History Analysis / Tetris

It began with a young Muscovite by the name of Алексе́й Леони́дович Па́житнов (Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov in Western spelling). As a young man, he excelled in mathematics (he was a finalist in a citywide mathematics competition at age 14), and he created his first computer program at 15 — a number game. Though he enjoyed the worlds that math held, he also hung out with his friends to play cards, drank vodka, and was a normal schoolboy in every sense of the word. After his university studies and graduation, he took up a job at a technical Moscow university where he worked in the field of math applications. Though he enjoyed his work, he soon discovered his passion for computers and programming. In his words, "It doesn't matter to a hacker what he is working on — it could be a game or an abstract math problem, but if a computer is involved, [[AGodAmI he is a god]] and can do whatever he wants in that world."

With the basic game mechanics in place, and a prototype on the text-only Elektronika60/{{Elektronika60}} working, Pajitnov realized that the game needed graphics if it was going to go any farther (currently, the pieces were just outlined with brackets). A young hacker named Vadim Gerasimov, who was 16 at the time, worked closely with Pajitnov for around two months to get ''Tetris'' to work on an IBM-compatible computer. By the end, the pieces lit up in bright colors, and another programmer (Dimitri Pevlovsky) added a high score table. When the bugs were squashed, Pajitnov distributed the game around the Computer Center. Friends and coworkers congratulated Pajitnov on his amazing game, and soon ''Tetris'' was spreading through Moscow's computer circles like a virus.

With the basic game mechanics in place, and a prototype on the text-only UsefulNotes/{{Elektronika60}} working, Pajitnov realized that the game needed graphics if it was going to go any farther (currently, the pieces were just outlined with brackets). A young hacker named Vadim Gerasimov, who was 16 at the time, worked closely with Pajitnov for around two months to get ''Tetris'' to work on an IBM-compatible computer. By the end, the pieces lit up in bright colors, and another programmer (Dimitri Pevlovsky) added a high score table. When the bugs were squashed, Pajitnov distributed the game around the Computer Center. Friends and coworkers congratulated Pajitnov on his amazing game, and soon ''Tetris'' was spreading through Moscow's computer circles like a virus.

This next part is where it starts to get confusing: Stein offered the Russians 75% of whatever he got and a $10,000 advance. The Russians responded with a telex saying they were ready to transfer the copyrights, and that this deal was for the IBM-compatible versions only. Stein, taking this as a go-ahead, began production of the game. Pajitnov claims that the telex he sent was not a firm go-ahead, but more of a "sounds good".

So, to reiterate: Stein had sold the rights to ''Tetris'', which he didn't actually own, to several companies who were now producing and releasing the game in Europe and America, despite his continual attempts to secure the rights. He did eventually secure the PC rights, but not any of the others (home video game console, coin-operated arcade machine, and handheld).

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Pajitnov was told that Electronorgtechnica (henceforth referred to as Elorg), the recently-formed ministry for the import and export of hardware and software, would be taking over negotiations, since the Academy of Science was an academic institution and couldn't indulge in commerce anyway. Stein and Elorg negotiated an actual contract for the PC rights which was signed a few months later.

Henk Rogers had acquired the rights to Tetris for Japanese home video game consoles from Atari Games (who had sublicensed them from Mirrorsoft, who had sublicensed them from Stein, who didn't actually own them), and thus was a natural fit to acquire more. He'd had a personal relationship with Nintendo's Japanese president for years now, and he was well versed in both the licensing and programming aspects of video games. Rogers originally tried to go through Stein, but Stein was having trouble getting the handheld rights, so Rogers cut out the middleman and went to Moscow himself. In a few days, he'd sewn up the rights to the handheld versions, and made the discovery that the Russians had never licensed anything except the PC version.

