Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is an engineering legend who naturally holds a place in the inventors hall of fame. But there’s a lot more to Woz than his role in designing the personal computer. Not only did he put on 2 massive music festivals in the early 80’s, but he’s also one of the world’s best Tetris players.
Woz is as humble as they come, but when a conversation turns to Tetris, Woz, according to those that know him, doesn’t hesitate to boast of his accomplishments. In an interviewlast year, Woz described himself as a “World Champion in Tetris” on the Gameboy, and noted that way back when Nintendo Power used to list all of the Tetris top scores, his name was always at the top of the list. “I even got to where they wouldn’t put my name in anymore,” Woz recalls, “so I spelled it backwards. Steve backwards is Evets, Wozniak backwards is Kainzow. I sent it in and they printed it.” Woz also comically stated that if there were was ever a Steve Wozniak action figure, it’d come with a calculator, a MacBook Pro, an iPhone, and a Gameboy.
And below, check out this snapshot courtesy of alternapop of Woz attending a NIN concert in May of 2009. Before the show, Woz got in some Tetris action on an old-school Gameboy that we can only assume he carries around everywhere he goes. And believe it or not, but Woz reportedly continued to play Tetris throughout the entire set!
But wait, it gets better. In case you had any doubts about Woz’s passion for all things Tetris, he once flew from California to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island to meet a group of college students who created a version of Tetris on the outside of a 14-story building using lights from the windows within to create makeshift pieces.
Opining on the trip, Woz stated: “I think it was just the most incredible one-day thing I could imagine in my life. Like Steve Jobs always said, the journey is the reward. It made me think of projects we did back in college. Things that were almost undoable that other people wouldn’t think of doing.”
Woz doing his thing while playing a grandiose version of Tetris.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Woz is living a life of a fully evolved human, his interests and contributions are beyond even Jobs in term of being well rounded.
Woz is a modern day hero, one of the top Americans of the last 50 years.
January 30th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
so hard to disagree with Ted Landry.
Woz is one of the most accomplished people on the planet for so many reasons..all of them the right reasons.