T-Tris (1993)

This may qualify as a first in the history of video gaming. Bastian Schick, an ambitious gamer from Germany, decides to write and sell his own video game without benefit of any kind of corporate sponsorship. His effort is T-TRIS, a version of Tetris for the Atari Lynx. If you've been living in a cave for the last ten years, Tetris is a game where oddly-shaped blocks fall from the top of the screen as the player rotates and positions them. Solid rows of blocks vanish to make room for more, and the pieces fall faster as time progresses. The game ends when there's no more room in the pile.

• Release Date: December 31, 1993