No more messing around with Game Boys: to celebrate the opening of Philadelphia Tech Week, Tetris fans were able to play their favourite game on the side of a building. Using a joystick, players could direct Tetris blocks across the 29–storey Cira Centre, a skyscraper that normally displays colourful patterns during the night using the LEDs embedded in its glass exterior.

This isn't the first time that a classic videogame has been played on the Cira Centre. Last year, Frank Lee, the associate professor of game design at Drexel University, developed the world's largest game of architectural Pong on the skyscraper, and it was him that was responsible for overseeing the Tetris project too. Lee told the crowd that had gathered, "This project began as a personal love letter to the games that I loved when I was a child - Pong last year, Tetris this year. But it ended up as a way of uniting the city of Philadelphia." Although as yet unconfirmed, the performance looks set to break the world record for the largest ever game of Tetris.

Created by the Soviet computer programmer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984, Tetris shows no signs of diminishing in popularity. At once a cult classic that represents the birth of video game culture and simultaneously a heralded brain training technique, Tetris has managed to maintain a consistent popularity over three decades. This year, it celebrates its 30th anniversary in June.

Check out people playing skyscaper Tetris: