The History of Tetris: Birth and Global Success of an Iconic Game

From Idea to Implementation

The story of Tetris begins in 1984 in Moscow, at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. It was here that Alexey Pajitnov, a Russian computer scientist, created Tetris, drawing inspiration from his childhood favorite puzzle game, pentominoes (which uses shapes made of five squares).

• Pajitnov decided to use shapes made of four squares, dubbing them "tetrominoes."
• The game's name cleverly combines the Greek prefix "tetra" (meaning four) and Pajitnov's favorite sport, "tennis."
• He programmed the first version on an Electronika 60, a Soviet terminal computer which was essentially a clone of the PDP-11.
• Due to the severe graphical limitations of this machine, the initial version used text characters – specifically brackets and spaces – to represent the falling blocks.

Game Development and Early Spread

Tetris quickly gained popularity among Pajitnov's colleagues, becoming so addictive that it was reportedly banned in some Moscow institutes to restore worker productivity. Development didn't stop there:

• Pajitnov collaborated with Dmitry Pavlovsky and the then 16-year-old intern Vadim Gerasimov to port the game to the IBM PC.
• This new version featured color graphics and a scoreboard, making it more visually appealing.
• Pavlovsky added the high-score table feature, introducing a competitive element to the game.

Western Expansion and Licensing Chaos

Tetris's journey to the West began, somewhat fittingly, via Hungary. British software salesman Robert Stein spotted the game at a computer exhibition there. Recognizing its potential, Stein attempted to secure the distribution rights, leading to a notoriously complex situation:

• Navigating Soviet bureaucracy to license software was extremely difficult during the Cold War.
• Stein believed he had secured full rights through a telex agreement with Pajitnov, but this wasn't legally binding under Soviet law, where intellectual property created at state institutions belonged to the state.
• The actual rights holder was ELORG (Elektronorgtechnica), the Soviet state-owned organization responsible for the import/export of computer software.
• This misunderstanding, coupled with Stein sub-licensing rights he didn't fully possess to companies like Mirrorsoft and Spectrum HoloByte, led to a tangled web of conflicting claims and legal battles involving multiple companies vying for different platform rights (PC, console, arcade, handheld).

Tetris Achieves Global Success

Despite the licensing turmoil, Tetris soon conquered the world:

• The first commercial versions were released by Mirrorsoft (UK) and its US affiliate Spectrum HoloByte in 1987-88, often featuring Russian-themed graphics and music.
• The game's truly explosive breakthrough came when Nintendo, aided by Dutch game publisher Henk Rogers (who flew to Moscow to negotiate directly with ELORG amidst the chaos), secured the crucial handheld and console rights.
• Tetris became the killer app bundled with Nintendo's Game Boy at its launch in 1989, selling over 35 million copies on that platform alone and cementing the handheld's success.
• By 2014, the Tetris franchise had achieved over 425 million paid downloads on mobile platforms, demonstrating its enduring appeal across generations and technologies.

Pajitnov's Delayed Royalties

Although Pajitnov created one of the most successful video games in history, he initially received no financial compensation from Tetris:

• Due to Soviet regulations regarding intellectual property created within state institutions, all rights belonged to the state via ELORG.
• In 1996, after immigrating to the United States and following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Pajitnov and Henk Rogers co-founded The Tetris Company.
• This finally allowed Pajitnov to secure the intellectual property rights to his creation and begin receiving royalties.
• Since then, Tetris has sold hundreds of millions of copies across more than 50 different gaming platforms.

The Role of the Electronika 60

The Electronika 60, despite its technical limitations, played a pivotal role in shaping Tetris:

• Pajitnov programmed the original version on this machine using the Pascal programming language.
• The machine's lack of graphics hardware forced Pajitnov to use text characters (like bracket pairs `[]` or possibly delete/backspace characters) to render the blocks, creating the game's unique original ASCII-art style.
• Crucially, these limitations arguably fostered the game's minimalist aesthetic and core mechanics. The constraints likely influenced the standard 10x20 playfield size and the single next-piece preview, features that became defining characteristics of Tetris.

Summary

The story of Tetris is a remarkable testament to how a simple idea, born from a love of puzzles, can become a worldwide cultural phenomenon. The game's success lies not only in its ingenious simplicity and addictive gameplay loop but also in its fascinating journey across Cold War political barriers. Today, Tetris is more than just a game; it's an integral part of pop culture, a subject of psychological study (the "Tetris Effect"), and continues to delight and challenge players of all ages across the globe.