0:00:04 > 0:00:09When the first programme version started to breathe, at that moment,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13I realised I had something really good.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16A game is a beautiful thing.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21I hadn't met a person who touched that game and didn't get hooked.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25The pieces look so simple, but then the game is so deep.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28But it can be dangerous.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31It was a very heroic experience.
0:00:31 > 0:00:38I must assume that this was a deliberate attempt to frighten me.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43IN RUSSIAN:
0:00:54 > 0:00:57This is the story of four people
0:00:57 > 0:01:03and the one game that brought them together and set them apart.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20Moscow. January 1985.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23The Cold War lingered on.
0:01:23 > 0:01:31Gorbachev was months from power, and the world had yet to hear of Perestroika.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36The economic system was near collapse,
0:01:36 > 0:01:41and political freedom, a distant dream.
0:01:46 > 0:01:54Yet in this repressive landscape, stood a scientific institute where the brightest minds gathered.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57A place of intellectual freedom,
0:01:57 > 0:01:59and creativity.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21Here at Moscow's Computer Centre,
0:02:21 > 0:02:27scientists pushed machines to the very edge of their capabilities.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32I was an absolutely natural hacker
0:02:32 > 0:02:36and computers really fascinated me.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38You can make a computer do anything.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43You just write an instruction and it follows it.
0:02:43 > 0:02:50Alexey Pajitnov's predecessors had discovered the concept of the nuclear winter,
0:02:50 > 0:02:55and calculated the trajectory of Sputnik satellites.
0:02:58 > 0:03:04But Alexey's impact on history came in a very different form.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06ELECTRONIC TUNE PLAYS
0:03:12 > 0:03:15In the spring of 1985,
0:03:15 > 0:03:22he had plans for his computer that extended far beyond its normal tasks.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27ALEXEY: I always liked all kinds of games and puzzles.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30When I was a schoolboy,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34we didn't have too much entertainment those years.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39But games were a big part of our leisure time.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44Many people played chess and other games,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48we really looked in the store for some kind of board games,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51and spent quite a time on it.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58That's a very well-known puzzle game,
0:03:58 > 0:04:03called Pentomino. Basically it consists of 12 different shapes,
0:04:03 > 0:04:08made out of five squares. You have to put them all in a box,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10like a jigsaw puzzle.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15It's a well-known puzzle and I love it very much.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19I used to be pretty good at it.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Let me finish it. Oops!
0:04:21 > 0:04:24I forget how to do it.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26There we go.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29This way, that way.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38Alexey started to apply this favourite puzzle onto the computer.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45Something began to evolve at his terminal,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48but it was a painstaking process.
0:05:03 > 0:05:10The five square Pentomino pieces become four square pieces that fell towards the bottom of the screen.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17It was the player's job to rotate these shapes and fit them together.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20A new game was born.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25They called it Tetris, from the Greek for "fall".
0:05:25 > 0:05:30When the very first programme version started to "breathe",
0:05:30 > 0:05:37when the first pieces appeared on the screen and became controllable,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40that was very nice.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24Even without sound and only the most basic graphics,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28this first version seemed to exert an unusual power.
0:06:32 > 0:06:39I did play a lot with this kind of strange prototype and I couldn't stop myself.
0:06:39 > 0:06:47Mikhail Kulagin and other people in my room asked, "What are you doing here all the time?"
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Then I let people play,
0:06:49 > 0:06:54and I realised it was not me who was cuckoo
0:06:54 > 0:06:57and had something wrong in the brain!
0:06:57 > 0:07:02Everybody who touched this game couldn't stop playing with it.
0:07:19 > 0:07:27Tetris spread throughout the Computer Centre, infecting all in its path.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57Tetris appeals to another side of the human psyche -
0:07:57 > 0:08:01one bent on construction rather than destruction.
0:08:01 > 0:08:09ALEXEY: When you play Tetris you have the impression that you are building something.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14You have the chaos coming as the random pieces,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16your job is to put them in order.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20But just as you construct the perfect line,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23it disappears.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28All that remains is what you failed to complete.
0:08:42 > 0:08:49What kind of gets to your eyes all the time, is your mistakes - your ugly holes!
0:08:49 > 0:08:53And that drives you to fix it all the time.
0:08:55 > 0:09:02The first colour version was developed in the summer of 1985 and it was this version
0:09:02 > 0:09:07that Alexey handed out to friends outside the Computer Centre,
0:09:07 > 0:09:10who in turn copied it to their friends.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15After that, kind of, every place in Moscow -
0:09:15 > 0:09:18like a wood fire, you know?
