Philly skyscraper-sized Tetris game wows hundreds

By Kathy Matheson, Associated Press

Published Saturday, April 5, 2014 | 2:12 p.m.

Updated Saturday, April 5, 2014 | 7:43 p.m.

PHILADELPHIA — Hundreds of Tetris fans had a little fun Saturday with a big version of the classic video game.

The Philadelphia skyscraper-sized version created a spectacle against the night sky that organizers hoped inspired onlookers and players to think about the possibilities of technology.

The 29-story Cira Centre, which has hundreds of LED lights embedded in its glass facade, normally displays colorful geometric patterns at night. On Saturday, images of supersized shapes "fell" on two sides of the mirrored tower as competitors used joysticks to maneuver them into place.

The marvel kicked off a citywide series of events called Philly Tech Week. It also celebrated the upcoming 30th anniversary of Tetris, a game revered as the epitome of elegance and simplicity, said Frank Lee, a digital media professor at Drexel University.

Lee, a game designer who oversaw creation of the giant display, said putting it on an office building was like making a huge virtual campfire.

"What I wanted to create was essentially a shared moment for the city of Philadelphia," he said.

This won't be the first time Tetris has been played on a building. But the 100,000-square-foot "screen" — which includes the north and south faces of the structure — could be a record.

Lee already holds the Guinness World Record for the world's largest architectural video game display for playing Pong on one side of the Cira Centre last year. Pong, the granddaddy of all video games, is an electronic version of paddleball developed by Atari in 1972.

Tetris, created by Russian computer programmer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984, challenges players to rotate and arrange falling shapes into complete rows.

It became a global phenomenon in the late 1980s after game designer Henk Rogers, who had seen Tetris at a trade show in Las Vegas, acquired the rights and struck a deal to put it on Nintendo's original Game Boy.

Rogers said he can't believe the longevity of Tetris, which decades later continues to mesmerize players on more than 30 platforms.

"If a game lasts a year, that's amazing," said Rogers, now managing director of The Tetris Co. "They usually go out of style very quickly."

Rogers said several new Tetris products and initiatives are planned for release around its June 6 anniversary. He declined to discuss details.