Bare i går fik vi den enestående mulighed for at sætte os ned med skaberne af de to største gåder i historien: Tetris og Rubik's Cube.
Det viser sig, at Alexey Pajitnov senere i dag skal modtage den allerførste OXO Legends-anerkendelse, og vi ville gerne vide, hvad "eureka"-øjeblikket egentlig var, da den russiske programmør i 1980'erne indså, at han for allerførste gang havde skabt noget banebrydende og funktionsdygtigt.
Under videoen genkalder skaberen tre specifikke aspekter, der fik projektet til at tage fart. I sidste ende var det de to grundlæggende spilmekanikker, og ikke kun grafikken, der definerede programmets udviklingsmilepæle. Ifølge Alexey selv:
"Aha!" Øjeblik #1: At finde på præmissen og computergrafikken
"Tetris was inspired by a game called Pentomino", forklarer han i det eksklusive interview ovenover. "I tried to make a two-player game out of that set of pieces. I coded it myself and I had no graphics on my computer, so just putting some images on the screen was quite a challenge".
"Aha!" Moment #2: Rotation i realtid
"Once I had the program shifting the pieces, placing them on the screen, shifting and rotating them, that was a different procedure. When I did the rotational stuff it was amazing to watch; you push the keys and the piece immediately turns! It sounds ridiculous now, but at that time it was an exciting moment. That was my first 'aha'. I saw it and decided that a real-time game would be very good with this".
"Aha!" Øjeblik #3 og hovednøglefunktion i Tetris: At rydde linjer
"When the game started working with all the placement and everything, it would fill up the field in no time, like 20 seconds and the game was over. I was thinking how to extend the game in time... Then I looked at it more attentively and saw that the filled line is kind of dead on the screen; it has no purpose anymore. So if I take it away, I can continue to play the game. That was the main 'aha' for the game. At that moment, the game was done".
Senere i interviewet taler vi om den konkurrenceprægede side af Tetris, som har skabt et bredt fællesskab af professionelle spillere, der stadig er aktive 40 år efter den oprindelige udgivelse. Tilfældigvis vil de allerbedste spillere fra 60 lande mødes i Dubai for at afgøre den første Red Bull Tetris-verdensmester nogensinde.
"Every game has a competitive component, whatever it is", mener Pajitnov. "Every time you have a challenge, it means some kind of competition: against yourself, against the author, or against other people. I immediately saw the obvious potential of my game in the world of games, because besides all its specific traits it's just a regular game, and people play games to compete".
Vidste du, hvordan Tetris blev skabt? Og spiller du afslappet eller konkurrencepræget?
