In film tetris, available on Apple TV+, directed by John S. Baird, shows the global obsession with the game. What seemed like simple graphic design for affordable entertainment became a matter of state in the Soviet Union. We’ll tell you what history is tetristhe video game that changed the entertainment industry.
Ironically, the licensing of the product turned into a political clash with curious consequences, but ended in a battle of commercial rivalry. Also, an open door that now allows us to understand the ideological underpinnings that surrounded its creation. Something that the film reflects as a tense context that the characters had to work through with effort.
But what made the video game famous? The question is what history tetris not fully answered yet. At the forefront of the console experience creation industry it was an exception, a rarity. It had no fancy visuals, no complex storytelling, not to mention characters. It was simply a scheme that appealed to visual ingenuity, with the help of which concrete results were obtained almost immediately. With his sober air, he allowed anyone to understand his system without further explanation.
Story tetris starts with simple entertainment designed for a global audience
No special skills were required either. Only that it is possible to arrange the parts in a sequence that surprises with its ability to always be different. In the 1980s and 1990s tetris challenged the industry and demonstrated its importance compared to larger and more complex projects. However, behind its simple exterior lies a story. tetris hides a trade war in which two political views of the world clashed.
Communist Russia opposed the capitalist market with all its resources in the struggle for ownership of the game. A topic that has sparked all kinds of commercial rivalry. Not even a subtle war between well-known figures in the American corporate world fighting for a distribution license. Story tetris in which the John S. Byrd film is based on fiction.
A design created by chance and an immediate triumph
In 1984, a software engineer. Alexey Pajitnov worked at the Computing Center named after Dorodnitsyn. Soviet Academy of Sciences. It was a state institute for computer research and development, located in Moscow. The work schedule forced him to stay at the sites for most of the day, and in some cases even at night. Trying to take his mind off the boredom of tedious days, the programmer developed a simple game inspired by his love of puzzles and architecture.
For the curious visual part of his design, the expert took as an example pentomino. A Children’s pastime consisting of assembling a set of five pieces of wood through equal squares. Each side must be joined to the next in a functional line, which allows more connections to be made. in history tetrisits creator adapted the system, making it simpler than the original, abandoning the numerical values that are part of the board game.
The engineer’s version was to create a structure that had to be combined with each other. At the same time, the player had to merge the pieces so that the result didn’t collapse, which restarted the experience. The combination of both gave a series of several combinations that stimulated the skill of the player.
same Alexey Pajitnov He later admitted that he never believed his invention was intended for a general audience and insisted that his only intention was to be entertained. Lucky for history tetris, continued to improve 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.
Story tetris and the collective obsession with video games
At the end of 1984 tetris he was very popular among his designer’s colleagues. The game first spread as a curiosity in Moscow. Later, when an engineer shared it with one of his colleagues in Hungary, it began its meteoric journey towards becoming a collective phenomenon. After participating in the software exhibition in Hungarian Institute of Technologyfell 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 booming world of video games.
Story tetris confirms that the businessman immediately understood the possibilities of the game and tried to find the Russian engineer who created it. However, the design license was no longer held by Alexey Pajitnov, but to Elektronorgtekhnika (Elorg), a Russian technology agency, the institution responsible for the sale and reproduction of software in the country. The fight for the license was a lengthy process that included negotiations behind closed doors with politicians and figures from the Russian academic world. Some of them had never even heard of the game, although they wanted to make sure the government’s assets were under surveillance.
After months of perseverance Robert Stein received a license to ship the game to the UK and US, which made tetris in the first software of Soviet origin, which will be sold outside the region and reach the territory of North America.
Story tetris It’s a long road of hardship to make history
However, the most serious problems were yet to come. Contract with eorg it only covers use on personal computers. But for a businessman, the possibilities of the game could not be limited to the domestic sphere. So, without reservation, he agreed with the English distributor Mirrorsoft the rights to all types of devices, even in public places. Which led to an agreement with Atari and another very lucrative agreement with Japan’s Sega.
In the midst of complex agreements that are part of history tetris, Henk Rogers, owner of BulletProof Software, was also negotiating the rights to the game. Managed to attract Nintendo through Spectrum HoloByte, which owned the rights to tetris in North America. Robert Stein continued to sign negotiations without informing eorgwhich is about to destroy his lucrative contract with the institution.
Finally, the inevitable happened. The Russian authorities discovered the businessman’s maneuvers, and an argument ensued between them. However, exceptional commercial transportation opportunities tetris on portable devices resolved the situation. In the early nineties, which turned into a world revolution in electronics, the game was considered one of the most successful in history.
The Creator Who Couldn’t Enjoy the Success of His Work
For decades, Alexey Pajitnov he didn’t get a single dollar of millionaire profit tetris. In accordance with sfgateIn the 1990s, the creator of the game lost about 40 million winnings that he could not get due to the Soviet political regime. Against all odds, his invention ended up benefiting him indirectly. Henk Rogers He helped him emigrate to the United States and later hired him to develop games.
But the story about tetris ends well. In 1996, at the height of important political changes in Russia, the businessman and engineer returned to Moscow on one last mission. These are rights negotiations so that the latter can profit from his creation. And they got it. Today, at 67, the designer boasts the overwhelming popularity of his most famous invention.
Source: Hiper Textual
