Thor Aackerlund | |
|---|---|
 Aackerlund at CTWC 2019 | |
| Born | |
| Years active | 1990–2012 |
| Era | 1990s and 2010s |
| Known for | 1990 Nintendo World Championships Winner [1] [2] [3] |
| Competition record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Classic Tetris | ||
| Nintendo World Championships | ||
| 1st | 1990 Houston Championship age 12–17 | |
| 1st | 1990 World Finals age 12–17 | |
| Classic Tetris World Championship | ||
| 5th | 2010 Tetris World Championship | |
Thor Aackerlund is an American esports gamer, considered one of the first to go professional. [4]
As a child, Aackerlund started playing computer games while waiting for a new school year to begin after having missed one due to his mother being hospitalized after a fire. [5] He couldn't afford a Nintendo Entertainment System, so he bought a Game Boy but didn't have the money for any extra games, which put him on the path of playing Tetris , as it was included for free. [5]
He was one of the winners of the 1990 Nintendo World Championships, for which he won a $10,000 U.S. savings bond, a 1990 Geo Metro Convertible, a 40-inch rear-projection television, and a golden Mario trophy. [1] [2] [3] Soon after the competition, Camerica, a producer of unlicensed Nintendo Entertainment System games, signed a deal with Aackerlund to make him the official spokesman for their games. [2] Aackerlund then became the poster child for the game, featured in commercials and fairs. [6]
As a child, he felt pressured to play, as the prize money and endorsements were financially important for his family. [5] At the time, he was known as the only player to claim to have reached level 30 in Tetris [6] Aackerlund soon disappeared from the scene but remained known as perhaps the most well-known name in Tetris prior to the domination of 7-time World Champion Jonas Neubauer. [7]
Aackerlund is a featured player in the 2011 documentary film Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters , which covers his second effort in competitive video gaming at the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship.
Tetris is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. It has been published by several companies on more than 65 platforms, setting a Guinness world record for the most ported game. After a significant period of publication by Nintendo, in 1996 the rights reverted to Pajitnov, who co-founded the Tetris Company with Henk Rogers to manage licensing.
Dr. Mario is a 1990 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy. It was produced by Gunpei Yokoi and designed by Takahiro Harada. The soundtrack was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is a 1988 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was released for home consoles in Japan on October 23, 1988, in North America on February 12, 1990, and in Europe on August 29, 1991. It was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, led by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka.
Tetris Attack, also known as Panel de Pon in Japan, is a puzzle video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A Game Boy version was released a year later. In the game, the player must arrange matching colored blocks in vertical or horizontal rows to clear them. The blocks steadily rise towards the top of the playfield, with new blocks being added at the bottom. Several gameplay modes are present, including a time attack and multiplayer mode.
Tetsuya Mizuguchi is a Japanese video game designer, producer, and businessman. Along with ex-Sega developers he is one of the co-founders of the video game development firm Q Entertainment. He formerly worked for Sega as a producer in their Sega AM3 'arcade machines' team, developing games like Sega Rally Championship and Sega Touring Car Championship, before moving on to become the head of Sega's United Game Artists division, the team responsible for Rez and Space Channel 5. Mizuguchi is better known for creating video games that incorporate interactive synesthesia into his game design, regardless of genre, evidenced by Rez, Lumines, Child of Eden, and Tetris Effect.
Tetris Worlds is a version of the video game Tetris. Originally released in 2001 for Microsoft Windows and Game Boy Advance, it was later released for Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 in 2002. In 2003, an Xbox Live version titled Tetris Worlds Online and a single-disc compilation version were released for the Xbox. The latter was bundled with Xbox systems.
Pokémon Puzzle League is a puzzle video game in the Puzzle League series developed by Nintendo Software Technology and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. Released in North America on September 25, 2000, and in Europe on March 2, 2001, its Puzzle League-based gameplay has a focus on puzzle-based strategy in the game's grid-based format. To advance to new levels, players are required to combat the game's trainers and gym leaders, similar to the ones featured in Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow. One of several games based on the Pokémon anime, it features lead protagonist Ash Ketchum, his Pikachu, his companions Brock and Misty, the Kanto Gym Leaders, and other characters from the series.
