Publisher: First Second
Release Date: October 11, 2016
Price: $19.99
Creator: Box Brown
Format: 256 pgs., Two-Color, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-6267-2315-3
Age Rating: N/A
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
Tetris was perhaps the most addictive video game in history. Even with its primitive graphics, it is still remarkably addictive, as I discovered when this book led me to the still-active Tetris.com website. There, you can play the game for too many hours, free other than the ads which support your addiction.
The book is not so much about the game as the remarkable circumstances of the game’s creation and release. Tetris whould never have been released, if anyone involved had been operating within the laws of the respective nations involved. Created by a computer scientist from the Soviet Union, Tetris kind of leaked out due to a variety of legal and cultural misunderstandings, and was already being published in the U.S. and England before anyone had the right to do so.
The story that Box Brown tells includes everything from the battle between gaming giants to the collapse of Robert Maxwell’s publishing empire; from the secret Soviet organization controlling software marketing to the reason why you need to read contracts before signing them, and a host of other topics that could have been deadly dull. Brown’s cartoony style livens this up while telling a story that is still interesting after all these years.
While teens who are interested in the history of video games may enjoy this book, it is more directly aimed at the adults who played this game on the early home computers, video games and arcade machines back in the 1980s. Because of the quality of Brown’s storytelling, it will be more than just a bit of nostalgia. It’s a very good book that should grace the shelves of anyone interested in the history of gaming.
--Nick Smith: Library Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.
