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librarian_renee's review against another edition
4.0
I. Love. Tetris. I remember playing for hours at the mall arcade. My friend had the duel player version and I'd be mesmerized for hours. We had a version for our Tandy computer and we'd fight for our turns.
The book provided the intriguing history of the game. Reading the backstory of how the game came to be and how it dominated the world was interesting to me. It's a quick read.
The book provided the intriguing history of the game. Reading the backstory of how the game came to be and how it dominated the world was interesting to me. It's a quick read.
snukes's review against another edition
2.0
I paid more attention to the main title (The Tetris Effect) and not enough to the subtitle (The Game that Hypnotized the World). I wanted this book to be about the Tetris Effect. I wanted to learn more about why the game is so addictive, why playing it can actually rewire you brain, about how it sneaks into the way you organize your junk drawer, and why it is STILL so popular after all these years.
If that's also what you want to know, read the Bonus Level chapters and skip the rest. They do touch on all that info, and a little more, and it's fascinating.
The rest of this really long book, though? It's about the history of Tetris. It covers the original programming by a Russian in the 80s (interesting), the biography of that man (kind of interesting), the business wheelings and dealings of those who brought it from Russia to Europe to America (less interesting) and the biographies of ALL THOSE PEOPLE (oh come on).
The prose is clunky and mostly dull. Ackerman repeats himself in a way that suggests his editor was also snoozing, and attempts to uses rhetorical tricks to make the story more interesting in a way that suggests his editor knew how dull it was and at least tried to help spice it up a little.
True Tetris aficionados and political and business enthusiasts are this book's real audience. It's not the book's fault that I really only wanted the psychology and the rest felt like baggage.
If that's also what you want to know, read the Bonus Level chapters and skip the rest. They do touch on all that info, and a little more, and it's fascinating.
The rest of this really long book, though? It's about the history of Tetris. It covers the original programming by a Russian in the 80s (interesting), the biography of that man (kind of interesting), the business wheelings and dealings of those who brought it from Russia to Europe to America (less interesting) and the biographies of ALL THOSE PEOPLE (oh come on).
The prose is clunky and mostly dull. Ackerman repeats himself in a way that suggests his editor was also snoozing, and attempts to uses rhetorical tricks to make the story more interesting in a way that suggests his editor knew how dull it was and at least tried to help spice it up a little.
True Tetris aficionados and political and business enthusiasts are this book's real audience. It's not the book's fault that I really only wanted the psychology and the rest felt like baggage.
esger's review against another edition
Some interesting facts about the game, it’s origin and coming to life and what it’s been used for, nice to know. But the endless fuzz about the rights and people trying to make money of it, it’s so boring I started skipping more and more of it.
pearl35's review against another edition
3.0
Good tech history, intertwining the development of video games, consoles games (and the GameBoy) with the decline of the Soviet Union and the bizarre bureaucratic machinations of the Russian Academy of Science and the state's technology and business negotiating arm. As multiple agents descended on Moscow, contracts in hand and lawyers in tow, the game itself, which had been passed hand to hand through Soviet to Hungarian computer programmers, was already being released in the West as a Cold War oddity. Meanwhile, psychology researchers were realizing that Tetris' easy to learn rules of play and absorbing nature could be used to study the ways in which the brain rewires itself to work efficiently, and to form memories (not to mention the addictive power of gaming).
nmorse80's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent story of how the game Tetris came from humble Russian roots to spread across the world as one of the most popular games in video game history. I learned a lot about the video game industry of the early 80's and how software was developed for the many versions of computers that were available at the time. I think this is probably one of the few books that could make contract negotiations over international IP rights interesting.
Very easy to read, I found myself staying up way too late to keep reading... much like if I was actually playing Tetris. This is a must read for anyone who has interest in electronic entertainment history.
Very easy to read, I found myself staying up way too late to keep reading... much like if I was actually playing Tetris. This is a must read for anyone who has interest in electronic entertainment history.
parkerpng's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
It took me a while to read this one because I found that it is quite dense with information, however, I recently came back to it and became quite hooked. It is really a genuinely interesting story to read about, and despite the legal entanglement you can understand what’s going on. It picks up its pace after the first third and is worth a read if you have an interest in Tetris, video games, or the late USSR.