25 Years Of Tetris - Atari, Nintendo & Mirrorsoft
This months retro feature gives tribute to Tetris the amazingly addictive puzzle game which believe it or not has been in production for almost 25 years. Not only is it still being played by millions of gamers today but it’s been updated, reworked and featured on so many different platforms that tracking its current version borders on impossible.
With roots going back to 1985 this game is a true oldie and one which despite its success comes with a story full of theft, deceit and murder. Ok no murder but the story is good enough to be made into an epic movie so we slipped that one in for effect!
From Russia With Love
It all began circa 1985 in the mind of Russian tennis fanatic and videogames enthusiast Alexei Pajitnov, who at the time of concept was working at Moscow’s Academy of Sciences as a computer engineer. Those of you who’ve played the game will know what it’s all about but for those of you that haven’t (hard to believe in this day and age) the game uses “tetrominoes” i.e. geometrical shapes made of 4 orthogonally connected squares with the aim of the game being that you need to align the falling shapes into horizontal lines.
Tetris - Troika
Pajitnov’s primordial inspiration for the creation of Tetris was both an earlier tetrominoes game he had played and his love of tennis. Aspects of both games were brought into his first version which legend has it, took him a mere 24 hours to develop on his trusty Electronica 60.
Soon enough Pajitnov’s work was being programmed onto an IBM computer by a colleague of his at the Moscow Academy, then 16 year old junior engineer Vadim Gerasimov who apparently now works as an expert engineer at Google.
Thanks to Vadim who helped to promote and distribute the game (basically handed it out to friends) it wasn’t long before it made it over to Hungary where some developers ported it over to both the Apple II and the Commodore 64.
Robert Stein - Theif Or Entrepeneur
Enter Robert Stein the president of british software house Andromeda who upon viewing the Hungarian versions of the game quickly became interested in the possibility of acquiring both the distribution and development rights for the game.
In fact even before achieving this goal, Stein had already sold (naughty, naughty) the overall game concept and rights to british developer Mirrorsoft and its American affiliate the well known Spectrum Holobyte (both actually owned by the now very dead Robert Maxwell).
Due to selling the rights before actually getting them from Pajitnov, by 1987 Tetris had already begun shipping for the PC within Britain and the United States. The game was selling like hot cakes and all under the surprisingly lengthy and uncatchy motto of “The First Game From Behind The Iron Curtain” (back then the whole communism vs capitalism thing was massive).
At this point Stein had no legal rights to distribute or sell the game yet it was out there being sold and distributed illegally. To say he was in a bit of trouble is an understatement and after faxing Pajitnov a contract to purchase rights to the game and even heading over there in person he still remained unsuccessful.
Stein at this point had two choices turn up to Mirrorsoft and tell them he made a boo boo or simply continue with the current course of action. Stein chose the latter and decided to steal the rights pretending the game was actually conceived by the Hungarian programmers and not Pajitnov.
ELORG Vs Stein
Despite Stein pressing ahead with his plans to quietly steal Tetris, it wasn’t until January 1988 that his cunning ploy was uncovered by CBS Evening News who interviewed Pajitnov as the original creator of Tetris. It’s at this point that ELORG (Elektronorgtechnica) which represented the Soviet Ministry of Software & Hardware Export got involved. Technically the game was state owned as Pajitnov was a paid developer at the Moscow Academy Of Sciences where he created the game, hence their involvement.
With ELORG entering the equation it’s then director Alexander Alexinko quickly pointed out Stein’s theft and illegal distribution of the game. By May 1988 after much debate Stein finally headed over to Moscow to sign a contract with ELORG giving him rights to distribute Tetris on home computers only (rights to any arcade, home console, handheld or any other version were not included).
1988 - The Big Legal Mess
By now despite some headway having been made between Stein and ELORG things were about to get a lot worse. For starters ELORG had at this point, despite the massive success of the game within the British and North American markets seen no royalty payments from Stein. The game was selling so where were the payments ?
Secondly both Mirrorsoft and Spectrum started to further sub license there rights to other markets. Spectrum began by giving Bullet Proof Software (BPS) rights to distribute in Japan whilst Mirrorsoft gave the same rights to Atari Games in Japan and North America. Due to the above crossover of distribution rights in-fighting began between the various companies with things only being resolved when Robert Maxwell stepped in and sided with the Mirrorsoft sub-licensing agreement.
This decision (which was basically senseless, as Mirrorsoft didn’t actually have rights to the arcade or console market) meant Atari Games (who at the time were going to publish under the label Tengen) thought they were in the green to produce both an Arcade and an NES version of Tetris.
On top of this despite Maxwell siding with Atari (Tengen) for the sub-licensing Bullet Proof Software (BPS) president Henk Rogers managed to speak with Atari (Tengen) after their initial dispute to secure rights of distribution for the Famicom (the asian NES) allowing them to sell almost 2 million cartridges that year.
All of the above despite none of the parties having any rights to distribute or produce for anything more than the PC. What a mess!
Enter Nintendo
With all of the above going on, if it wasn’t a big fudge already Nintendo who at the time were planning on releasing the gameboy became highly interested in aquiring the handheld rights to Tetris. So in light of this Minoru Arakawa of Nintendo America gets Henk Rogers from Bullet Proof Software (BPS) to help them acquire said rights.
