The Tetris online game is one of the original time wasters of the eighties. Before platformers or first-person shooters, moving and leveling square blocks was the norm. Even with a lot more graphically powerful games out today, the simple game play still proves very challenging even to expert gamers. It is considered a classic in computer gaming, with web giant Google even dedicating the main search page to commemorate its birth.

Revisiting the Game Play

What makes it very exciting? It is because you are given a rather simple task that becomes more difficult due to your own decisions and some randomness involved. The seven random falling shapes are called tetrominoes, all made of four square blocks arranged in different ways. You are to position the tetrominoes as they fall at the bottom part of the screen in such a way that they can create one solid line. Every complete line formed will collapse, and the challenge is to keep the tetrominoes from piling up and reaching the ceiling.

To make it even harder, there will be a point where the gravity in the game becomes stronger.

Getting the Best Score

Though relatively simple, a lot of players easily get caught up with stacking blocks that they immediately play in the slowest levels of the game. Here are some tips to help achieve the best score in this classic tetris online game:

Do not forget to rotate. Rotating the tetrominoes is a foremost strategy. The key is rotate them while they are still on top and to lay them in such a way that most of their component blocks connect to the surface. The only exception for this rule is the I block and the Z block.

Try inserting in gaps. Whenever a Z or a T block falls, there is a huge chance that you will form a gap because of their peculiar form. If the next block will permit, try filling in the gap by pressing the left or right arrow at the correct moment. This will help you form more lines.

Build up for a large collapse. You can always arrange the falling blocks in a way that the final shape can form multiple levels of lines. The trick is to place the blocks on a common side, mostly to the left, until they build a pile that only needs the O or the I block to complete. The game will reward you for getting multiple collapses in one action.

Plan ahead. Many players easily reach the top because they forget to anticipate where to put the next block. Though the blocks are at random, you would at least know what the next one is going to be by looking at the preview screen. You can use it to immediately look for a good spot to position it. This will save you a lot of time too, and you can draw the blocks more evenly.

Do not anticipate too much. Remember that though tetris online game is based on skill, randomness plays a huge part. Waiting too long for a key block will just pile up the others, making it harder to maneuver the next blocks. Better decide an alternative tactic just in case the necessary block does not appear next.

Chances are, by this time, you already know what a Tetris game is and have probably played it hundreds of times.

Though it was created over a quarter of a century, the game play can still be as challenging and as addicting as ever. In fact, several updated versions of the game can be found on current generation consoles. However, there might be little-known facts that you do not know about this game. Browse over them and impress your friends while enjoying a Tetris session:

Who made the game?

Credits go to Alexey Pajitnov. He was in Moscow working for the Academy of Science of the USSR when the inspiration hit him. Another notable person in the development was Dmitry Pavlovsky who worked together with Alexey to make the game on the Elektronika 60, a Russian computer. Vadim Gerasimov is responsible for making it work on an IBM PC. For this reason, Tetris is considered as one of the most famous Russian exports.

When was it made?

It was reportedly finished or released on June 6, 1984. It immediately became popular around Moscow and would eventually become the best timewaster known to man. To commemorate the twenty-fifth birthday of the game, the main page of Google is headlined by the search engine's name using Tetris blocks.

Why was it called Tetris?

It is a combination of two words: "tetra, " which is a Greek prefix that denotes the number four, and "tennis, " which is Alexey's sport of choice. Incidentally, the popular combination of the four square blocks is also called tetrominoes, and the game play does not adapt any tennis rules.

Gravity was different then.

Contrary to current versions, before, if the bottom of a block collapses, it does not necessarily mean that the block would fall downward. The block would simply float in the air and become an added obstacle. This was corrected in succeeding versions. When you get to form straight lines, whether horizontal or vertical, using the blocks, the completed lines would just collapse. The game would not end unless the blocks would hit the ceiling.

You can cheat on the game too.

Even during the early days, gamers already tried ways to get around games. In the case of Tetris online game, you can literally make a tetromino float in the game by simply alternating the left and right keys. You can also do the same when you rapidly rotate the blocks. This becomes a form of cheating especially when the players need more time in deciding where the tetromino would be placed.

The Holy Grail is to play forever.

We all know that the tetris online game ends when the tetrominoes reach the top portion of the game and then the screen gets filled with blocks. The question still remains, though, if it is possible to somehow get the correct combination of blocks that you would have collapsed lines at all times.

The original Tetris game was not coded with a kill screen, but players were never able to continue playing to see what happens if you play too long. Several marathons are still being played to test many theories about the game's length until now.