Captain N: The Game Master is an animated television series that aired on television from 1989 to 1991 as part of the Saturday morning cartoon lineup on NBC. The show was produced by DIC Animation City and incorporated elements from many of the most popular video games of the time from the Japanese company Nintendo. There was also a comic book version by Valiant Comics, despite only featuring characters from games produced by Nintendo.
Camerica was a Canadian video game company founded in 1988. It released various unlicensed video games and accessories for the Nintendo Entertainment System, such as the Game Genie, and was the North American publisher for British developer Codemasters.
Tetris is a puzzle game developed by Atari Games and originally released for arcades in 1988. Based on Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris, Atari Games' version features the same gameplay as the computer editions of the game, as players must stack differently shaped falling blocks to form and eliminate horizontal lines from the playing field. The game features several difficulty levels and two-player simultaneous play.
The Nintendo World Championships (NWC) is a nationwide video game competition series, organized by Nintendo of America at no particular interval.
Tetris DS is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Nintendo DS on March 20, 2006, in North America, April 13, 2006, in Australia, April 21, 2006, in Europe, and April 27, 2006, in Japan. An installment of the Tetris franchise, the game supports up to ten players locally, and supported online multiplayer of up to four players using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection prior to its discontinuation.
Tetris is a 1989 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is a portable version of Alexey Pajitnov's original Tetris and it was bundled with the North American and European releases of the Game Boy itself. It is the first game to have been compatible with the Game Link Cable, a pack-in accessory that allows two Game Boy consoles to link for multiplayer purposes. A remaster, Tetris DX, was released on the Game Boy Color in 1998. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS' Virtual Console in December 2011 without multiplayer functionality. The game was released on the Nintendo Switch Online service in February 2023.
Tetris Party is a puzzle video game by Hudson Soft for WiiWare. An installment of the Tetris series, the game supports the use of Miis and the Wii Balance Board, and features both local and online multiplayer in addition to several single-player modes unique to the game.
Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters is a 2011 American documentary film that follows the lives of several gamers from around the country as they prepare to compete in the 2010 Classic Tetris World Championship held in Los Angeles, California. It recounts the development and rise of Tetris as one of the most-played video games of all time, the role it has played in shaping the lives of the gamers it chronicles, the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of former Nintendo World Champion Thor Aackerlund, and the conception and execution of the first-ever Classic Tetris World Championship by gaming enthusiast Robin Mihara.
Puyo Puyo Tetris is a 2014 puzzle video game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game is a crossover between the Puyo Puyo series and the Tetris franchise, and features various gameplay modes incorporating both aspects. The game includes characters modeled and named after the seven Tetrominos, which are different puzzle pieces each made of four blocks.
The Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) is a video game competition series, hosted by the Socal Gaming Expo. The competition launched in 2010, during the filming of Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters, to determine the world's greatest Tetris player. In its first two years, the competition was held in Los Angeles, California, but was moved to Portland, Oregon, in 2012, and was held there annually through 2023. The 2024 edition has been held in Pasadena, California.
Game On Expo is a multimedia gaming convention that began in August 2015, and is the largest gaming and anime convention in Arizona. It covers all types of gaming from video games and arcades to board games and tabletop games. The expo boasts a large vendor hall, video game lounge area, free-play arcades, tournaments, cosplay contests, panels, and a variety of special guests.
Tetris, also known as classic Tetris, is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Based on Tetris (1985) by Alexey Pajitnov, it was released after a legal battle between Nintendo and Atari Games, who had previously released a Tetris port under an invalid license. Bullet-Proof Software had previously released Tetris for the Family Computer in December 1988, while Nintendo had released Tetris for the Game Boy earlier in 1989.
