The Story of Tetris (2018)
In the documentary The Story of Tetris (2018), we dive into the origins and global impact of a seemingly simple puzzle game.
Created by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984 during the Cold War, Tetris swiftly gained a cult following within the Soviet Union. Its premise was straightforward: fit geometric shapes composed of four squares into horizontal lines.
Little did anyone anticipate that this humble game would become an international phenomenon, selling over 520 million copies worldwide and amassing over 615 million downloads on mobile devices alone.
The film reveals the story behind Tetris. It introduces us to Henk Rogers, a Dutch game designer who stumbled upon Tetris at a 1988 Las Vegas tradeshow.
His journey took him to Moscow, where he met Pajitnov—a software engineer at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Pajitnov had created the original Tetris on a rudimentary Electronika 60 computer.
Despite the challenges posed by the Soviet Union’s communist government, Rogers and Pajitnov forged a partnership that transcended borders and time.
The pivotal moment arrived when Tetris was ported to the IBM PC in 1985 and began spreading throughout the Soviet Union. Hungarian businessman Robert Stein attempted to secure the computer rights for his company, Andromeda Software.
Miscommunication led Stein to prematurely sell the PC version of Tetris to Spectrum HoloByte, an American video game publisher. The game’s acclaim soared, even though Stein lacked a formal deal with the Russians.
In spring 1988, Stein finally signed an agreement with Elektronorgtechnica (Elorg), the state-owned agency responsible for Russia’s software import and export.
The contract granted him the computer rights to Tetris, but with a twist: it expressly forbade licensing the rights to arcade and handheld versions, as well as any other mediums “which we did not dream about yet.”
Stein’s missteps inadvertently set the stage for Tetris’s global conquest.
The documentary paints an eloquent tapestry of determination, legal battles, and unexpected alliances. Tetris, once confined behind the Iron Curtain, now stands as a reminder that creativity knows no boundaries.
