The Tetris Effect

The Game That Hypnotized the World

By: Dan Ackerman

Narrated by: Dan Ackerman

Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Tetris is perhaps the most instantly recognizable, most popular video game ever made. But the fascinating story of its origins is lesser known. How did an obscure Soviet programmer working on frail, antiquated computers create a product that has earned nearly $1 billion in sales? How did an inspired makeshift game turn into a worldwide sensation that has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, inspired a Hollywood movie, and been played in outer space?

In this surprising trivia-filled audiobook, tech reporter Dan Ackerman describes how, as a teenager behind the Iron Curtain, Alexey Pajitnov was struck with inspiration, then meticulously worked for years to bring the game he had envisioned to life. Ackerman shows how Tetris worked its way first through Pajitnov's office and then out into the world, entrancing player after player with its hypnotic shapes. Then, tracing the stories of the British, American, and Japanese moguls who raced each other for the rights, Ackerman recounts the game's complex and improbable path to global success.

The Tetris Effect is an homage to both creator and creation and a perfect gift for anyone who's ever played the game - which is to say, everyone.

©2016 Dan Ackerman (P)2016 Hachette Audio

Never quite fits together

What starts as a promising deeper look at the tangled Tetris history is ultimately marred by uneven audio, the narrator's distractingly (and unfortunately) slurred speech, bits of trivia that are inserted in the middle of the story with no audio cues, and a padded story with too many boring details. Read the book instead, but know that about half of it should have been edited out. At that point, of course, it would instead become an incredibly long magazine feature.

Good story, bad delivery

the audio was way to fast so i had to turn down the narration speed. Also the barrater would throw in these weird tetris facts and often then were not relative to the current chapter.

Interesting Content, bad structure

Feels more like a series of tech blogs with a word count they needed to hit instead of a cohesive story. Bits of info are repeated often, and awkward tangents abound. The content itself is interesting, just maybe needed another edit.

And on a technical level the audio quality varies wildly. A lot of jarring edits.

A Historical Account of a Beloved Video Game by Someone with No Love for Games or History

If you enjoy the irony of someone who seems to have 0 understanding of the impact of capitalism and corruption on USSR stability talking about a multi-million dollar deal in Soviet Moscow, this is the book for you.

If you like reading a book about a video game by someone who refers collectively to all previous video games as mindless entertainment for pre-teens, then you’ll love The Tetris Effect.

DNF, could not get past the author’s disrespect for Pajitnov (whose game he claims would be lost to the eighties as a dusty curio without the benevolent tech moguls of the West) and his disdain for breakthroughs in programming and play from Pong to Mario Brothers.

You can celebrate something without dismissing the marvels that came before it, and you can be critical of a time and place without ignoring all context. Was deeply looking forward to this read and just as deeply disappointed.

Fun Read

Fascinating story and get well written. There are some jarring audio patches where we suddenly change narrators for a sentence or two and they're really bad, but other than that, it was solid.

TETRIS

HANK ROGERS IS THE REAL HERO OF TETRIS. GOD BLESS THAT MAN. HE IS THE MOST GENEROUS AND KIND AND BRILLIANT BUSINESS MAN EVER HOLY SHIT WHAT A COOL GUY I HOPE HE'S DOING AND I HOPE HE KNOWS HE'S A GOD

Great to relive my Tetris experience

Dan's reading of his book was fine except he reads way too fast. Thankfully Audible let's vary the playback speed. 0.85 was perfect.

Well worth my time

I absolutely loved this book! I recommend it to anyone who is interested in business, gaming, or programming.

TETRIS FOREVER!

If you play, read please. I'm glad I did. I played several games while reading(audible style) I'm going to play a few more today. As usual. I love TETRIS. never played other games much. Didn't have the need.