Henk attempts to contact Stein for the handheld rights (remember at this point in time everyone assumes Stein has the rights to all platforms) but with no response, Henk finally heads off to speak directly with ELORG in Moscow. Funnily enough and maybe coincidentally both Stein and Kevin Maxwell (Robert Maxwells Son) also head off and arrive in Moscow around the same time.
Henk Rogers Grabs Handheld Rights
Since Rogers gets to ELORG first he manages to impress and sign off the handheld rights to Tetris. However at the same time he brings up the famicom cartridges that Bullet Proof Software (BPS) released and sold earlier that year. ELORG at hearing this are not impressed as they’ve never officially handed out home console rights to anyone.
Sitting in Moscow Rogers has no choice but to open up and fully explain the extent of the Stein/Mirrorsoft/Tengen saga. Sensing that the relationship between Stein and ELORG could fall apart at any time he also decides to pay royalties on the 2 million carts BPS sold earlier that year. This was not only a chance for Rogers to get into the ELORG’s good books but an opportunity to grab more rights in the future.
Rogers walked with the handheld rights (which netted BPS between $5-$10 million after selling it to Nintendo) and a foot in the door to grab more rights (we’ll come back to this later).
Stein Grabs Arcade Rights
Stein turns up a couple of days after Rogers and is told to resign their original contract highlighting the fact that the rights are only for the PC. ELORG basically slap Stein on the wrist, deny him the rights to the handheld but still give him rights to the Arcade versions. Not bad for a guy that initially attempted to steal Tetris in the first place.
Kevin Maxwell Grabs Nothing
Kevin Maxwell the most unlucky of the bunch turns up last only to be shown the Famicom cartridge produced by Bullet Proof Software (BPS) on authority of Atari and with Mirrorsofts logo sitting nicely on it. Maxwell backtracks and claims they never handed out any rights to Atari and that these must be pirated versions. A not so good meeting with ELORG means Maxwell walks away with nothing.
Nintendo Grabs Home Console Rights
This is the part we said we’d come back to later, because Henk Rogers on March 15th 1989 heads back to Moscow with an offer on behalf of Nintendo for the console rights to Tetris. ELORG agree and both Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln of Nintendo fly to Moscow to complete the contract and pay a cash advance of almost $3-$5 million.
Cease & Desists
After Nintendo nailed the rights to the home console market, a lot of legal to and fro happened. For starters ELORG notifies Mirrorsoft, Andromeda (Steins company) and Atari (Tengen) that they are not permitted to distribute Tetris on any console system because those rights are now with Nintendo.
ELORG’s notification is then swiftly followed up by Howard Lincoln of Nintendo who sends an official cease and desist order to Atari (Tengen) prompting them to halt any further production of any Tetris games for the NES. Tengen replies to the cease and desist claiming they completely own Tetris on all home systems and start to file a copyright for its source code, soundtrack and artwork.
Enter Mikhail Gorbachev
If you think things don’t get any worse, well they do! Robert Maxwell the media tycoon takes things to an international level getting assurances from the Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev that Nintendo wouldn’t be a problem to Mirrorsoft and Atari. The above basically means Mikhail and the boys were going to use some classic strong arm tactics on ELORG.
With Gorbachev behind them Atari (Tengen) attempts to sue Nintendo, Nintendo counter sues, and both sides turn up to court where in summary judge Fern Smith decides in favour of Nintendo. His logic was that because Mirrorsoft and Spectrum never had the official rights to hand over, it was thus not possible for Atari (Tengen) to have them either.
Nintendo Victory
Nintendo wins and Atari (Tengen) versions are removed from shelves worldwide, thousands of copies of the Tengen version remain unsold and as you can imagine the Tengen version of Tetris is now abit of a collectors item.
By July 1989 the Nintendos NES version of Tetris has hit the shelves, the gameboy has been released and sales are booming worldwide. Behind the scenes the official lawsuit between Atari (Tengen) and Nintendo still continues and doesn’t officially conclude until 1993.
Where Are They Now ?
Well Stein quickly dissappeared and apparently only made around $250,000 (which for the 1980s was still a decent sum). The main reason he didn’t make us much as he could have was because both Atari and Mirrorsoft wouldn’t pay him after he put them into so much trouble and ultimately sold them something he didn’t have. (we don’t blame them!)
Mirrorsoft quickly dissappeared after the death of owner Robert Maxwell. In fact his whole empire collapsed shortly after his death due to allegations of him supporting fraud and illegal transactions.
Nintendo absolutely smashed the sales and made a killing on both the NES and Gameboy versions. In fact it was only them and Bullet Proof Software (BPS) who really made any substantial financial gains from the Russian game.
Atari are still hanging in there somewhere and you can read more about them in our recently posted article “The History Of Atari“.
What About Pajitnov ?
The guy who started the whole thing is still sitting tight having made no money at all. Well that’s not entirely true as rumours are that thanks to Henk Rogers (the guy that helped Nintendo) Pajitnov since 1996 has been collecting royalties via the formation of “The Tetris Company LLC” which Mr Rogers so kindly put together (both pictured below at a recent E3).
If you want more details on the whole Tetris, Mirrorsoft, Atari, Nintendo incident then check out the fully detailed Tetris Saga account by Atari HQ.