'Tetris' explores the true story behind the late 1980s legal battle that led to the classic video game becoming an international phenomenon
: Taron Egerton, Sofia Lebedeva, and Nikita Efremov inLike in the movie, after Tetris was ported to the IBM PC in 1985 and began to spread throughout the Soviet Union, Hungarian businessman Robert Stein made an attempt to secure the computer rights to the game for his company, Andromeda Software.
In the spring of 1988, Stein finally signed an agreement with Elektronorgtechnica , the state-owned agency with a monopoly on Russia’s import and export of software, for the computer rights to Tetris . However, the contract expressly forbid Stein from licensing the rights to the arcade and handheld versions of the game, as well as any other mediumsMeanwhile, Rogers was busy obtaining distribution rights from Spectrum Holobyte for Tetris computer and console games in Japan.
Rogers traveled to the Soviet Union on a tourist visa rather than a business visa, a decision that complicated his efforts to meet with anyone involved with Tetris in an official capacity. “I am about to walk in the door and my interpreter says, ‘You can’t go in there,'” Rogers told. “And I said, ‘What do you mean, I can’t go in there?’ ‘You’re on a tourist visa. You can’t go in. You’re not allowed to speak to anyone.
Rogers’ arrival in Moscow with the Nintendo Famicon version of Tetris led to the revelation that Stein had been trading rights he did not own. A tense three-way battle over the rights to the game ensued between Rogers, Stein, and Mirrorsoft owner Robert Maxwell and his son Kevin Maxwell . After a series of complicated negotiations made all the more fraught by Soviet-era tensions, Elorg ultimately granted the rights for Tetris console and handheld games to Rogers for distribution by Nintendo.
Rogers also cemented a friendship with Pajitnov during his time in Moscow and eventually helped him to profit from the game he had invented. Following‘s world premiere at South by Southwest earlier this month, both Rogers and Pajitnov said during a post-screening panel discussion that the movie accurately portrayed their lives during that time period., “That was emotionally, intellectually and spiritually a very truthful movie.
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