Tetris is without a doubt one of the most famous video games of all times. The game was designed and programmed in the mid-80s by a Russian computer engineer, Alexey Pajitnov. But did you know that, although the game soon became immensely popular world wide, it took until 1996 before Pajitnov ever received any royalties from sales? Read on to fin out more about the history of Tetris, and where you can play lots of great tetris spin-offs and variations online!

Where does Tetris come from?
Computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov (sometimes also transliterated as Aleksei Pazhintov) was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR when his game, Tetris, was first released in 1984. Despite having invented and created the game, the rights to the game belonged to the Soviet goverment. Only since 1996, when Pajitnov founded The Tetris Company together with game designer Henk Rogers, could Pajitnov earn royalties from the game. These days, after a long and complicated history of failed deals, sketchy licencing, and legal battles, The Tetris Company owns the trademark to the game and maintains the requirements licenced tetris games must live up to.

Tetris Variations
Pajitnov worked on many other computer games after the release of the original Tetris game, including a number of other tetris variations like Welltris and Hatris. Aside from sales figures, you can judge the popularity of Tetris by the numerous licenced as well as fan-made variations of the game that are still being created today. The tetrominoes, the tetris blocks which all consist of four square blocks, are iconic, and many people can remember and hum out the frustrating Tetris tune, speeding it up just like when you get into trouble with your tetrominoes stacking up out of control. Tetris software has also been adapted for home computers, handheld games, and just about every popular game console.

Play Tetris Games Online
As mentioned above, aside from the many licenced versions of Tetris, there is also a huge amount of fan-made variations. Some very closely resemble the original, but many others are funny and/or parody variations, and cater to common Tetris frustrations. Remember how you'd sometimes build up a whole stack and wait on a long I tetromino to complete 4 lines, and things got more and more desperate because that I block never came down? Well, the fan-made Hatetris is designed to give you exactly the blocks you absolutely don't want. Can you still outsmart the game and complete whole lines? Try playing this game and many more brilliant Tetris games at Games.co.za!