Tetris, a name inspired by the Greek word for four, meets the game of tennis in a playful blend that hints at its puzzle core. The film explains how this landmark title came to life and why it remains a cornerstone of arcade history. Available on Apple TV+, the story centers on Henk Rogers, a Dutch video game designer and businessman who brokered a pivotal settlement between Nintendo and Atari to secure Tetris licenses for game consoles. The game would later find a home on the Game Boy, the handheld system that reshaped portable gaming.
The year is 1988. Rogers discovers a game created two years earlier by Alexéi Pázhitnov, a computer engineer working in the Soviet Union. Amid the upheaval of perestroika, Pázhitnov faced royalties controlled by the state, limiting his personal profits despite the game’s global popularity. It would not be until 1996 that Pázhitnov, together with Rogers, founded The Tetris Company and began to monetize the groundbreaking creation. Rogers believed in the title’s universal appeal and presented it as the most addictive pastime imaginable, securing financial backing from investors who shared that conviction.
The impact on players reshaped how games were experienced. Nintendo had already made waves with Super Mario Brothers, yet Tetris carved its own route. The core play is simple: drop falling shapes to fill gaps on the screen until lines are completed and cleared. When four lines are cleared at once, a Tetris is earned. The concept remains deceptively straightforward yet highly engaging, and it soon outsold Pac-Man on arcade floors. Rogers envisioned a future where Tetris would appear in arcades and in cartridge form, driving demand that would power a new era of handheld gaming on the Game Boy.
video game geopolitics
The film traces the unique geopolitics surrounding video games at a pivotal moment. It follows the creation of the Game Boy at Nintendo’s facilities in Seattle and recounts the legal and strategic drama involving Mirrorsoft in Britain, among other pressures. The narrative unfolds like a rapid briefing on a cultural force, set against a backdrop of espionage, shifting Cold War dynamics, and the rising profitability of Pázhitnov’s invention as Rogers and others navigated licensing and distribution that would shape the industry for years to come.
Born to an Indonesian family in 1953, Pázhitnov built a career spanning Japan and the United States, founding Bullet-Proof Software in Japan and later Blue Planet Software in Hawaii. The story also spotlights Rogers as a tireless advocate who recognized the potential of a simple puzzle and pressed for licensing that would reach players worldwide. The film highlights the personalities and business decisions that propelled the game’s ascent, offering a window into how a single idea can become a global phenomenon when paired with smart strategy. It also touches on the people behind the licenses, the teams that brought the play style to life on multiple platforms, and the lasting cultural footprint that Tetris established across generations.