We hate to be the ones to break it to all you El Reg readers, but we've learned that the classic video game Tetris is turning 40 years old.

Tetris, perhaps the Soviet Union's greatest ever export, celebrates four decades of dropping blocks on everything from PCs to consoles, big and small and modern smartphones.

This vulture in particular – who would have been around two and a half years old when Russian computer programmer Alexey Pajitnov first coded his magnum opus – remembers spending hours playing Tetris on his first-generation Game Boy in stunning green and black graphics with high contrast. You can only play so much Super Mario Land or Metroid 2 before you need a break after all.

The gameplay may have remained largely the same since then, but the look of Tetris has definitely evolved. A recent version of the game, Tetris Effect: Connected, even has competitive and cooperative play along with VR support. The Tetris Company, which was formed in 1996 to manage licenses for the brand, even announced a new look in 2022 to accompany Tetris' 40th anniversary this year.