Anniversaries and Commemorations - Tetris, Rik Mayall, the Wars

A week of anniversaries and commemorations.

6 June was the thirtieth anniversary of Tetris! I remember playing the game on a desktop pc in 1992 or thereabouts. We had one 3.5" disk with Tetris on it, one with PacMan and two (because one didn't have enough memory!) with a set of games called California Games, which included things like hackey sack and BMX. Oh yes, and another disk with J-Bird and two with Dark Castle -- an awesome game that I was never very good at. I watched my dad and my sister play. They were good at Kingdom of Kroz too, but I loved Moraff's Revenge. I think I even have a semi updated version of Moraff's Revenge on the laptop I'm using right now. Yet I always go back to Tetris. At one point I had the highest score in the family. My grandmother, meanwhile, beat us all at PacMan.

Every once in a while I take a break and play for a while over at Free Tetris, but it's not the same colours and music that I remember. And I'm not allowed breaks at the moment as I haven't made time for my ROW80 goals at all!

And now something sad - Rik Mayall has passed away.

You might remember him from such classic shows as:

The Young Ones



Bottom



Blackadder



And speaking of the wars - I learned two new things this week thanks to History Needs You (Historian, Edutainer and Broadcaster Matthew Ward, and Manager, Editor and Writer Gill Fraser Lee):

The explosion of the Messines mines during World War I:


The Mulberry Harbours, immense piers and landings constructed in only a few days (after trials in Scotland and Wales) to aid the DDay landings:


Other commemorations - the latest book in the Outlander series, Written in My Own Heart's Blood, is out! I am avoiding any and all mentions for fear of possible spoilers, until my copy is delivered. It's hard not to open tantalisingly titled threads on the Compuserve Books and Writers Community, or messages from the Yahoo mailing lists... If you have it, don't say anything!

And bloggers! I've gotten so many lovely comments this past month - I've got to drop by and visit you all!

What are you commemorating this week?

Comments

Nas said…
Great post Deniz. Loved reading it through.
Anonymous said…
Thanks for the reminder of all those old PC games I used to play as a kid. I have fond memories of Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures and Duke Nukem, if you remember either of those. I wasn't much of a Tetris player, though I remember playing it a few times...
Hard to believe Tetris is that old. Pac-Man has been around even longer. I still remember playing Pong in the 70's...
Unknown said…
Tetris is such a classic--it never gets old!
Trisha said…
Such sad news about Rik Mayall.

That is awesome about Tetris - happy b'day to Tetris! I can't believe it's 4 years younger than I am. :D

Tetris has now entered the dirty 30s. Yikes, what will happen next? :)
stu said…
I remember California Games, with things like surfing and Frisbee as well. I seem to remember being very bad at their hacky sack simulator.
S.P. Bowers said…
Sorry you don't have a copy of MOBY yet. I'm not quite done with the book. So far I'm liking it more than Echo.
Carol Kilgore said…
I think I'm all out of commemorating for a while, but Father's Day is coming up.
Hi Deniz - I think I 'ignored' all Tetris and PacMan things ... but I was between countries and travelling so perhaps that's an excuse.

Also Rik Mayall passed me by - I guess being only me I miss things more easily ...

But the D-Day things I'll be writing about - must start today ..

Outlanders too - do I live on this planet - I think not by this comment!!

Happy catch up .. and enjoy Outlanders when it arrives ... cheers Hilary
Click said…
Such sad news about Rik Mayall passing away. I did like Ade Edmondson's tribute to him.
Great twitter info! Very interesting. And I can't wait to read the next Gabaldon novel--I love her books!
Anonymous said…
I used to be addicted to Tetris. I won't install the game on my phone or tablet, because I need my writing time.

I'm sorry about Rik's passing.
Li said…
I loved playing Tetris but man, that tune was the WORST earworm. I remember waking up several times in the middle of the night with that music in my head.

Father's Day this year was the very first my son - that was really special.
Zan Marie said…
Ah. Tetris. The last video game I ever learned to play well. ;-)
Stephanie Faris said…
I had a boyfriend who could play Tetris for HOURS. I once watched him so long, when I closed my eyes, I could still see those little blocky things falling!
Cherie Reich said…
Oh my! How did Tetris get so old!
dolorah said…
I'm commemorating my first 6 months at the new job. I can take vacation now, though I have no money for it.

Wow, I remember those computer games. Are we retro or what? Awesome to look back sometimes to see how far we have journeyed.

Good luck with ROW.
Deniz Bevan said…
Thanks everyone!

Denise, I do remember Cosmo! Oh my goodness. I'll have to remind my sister.

Donna, I was just talking to someone today who'd returned from a vacation on an island off the southern coast of France. Boy, I wish I was going on a vacation like that!