At this point, the chart of licensees looked like this: Stein owned the PC rights worldwide, and he had sublicensed them to Mirrorsoft/Spectrum Holobyte. He did not own the arcade or console rights, but had sublicensed them anyway to the same companies, assuming they were forthcoming. Mirrorsoft had sublicensed the arcade and console rights to Atari Games, who had sublicensed the Japanese arcade rights to Sega and the Japanese console rights to Henk Rogers. They kept the American arcade and console rights. In addition, Atari was producing its own version of Tetris on the NES under its subsidiary Tengen.

Eventually, a third party — basically the UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk of this whole story — Bulletproof Software joined the fray for the rights to the game. Its founder, Henk Rogers (an American-educated Dutchman living in Japan), saw ''Tetris'' at the 1988 CES and brought along his buddies at Creator/{{Nintendo}} to secure an actual, real contract with Elorg for the game. Why, you ask, were this tiny company and the giant Nintendo suddenly involved? Because Bulletproof was one of the first developers to sign on to develop for Nintendo's then-top secret and upcoming UsefulNotes/GameBoy system. Nintendo higher-ups Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln had seen Tetris at a trade show and had Nintendo make an in-house prototype. The two were a match made in heaven, and Nintendo needed someone to navigate the tricky world of software licensing and get the handheld rights.

So, to reiterate: Stein had sold the rights to ''Tetris'', which he didn't actually own, to several companies who were now producing and releasing the game in Europe and America, despite his continual attempts to secure the rights. He did eventually secure the PC rights, but not any of the others (home video game, coin-operated machine, and handheld).

At this point, the chart of licensees looked like this: Stein owned the PC rights worldwide, and he had sublicensed them to Mirrorsoft/Spectrum Holobyte. He did not own the coin-op or video game rights, but had sublicensed them anyway to the same companies, assuming they were forthcoming. Mirrorsoft had sublicensed the coin-op and video game rights to Atari Games, who had sublicensed the Japanese coin-op to Sega and the Japanese video game to Henk Rogers. The American coin-op and home video rights, they kept. In addition, Atari was producing its own version of Tetris on the NES under its subsidiary Tengen.

Rogers saw opportunity, and so did Nintendo when he told them about it: They could get the home video game rights right from the source AND sue Tengen, who was currently suing them on anti-trust allegations. They could both make a bunch of money, and get some sweet revenge.

After a series of tense negotiations, Nintendo emerged with the worldwide home video game rights, and sublicensed the handheld version through Henk Rogers. The Russians hadn't been paid by Stein anyway, so his contracts to the PC versions and coin-op versions (which he eventually did get) were lost a few years later. Nintendo took great pleasure in suing Tengen to stop production of its Tetris game, and winning. Tengen's version quickly became a collector's item.

Eventually, a third party — basically the UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk of this whole story — Bulletproof Software joined the fray for the rights to the game. Its founder, Henk Rogers (an American-educated Dutchman living in Japan), saw ''Tetris'' at the 1988 CES and brought along his buddies at Creator/{{Nintendo}} to secure an actual, real contract with Elorg for the game. Why, you ask, were this tiny company and the giant Nintendo suddenly involved? Because Bulletproof was one of the first developers to sign on to develop for Nintendo's then-top secret and upcoming GameBoy system. Nintendo higher-ups Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln had seen Tetris at a trade show and had Nintendo make an in-house prototype. The two were a match made in heaven, and Nintendo needed someone to navigate the tricky world of software licensing and get the handheld rights.

Mirrorsoft and Spectrum Holobyte dissolved a few years later after their parent company empire fell. Stein kept on doing his licensing thing. The GameBoy was a smash hit, and Tetris became as well known as Mario.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Pajitnov was told that Electronorgtechnica (henceforth referred to as Elorg), the recently-formed ministry for the import and export of hardware and software, would be taking over negotiations, since the Academy of Science was an academic institution and couldn't indulge in commerce anyway.

Henk Rogers had acquired the rights to Tetris for Japanese home video game consoles from Spectrum Holobyte (who had sublicensed them from Stein, who didn't actually own them), and thus was a natural fit to acquire more. He'd had a personal relationship with Nintendo's Japanese president for years now, and he was well versed in both the licensing and programming aspects of video games. Rogers originally tried to go through Stein, but Stein was having trouble getting the handheld rights, so Rogers cut out the middleman and went to Moscow himself. In a few days, he'd sewn up the rights to the handheld versions, and made the discovery that the Russians had never licensed anything except the PC version.

