What do you think of this fact?
Long before astronauts streamed shows on tablets, one cosmonaut packed something much simpler for his trip to space: a Game Boy and Tetris.
A puzzle game in orbit
According to Guinness World Records, Tetris for the Game Boy was the first video game in space. Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr A. Serebrov took the cartridge along on his 1993 mission to the Mir space station. It launched on July 1, 1993, aboard Soyuz TM-17 and came back 196 days and 17 hours later, after orbiting Earth more than 3,000 times.
Serebrov didn’t treat it like a museum piece. In a signed note quoted by the tech site BGR, he wrote: “During flight, in rare minutes of leisure, I enjoyed playing Game Boy.” Imagine stacking falling blocks while the actual planet drifts past the window.
Fitting, in a way
Guinness points out why the choice makes sense: Tetris was invented in the Soviet Union. According to BGR, its creator Alexey Pajitnov was born in Moscow. Nintendo released the Game Boy version in 1989. So a game from Moscow flew into space with a Russian cosmonaut.
And what is a space-flown Game Boy worth today? Less than you’d think. According to Guinness, the cartridge sold for 1,220 dollars at a Bonhams space history auction in 2011. BGR reports that the Game Boy, the manual and Serebrov’s note were part of the lot.
Bonus fact: Guinness lists the backstory too: the same cartridge had already been auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York in 1996.
The first Tetris high score in space came with the best view in gaming history.