Tetris, the creation of Alexey Pajitnov, turns 35 this month. And while many may see the tetromino game as a relic, behind it lies a story worthy of James Bond. Cold War, threats, thefts and espionage, all that and much more, from Russia with love.
Writing a note that does justice to Tetris, when entire books have been dedicated to its history, is a task beyond the poor abilities of this editor (and far beyond my intentions). Because the creation of Alexey Pajitnov has overcome all kinds of barriers: espionage, “thefts” and threats, among many other things only seen in James Bond films. And, in the middle of all that, a man whose talent was only vindicated much later (and whose pocket still claims years and years of unpaid licenses).
The Birth of Tetris
Everything began when Alexey Pajitnov (an artificial intelligence researcher at the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre in Moscow) received the Elektronika 60 computer. Pajitnov immediately became interested in the new computer and decided to test its possibilities by programming a simple but fun game (inspired by Pentominoes, a board puzzle that Alex loved). Thus Tetris was born (“tetris” is a wordplay between the prefix “tetra”, meaning “four”, and the word tennis), in a research office of the Soviet Union, in the middle of the Cold War.
Soon after, Alexey's creation was adapted to the IBM PC by his colleagues Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov, and its popularity climbed unsuspected heights. Eventually, the game became known throughout the world, with no profit for Pajitnov, and that's when the problems began. To understand what follows, you must place yourself at the time: Russia was still the Soviet Union, communism was the chosen system of government, and the country was in the midst of a major economic collapse.
When Tetris reached Budapest, Hungary, the game was discovered by the company Andromeda Software, headed by Robert Stein (who bought software in Hungary and sold it in England). From Hungary, Stein contacted Pajitnov and they didn't reach any deal on the transfer of rights, but they did close a “casual agreement” (no signatures, nothing, just verbal). Robert Stein quickly contacted various development houses in England, until he found an ally in a company called Mirror Soft, from the Maxwell corporation.
Jim Mackonochie, head of Mirror Soft in those years, was delighted with the game, to the point of becoming addicted (and making his family addicted too). He was determined: Tetris would be a product of Mirror Soft and all its worldwide branches (Spectrum Holobyte, from California, USA, being the most important). Thus Maxwell began to announce the game that, in the first place, would be sold in Russia, but... they didn't count on the power of communism and the Soviet Union!
Tetris, much to the chagrin of Alexey Pajitnov and Robert Stein, was property of the Soviet state. When everything was ready for its launch, a phone call from the company Elorg made Maxwell and Andromeda tremble with fear: they were accused of stealing and plagiarizing Soviet property. Elorg was a department of the Soviet state in charge of managing all external software transactions (including Tetris).
Thus, Stein was summoned to Moscow: “First they left me waiting in reception,” Stein said for the documentary Tetris: From Rusia with Love (which you can watch in full at the end of the article). “Nobody spoke to you, the chairs were uncomfortable, and then they picked me up and put me in a room, with a long conference table. It was as if they were interrogating me, because they showed absolute distrust of anything I said.”
In Russian fashion, the matter was clear: “Don't do anything with Tetris, it's ours.” Stein, however, through Andromeda Software, secured the rights but only for IBM PC. Mirror Soft continued with its plans and in 1986 the game was being sold in almost the entire world, with great success (but only for IBM PC computers). But as the months went by, the Russians received not a single coin.
The Soviet Anger
Without caring about anything, Mirror Soft made a deal with Atari, which in turn made a deal with Henk Rogers, so that he could sell the license in the attractive and lucrative Japanese market. By this time, everyone involved was getting filthy rich, everyone except the Soviet Union and Alexey Pajitnov, of course.
Yes, a real mess. Nobody knew (or nobody wanted to know) who owned the rights, but nothing prevented them from being sold here and there, without anyone caring (except the Russians!). But all this reached a climax when Nintendo wanted to license the game for its imminent GameBoy. Yes, Nintendo wanted to buy the rights, but didn't know from whom! So Nintendo contacted Henk Rogers, who in turn contacted Stein, who swore it was only a matter of time until the matter was resolved. And what happened? Almost everyone involved, Henk Rogers and Robert Stein included, asked for an appointment to discuss the matter with the Soviet officials! Henk, fortunately, at that time had a portable camera and filmed parts of his trip (which you can see in the video above).
When Henk informed the Russians that he was selling their game in Japan, they had no idea what he was talking about. “We only transferred the rights to Andromeda Software and only to use Tetris on personal computers,” said the official in charge of managing Russia's intellectual property. “You are selling something that doesn't belong to you,” he stressed. The funny thing is that after Henk, on the same day, came Robert Stein. Stein could barely present his proposals, because the Russians were already very, very angry about the whole fiasco he had caused. That he couldn't sell any rights to anyone else, that he was a thief, that he could only make games for IBM PC (and only developed by his company Andromeda), etc.
On the same day, after Stein, it was Kevin Maxwell's turn to discuss the Tetris rights. Kevin was the son of the boss of the Maxwell corporation (owner of Mirror Soft). In that meeting, the Russians asked him, with a Tetris cartridge in hand, “Mr. Maxwell, where did Mirror Soft get the rights for this Tetris?” What did he answer? “It's a pirated version, I don't have the rights.” Because Kevin didn't know that his father's company had been selling the rights for consoles to Atari!
What is a computer?
In those meetings one thing was clear. Supposedly Stein “hadn't understood” the meaning of the word computer and thought it applied to anything that computed. But that wasn't so, and the Russians decided to edit the contract, clarifying the meaning of computer and problem solved (much to Stein's chagrin). But there were still matters to resolve. The first was the multi-million-dollar matter of Tetris for GameBoy. Who would secure it? Henk Rogers or Kevin Maxwell? The winner, ladies and gentlemen, was Henk Rogers.
From there, the rest is well-known history (though there were still going to be licensing problems). If Tetris was famous before coming out as a GameBoy launch title, its popularity exploded exponentially with every handheld sold (and, believe us, there were many). Tetris has the pride of being the only game that has passed through ALL the systems in the world, whether as a clone or an original, and has been with us for 35 years. There is no mobile, PDA, console, PC or anything else that doesn't have a version of the game that changed everything.
And Pajitnov? Well, the poor man barely had a say throughout the process. It wasn't until 1991, with the fall of the Soviet Union, that Alexey moved to the United States and, together with Henk Rogers, founded The Tetris Company, which is the one that today manages the game's licenses worldwide. Tetris is a simple game, but with a history as long and complex as the process to achieve perfection in its mechanics. Since then, thousands of versions have come out, each more fun than the last. There are even world tournaments with the game! Truly a milestone in the industry, no doubt.
