The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By John Glenday | Reporter

April 7, 2014 | 1 min read

A group of Tetris fans gave faced the biggest challenge of their lives after a 29-floor tower in Philadelphia was turned into a giant customised screen for rotating blocks.

The Cira Centre made for a natural screen courtesy of hundreds of LED lights embedded in its façade, allowing gamers to manipulate illuminated shapes as they slid down both facades of the tower using a simple joystick.

Designed to mark the 30th anniversary of the hit game and encourage city residents to think about technology the scheme was the brainchild of Frank Lee, digital media professor at Drexel University.

Lee, who holds a Guinness World Record for largest architectural videogame display after performing a similar stunt with Pong last year, said: “This project began as a personal love letter to the games that I loved when I was a child - Pong last year, Tetris this year. But it ended up as a way of uniting the city of Philadelphia.”

Tetris was created in 1984 by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov and became an international hit in 1989 when it was packaged with Nintendo’s Gameboy handheld.

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