0:09:18 > 0:09:24Tetris, in two weeks, was on every single computer in Moscow.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28The game took hold and spread.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31First through Moscow,
0:09:31 > 0:09:38then through the Soviet Union and finally, out into the Soviet Block countries.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41As it travelled, it did so freely,
0:09:41 > 0:09:45copied from disk to disk, unhindered by commercial constraint.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50Here, there was no notion of intellectual property rights.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55Individual ideas were owned by the state -
0:09:55 > 0:09:58to be shared among everyone.
0:09:58 > 0:10:05We didn't have the idea that the software could be considered as a product
0:10:05 > 0:10:09and sold or protected or whatever.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12It made no sense for us at all.
0:10:22 > 0:10:28For now, the only thing that contained the spreading game
0:10:28 > 0:10:30was the Iron Curtain.
0:10:30 > 0:10:38Which left Tetris a cult hit, and its inventor with recognition but no reward.
0:10:43 > 0:10:50But Tetris was born into a changing world that had opened up a chink in the Iron Curtain.
0:10:50 > 0:10:57In the mid-80s, Hungary was successfully exporting puzzles and computer technology
0:10:57 > 0:10:59to the West.
0:11:00 > 0:11:05Robert Stein made his money buying software from Hungary
0:11:05 > 0:11:08and selling it on in Britain.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13On a trip to the Hungarian Institute of Technology in 1986,
0:11:13 > 0:11:18he saw the game that would prove both a blessing and a curse.
0:11:18 > 0:11:25We were wandering round in a room with all kinds of computers going, all kinds of software going.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27Suddenly, in a corner,
0:11:27 > 0:11:32I have seen a game which consisted of bricks
0:11:32 > 0:11:38coming down, or some kind of shapes. It was tucked away in a corner and I asked "What is this?"
0:11:38 > 0:11:40They said, "Ignore it."
0:11:40 > 0:11:46So we wandered around but I kept coming back to that.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48After some reluctance,
0:11:48 > 0:11:55the Hungarians revealed this wasn't their game and gave Stein the name of the Moscow Computer Centre.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58He wasted no time in making contact
0:11:58 > 0:12:04but found them rather indifferent to his requests to licence the game.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11Nobody gave a shit about the stuff! A small, little game...
0:12:11 > 0:12:15The Computer Centre were very busy
0:12:15 > 0:12:20with the serious kind of physical, differential equation of the...
0:12:20 > 0:12:24entire outer space or nuclear war!
0:12:24 > 0:12:31Games were something absolutely alien for their nature!
0:12:35 > 0:12:41Alexey ended up dealing with Stein's requests on their behalf.
0:12:41 > 0:12:47He proposed something like £10,000 for it as advance payment.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52I replied that we were interested in his proposal,
0:12:52 > 0:12:57and ready to continue, kind of...talk...talk about this.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02He interpreted this fax as an agreement on everything!
0:13:02 > 0:13:08Casual agreements like this were normal among the gaming fraternity.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11But this was Russia.
0:13:11 > 0:13:18And this informal arrangement would soon bring Stein head-to-head with the might of the Soviet state.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23He set about peddling his new-found acquisition
0:13:23 > 0:13:26around British game producers.
0:13:26 > 0:13:34One of his favourites was Mirrorsoft, the software arm of the Maxwell Corporation.
0:13:34 > 0:13:40In 1986, this was a giant entertainment empire.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45It owned newspapers, magazines, and even leading football clubs.
0:13:45 > 0:13:51If they bought Tetris, Stein would have a real heavyweight player behind the game.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54I looked at it for a few minutes
0:13:54 > 0:13:58and passed it to the technical department downstairs.
0:13:58 > 0:14:05Then, a couple of weeks later I wandered down at lunchtime. They were all playing the game!
0:14:05 > 0:14:10So, I said, "Well, this is... OK, I'd better play it myself."
0:14:12 > 0:14:14So... I took it home.
0:14:14 > 0:14:21It was only a matter of time before Britain caught the Tetris bug.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25My wife accuses me of ruining the family Christmas
0:14:25 > 0:14:28because I found it addictive.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32But my wife found it addictive and so did my two young kids!
0:14:34 > 0:14:40While Mirrorsoft signed a deal to produce the game in Britain,
0:14:40 > 0:14:47Maxwell also had a software company in California which paved the way for the Tetris invasion of the US.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51We were over there looking at different game titles
0:14:51 > 0:14:56that we could publish, market, sell. Jim said, "You'll like this,"
0:14:56 > 0:14:59so I sat and I played Tetris for...
