A Russian automobile maker has included a surprise for drivers on the dashboard of its latest trucks: a favourite of 1980's gaming, Tetris, the company explained that it was included as one of several tests for the computer equipment in the Gazelle Next series of vehicles, which includes trucks and minibuses.
"The system of production quality control of 'GAZelle Next' cars includes a huge number of different tests. One of them checks the display image on the dashboard: it is important that the information shown on the screen can be easily read by the driver while driving, therefore all areas of the display must reflect the picture as clearly as possible."
"In this case, this serious task can be accomplished really well with the help of …. playing Tetris! This game, which moves geometric figures around the screen, enables a quick and extremely accurate check that the processor and all zones of the computer display are working," GAZ explained.
Tetris was invented in the Soviet Union in 1984 by computer programmer and game designer Alexey Pajitnov. A favorite played in arcades and on early home computers such as the Commodore 64, the tile-matching puzzle game went on to become one of the most popular video games ever after it was launched on the Game Boy in 1989.
