Tetris

Tetris is a Russian tile-matching puzzle video game, originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov and released on 6 June 1984.  Its name is derived from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- (all of the game's pieces contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov's favourite sport.

Quotes

• I didn't make much money at first, but I was happy, because my main priority was to see people enjoying my game.  Tetris came along early and had a very important role in breaking down ordinary people's inhibitions in front of computers, which were scary objects to non-professionals used to pen and paper.  But the fact that something so simple and beautiful could appear on screen destroyed that barrier.
  • Alexey Pajitnov, quoted in Phil Hoad, "Tetris: how we made the addictive computer game" (2 June 2014)

• Sometimes I would nap because it was very warm. Or I’d meditate. But I’m a Tetris man. I had a little pocket hidden on the back of the chair where I can hide it from the cameras. I could just pull it out and just play. The great thing about Tetris is you can play it mindlessly and be amused and all of a sudden an hour has passed.

• Patrick Stewart [1]