Tag: TETRIS

Although frequently overshadowed by fervent game-haters, scientists continue to illuminate the particularly valuable benefits of 'Tetris' and its block-dropping action. One 2009 study indicated that playing Tetris improves various mental skills. Oxford University performed a separate study in the same year that even determined the game "may reduce the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder ...

Lummo Blocks is a collaborative, video-game-as-art installation in Madrid's Plaza de Las Letras. A billboard-sized screen displays a super-sized version of 'Tetris,' whose pieces players move and rotate by walking across the plaza. One player controls rotation by dashing horizontally, while a second player decides where each piece falls by moving parallel to the first. The project was created by ...

With the advances games have made over the decades, we sometimes pine for the simple, logical satisfaction of a puzzle game. 'Halo' is great, but we doubt people will be playing it decades from now -- unlike the head-scratchingly good 'Tetris.' Forget big budgets, cinematic storytelling and the whole games-as-art argument, and get down with some puzzling goodness. We've rounded up some of our ...

We don't want to insult any of our loyal readers when we say that water sculpture, in general, rarely attains an aesthetic value exceeding the fine objets available in your monthly SkyMall catalog. (Maybe you have one? Send pics!) Perhaps Peter Barnum, Srinivasa Narasimhan and Takeo Kanade -- researchers at Carnegie Mellon University -- also enjoy the aesthetic of cheaply produced, disco ...

Share In case you missed Patrick Jean's brilliant short film 'Pixels,' let us remind you. Last month, Jean released the two-minute video, which whimsically imagines that characters from 8-bit video games like 'Tetris' and 'Donkey Kong' invade New York and eventually destroy the earth. The seamless graphics and Eighties nostalgia were a huge hit online, as 'Pixels' received over a million views ...

'Tetris' celebrated its 25th birthday last fall, and the milestone event coincided with a reassuring scientific study (for chronic geometric gamers, at least). The experiment, conducted by the Mind Research Network, indicated that extensive block-dropping puzzle action can actually "improve critical thinking, planning skills, reasoning and even language." Those educational and cognitive ...

Ever since Alexey Pajitnov first assembled the game code back in the 1984, there have been countless versions of 'Tetris' introduced to countless game consoles. With each iteration, developers tried different takes on the original: 'The Next Tetris' included multiple piece previews; 'Tetris: The Grand Master' first allowed you to rotate pieces before they actually showed up on the main screen, ...

We're sure you've stopped and thought to yourself before, "You know, 'Super Mario Bros.' is pretty good, but I sure wish it was more frustrating." No? Well, it doesn't matter. Even if you've never asked for someone to create a hybrid of 'Super Mario Bros.' and 'Tetris,' you're getting it, anyway. And the results are wonderfully, and childishly, called 'Tuper Tario Tros.' In this Flash game, ...

Here at Switched, we love us some robots. And, admittedly, we love us some fine mixed drinks, too. So, basically, we've gotta find a way to get ourselves to the Roboexotica festival held in Austria, where the only two items on the agenda seem to be cocktails and the robots who serve them (videos after the break). And though we'd run the very serious risk of going all Augustus Gloop on the ...

'Tetris' has always been crazy addictive. It just may, however, make you smarter, too. A study by the Mind Research Network reveals that playing 'Tetris' on a regular basis can improve critical thinking, planning skills, reasoning, and even language. Adolescent girls who played the game improved brain performance and efficiency, and also developed thicker cortexes. (We're told that's a good ...

It was only a matter of time, really, before mankind witnessed the glorious nexus of extreme sports and classic video games. And, much like other, similarly epoch-making events, the fruits of such a marriage could not have been more sublime. Some skaters from San Francisco have put together a stunning video of their escapades, in which they cavort up and down the hills of the city on their ...

Don't you remember how, in the day, super-cool guys with super-cool fades would shave their super-cool nickname or jersey number on the sides or backs of their heads? Of course, they'd also have that single stud earring in their left ear, 'Tay' or '32' or the Nike swoosh emblazoned on their domes, and a pair of the newest Air Jordans. You know, those kids that would have beat the living tar out ...

Next time your parents tell you that video games are a waste of time, tell them that Oxford University disagrees! The revered British university has concluded that playing 'Tetris' after a traumatic event may reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The premise is a simple one: Our brains simply cannot process too many things at once. That said, a brain focusing on ...