0:14:59 > 0:15:05oh, a couple of hours. We went off and got a bite to eat.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10Everyone was ready to go home but I wanted to go back and play Tetris.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18Phil came back the next day saying "This is great.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20"It's a great product."
0:15:20 > 0:15:25The problem was, what techniques could we use,
0:15:25 > 0:15:29to fly against the run, as it was going,
0:15:29 > 0:15:33of what the market was wanting for computer games.
0:15:36 > 0:15:43For inspiration of how to sell this simple game, they returned to its roots.
0:15:45 > 0:15:50The emergence of Gorbachev created the opportunity to manipulate
0:15:50 > 0:15:56both the fear and fascination of that land behind the Iron Curtain.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05The curiosity of having anything from behind the Iron Curtain
0:16:05 > 0:16:10was kind of like memorabilia or something people wanted to have.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15We put it in red packaging, and for the first box,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19we actually set up the spelling of Tetris in Russian.
0:16:19 > 0:16:25We used the Soviet symbol as part of the Tetris name.
0:16:27 > 0:16:34The marketing worked and with great press behind it, Tetris was set to be a big hit.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38But all the attention had an unforeseen consequence
0:16:38 > 0:16:42that was about to jeopardise everything.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44As we are about to launch the thing,
0:16:44 > 0:16:50we get a telex from a company called Elorg,
0:16:50 > 0:16:56never heard of...in Russia, stating that we are illegally...
0:16:56 > 0:16:59trying to launch Tetris,
0:16:59 > 0:17:05cos that belongs to them and they never gave us permission to do it.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08Elorg, short for Electronorgtechnika,
0:17:08 > 0:17:14was a government department dealing with the foreign trade of software.
0:17:14 > 0:17:20Gorbachev was keen to create an export market to the West,
0:17:20 > 0:17:25but strictly under the control of the state.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29Russian bureaucracy loves to have control of everything.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34If it is ours, we want to... we want to have everything
0:17:34 > 0:17:39properly...and qui... and kind of perfectly done.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43Robert Stein was summoned to Moscow.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46There was always a long corridor.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51First of all, they keep you waiting in the reception,
0:17:51 > 0:17:57nobody talks to you, and then they lead you up.
0:17:57 > 0:18:03They usher you into a room with a very long conference table.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05It was like...
0:18:05 > 0:18:09you being questioned... in a court.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14Because they showed an absolute distrust
0:18:14 > 0:18:18of whatever I was saying.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23Why did we do what we'd done without their permission?
0:18:23 > 0:18:29I explained that I didn't know they existed, never mind about permission.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35Stein used all his powers of persuasion to get the Russians to sign a contract,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38and Tetris was cleared for sale.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43Within weeks, it catapulted into the best-seller lists,
0:18:43 > 0:18:47and in its first year sold over 100,000 copies
0:18:47 > 0:18:50in America alone.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55But sales were limited to those that owned a personal computer.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57The real mass market
0:18:57 > 0:19:00lay elsewhere.
0:19:03 > 0:19:10Home video games played through console machines that plugged directly into the TV,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14and operated by a remote controller.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19In 1988, this was a multi-billion dollar industry.
0:19:19 > 0:19:26Maxwell's company Mirrorsoft saw an opportunity and approached publisher Atari
0:19:26 > 0:19:30about creating a home video version of Tetris.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34They held the rights to the games,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37as far as I knew at that moment.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42They approached me to publish it for game consoles.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46So I took it to committee at Atari,
0:19:46 > 0:19:49and everybody was crazy about it.
0:19:49 > 0:19:56The PC version of Tetris was ideally suited to adapting for a video game.
0:19:56 > 0:20:02Atari struck a deal and set about enhancing its visual appeal.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05I felt that puzzle pieces should be 3-D.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09Our engineers turned them into 3-D shaded things.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14I thought it looked much more polished and much less PC game-ish.
0:20:14 > 0:20:20The way things are laid out on the screen made the game more exciting.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25From a commercial point of view, the profit potential was enormous.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35By the middle of 1988, Alexey Pajitnov's simple game
0:20:35 > 0:20:38was an extremely valuable asset,
0:20:38 > 0:20:43set to make millions for companies in Europe and North America.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47But one important market remained untapped.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54Japan not only had a burgeoning consumer electronics industry,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58but also a long tradition of puzzle games.
