God of Tetris

I'm looking forward to seeing how the All Blacks are portrayed in next week's Hollywood take on South Africa's world cup win, Invictus, but this week I'm taking a  short break from reviewing films.

Partly it's just worked out that way, but it's also good timing, because, thanks to the freezing cold "summer" we've been having lately, I have acquired a horrible cough. Dry, tickly, persistent, barking and distressingly sleep-interrupting. It's the last thing you want to be seated next to in a movie theatre. As a trained professional, it's the last thing I want to inflict on anybody.

My beloved and I have taken the desperate measure of retreating to different bedrooms (very 1950s chic), which means coughing echoes from one end of the house to the other during the night. The Overlord hasn't caught it yet, but surely it's only a matter of time.

I won the most crazily expensive bed pillow the other day - silk-floss filled and $145 if you wanna buy one (hell, why not four?) - but I'm too afraid to use it yet, as I don't want it to get all germy with cough virus.

Anyway, while all this cough-induced annoyance is wracking the body, a little gem turned up in my inbox to amuse the mind.

Some of you may be  too young to remember a little computer game called Tetris. Basically it was a diabolically addictive game, invented by some Russian dude, that still exists in various forms (even in wicked-cool ice-cube trays...as illustrated above). This was back in the days before video-games had plots and movie spin-offs (although, personally, I'd love to see Spike Jonze tackle a movie version of Tetris...).

My beloved spent several unproductive years of his youth devoted to attaining ridiculously mountainous high scores on Tetris and very little else. (This was before we got together, obviously...)

The Tetris God skit (click here) will strike a note for anyone who ever tried to flip an L-shaped block at the last desperate second. The best thing about this sketch is how it explains the diabolical plotting behind every Tetris-player's arch-nemesis, the line-piece...

So anyone else remember Tetris?  Kind of like rediscovering a dear old, slightly evil, yet oddly fascinating, school friend.

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paul   #1   02:32 pm Jan 20 2010

Ahh Tetris.. the Laudanum of video games. Spawned a thousand imitators of which Bejewelled is probably the Crack-Cocaine equivalent.

Margaret Agnew   #2   02:55 pm Jan 20 2010

Hi Paul, I've moved on from Bejewelled to Enchanted Cavern and Peggle then Fishdom... it's weirdly addictive constructing your own fishtank...

Moose   #3   04:07 pm Jan 20 2010

Ha! I spent my entire 7th form year in the IT lab playing tetris...Quite sad really...

Davo   #4   09:10 am Jan 21 2010

The All Blacks look funny in Invictus. Jonah is fairly realistic, but Andrew Mehrtens is not as small and skinny as he looks in the film! I enjoyed the movie, until it got to the final. Considering it was a game with no tries at all, they managed to drag it out for an awful long time. Apart from that...I enjoyed it, even though it may have been stretching the truth in places. It certainly makes you realise how important it was for South Africa to win the cup, which gives a bit more credibility to the accusations of poisoning in the final, and bribing the ref in the semi final!

JeM   #5   09:40 am Jan 21 2010

I still play tetris, love it! Often I will be sitting on the couch watching TV and will mindlessly play tetris on my laptop. It's the best game ever!!

However, all the Facebook games are becoming strong competition!

The pillow sounds fab. I bought a wonderful Tempur one for $250. Despite having to hide the bill from hubby, it was the best $250 I have ever spent!

Karlos   #6   09:41 am Jan 21 2010

I've seen a clip from Invictus showing the All Blacks doing the Haka before the final - let's just say it was pretty embarrassing!

SMD   #7   01:46 pm Jan 21 2010

I have Tetris on my TV and play it over the adds or when I get bored. I'm so addicted that I refuse to buy a new TV unless it has Tetris as well. It totally rocks.

drdebz   #8   09:55 pm Jan 23 2010

Invictus is pretty crap. Obviously, it's not about us as New Zealander's - it's very one-sided. And the rugby looks ridiculous. Maybe I'm just suffering from some kind of cultural cringe, but I love rugby and this movie didn't highlight the wonders of the game at all.