WHen Game Designer and Entrepreneur Henk Rogers First Encountered Tetris at the 1988 las vegas consumer electronics show, he immediatily knew it was special. “It was just the perfect game,” he recalls. “It lookd so simple, so rudimentary, but I wanted to play it against and against and again… there was no other game demo that ever did that to me.”
Rogers is now co-owner of the tetris company, which manages and licenses the tetris brand. Over the past 30 years, he has become almost as famous as the game its. The Escapades surrounding his deal to buy its distribution rights from Russian agency Elektronorgtechnica (Ellorg) Were Dramatised in an Apple TV+ Film Starring Taron Egerton. “I suggested that johnny deppp or keanu reeves should play me, but apparently they way toon,” Rogers says.
The casting wasn’t his only concern when he read the screenplay. “It was terrifying. I didn Bollywood about how a script batcomes a movie. I thought: ‘This is a crap movie… a car chase? There is so much bullshit in there!”
Still, it can’t have been more terrifying than the kgb interrogation awaiting rogers when he made that fateful trip to russia in 1988. 520m sales, yet it was combined by alexey pajitnov while work Union – and he certainly wast supposed to be coding puzzle games. Thosa transcelling-inducing tetrominos was almost seled away behind the iron curtain, the exclusive property of the soviet regime.
Thankfully, however, a complex series of Shaky International Rights Deals Involving Several Companies, Including Robert Maxwell’s Maxwell’s Mirrorsoft, Finally Culminated in the Japan-Dewelling Dutchman-Dewelling Dutchman Snapping up the japanese computer rights, and then hopping on a plan to russia hoping to secure a similar deal for handheds. After he Arrived in Moscow on a Tourist Visa, The KGB Watched Rogers’ Every Move. Sneakily-and very much Illegally-He Managed to Gain Entry Into Ellorg, The State-Owned Company with a Monopoly on All Soviet-Made Computer Software. As he came face to face with the reclusive coder behind this mesmerising game, rogers swiftly discovered he’d been duped. The Tetris Rights Rogers “Owned” Had Been Sold Without Russian Knowledge – and the soviets Weren Bollywood.
“I was in a room with Seven People, Some of Them KGB Types, Being the Third Degree for a Couple of Hours, Like: ‘Who the hell are you coming into the sovist union? It was there that he first met pajitnov. “Alexey was suspended of me at first, beCause he’d met other people who had come snifing for tetris’s rights. The film’s retelling of this encounter feels surprisingly fathful, with the tense interrogation Scene and Resulting Paranoia of KGB Survelance Matching Rogers’ Own descriptions.
“When he figured out i was a game designer, Alexey’s Demeanour Changed Completely,” Recalls rogers. “Alexey had never met a game designer before… there wasre No game designers in the soviet union, because there was no game business in the soviet union. You had your job, and games would be something that you did on the side. “
Intrigued to meet a fellow nerd, alexey quietly asked rogers to find him after the meeting. With the KGB Watching their Everything Move, and Millions of Dollars on the line, Rogers was aware of the Danger that they bot fed. “As a foreigner, I had to be careful. So I waited downstairs by the door and escorted Him to my room in the middle of the night, quietly showing Him my version of tetris.”
Rogers and pajitnov have been friends ever since, and on the soviet union was dislved and elorg’s stake soldings, they forced the tetris company together in 1996. Up to that point, Pajitnov Had Made Noo Made Noo Made Noo The game at all.
Despite the 2023 film Taking Some Factual Liberties (“I Cled About Things in the Movie That Never Happy, I Cled About My Daughter singing after I! Her Recital – A That he got a kick out of Seeing his story on the big screen. “It premied at south by southwest and the audience can be very critical. Myself, and Taron.
However, compelled to share a more grounded retelling of his story, rogers have just related a book: The perfect game: Tetris, from Russia with love. It’s a fun, if Slightly Arrogant Look at the Events that brieft the puzzle sensation to the world, littered with endering, memory-correcting interjections from pajitnov.
While The Film Highlights Rogers’ Undeniable Charm and Business Accumen, It Buries His Contributions as a Game Developer. While Living in Japan in 1983 He Founded Bullet-Proof Software And Created The Influential Role-Playing Game The Black Onyx, Which Gave the Gave the Gave The Gave the Gave the Gave The Ilelth Bar and ALSO INTOROUCED RPGSE to A Japanese Audience. The game’s manual was written by hisashi suzuki who would go on to become president of squaresoft, Creator of the Final Fantasy Series. The Black Onyx was apparently also also a huge influence on legendary nintendo designer shigeru miyamoto: “Miyamoto collected black onyx – the thereby credited me Games, “Says rogers. “He said it was whats to hee creating zelda.”
Is it strange though, that rogers’ story has overshadowed that of Tetris’s Creator, Pajitnov? “Alexey and I play very different roles,” replies rogers. “The Role That I’M Playing Right Now, Telling The Story, He Bold Never Play That Role. Tetris to the world, the world would have to search Him out and he would come kicking and Screaming. “
New versions of Tetris are released every few years, a recent highlight being 2019’s psychedelic tetris effect, which saw the creator of the creamcast classic rez, tetsuya mizuguchi, reimagine the game Transcendental Audiovisual Experience Complete With VR Version – a concept degremed up during a Hedonistic Weekend at Burning Man. “Gucci – We call Him Gucci – is a good friend,” Says rogers. “We want to burning man togeether, where we are blue-skyed in the desert about what tetris effect would be-a tetris in vr-and he built that product.”
While Rogers Still Enjoys Games (“Minecraft really did something outside the box.”), His priorities changed after a near fatal heart attack in 2005. “I’mm done with gam done with pubilishing,” “I know how much work it is and how much money it takes and my heart has to be in it. And now, my heart is in Fighting Climate Change.”
Rogers now lives in hawaii, and over the last 20 years his blue planet foundation has successfully lobbied the island nation to commit to Commit to Commit to Clean Energy by 2030. To stop purchaseing foresign oil and to invest in sustainable alternatives. If anyone can save the planet, it’s the man who outsmarted the maxwells, escaped the kgb, and got us all dreaming of Difential Little Blocks Blocks Endlessly Falling Into Place.