0:20:58 > 0:21:05Henk Rogers was an entrepreneur who searched the world for games to produce for the Japanese market.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12I'd work out how much money I could make on a title.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15I'd make a decision right there,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17make somebody an offer.
0:21:17 > 0:21:25At a US trade show Henk met Atari's Randy Broweleit and first saw the game that would make his fortune.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31HENK ROGERS: Tetris was probably the quietest game at the show.
0:21:31 > 0:21:37Even then, products were graphically exciting and audio exciting.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42Tetris was different. I wanted to play not because it was those things,
0:21:42 > 0:21:47but because it struck some basic chord and I couldn't stop playing.
0:21:51 > 0:21:57Henk secured both PC and video game rights for Japan
0:21:57 > 0:22:02and returned home to create his own versions of Tetris.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07Tetris was expanding and evolving into three major world markets
0:22:07 > 0:22:11and everyone was cashing in.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16Everyone that is, apart from the Russians.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18We'd sent our money to Mirrorsoft.
0:22:18 > 0:22:24Was Stein getting paid? Somewhere in the chain, somebody wasn't paying.
0:22:27 > 0:22:34Elorg drafted in a new broom from Communist Party headquarters to sort things out.
0:22:34 > 0:22:41Nikolai Belikov's first job was to examine the agreement with Robert Stein's company, Andromeda Software.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15As Belikov pondered this problem,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19other developments were about to change his fortune.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28Industry giants Nintendo were about to launch a game playing device
0:23:28 > 0:23:32and wanted to sell Tetris as part of the package.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39But first, they needed someone to discreetly secure them the rights.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43We showed Henk Rogers a prototype of Game Boy
0:23:43 > 0:23:47and a prototype of Tetris playing on Game Boy.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51So he immediately moved very quickly.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58Henk went straight to the top of the chain -
0:23:58 > 0:24:03to the one man who'd been dealing directly with the Russians.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06I contacted Robert Stein and said,
0:24:06 > 0:24:13"Robert, you need to represent me to get the rights to Tetris for Game Boy from Russia."
0:24:13 > 0:24:15And he agreed.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19And I sent him 25,000.
0:24:19 > 0:24:26Little did he know that Stein had been discussing the same rights with Mirrorsoft.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29'He was trying to muscle in'
0:24:29 > 0:24:33on something which was spoken for - the Tetris.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38On the other hand, I wasn't going to be dismissive of him,
0:24:38 > 0:24:43because I saw him as a potential licensee of products
0:24:43 > 0:24:46which we could use or develop in Hungary.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51We were exchanging faxes on a weekly basis for three months.
0:24:51 > 0:24:56I started getting nervous, because it seemed to be taking so long.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59He said he was going to go to Russia
0:24:59 > 0:25:03and he kept on saying that and he wasn't going,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06so I became really suspicious.
0:25:06 > 0:25:13Robert Stein's negotiations with the Russians had reached an impasse over the money he owed them.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47By February 1989,
0:25:47 > 0:25:54Henk Rogers was tired of waiting and increasingly suspicious that Stein was working for someone else.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00I said, "Get me on a plane - he's getting rights for someone else.
0:26:00 > 0:26:06"I need those rights." I was on a plane two days later going to Moscow.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11But Henk Rogers wasn't the only one flying into Moscow that week.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18Robert Stein was finally making the trip himself.
0:26:18 > 0:26:25To complete the set, Mirrorsoft had secretly sent Kevin Maxwell to move negotiations on for their interests.
0:26:25 > 0:26:30Both Stein and Maxwell had meetings set for the same day.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33Henk had no such meeting arranged.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36He didn't even have an address for Elorg.
0:26:36 > 0:26:43'I knew I was going behind the Iron Curtain for the first time, but I had no idea what I was getting into.'
0:26:43 > 0:26:48I kind of knew how to deal with people who weren't from my culture,
0:26:48 > 0:26:53so I expected to get off that plane and make friends.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55That's not what happened.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00I guess this is just the beginning of my trip and I'm in for a lot more.
0:27:00 > 0:27:05Henk recorded his adventure to take back to Japan.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Take a look outside here. This is Moscow.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11It looks pretty grey.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13That's because it's pretty grey.
0:27:13 > 0:27:20'Everybody that I met was unfriendly and unhappy and grumpy.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23'There was an information desk in the hotel.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28'I asked them "Elorg?" and they said, "No, I can't find it."
0:27:28 > 0:27:30'No attempt at going any further.'
