However, Pajitnov and Rogers had become friends, and with Rogers' help, Pajitnov emigrated to America in 1991 and devoted himself to creating games, first for his own game-design company and later for Microsoft. For the love of puzzlesĪ lot of money changed hands during these deals, but Pajitnov, the game's creator, was not part of the negotiations and saw no profits at all, missing out on approximately $40 million, SFGate reported in 1998. The Soviets were outraged, but Rogers convinced them that if those rights were, in fact, up for grabs, licensing them to Nintendo - for both handheld and console devices - would be highly profitable.Įlorg agreed that Rogers could secure the handheld rights for Nintendo, with console and coin-operated kiosk rights added later, amid angry protests from Atari over the threat to their own versions of "Tetris." A prolonged legal battle between the two rival game companies followed, but was eventually resolved in favor of Nintendo that company quickly solidified "Tetris'" hold on eager consumers across America by including a copy with every Game Boy that Nintendo sold. The penny dropped when Rogers met with Elorg officials in Moscow about licensing "Tetris" for handheld devices - Nintendo had just created the Game Boy - and showed them a "Tetris" cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment system (NES). Welcome screen from the MS-DOS version of "Tetris." (Image credit: Mirrorsoft Ltd.) The only contract the agency had signed was the deal with Stein covering computer rights, and nothing else. However, the legal owner of "Tetris," the Soviet agency Elorg, knew nothing of these deals, Brown wrote. distributor Mirrorsoft that these rights would soon be in hand, and Mirrorsoft proceeded to ink licensing deals with game companies Atari and Sega in Japan for arcade kiosks and home-gaming consoles.īulletProof Software's Henk Rogers also had his eye on brokering "Tetris" deals in Japan, and secured rights for "Tetris" distribution on computers and consoles for Nintendo, through the U.S. Stein's agreement with Elorg covered "Tetris" licensing only for personal computers, not coin-operated machines or handheld devices.
According to the Times, "Tetris" was the first software created in the Soviet Union to be sold in America. Spectrum HoloByte and Mirrorsoft Ltd - The New York Times reported in 1988. Elorg licensed the game to Stein, who then licensed it to distributors in the U.S.
He tracked down Pajitnov in Moscow, but ultimately the game's fate lay in the hands of a new Soviet agency, Elektronorgtechnica (Elorg), created to oversee foreign distribution of Soviet-made software. When Pajitnov sent a copy to a colleague in Hungary, it ended up on display in a software exhibit at the Hungarian Institute of Technology, where it came to the attention of Robert Stein, owner of Andromeda Software Ltd., who was visiting the exhibit from the United Kingdom. These early players copied and shared "Tetris" on floppy disks, and the game quickly spread across Moscow, Brown wrote. (Image credit: Alexey Pajitnov)Īnd when he shared the game with his co-workers, they started playing it - and kept playing it and playing it. If you're looking for Tetris, this is a great implementation and is a lot of fun.The very first "Tetris" game, designed by Alexey Pajitnov. I had a lot of fun with this, and it brought back a lot of fun memories. The graphics are good, and the sound is decent. I find it easier to play with the sound off.Ĭonclusion: Tetris Zone is a decent game and it’s a lot of fun.
Tetris is an authentic retro-Tetris game designed and optimized specifically for Windows and OS X.Ĭons: The music for this game has always been distracting to me. You can automatically upload your scores to a world-wide Leader Board and compare your ranking against players from the around the world.
It also includes a full instant replay mode, so you can relive your best game, including your all-time hi-score and your daily best. Tetris has four game variations to keep you entertained for hours. The game's stunning 3D graphics make the Tetris experience exciting as you experience new levels of play. Tetris Zone offers four modes of play, from the simple, yet challenging 15-level Marathon mode to an instant hard-drop variation, and more. It’s a fun, multi-platform game for your PC. This is one of the reasons why I really like Tetris Zone. It was challenging, fun, entertaining, and all the rage back in the day. One of the games that I enjoyed the most was Tetris. I remember getting an original 8-bit Nintendo for Christmas back in 1992. Stack up the blocks with this fun, retro, multi-platform game.