Thor Aackerlund | |
---|---|
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 Bjorn Thorlei Aackerlund (born 4 January 1977) is an American competitive 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 was bestowed a Mario trophy, 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 for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appropriation of the rights in the late 1980s. 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, Famicom, 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 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.
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is a 1986 platform game developed by Nintendo R&D4 and published by Nintendo. A sequel to Super Mario Bros. (1985), the game was originally released in Japan for the Family Computer Disk System as Super Mario Bros. 2 on June 3, 1986. Nintendo of America deemed it too difficult for its North American audience and instead released an alternative sequel, also titled Super Mario Bros. 2, in 1988. The game was renamed The Lost Levels and first released internationally in the 1993 Super Nintendo Entertainment System compilation Super Mario All-Stars. The game has since been ported to the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, along with being re-released through emulation for the Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch.
Wario's Woods is a puzzle video game developed by TEC and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in Japan and North America in 1994 and Europe in 1995. A spin-off of the Mario series, players control Toad in his mission to defeat Wario, who has taken control of the Peaceful Woods. Gameplay revolves around clearing each level by using bombs to destroy groups of enemies. The game also features a multiplayer mode that allows two players to compete against each other.
Pokémon Puzzle Challenge is a puzzle video game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color. Released in Japan on September 21, 2000; in North America on December 4, 2000; and in PAL regions on June 15, 2001, it is the second Pokémon-themed entry in the Puzzle League series. While its Nintendo 64 counterpart Pokémon Puzzle League is visually based on the Pokemon anime, Puzzle Challenge instead draws inspiration from the Pokémon Gold and Silver games. The game features multiple modes of play and support for competitive play between two players. Puzzle Challenge was later digitally re-released via the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console line on November 6, 2014.
Tetris & Dr. Mario is a 1994 puzzle video game compilation published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It contains enhanced remakes of Tetris (1989) and Dr. Mario (1990), which were originally released for both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy in North America. Both games include split-screen multiplayer and a "Mixed Match" mode that transitions between the two games.
Nintendo Puzzle Collection is a 2003 video game compilation published for the GameCube in Japan by Nintendo. It includes updated versions of three Nintendo-published puzzle video games released for older systems — Yoshi's Cookie (1992), Panel de Pon (1995), and Dr. Mario 64 (2001) — featuring updated graphics and music, alongside four-person multiplayer. The player can download one of the games to their Game Boy Advance via the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable.
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 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy in 1989. 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. A Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console version of Tetris was released in December 2011, lacking 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.
Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published in 1985 by Nintendo for the Famicom in Japan and for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in North America. It is the successor to the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. and the first game in the Super Mario series. Following a US test market release for the NES, it was converted to international arcades on the Nintendo VS. System in early 1986. The NES version received a wide release in North America that year and in PAL regions in 1987.
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. Since 2021, the champion of each tournament has received the Jonas Neubauer Memorial Trophy, named after the seven-time record setting champion who died in 2021. 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 will be held in Pasadena, California.
Tetris, also known as classic Tetris, is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released in 1989, based on Tetris (1985) by Alexey Pajitnov. It is the first official console release of Tetris to have been developed and published by Nintendo. It was preceded by an official Tetris for the Family Computer in Japan in December 1988, and an unofficial Tetris by Tengen in North America in May 1989.
Pac-Man 99 was a maze video game with battle royale elements developed by Arika and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment for the Nintendo Switch. It was released through the Nintendo Switch Online service on April 7, 2021.
Michael Khanh Artiaga, known online as DogplayingTetris or simply Dog, is an American Tetris player from Texas. He is best known for back-to-back victories in the 2020 and 2021 Classic Tetris World Championships (CTWC), the former of which Artiaga would become the Guinness World Record holder for the "Youngest Tetris World Champion" at only 13-years-old.