A tile-matching puzzle video game where players arrange falling geometric blocks called tetrominoes to form complete horizontal lines.
Created in 1984 by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov, the name combines 'tetra-' (four, referring to the four squares in each game piece) with 'tennis' (Pajitnov's favorite sport).
Tetris was the first video game played in space when Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov brought a Game Boy aboard the Mir space station in 1993. The game's addictive quality is so well-documented that psychologists coined the term 'Tetris effect' to describe when people see the game's falling blocks in their peripheral vision after extended play.
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