At this point, the chart of licensees looked like this: Stein owned the PC rights worldwide, and he had sublicensed them to Mirrorsoft/Spectrum Holobyte. He did not own the coin-op or video game rights, but had sublicensed them anyway to the same companies, assuming they were forthcoming. Mirrorsoft had sublicensed the coin-op and video game rights to Atari Games, who had sublicensed the Japanese coin-op to Sega and the Japanese video game to Henk Rogers. The American coin-op and home video rights, they kept. In addition, Atari was producing it's own version of Tetris on the NES under it's subsidiary Tengen.

After a series of tense negotiations, Nintendo emerged with the worldwide home video game rights, and sublicensed the handheld version through Henk Rogers. The Russians hadn't been paid by Stein anyway, so his contracts to the PC versions and coin-op versions (which he eventually did get) were lost. Nintendo took great pleasure in suing Tengen to stop production of it's Tetris game, and winning. Tengen's version quickly became a collector's item.

''(For the record, there's an abbreviated version at the bottom of the page and similar info [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris#History on Wikipedia here.]])''

At this point, the chart of licensees looked like this: Stein owned the PC rights worldwide, and he had sublicensed them to Mirrorsoft/Spectrum Holobyte. He did not own the coin-op or video game rights, but had sublicensed them anyway to the same companies, assuming they were forthcoming. Mirrorsoft had sublicensed the coin-op and video game rights to Atari Games, who had sublicensed the Japanese coin-op to Sega and the Japanese video game to Henk Rogers. The American coin-op and home video rights, they kept.

After a series of tense negotiations, Nintendo emerged with the worldwide home video game rights, and sublicensed the handheld version through Henk Rogers. The Russians hadn't been paid by Stein anyway, so his contracts to the PC versions and coin-op versions (which he eventually did get) were lost. Nintendo took great pleasure in suing Tengen to stop production, and winning. Tengen's version quickly became a collector's item.

The story of bringing ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' to the Western world is a tale fraught with aggressive lawyers, sluggish government politics, desperate races against time, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick some Finnish beer]].

So, to reiterate: Stein had sold the rights to ''Tetris'', which he didn't actually own, to several companies who were now producing and releasing the game in Europe and America, despite his continual attempts to secure the rights.

Eventually, a third party — basically the UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk of this whole story — Bulletproof Software joined the fray for the rights to the game. Its founder, Henk Rogers (an American-educated Dutchman living in Japan), saw ''Tetris'' at the 1988 CES and brought along his buddies at Creator/{{Nintendo}} to secure an actual, real contract with Elorg for the game. Why, you ask, were this tiny company and the giant Nintendo suddenly involved? Because Bulletproof was one of the first developers to sign on to develop for Nintendo's then-top secret and upcoming GameBoy system, and Rogers had convinced the higher ups at Nintendo that ''Tetris'' would be '''the''' KillerApp for the GameBoy.

Meanwhile, Mirrorsoft had sold the arcade and home rights to Atari subsidiary Tengen, who pumped out a quick (and some argue, superior) NES version of ''Tetris'' just as Nintendo's first-party ''Tetris'' was released. Atari and Nintendo sued each other over this, with Nintendo (who actually ''had'' a valid contract with the IP owners) winning and Atari's version being pulled off the market. In 1989, just as predicted, ''Tetris'' made the GameBoy not only popular but ''essential to own'' for any serious gamer.

There's a happy side-note to all this: during the negotiations for Nintendo, Rogers and Pajitnov became fast friends, and years later Rogers helped Pajitnov emigrate to the United States. Pajitnov was able to secure the trademark and rights to the ''Tetris'' name soon after, eventually buying the rights fully from Elorg -- it was not until 1996 that he began receiving royalties for his own intellectual property. He and Rogers formed The Tetris Company in the late 1990s, and it continues to release ''Tetris'' games today.

