Galactic Gems

A strange little side quest

Before the next round of Galactic Gems, here is a piece of the bigger picture. Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in 1984 after drawing inspiration from pentomino puzzles, then simplified the idea around shapes made from four squares. That is only half the story. In 1958, Tennis for Two used an analog computer and an oscilloscope to turn simple physics into a playable tennis-like demonstration. Grombi files that under: small game, surprisingly large backstory.