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Here I am waiting for a phone call from Japan,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39watching video of Hawaii.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Cos the TV doesn't work.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45The radio doesn't work.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49I've read everything I could read.
0:27:51 > 0:27:58Henk spent his first night in the Intourist Hotel, overlooking Red Square,
0:27:58 > 0:28:03right at the heart of a seemingly impenetrable Soviet state.
0:28:12 > 0:28:18I got smart the next day and hired an interpreter, which I'd never considered doing.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22I figured they have to be able to help me.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25I've a very lovely interpreter. WOMAN LAUGHS
0:28:25 > 0:28:28- Her name is...- My name is Ulla.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32Your name is Ulla.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37OK, Ulla's located Elorg for us.
0:28:37 > 0:28:42So this afternoon, we should get a lot of things done.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48'A big impression I got from Moscow is there's no colour anywhere.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51'There's no advertisements.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54'Nobody's trying to sell you anything.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56'So the whole place is kind of bland.
0:28:56 > 0:29:02'It's like all the colour has been sucked out of the city.'
0:29:38 > 0:29:42You don't walk into a place like that uninvited.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46You have to have an invitation and that has to be cleared with the KGB.
0:29:46 > 0:29:53They make sure you're above board - they do your background check first. I just walked in.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57A meeting was hastily convened for the next day,
0:29:57 > 0:30:02the same day Belikov was due to meet Maxwell and Stein.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09The following day would prove crucial for the future of Tetris.
0:30:09 > 0:30:14All would hinge on the communists' ability to play the capitalists
0:30:14 > 0:30:20at their own game. They understood the capitalist mantra of divide and rule.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40The first to arrive at Belikov's office
0:30:40 > 0:30:45was Henk Rogers, proudly clutching the game he was producing in Japan.
0:31:01 > 0:31:07I said, "We're publishing Tetris in Japan. We're the biggest publisher of Tetris in the world right now."
0:31:15 > 0:31:21I said, "You did." I turned it round. "See, the rights go from Elorg
0:31:21 > 0:31:23"to Mirrorsoft, to Tengen
0:31:23 > 0:31:28"and to my company, Bullet-Proof Software."
0:31:28 > 0:31:35So, that's how I got the rights. "We never gave these rights to anybody." I thought, "Gosh, something's wrong."
0:31:48 > 0:31:53Far from picking up the additional rights he'd hoped for,
0:31:53 > 0:31:58Henk faced the prospect that his existing rights were worthless.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02They were asking me really probing questions.
0:32:02 > 0:32:08"Mr Rogers, how did you... Why did you think you'd got these rights?"
0:32:08 > 0:32:13The sort of thing you'd hear in court. It wasn't a friendly chat.
0:32:33 > 0:32:40I thought, "Either I'm gonna come out of this with the rights to Tetris or I'm gonna be in some gulag.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Narrowly missing Henk,
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Robert Stein entered the corridors of Elorg with his own proposals,
0:33:14 > 0:33:19unaware of what had transpired in the hours previously.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26I didn't know Henk Rogers appeared on the scene. I didn't know
0:33:26 > 0:33:31until I came back to England that Kevin Maxwell was out there.
0:33:31 > 0:33:37Robert Stein thought he had come to negotiate extra rights for himself.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40Elorg had different ideas
0:33:40 > 0:33:45and instead, Belikov confronted him with his original contract.
0:34:07 > 0:34:14I must assume that this was a deliberate attempt to, uh...
0:34:14 > 0:34:21frighten me or put me in a difficult situation,
0:34:21 > 0:34:27but this mob across the conference table was anything but friendly.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34Stein was dismissed and told to come back the next day,
0:34:34 > 0:34:38buying Belikov time to discover what Kevin Maxwell had to offer.
0:34:49 > 0:34:55Kevin's father had good connections within the Russian government.
0:34:55 > 0:35:01After discussing the hand-held rights, Belikov tentatively mentioned Henk's cartridge,
0:35:01 > 0:35:05which also carried the name of Mirrorsoft.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28This was an innocent mistake from Maxwell, who was unaware
0:35:28 > 0:35:33that Mirrorsoft had sold video game console rights to Atari,
0:35:33 > 0:35:35but it was a costly one.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59The day provided the Russians with a valuable lesson in capitalism
0:35:59 > 0:36:02and they proved quick learners.
