tried to find my place in this strange adult world.
Perhaps watching the bricks fall and finding the right niche for them helped me to evaluate the choices I was making in my own life. Learning what things fitted, which things needed to be looked at a different way and which things were never going to fit no matter what I did. The addiction grew....
It took me less than a week to get hold of a PC version on a cover disc, then the different versions started to follow. As the PC became upgraded , so did the version of Tetris , add a soundcard and a whole new dimension was added, that addictive music.
The calming influence of the game got me through so many frustrating times as I tried to find my place in this strange adult world.
Perhaps watching the bricks fall and finding the right niche for them helped me to evaluate the choices I was making in my own life. Learning what things fitted, which things needed to be looked at a different way and which things were never going to fit no matter what I did. The addiction grew....
Even getting a Nintendo DS , with all the Sonic /Mario / Professor Layton on offer, I still had to have a Tetris game. Eventually I made a choice to stop playing Tetris , work was mentally exhausting and I was finding Tetris to be more of a mental drain than a stress relief. Possibly the amount of data planning and spreadsheet jiggling was just a form of Tetris but with numbers instead of shapes. My memories of the Spectrum version were left to hide away . But of course after finding the review I had to replay it and I was utterly amazed at how I could have overlooked this game back in 1988. The buzz of nostalgia is still there , that warm comforting feeling when you complete a line, that sense of satisfaction of a job well done.