Happy Review: Tetris Lamp by TroppoTogo.it
These days have been very tiresome. Dabbled myself between a move, several meetings, work stuff and I managed to fit a much needed holiday in between!
On the brightest side, I got something which really is bright. And pretty. What to expect from me if not a piece of geeky furniture?
I got this unbelievable Tetris lamp from TroppoTogo. It is an Italian website that sells awesome stuff, comparable to the most famous American ThinkGeek - just that it's a great alternative in Italy/Europe :). Service has been courteous and quick - I received my parcel in a few days.
The lamp really is pretty and I like it so much that I thought a review would be cool.
Let's start by saying that, of course, it's something a real oldschool gamer would die for. I mean, hello? It's TETRIS! It's geek house decor at its finest. If it only played music from the game, I would think to be in Heavens :D (this is the only thing I would love to see added - together with a bit of heavier/magnetic pieces skeleton, why not, so they feel more stable when you stack them).
A bit of history: I bet everyone knows about Tetris but, in case not, here's a small introduction.
First released in 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov, this "Soviet tile-matching puzzle video game" became popular on every system all over the world. Such a triumph!
The game itself is about tile-matching; pieces fall from the sky to the ground and the player is capable of manipulating (ie, rotating) the Tetriminos (which is the actual name of the Tetris pieces). The aim is to form a line with no empty spaces; when this happens, the line disappears making room for more pieces and so on. A better explanation could be found on wikipedia page and on the official tetris website - where you can play the game online :)
Back to the actual stuff! The lamp is composed by as many pieces as the original Tetris game, so seven in number. The best part is that tetriminos are stackable, moveable, and can be positioned in so many combinations. When you take a piece off the stack, the light for that piece turns off but when you stack them together, they illuminate.
It looks really great and the lamp does never look boring as you can change the tetriminos combinations and give it a new appearance. I am planning to connect it with Arduino and use it as a wifi on/off switch, of course connected to the party button project ;). As for the website, TroppoTogo offers many different gift ideas and I'm excited to find so much stuff in there. Lack of ideas, no more!