0:36:02 > 0:36:07They understood that they could maximise profits from this one game
0:36:07 > 0:36:11by selling different rights to different companies.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15For those on the other side, there was everything to play for,
0:36:15 > 0:36:20although one was already working an advantage.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25Finally, out of all these dressed in suit businessman
0:36:25 > 0:36:29which kind of tried to make some licenses,
0:36:29 > 0:36:33I've seen the guy who really likes and understands the game
0:36:33 > 0:36:37and we like each other almost immediately.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40- ROGERS:- This is Mr Alexey Pajitnov.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45He's the author of, uh...of Tetris.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49- Play Tetris... - Play Tetris.- ..my friends.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52OK. He-he.
0:36:52 > 0:36:57I made friends with him immediately. He was the friend I was looking for.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01We got together and started talking game design.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05We immediately jumped into, "What are we gonna do for Tetris 2?"
0:37:05 > 0:37:08We had stuff to talk about.
0:37:08 > 0:37:16The next morning, Elorg's Nikolai Belikov hatched a plan that would leave no ambiguity
0:37:16 > 0:37:21as to the rights the Russians had already negotiated away.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26This hinged on a definition of "computer", which he had to ensure
0:37:26 > 0:37:30couldn't include products like video game consoles,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33so, he added a clause to Stein's original contract.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Belikov was a son of a bitch.
0:38:04 > 0:38:10The clause...resulted in the exclusion
0:38:10 > 0:38:14of some of the products for Tetris.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18It was on and I didn't notice it,
0:38:18 > 0:38:22which I will never forgive myself, so there we go.
0:38:22 > 0:38:28But they made it so...matter of fact.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33"We would like you for the sake of bureaucracy..." And I agreed.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38Because I was so focused in getting what I wanted,
0:38:38 > 0:38:42that I forgot about watching what they wanted.
0:38:42 > 0:38:47Belikov despatched Stein, bereft of rights he thought he already had
0:38:47 > 0:38:50and with two weeks to pay them what he owed.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55He now faced the arrival of Henk Rogers
0:38:55 > 0:39:00and a decision about who to grant the hand-held rights.
0:39:00 > 0:39:07I'm on my way to a ten o'clock appointment with Elorg.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12Last night I composed a proposal to them
0:39:12 > 0:39:17about gaining the rights to hand-held Tetris.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19We shall see.
0:39:21 > 0:39:27Under the old system, the decision would have been a political one,
0:39:27 > 0:39:32but capitalism is about taking risks.
0:39:32 > 0:39:37I said, "Kevin Maxwell's the son of a very rich man,
0:39:37 > 0:39:39"so I can't match his money,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43"but I can give you an honest business.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48"I'll tell you exactly how much I'm making and you'll get your share."
0:39:48 > 0:39:53Henk shows himself very, very honest in many respects
0:39:53 > 0:39:59and very reliable as he keep his word...he kept his word all the time.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Henk's direct approach paid off.
0:40:24 > 0:40:29Elorg told him the hand-held rights were his.
0:40:29 > 0:40:34We signed and the big boss came out and shook my hand with his iron fist,
0:40:34 > 0:40:36iron grip, whatever.
0:40:36 > 0:40:43It was all done and they said, "Mr Rogers, there's something else we'd like to talk to you about.
0:40:43 > 0:40:49"We would like you also to make us an offer on the console rights."
0:40:49 > 0:40:54Henk Rogers left Russia with the hand-held rights to Tetris
0:40:54 > 0:40:59and the prospect of holding on to his precious console rights.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03But, there would be a battle ahead.
0:41:03 > 0:41:10Atari Games were already busy manufacturing their own Tetris game
0:41:10 > 0:41:13under an agreement with Mirrorsoft.
0:41:13 > 0:41:17We built half a million units for our day one launch.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20We put a major investment,
0:41:20 > 0:41:25in terms of our best human resources.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30The engineers assigned to the game at Atari were without peer.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33They were our best guys.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39Such was their confidence in Tetris, they also invested heavily
0:41:39 > 0:41:44- in marketing.- We had a huge party for the media
0:41:44 > 0:41:47and rolled it out with all kinds of fanfare.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50We also had a...
0:41:50 > 0:41:55We took a full page of USA Today to announce the programme.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01But Atari were in for a surprise.
0:42:01 > 0:42:07Henk Rogers was visiting his contacts at Nintendo to offer them
0:42:07 > 0:42:09exclusive console rights.
