In June 1985, Alexei Pajitnov, who was working at the Moscow Scientific Computer Center, was inspired by playing a jigsaw puzzle and made a computer based on the Electronica 60. A Tetris game for the platform. It was later ported to PC by Vadim Gerasimov and spread among the Moscow computer community. Pajitnov became famous as a result. In July 1986, the PC version of Tetris was ported to Apple II and Commodore 64 by a group of local computer experts in Budapest, Hungary. These versions of the software attracted the attention of Robert Stein, the manager of a British game company called Andromeda at the time. Attention, he purchased the copyright of Tetris from Pajitnov and Hungarian computer experts, and before buying the copyright, he sold them to Mirrorsoft in the UK (not Microsoft!) and Spectrum Holobyte in the United States. . In November 1986, Stein and Pajitnov negotiated but failed to achieve any results on the copyright acquisition issue. Stein even flew directly to Moscow to interview Pajitnov, but came away empty-handed. Since the Russians didn't know much about the video game industry that was already emerging in the West, Stein decided to steal the copyright to Tetris, so he spread rumors that it was a Hungarian-developed game. At the same time, the PC version of Tetris had been produced by Mirrorsoft in the UK and sold in Europe, attracting great attention at the time. Not only because this game is fun, but also because it is "the first game from an Iron Curtain country." The game promotion posters at that time had strong Cold War colors, such as war scenes, Gagarin's space flight, etc. And Stein still doesn't have a formal legal copyright. In June 1987, Stein finally obtained the copyright for Tetris on the IBM-PC and its compatibles, including "any other computer system". However, he did not sign an agreement with the Soviet Union, which means that the copyright is incomplete. (Translator’s note: The description of “any other computer system” in the original text was “any other computer system”. This statement seemed very loose at the time, which paved the way for subsequent property rights disputes.) 1988 The popularity of Tetris on the computer platform in January 2018 temporarily created a situation where "paper is expensive in Luoyang". When CBS Evening News interviewed Pajitnov, the father of Tetris, Stein's plan to steal the copyright was completely ruined. A new company, ELORG (Electronorgtechinca, a Soviet software company), began negotiating with Stein on game programming issues. Alexander Alexinko, the head of ELORG, knew that although Stein did not have the copyright, he would use the game development program in his hand as a bargaining chip to threaten to break off negotiations. In May 1988, after months of bickering, an exhausted Stein finally signed a contract with ELORG for the rights to PC Tetris. The contract at the time prohibited the development of arcade and handheld versions of the block game, and the PC version of Tetris became the best-selling game at the time. In July 1988, Stein discussed developing an arcade version of Tetris with Aleshenko. Aleshenko had not yet received a penny in royalties from Stein, but at the same time Spectrum and Mirrorsoft had begun selling the rights to Tetris to video game companies. Spectrum sold the Japanese console and PC rights to Tetris to Bullet-Proof Software (the makers of the FC and GB versions of Tetris), while Mirrorsoft sold its Japanese and North American rights to Atari in the United States. Then the conflict between the two companies began.

