Tetris was the killer app that brought Nintendo’s GameBoy into the mainstream.

Thirty years ago today, Russian computer programmer Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov created Tetris. Unveiled behind the Iron Curtain, the deceptively simple, maddeningly addictive game soon left the Soviet Union. It lived on dozens of platforms, but its Lennon-McCartney (Lenin-McCartney?) partner was Nintendo’s Game Boy. And the duo defined modern mobile gaming as we know it.

The article is a nice read, but take a look at the comments. Hint: Search for “Woz”.

I constantly had the top score for Gameboy Tetris in the Nintendo Power rankings. It got to where they wanted fresh names in the list and said they would not accept my submissions any longer. So I spelled my name backwards (Evets Kainzow) and changed the city from Los Gatos to Saratoga. Sure enough, they printed that name at the top of the next list of scores. I even have that issue of Nintendo Power, thanks to a thoughtful fan who gifted me with it recently.

And lest you have any doubt about Woz’s claim, take a look at this image of the cover of the July 1991 issue of Nintendo Power magazine, pointing out the Evets Kainzow score. You can’t make this stuff up.