0:42:09 > 0:42:16Their Nintendo Entertainment System was the biggest selling video game console in the world.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19As soon as we found out
0:42:19 > 0:42:24that the home video game rights were available
0:42:24 > 0:42:29and that Henk had cut a deal for the hand-held rights,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32we were absolutely delighted.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36For Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa,
0:42:36 > 0:42:42this provided the ideal opportunity to get back at arch rivals, Atari.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48They said, "We will help you, so...
0:42:48 > 0:42:53"go back and if you think you've got it in the bag,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56"call us. We'll come and clinch the deal."
0:42:56 > 0:42:59Atari were not the only complication.
0:42:59 > 0:43:07In Britain, Robert Maxwell found out that his son had lost out on the hand-held rights.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11He was furious and began contacting senior ministers within The Kremlin.
0:43:19 > 0:43:26The Kremlin began to exert pressure on Belikov and his position was under threat.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Henk sensed it was imperative
0:43:29 > 0:43:34- he get his deal signed as soon as possible.- I went back to Moscow
0:43:34 > 0:43:41and I asked, "Would it clinch the deal if I brought Mr Arakawa and Mr Lincoln?" "Absolutely."
0:43:43 > 0:43:48Nintendo needed to move quickly and quietly
0:43:48 > 0:43:50to avoid alerting either Maxwell
0:43:50 > 0:43:55or Atari who were about to have the video game console rights snatched
0:43:55 > 0:43:58from under their noses.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03We told all our employees we were going to Japan. Only one employee
0:44:03 > 0:44:07was aware of where we were actually going.
0:44:07 > 0:44:13In Moscow, they signed a deal worth half a million dollars in guaranteed royalties
0:44:13 > 0:44:16and 50 cents on every cartridge,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20over 30 times what Stein had first offered them,
0:44:20 > 0:44:25but a fraction of what the game was worth to Nintendo.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30When we flew back across to Seattle,
0:44:30 > 0:44:34every time I looked at Arakawa, we just started laughing,
0:44:34 > 0:44:39because we knew we had not only the hand-held rights,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42but also the home video game rights.
0:44:42 > 0:44:50And at the same time, we'd found a way to really, uh...give it back to Atari Games.
0:44:53 > 0:44:58Back in Moscow, the pressure was piling onto Belikov.
0:45:41 > 0:45:46It was, uh...two very, very powerful sides or organisations
0:45:46 > 0:45:49fight for my small game.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53We'd got in a very sharp and hot place.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57But Belikov had history on his side.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01Gorbachev's reforms meant that the state machine
0:47:01 > 0:47:04was losing its grip on power.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31In America, the battle for Tetris was only just beginning.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37A jubilant Nintendo plunged the knife in.
0:47:40 > 0:47:45The first thing we did was to send a notice to Atari Games
0:47:45 > 0:47:48advising them that we had
0:47:48 > 0:47:53the sole video game rights to Tetris and putting them on notice of that
0:47:53 > 0:47:58and directing them to cease from any marketing or production of Tetris,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02knowing full well that they'd go nuts.
0:48:02 > 0:48:07Atari Games were not about to take this lying down.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12They had already invested millions preparing Tetris for market.
0:48:12 > 0:48:17One of my associates called to say that we had just been sued by Atari.
0:48:17 > 0:48:24They sued us and claimed that they had the exclusive rights to Tetris.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31All of our experts,
0:48:31 > 0:48:35our legal counsel were all saying, "Full speed ahead."
0:48:35 > 0:48:38There was no inkling we were wrong.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49The trial between Nintendo and Atari was set to commence
0:48:49 > 0:48:52in November 1989.
0:48:52 > 0:48:58Nintendo had prepared Elorg's Nikolai Belikov as their key witness.
0:49:25 > 0:49:31Belikov joined Henk Rogers in San Francisco where they waited to testify.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36Both had a lot resting on the outcome.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40In the end, they were spared the witness stand.
0:49:40 > 0:49:46The judge made a summary judgment which granted all video game rights to Nintendo.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52It made both Mr Arakawa and I feel wonderful.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54Just great.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57There was jubilation, of course.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01On my part, I got to keep the rights. It had a lot riding on it.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03At that point in time,
0:50:03 > 0:50:11Atari Games had several hundred thousand Tetris cartridges for play on the NES
0:50:11 > 0:50:15that were now worthless.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19We were in absolute shock.
0:50:19 > 0:50:24We had cartridges ready to ship, and firm orders
0:50:24 > 0:50:29and we were suddenly enjoined from shipping them.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32We were shocked and dismayed.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44RADIO PLAYS: "Holiday" by Madonna
0:51:10 > 0:51:13MAN: This is the Golden Gate Bridge.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26LOUD MUSIC PLAYS
0:51:28 > 0:51:30The real winners were Nintendo.
