Skyscraper-Sized Tetris Game Wows Crowds

Hundreds of Tetris fans got to play a super-sized version of the game on the side of a building.

Using just a joystick, they were able to move the interlocking shapes on the 29-storey Cira Centre in Philadelphia

The building, which has hundreds of LED lights embedded in its glass facade, normally displays colourful geometric patterns at night.

But on Saturday, images of Tetris shapes fell on two sides of the mirrored tower as competitors were at the controls.

The giant game kicked off a series of events in the city called Philly Tech Week and the aim was to inspire onlookers and players to think about the possibilities of technology.

It also celebrated the upcoming 30th anniversary of Tetris which challenges players to rotate and arrange falling shapes into complete rows.

The game was created by Russian computer programmer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984.

It became a global phenomenon in the late 1980s after game designer Henk Rogers, who had seen Tetris at a trade show in Las Vegas, bought the rights and struck a deal to put it on Nintendo's original Game Boy.

Frank Lee is a game designer who oversaw the creation of the giant display.

He 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."