Secret Agents, War, and Clandestine Deals: The Untold Story of Tetris

The Cold War was a period in history marked by a political-ideological conflict between the United States and the former Soviet Union (USSR), between 1947 and 1991. During this time, the world was polarized, the dispute between North Americans and Soviets affected these nations’ international relationships as a whole.

The two countries constantly monitored each other both through news stories and espionage, which brought fear upon those entering these countries and a somber air of uncertainty loomed over both sides.

Within this context, a game emerged that would make both axes tremble and an unbridled chase after its rights would go down in history.

In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov was a computer scientist working at the Computer Center of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, in the then Soviet Union, where he worked in the artificial intelligence and speech recognition sector.

Inspired by a pentomino puzzle (geometric shapes made up of five squares), Pajitnov simplified the concept by using tetriminos (shapes made up of four squares). After a few tests, he came up with a solution that involved pieces falling from the top of the screen, and the player needed to rotate and fit them together to form horizontal lines that, when complete, would disappear, freeing up space for new pieces. Pajitnov named the game "Tetris", a combination of the Greek word ”tetra” (four) and ”tennis”, his favorite sport.

The game was programmed on an Elektronika 60 computer. Since it wasn’t capable of creating graphics, the game was developed as simply as possible, with dots and brackets. After the initial idea, he adapted the game with colors and graphics for the IBM PC with the help of his friends Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov.

The simplicity and addictive nature of the game won over everyone who played it, and Tetris quickly spread among his work colleagues and throughout Soviet institutions. However, in the USSR, creations made by public servants were the property of the state and Pajitnov received no royalties or copyright, leaving Tetris as the property of ERLOG (Elektronorgtechnica) a state organization with monopoly over the import and export of computer support, hardware and software in the Soviet Union

And this is where the most confusing story of legal rights in the world of video games began.

Sure of the game's potential, Rogers showed Tetris to Nintendo and got a contract, but there was an issue. He needed to get the rights to Tetris for the launch of the portable Game Boy.

Original TETRIS IBM PC

With Nintendo pressing him for the publishing rights, Rogers tried to negotiate with Mirrorsoft, but they didn’t own the rights to the game for handheld consoles. Without wasting another minute, Rogers set out to find the owner of the game.

During his talks with Mirrorsoft, he suspected that Stein's Andromeda had somehow breached their contract with ELORG, but he didn’t know yet that it was Mirrorsoft's own Robert Maxwell who was deceiving everyone. So, he traveled to Moscow to meet with Nikolai Belikov, the head of the state department.

Some parts of the trip were recorded on video and can be seen in the documentary Tetris: From Russia with Love, released by the BBC in 2004 and available on YouTube.

Coincidentally, on the same day that Henk Rogers arrived in Moscow to negotiate with ELORG, Robert Maxwell from Mirrorsoft and Robert Stein from Andromeda were also there. None of the three knew about the others’ presence in the country, but all three wanted the rights to Tetris for portable consoles at any cost.

As mentioned before, the Soviet Union was on constant alert regarding the United States and any American who set foot in the country would be subject to investigations.

Even without a business visa, Rogers insisted on speaking to the head of ERLOG and managed to show the executive a box of Tetris for video games. Belikov was distressed by this, since he’d never sold the rights for consoles, only for computers.

Meanwhile, during the negotiations, Rogers met Alexey Pajitnov and the two created a strong bond of friendship. Realizing that Tetris could fall into the greedy hands of Robert Maxwell, Pajitnov himself offered to help Rogers with ELORG and Mirrorsoft.

Now, without having to worry about Stein who already had his contract, Rogers needed to compete with Maxwell for the publishing rights on portables. The competitor offered more money than the first, but the power of the friendship between Rogers and Pajitnov, in addition to, of course, a nice millionaire check from Nintendo, were on Rogers' side. The creator of Tetris spoke in his favor and ended up convincing Belikov to sell the rights to the portable and console games.

The release of Tetris with the Game Boy in 1989 was a milestone in the history of video games. Under the leadership of Henk Rogers, Nintendo made the perfect match. The Game Boy offered the portability that Tetris needed, and the game, in turn, demonstrated the potential of the console.

The Game Boy is the third best-selling console in history, with an incredible 118.69 million copies sold, and a large part of that comes from Tetris and Henk Rogers' partnership with Nintendo.

Following the success of the Game Boy, Tetris continued to expand to other platforms and console generations. In 1996, Alexey Pajitnov finally regained the rights to his creation, after the Soviet Union ended and legal disputes over the game were resolved. He founded The Tetris Company with Henk Rogers, making sure that the game was properly protected and licensed.

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The story of Tetris is an incredible journey that feels like a movie involving creativity, business, and a touch of luck. From its creation by Alexey Pajitnov to its discovery by Henk Rogers and its release for the Game Boy, Tetris has become a lot more than just a game. Its simplicity ensures that it’ll continue to be played and loved for many years to come, leaving its mark as one of the greatest games of all time.