''(For the record, there's an abbreviated version at the bottom of the page and similar info [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris#History on Wikipedia.]])''

Eventually, Pajitnov voiced to one of his superiors that they should do something about copyrighting ''Tetris'' for release outside the U.S.S.R.. "We had no copyright laws at all. Certainly, by the spirit of our law we had no right to sell anything to anyone. We could do nothing for personal gain," according to Pajitnov. Still, it would be a large accomplishment for a program to be published outside the country. A colleague of his sent an evaluation copy of the game to the Institute of Computer Science in Busapest. Robert Stein, the man who ran the London-based software company Andromeda, was visiting at the time.

Stein was already building up interest in the game. Mirrorsoft decided to license it for Europe if their sister company, Spectrum Holobyte, would do the licenses for the US and Japan. Phil Adam and Gilman Louie ran said sister company. Phil sat down to play it one day at three. At seven, dinner companions had to literally unplug the machine to get him to stop playing. Louie also played and loved it. They told Stein to "put it in a red box and get the rights".

Meanwhile, Mirrorsoft had sold the arcade and home rights to Atari subsidiary Tengen, who pumped out a quick (and some argue, superior) NES version of ''Tetris'' just as Nintendo's first-party ''Tetris'' was released. Atari and Nintendo sued each other over this, with Nintendo (who actually ''had'' a valid contract with the IP owners) winning and Atari's version being pulled off the market. In 1989, just as predicted ''Tetris'' made the GameBoy not only popular but '''essential to own''' for any serious gamer.

Meanwhile, Mirrorsoft had sold the arcade and home rights to Atari subsidiary Tengen, who pumped out a quick (and some argue, superior) NES version of ''Tetris'' just as Nintendo's first party ''Tetris'' was released. Atari and Nintendo sued each other over this, with Nintendo (who actually had a '''real''' contract) winning and Atari's version was pulled off the market. In 1989, just as predicted ''Tetris'' made the GameBoy not only popular but '''essential to own''' for any serious gamer.

There's a happy side-note to all this: during the negotiations for Nintendo, Rogers and Pajitnov became fast friends, and years later Rogers helped Pajitnov emigrate to the United States. Pajitnov was able to secure the trademark and rights to the ''Tetris'' name soon after, eventually buying the rights fully from Elorg. He and Rogers formed The Tetris Company in the late 1990s, and it continues to release ''Tetris'' games today.

It began with a young Muscovite by the name of Алексе́й Леони́дович Па́житнов (Alexey Pajitnov in Western spelling). As a young man, he excelled in mathematics (he was a finalist in a citywide mathematics competition at age 14), and he created his first computer program at 15 — a number game. Though he enjoyed the worlds that math held, he also hung out with his friends to play cards, drank vodka, and was a normal schoolboy in every sense of the word. After his university studies and graduation, he took up a job at a technical Moscow university where he worked in the field of math applications. Though he enjoyed his work, he soon discovered his passion for computers and programming. In his words, "It doesn't matter to a hacker what he is working on — it could be a game or an abstract math problem, but if a computer is involved, [[AGodAmI he is a god]] and can do whatever he wants in that world."

He quit his university job and was instead hired by the Computer Center at the Moscow Academy of Science. There, he spent much of his time working with an Electronica 60, working on AI and voice recognition. In his spare time, he created games and puzzles — the latter of which were a particular passion of his. To many of us, they are diversions, but to Pajtinov, they were reflections of life and metaphors for the real world. Having read about puzzles called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentomino Pentominoes]], Pajitnov bought a set from a local toy store and brought it home. As expected, taking them apart from each other is easy; getting them back together in the right way is much more difficult.

With the basic game mechanics in place, and a prototype on the text-only {{Elektronika-60}} working, Pajitnov realized that the game needed graphics if it was going to go any farther (currently, the pieces were just outlined with brackets). A young hacker named Vadim Gerasimov, who was 16 at the time, worked closely with Pajitnov for around two months to get ''Tetris'' to work on an IBM-compatible computer. By the end, the pieces lit up in bright colors, and another programmer (Dimitri Pevlovsky) added a high score table. When the bugs were squashed, Pajitnov distributed the game around the Computer Center. Friends and coworkers congratulated Pajitnov on his amazing game, and soon ''Tetris'' was spreading through Moscow's computer circles like a virus.

The story of bringing ''Tetris'' to the Western world is a tale fraught with aggressive lawyers, sluggish government politics, desperate races against time, and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick some Finnish beer]].

Eventually, a third party — basically the JamesKPolk of this whole story — Bulletproof Software joined the fray for the rights to the game. Its founder, Henk Rogers (an American-educated Dutchman living in Japan), saw ''Tetris'' at the 1988 CES and brought along his buddies at Creator/{{Nintendo}} to secure an actual, real contract with Elorg for the game. Why, you ask, were this tiny company and the giant Nintendo suddenly involved? Because Bulletproof was one of the first developers to sign on to develop for Nintendo's then-top secret and upcoming GameBoy system, and Rogers had convinced the higher ups at Nintendo that ''Tetris'' would be '''the''' KillerApp for the GameBoy.

It began with a young man named Alexey Pajitnov, a resident of Moscow, Russia. As a young man, he excelled in mathematics (he was a finalist in a citywide mathematics competition at age 14), and he created his first computer program at 15 — a number game. Though he enjoyed the worlds that math held, he also hung out with his friends to play cards, drank vodka, and was a normal schoolboy in every sense of the word. After his university studies and graduation, he took up a job at a technical Moscow university where he worked in the field of math applications. Though he enjoyed his work, he soon discovered his passion for computers and programming. In his words, "It doesn't matter to a hacker what he is working on — it could be a game or an abstract math problem, but if a computer is involved, [[AGodAmI he is a god]] and can do whatever he wants in that world."

He quit his university job and was instead hired by the Computer Center at the Moscow Academy of Science. There, he spent much of his time working with an Electronica 60, working on AI and voice recognition. In his spare time, he created games and puzzles — the latter of which were a particular passion of his. To many of us, they are diversions, but to Pajtinov, they were reflections of life and metaphors for the real world. Having read about puzzles called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentomino Pentaminoes]], Pajitnov bought a set from a local toy store and brought it home. As expected, taking them apart from each other is easy; getting them back together in the right way is much more difficult.

He imagined a computerized version of Pentaminoes, where instead of having to make them into a rectangle, they would be randomly generated and fall from the sky. Quick thinking would be needed as the pieces moved quicker and required fast rearrangement to fit into what was already there. Experimenting with several permutations, Pajitnov eventually settled on a simpler version, with all the seven possible combinations of four squares instead of five. From this, and a form of the Greek word for four (tetra), Pajitnov named his new creation ''Tetris''.

Eventually, a third party — basically the JamesKPolk of this whole story — Bulletproof Software joined the fray for the rights to the game. Its founder, Henk Rogers (an American-educated Dutchman living in Japan), saw ''Tetris'' at the 1988 CES and brought along his buddies at {{Nintendo}} to secure an actual, real contract with Elorg for the game. Why, you ask, were this tiny company and the giant Nintendo suddenly involved? Because Bulletproof was one of the first developers to sign on to develop for Nintendo's then-top secret and upcoming GameBoy system, and Rogers had convinced the higher ups at Nintendo that ''Tetris'' would be '''the''' KillerApp for the GameBoy.

[[JustOneMoreLevel He found it very difficult to stop.]] As he said, "I was not a game player, so if ''I'' liked it, it must be a very good game." Asking around, he was told it came from the Computer Center of the Academy of Science in Moscow. Deciding to go to the source, Stein sent a cable to the Computer Center. A colleague of Pajitnov's saw the telex and showed it to him. Replying to the message was met with a series of bureaucratic stumbling blocks, and it was several weeks until Pajitnov sent back the simple reply of "Yes, we are interested. We would like to have this deal."