About the Game
History
How to Play
Geneology
Imitations
Links

Original Release
PC (DOS/Windows)

Other Releases
Apple II (128k)
Apple II (48k)
Apple IIGS
Apple Macintosh
Arcade
Atari 2600
Atari ST
Commodore 64
Commodore Amiga
ColecoVision
Game Boy
Famicom / NES (Tengen)
Famicom / NES (Nintendo)
PC (DOS/Windows) (Original)
Sega Mega Drive / Genesis

Picture Galleries
Coming Soon

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Title
Tetris
Uh-Oh
Extra

Audio Clip Galleries
Game

From Russia, with Love

The former Soviet Union is not exactly well known for its contributions to pop culture. However, one of the most popular and original video games of the late 1980's, singularly responsible for creating the "puzzle game" genre, actually came from Mother Russia. That game is Tetris.

Tetris was the brainchild of Russian computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov. Originally developed and programmed on a Russian minicomputer, the Electronika 60, Tetris was then ported to the PC in a collaboration between Pajitnov and coworkers Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov. The game spread like wildfire, soon finding its way through the Iron Curtain and into the western world. Within five years, the game had racked up an impressive amount of editions and imitations, touching almost every computer and game system that had been released by that point, and even becoming the principle force behind the success of one particular console, Nintendo's Game Boy. Decades later, the game is still a hit with many fans, and new titles boasting new features are released every time there is new hardware to exploit. It doesn't even matter whether the hardware is meant to play video games. Cell phones, portable music players, digital cameras, and far more have all been bitten by the Tetris bug.

Sadly, the most fascinating details of Tetris's history have less to do with the game itself, and more to do with the legal, political, and even personal turmoil that has surrounded the game. When Tetris first appeared in Europe, there were no formal arrangements in place regardings its distribution. A few programmers took it upon themselves to create ports for other systems, adding to the game's growing popularity. This caught the attention of British software company Andromeda. After making contact with Pajitnov and his employer, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Andromeda began granting licenses to other companies, who in turn translated and distributed Tetris on a wide variety of computer platforms. By 1988, three years after Pajitnov first envisioned Tetris, the game was a massive worldwide hit. There was just one problem: A deal between Andromeda and the Russians had never been finalized. Andromeda had no legal right to grant any permissions for Tetris!

The Russian government, by now realizing it needed a more formal means of dealing with the slippery Andromeda, created a new company, Elektronorgtechnica ("ELORG" for short) to handle the negotiations. Andromeda and ELORG eventually agreed to a contract, legitimizing the home computer editions already on the market. However, the legal quagmire didn't end there. The companies Andromeda had sublicensed were in turn granting further sublicenses to companies hoping to make game console editions. Also, Atari Games was expressing interest in making an arcade game, and Nintendo decided Tetris would make an excellent pack-in game for the upcoming portable Game Boy. All these requests came back to Andromeda, creating a new problem for the company: The contract with ELORG only covered home computers, and even explicitly prohibited Andromeda from granting arcade and handheld licenses. Andromeda, still wanting everyone to believe they were in charge of all Tetris licensing, used a bit of creative interpretation to declare the company had video game console rights as well as home computer rights. Andromeda then began talking with ELORG about the remaining priveleges. Progress was slow, hampered by Andromeda's lack of royalty payments they had promised.

During this time, Bullet-Proof Software, which by this point had released what was thought to be a legitimate edition of Tetris for Nintendo's Famicom, and which was also in charge of getting permission for Nintendo to make a handheld release, decided to communicate with ELORG directly, as talks with Andromeda were proving futile. Much to the company's surprise, ELORG told Bullet-Proof Software that no video game console rights had been granted! Bullet-Proof Software, sensing a prime opportunity, arranged for Nintendo to acquire not only the handheld rights, but the console rights as well. This effectively rendered Bullet-Proof Software's relationship with Andromeda unnecessary, but it also threw a monkey wrench into the plans of Atari Games. That company was under the impression it had game console rights, and even was planning its own release of Tetris for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Atari Games, assured that the company's claim to Tetris was valid, decided to go ahead with its home edition. Predictably, this put Nintendo and Atari Games at odds, and the companies were soon heading to court. The resulting battle ensnared every company that had published or was intending to publish Tetris by that point, and even the Russian government intervened, much to ELORG's chagrin. In the end, Nintendo and ELORG prevailed, with the court ruling ELORG had not granted game console rights to anyone before dealing with Nintendo. Atari Games was forced to recall its version of Tetris, while Nintendo went ahead with both its Game Boy release, and an American release of Bullet-Proof Software's Famicom version, repackaged for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Despite the loss, Atari Games was not left completely empty-handed. Andromeda finally did succeed in securing the arcade game rights, which Atari Games then sublicensed, allowing their arcade edition to go on to moderate success.

Since then, there has been less legal doubt about the game's ownership. After the Soviet government dissolved, ELORG transformed into a civilian company, keeping hold of the Tetris name. Pajitnov, by then living in the United States, founded a new company, The Tetris Company, which struck a deal with ELORG to handle all licensing of the Tetris trademarks. It was only then that Pajitnov began getting royalties directly from his creation. However, the contributions of Pajitnov's coworkers, Pavlovsky and Gerasimov, had long since been downplayed by the time of The Tetris Company's formation. Relationships between the three friends had been strained by Pajitnov's desire to capitalize on the game's success (a radical concept for the still-communist Soviet Union at the time), and fell apart completely when Pajitnov abandoned the trio's original intention of working on game designs, not just Tetris, together. Pavlovsky later moved to the United Kingdom, while Gerasimov currently resides in Australia, earning his living as a research scientist.