0:51:30 > 0:51:38To date, Nintendo dealers across the world have sold 8 million Tetris cartridges
0:51:38 > 0:51:41on the Nintendo entertainment system.
0:51:41 > 0:51:46The people at Mirrorsoft and Atari Games were simply incompetent.
0:51:46 > 0:51:51They didn't do their homework, didn't do what they should have done
0:51:51 > 0:51:55and, far from taking advantage of them,
0:51:55 > 0:52:00it was just competent people taking advantage of incompetent businessmen.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05By the time Atari figured out who to blame, it was too late.
0:52:05 > 0:52:11On 5th November, 1991, Robert Maxwell disappeared over the side of his yacht,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14leaving a company ridden in debt,
0:52:14 > 0:52:20and £440 million missing from the corporation's pension fund.
0:52:20 > 0:52:25After Mr Maxwell disappeared, it was like a house of cards
0:52:25 > 0:52:28that just crumbled to the ground.
0:52:28 > 0:52:34Everything that we thought we were looking to as indemnification and safety
0:52:34 > 0:52:36was basically non-existent.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41As Atari's fortunes continued to wane,
0:52:41 > 0:52:44Nintendo went from strength to strength.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50Tetris was key to the success of Game Boy,
0:52:50 > 0:52:54which has sold 70 million worldwide.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02But despite all that happened to his game,
0:53:02 > 0:53:09as the '80s drew to a close, Alexey Pajitnov was yet to receive anything from Tetris.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13He was still working at the computer centre.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47But the fame that Tetris had brought Alexey
0:53:47 > 0:53:51meant that he could aspire to life beyond the computer centre.
0:53:51 > 0:53:59After the Tetris success, I don't want to be much involved in pure scientific stuff.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02I realised that games is...
0:54:02 > 0:54:06Might be a big part of my activity as well.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15In 1991, with help from his friend Henk Rogers,
0:54:15 > 0:54:22Alexey was offered the opportunity to move with his family to the United States.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26Here lay the promise of taking control of his own destiny,
0:54:26 > 0:54:29and that of the games he developed.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34His wife had been to the States before.
0:54:34 > 0:54:39When she came back, they asked her, and she tried to explain,
0:54:39 > 0:54:41and she could do nothing except cry.
0:54:41 > 0:54:47She just couldn't find the words to describe the difference, what they were missing in this culture.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52Alexey settled in Seattle,
0:54:52 > 0:54:56where he established a company to develop games and technology.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00But his American dream was not all he'd hoped for.
0:55:00 > 0:55:05Basically, I need to make money to support my family.
0:55:05 > 0:55:09I wasn't that rich to just sit there and do nothing.
0:55:09 > 0:55:17So I could say that the first couple of years were very challenging in the United States.
0:55:17 > 0:55:22In 1996, Alexey gave up working for himself
0:55:22 > 0:55:27and joined that great American institution, Microsoft,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30where he now has a staff job.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34They hired me just to make games.
0:55:34 > 0:55:41I feel, myself, a really strong and experienced games designer at this point.
0:55:41 > 0:55:47I don't have any, kind of, internal contradictions or tendencies.
0:55:47 > 0:55:53I understand that I am staying in my place and doing my job,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56and fulfil my mission in life.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02When the original set of rights expired in 1996,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06Alexey began to receive some royalties from Tetris,
0:56:06 > 0:56:12if only a fraction of what he could have made, if born into a different system.
0:56:12 > 0:56:17You always could make a little bit more than you make.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21But you know, I never seriously think about this stuff.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24I live as I live.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30Alexey regularly returns to Moscow,
0:56:30 > 0:56:34and thinks about moving back for good.
0:56:36 > 0:56:42But the city that gave birth to his game is no longer the place it was.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46Global capitalism has come to town.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52The same forces that enabled Tetris to conquer the free world
0:56:52 > 0:56:57have left the institute where it was nurtured, far behind.
0:57:19 > 0:57:25The average monthly wage of 200, deemed respectable in Soviet times,
0:57:25 > 0:57:31can't compete with private institutions and foreign firms.
0:58:16 > 0:58:22In 2003, Tetris is set to conquer the world once again.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25This time, on the mobile phone.
0:58:27 > 0:58:32Subtitles by BBC Broadcast - 2004
0:58:32 > 0:58:35E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk