Tetris Alexei Pajitinov and Henck Rogers reflect on their relationship

Alexei Pajitinov and Henck Rogers have known each other for a long time. The man who created Tetris And the man who (somewhat) sold it to the world met 34 years ago in a government office in Moscow. Later, they established a company together to manage the rights to Pajitnov’s immortal creation. Talk to me via Zoom to promote what’s new Tetris A movie on Apple TV Plus—a film that spins a watchable Cold War thriller and Cold War foam from the extraordinary true story of Rogers’ initial negotiations with the Soviet Union—the pair communicate with sidelong glances and hands resting on their shoulders, teasing and correcting each other like old comrades they are.

They’re chalky and cheesy, in some ways. Pajitnov, who still speaks with a strong Russian accent, is a thoughtful and suave science guru, while Rogers is the slick salesman every inch, leaning conspiratorially into the camera to spin his own strings. But they’re both game designers too, even if neither of them specifically planned it. Thanks to this kinship, they formed an instant bond in that boardroom in 1989.

“I came in on Thursday… I think it was Wednesday, maybe,” says Rogers, who is in the habit of referring to outlying events as if they happened last week. He was in Moscow, uninvited and unannounced, trying to secure his rights Tetris, who was (or believed to be) the authorized publisher in Japan. Nintendo let him in on a little secret: It was preparing a Game Boy for release, and Rogers knew it Tetris It would be the perfect game for that. But rights were in shambles, and the Russian communist state held all the cards. (This part of the story is neatly told in the film; though it indulges in wild fabrications elsewhere, Pajitnov and Rogers say it’s true to the spirit of their adventure.)

“There were, like, eight guys sitting across from the table, and they were giving me the third degree: Who the hell am I, and what was I doing? And Alexei was one of them,” Rogers recalled. “In the beginning, it was hostile… I think what they were trying to do was, they were trying to figure out what angle I would look at. You know, my story was very unlikely to be a story.”

Rogers must have cut an unlikely character already: He had a Dutch passport, an American accent, and lived in Japan with his Japanese wife. He moved there after attending the University of Hawaii, where he “majored computer science and majored in Dungeons & Dragons”. Draw on this experience in writing and publishing black onyxwhich I swear was Japan’s first role-playing video game upon its release in 1984.

“My dad was a gemologist; I worked with him for six years,” Rogers says. “So the first 100 people to get to the end of the game, I sent them real black onyx. That was marketing then, you know! “

When Nintendo blew up the Japanese computing and gaming scene with the Famicom/NES in the ’80s, Rogers talked his way into the office of the company’s feared president, Hiroshi Yamauchi. In the movie, he was filmed sneaking onto the field Tetris to the great guy, but he had actually bonded with Yamauchi earlier because of a mutual love for the traditional Japanese board game Go. Rogers pitched a Famicom port of the British video game Go to Yamauchi via fax and was in his office two days later.

“I can’t give you any programmers,” Yamauchi said to me. “I don’t need programmers,” said Rogers. Biggest number I can think of: $300,000. I just pulled a number out of the hat. And he reached across the table, shook my hand, and said, “OK.”

Hiroshi Yamauchi (Togo Igawa) and Hink Rogers (Taron Egerton) sign the deal at Tetris film.

Image: Apple

From then on, Rogers will ensure that whenever he meets Yamauchi, it will be the last meeting of the day, so that they can play Go together. Yamauchi was starving Go partners (in Japan it was seen as “monk activity, ritual stuff,” Pajitinov notes), and Rogers was feeding Nintendo’s shadowy patriarch gossip about the industry. A feared inside Nintendo, Yamauchi appreciated Rogers’ outside, unvarnished perspective.

“He fired the president of Nintendo of Europe for disagreeing. He was just like that. Bam! You know, Iron Fist,” Rogers says. “If you’ve got anyone else kissing your ass, it’s hard to know what’s really going on. I was just out there. I didn’t like bowing to him any more than in front of everyone else. I treated him as an equal. And I don’t think a lot of people can do that or They will do it.”

So, sitting at that table in Moscow, Rogers actually got some serious support. This was not necessarily immediately apparent to the Russian negotiators. But, on the other side of him, Pajitnov immediately felt good for this strangely confident foreigner.

“I see another type of adventurer, with a very long black mustache,” says Pajitinov. And basically, we figured out that finally, the right person had come up for rights Tetris. At least, that was my understanding. First of all, he was very professional in business, and his understanding of the industry. And secondly, he was a game designer! He was my first mate in the world! Because in Russia, this profession did not exist at that point. I was the only one.”

Books Pajitnov, a lover of mysteries Tetris While working as a researcher at the Computer Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The game quickly spread throughout Russia and the world, but Pajitnov knew he would almost certainly fail if he tried to claim ownership of it. Instead, he subtly chose to play the long game. He believed that if he helped ensure the game was well handled, he would be able to make money in the long run.

“Once I realized that this was a good game and I had some kind of obligation to try to get it published, I realized that if I asked for money, I would definitely lose,” says Pajitnov. Because in the USSR, such things as intellectual property did not exist at that time. Since the game is developed using state-owned hardware and so on, it will be the end of it.

“Basically, I made the decision to do whatever it takes to get a great game published. That’s why I gave the rights to this game to PC Center, and then I got everyone on my side.”

Nikita Efremov as Alexei Pajitinov Tetris.

Image: Apple

Playing Party means Pajitnov can guarantee a bright future for himself Tetris – And in the end it’s the same.

“I knew it wasn’t my last game. I was pretty sure I could redeem myself [the] future using propaganda Tetris. And this was a very correct strategic decision,” Pajitnov says with satisfaction. “So I never complain about it.”

Rogers Potts, eager to share another example of his friend’s tactical brilliance: “There was something very interesting he did early on: He submitted his game to a computer game competition. By submitting it, and having a copyright notice on it, everyone knows it’s his game. And he won.” Second prize. “

Tetris“Commercial success may not have an immediate financial impact on Pajitnov, but it still turned his life upside down,” he says. “Because instead of being a programmer and mathematician like I was supposed to be, I became a game designer. It’s a completely different kind of attitude and approach to life. I was supposed to make a gadget, make a gadget, make a gadget, make money, make a gadget, go To the office, etc. And now I’m able to deliver fun and happiness straight from the screen.”

“That’s deep, that’s deep, man! Save the happiness!” enthused Rogers, who exudes the Hawaiian good life at all times.

That’s how Pajitnov ended up across the table from Rogers, with no personal financial interest in the deal, but negotiating on behalf of his game (or “my kid,” as he calls it). They were in the offices of ELORG, the Soviet state that had a monopoly on the import and export of computer hardware and software. (In pursuit of unification Tetris However, Rogers and Pajitnov’s Tetris company would eventually buy what was left of ELORG after the fall of the Soviet Union).

Rogers may have been mostly a businessman in the hustle and bustle, but he could program, and he knew game design. The film depicts a scene with the pair hunched over Pajitnov’s computer, coming up with improvements for Tetris. It never happened, but that doesn’t mean Rogers didn’t make hugely influential design contributions to the game. One of the first Japanese PC and console releases of his was Rogers Tetris-Introduced the ability to stack and clean up to four lines at once. This has become an integral part of the core Tetris design; It is key to scoring strategy and to keeping player interest in the slow early stages, and is vital to the game’s deep satisfaction and lizard brain.

Despite their different backgrounds and personalities, Pajitnov knew he had found a kindred spirit right away. “I immediately feel like we connect. And then I have a lot of things to discuss with my mate! I have about a dozen titles to show off. So we became really fast friends after that.”

Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers and Nikita Efremov as Alexei Pajitinov Tetris.

Image: Apple

The rest, as they say, is history. Things didn’t go smoothly, whether you believed the film’s bizarre retelling of spy events, or the more sedate (but still thrilling) retellings in David Schiff’s book. game over Or a BBC documentary Tetris: From Russia with Love. But the course was set that Rogers and Pajitnov would see a team as primary custodians – and beneficiaries – of Tetris Brand.

“We did a very good job of preserving the brand,” says Pajitnov. Refers to the company creating a basic design for Tetris It should be the basis of every licensed version, while Rogers eagerly notes that any improvements or new features that outside developers bring to the game automatically become part of The Tetris Company’s intellectual property. Rogers says he tells each licensee that they have to “beat all other versions of Tetris released so far…your version should be better. “

It seems to work. Pajitinov notes recent successes with Tetris effect (“A very cool game”) and Tetris 99 (“My favorite… This is a gift for my child”). It is still believed to be the ultimate competitive version for gamers Tetris It is there, waiting to be discovered. “I expect to have something much deeper [terms of a] A two-player version,” he says. “There are a lot of them, a lot of variations, but I have a feeling we’re not there yet.”

Tetris He’s almost 40 years old now, and he’s dominated decades of these guys’ lives. Don’t they get tired of it?

“Are you bored of the goose that lays golden eggs?” exclaims Rogers in disbelief. “are you kidding me?”

“I’m with him on this,” Pajitnov says, with a chuckle. These two guys have very different backgrounds, but they both come from a time in video games – and from one unique situation – when there were no rules and no criteria for success. She shot at the moon and took what she could catch on the way back down.

Rogers has the last word, and he doesn’t apologize. “Feed the goose!”

Read more