“Tetris” is one of the most well-known and beloved games of all time, having sold an estimated 500 million copies worldwide. Apple TV+ has recently released a feature film about the game’s journey from Moscow to the West.
The film follows the story of Henk Rogers, a computer science student who met his future wife and business partner in Japan and founded the company “Bullet-Proof Software”. With the help of Nintendo, the small company developed a “Go” game for the NES.
While trying to sell “Go” in the West at CES 1988, Rogers stumbled upon “Tetris” at the neighboring Mirrorsoft booth, and the plot of the film begins. The game was invented by mathematician Alexei Paschitnov in Moscow in 1984, and the film briefly touches on its history.
Robert Stein, the owner of the one-man company in London called Andromeda Software, acquired a license to exploit “Tetris” in the West. It led to deals with media mogul Robert Maxwell’s Mirrorsoft, who sold the arcade rights to Atari, and Nintendo was interested in the handheld rights.
The film focuses on the rights haggling for “Tetris”, which leads to all sorts of complications. The negotiations with the officials are told in an entertaining way, although not quite as accurately as David Sheff’s research for his book “Nintendo: Game Boy” or the BBC documentary “Tetris: From Russia with Love”.
Despite the inaccuracies, the film is an entertaining bio-pic with documentary elements. It portrays the friendship and partnership that developed between Paschitnov and Rogers, who later founded The Tetris Company, which still manages the rights to the brand to this day.
The idea for a “Tetris” movie had been around for some time, but it only gained steam when Matthew Vaughn got involved. The film was shot in Scotland, and it follows the journey of the game as it conquered the world.
