In the film Tetris, available on Apple TV+, director Jon S. Baird shows the global obsession the game sparked. What seemed like simple graphic design intended for accessible fun became a state affair in the Soviet Union. We tell you what the story of Tetristhe video game that changed the entertainment industry.
Odd as it may seem, licensing the product turned into a political clash with curious consequences and ended up being a battle of commercial rivalries. Also, the open door that currently allows us to understand the ideological background that surrounded its creation. Something that the film reflects as a tense context that the characters had to go through with effort.
But what made the video game famous? It is a question that the history of Tetris still not fully responding. At the height of the industry for creating experiences on consoles, the game it was an exception, a rarity. It didn’t have fancy visuals, complex narrative, let alone characters. It was just a scheme that appealed to visual ingenuity, with which concrete results were obtained almost immediately. With his sober appearance, he allowed anyone to understand his system without further explanation.
The story of Tetris starts with simple fun intended for global audiences
No special skill was required either. Only that of ordering pieces in a sequence that surprised by its ability to always be different. In the 1980s and 1990s, Tetris challenged the industry and demonstrated its importance, above larger and more sophisticated projects. However, behind its simple appearance, the story of Tetris hides a trade war that pitted two political ways of seeing the world against each other.
Communist Russia opposed the capitalist market with all its resources in the struggle for ownership of the game. A topic that aroused all kinds of commercial rivalries. Even an inconspicuous war between renowned figures in the American corporate world, fighting to obtain their distribution license. the story of Tetris in which Jon S. Baird’s film delves from fiction.
A design created by accident and an immediate triumph
In 1984, software engineer Alexey Pajitnov worked at the Dorodnitsyn Computer Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. It was a government-owned computer research and development institute, located in Moscow. Work schedules forced him to stay at the facilities for most of the day and, in some cases, also at night. In an attempt to distract from the tedium of the exhausting days, the programmer designed a simple game, inspired by his love for puzzles and architecture.
For the curious visual section of its design, the expert took as an example that of pentominoes. A Children’s pastime that consists of assembling a set of five pieces of wood through equal squares. Each side must mate with the next in a functional line that allows for more joints. in the history of Tetrisits creator adapted the system, making it simpler than the original by dispensing with the numerical values that are part of the board game.
The engineer’s version was summed up in creating a structure that had to fit together. At the same time, the player had to combine the pieces to prevent the result from collapsing, which restarted the experience. The mixture of both provided a series of multiple combinations, which stimulated the player’s skill.
the same Alexey Pajitnov he would later admit that he never believed his invention was intended for a wide audience and insisted that his only intention was to have fun. Fortunately for the story of Tetris, continued to refine the game system until it was so simple that even small children could use it. A detail that, when it became a worldwide phenomenon, was considered the secret of its impact.
The story of Tetris and the collective obsession with videogames
At the end of 1984, Tetris he was very popular with his designer’s co-workers. The game first spread as a curiosity in Moscow. Later, when the engineer shared it with one of his colleagues in Hungary, it began its rapid path to becoming a collective phenomenon. After being exhibited at a software exhibition at the Hungarian Institute of Technologycame into the hands of the British robert steinowner of Andromeda Software Ltd., who was looking for revolutionary electronic entertainment that would give him a place in the midst of the aggressive growth of the world of video games.
The story of Tetris confirms that the businessman immediately understood the possibilities of the game and tried to find the Russian engineer who had created it. However, the design license no longer belonged Alexey Pajitnov, but to Elektronorgtechnica (Elorg), a Russian technology agency, an institution in charge of the sale and reproduction of the country’s software. The fight for the license was a long process that involved negotiations behind closed doors with political officials and figures from the Russian academic world. Some of whom had never even heard of the game, though they wanted to make sure the state’s assets were under surveillance.
After months of insistence, robert stein got the license to bring the game to the UK and US which made Tetris in the first software of Soviet origin to be marketed beyond the borders of the region and reach North American soil.
the story of Tetris It’s a long road of difficulties to make history
However, the most serious problems were yet to come. The contract with elorg it covered only use on personal computers. But, for the businessman, the possibilities of the game could not be limited to the domestic sphere. So, without a clause specifying it, he agreed with the English distributor Mirrorsoft the rights for all types of devices, even in public places. Which led to the signing of an agreement with Atari and another very lucrative one with the Japanese Sega.
In the midst of the complicated agreements that are part of the history of Tetris, Henk Rogers, owner of BulletProof Software, also negotiated the rights to the game. Managing to involve Nintendo through Spectrum HoloByte, which held the rights to Tetris in North America. robert stein continued to sign negotiations without informing elorgwhich was about to ruin the lucrative contract he had with the institution.
Finally, the inevitable happened. The Russian authorities discovered the businessman’s maneuvers and a dispute ensued between the two. However, the extraordinary commercial possibilities of carrying Tetris to portable devices resolved the situation. At the beginning of the nineties, turned into a world revolution in electronics, the game was considered one of the most successful in history.
A creator who could not enjoy the success of his work
During decades, Alexey Pajitnov he did not receive a single dollar of the millionaire profits of Tetris. According to sf gateIn the 1990s, the game’s creator had lost around 40 million in winnings that he couldn’t receive due to the Soviet political regime. Despite everything, his invention ended up benefiting him indirectly. Henk Rogers He helped him emigrate to the United States and later hired him to design games.
But the story of Tetris ends well. In 1996, in the midst of important Russian political changes, the businessman and the engineer returned to Moscow for one last mission. That of negotiating the rights so that the latter could receive the profits from his creation. And they got it. Today, at 67, the designer can boast of enjoying the still staggering popularity of his best-known invention.