In November 1988, Tetris (the unfamiliar Tetris 1) released by BPS on FC was released in Japan, with sales of 2 million copies. In November 1988, with the development of GB, the manager of NOA (Nintendo of America) Minoru Arakawa (the son-in-law of Nintendo's Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi) hoped to make Tetris into a game on GB. So he contacted Henk Rogers, the president of BPS. When Rogers contacted Stein again, he was rejected. So he went directly to Moscow to buy the rights. Sensing the limelight, Stein also took a flight to Moscow; at the same time, Kevin Maxwell, the son of Robert Maxwell, the head of Spectrum, was also heading to Moscow. In this way, the three groups of people arrived at the ice-covered red city almost at the same time. On February 21, 1989, Rogers first met with ELORG representative Evgeni Belikov (the same name as the "man in the condom"). He impressed the Soviets such as Pajitnov and signed the rights to the block game for handheld mobile phones. He then showed the FC version of Tetris to the Russians, which shocked Belikov. Because he didn't grant Rogers the copyright for the home console! Rogers told them that he purchased the copyright from TENGEN, but Belikov had never heard of the company TENGEN. In order to ease the embarrassing situation, Rogers told Belikov all the facts that Stein had concealed, and promised to pay the Soviet Union more checks as the copyright fee for the FC version of Tetris that had been sold. At this time, Rogers discovered that he had the opportunity to buy the copyright for all Tetris models (but he had not yet purchased it at the time). Although Atari would be eyeing him, don't forget that behind him and BPS, there is a big backer such as Nintendo to support him. Note: The original agreement signed by Robert Stein was only for the copyright of the computer version of Tetris, and the other copyrights were not his. Later, Stein and ELORG re-signed the agreement. The modified content in the contract that Belikov forced him to re-sign was: "The definition of a computer: a machine that includes a central processing unit, a monitor, a disk drive, a keyboard and an operating system." But Stein did not look carefully at these definitions at the time. Only later did he realize that this was a ploy by Rogers to steal the copyright from him. But it was too late. The next day he was told that although the signed document could no longer be changed, he could still get the development rights to the arcade version of Tetris. Three days later, he signed a deal for the arcade version. February 22, 1989 Kevin Maxwell visited ELORG. Belikov took out the FC game card Rogers gave him and asked him about it. Maxwell saw Mirrorsoft's name on the cassette and remembered that his company had sold some of the copyrights to Atari. When he wanted to continue talking about the copyright issue of arcade and handheld consoles, he found that the only agreements he could sign were those for computers, arcades, home consoles and handheld consoles. When he was confused, the guy had an idea and told Belikov that the cassette was pirated, and then he also had to sign an agreement for home use. The final result was: Kevin Maxwell took away only a blank piece of paper, and Robert Stein took away the Arcade Agreement. Since Maxwell claimed that all FC cards were pirated, ELORG retained the copyright of the home console and did not sell it to anyone. If Maxwell wanted to obtain the rights to the home console, he would have to outbid Nintendo. Henk Rogers purchased the rights to the console and informed Arakawa. BPS reached a deal with Nintendo to produce the GB version of Tetris: the deal was worth US$5 million to US$10 million. On March 15, 1989, Henk Rogers returned to Moscow and made a huge investment on behalf of Nintendo to acquire the rights to the home console version of Tetris. Although the price of the copyright fee has not been disclosed to the outside world, this figure will never be available to Mirrorsoft.

Even Minoru Arakawa and NOA CEO Howard Lincoln personally went to the Soviet Union to help. On March 22, 1989, the home console agreement between ELORG and Nintendo was finally reached. Nintendo insisted on adding a statement that after the agreement was signed, if there was a legal dispute with other parties, the Soviet Union must send someone to testify in a U.S. court. In fact, such legal disputes will be inevitable. It is said that ELORG only received a deposit of US$3-5 million. Belikov informed Mirrorsoft that Mirrorsoft, Andromeda and Tengen did not own the rights to the console, and that the rights now belonged to Nintendo. That night, the leaders of Nintendo and BPS held a celebration party in a Moscow hotel. (In other words, the copyrights for home consoles and handheld consoles are now in the hands of Nintendo and BPS respectively. Neither Atari nor Tengen has the right to make a FC version of Tetris.) On March 31, 1989, Howard Lincoln informed Atari Send an ultimatum (fax) and tell them to stop the FC (NES) version of the Tetris game immediately. This made both Atari and Maxwell very angry. They wrote back in the name of Tengen and said that on April 7th they already owned the copyright to the home console Tetris. On April 13, 1989, Tengen wrote an application requesting the copyright of Tetris' "audio-visual works, source programs and game music". However, the application did not mention Alexei Pajitnov and Nintendo’s game copyright issues. At the same time, Maxwell used his media power to try to regain Tetris' position. The Soviet and British governments even moved out to intervene in the Tetris copyright issue. As a result, the conflict between Su Xiaomeng and ELORG was provoked. Even Gorbachev assured Maxwell that "you don't have to worry about Japanese companies in the future." Later in April, when Howard Lincoln returned to Moscow, he found that ELORG had been unable to hold its head up under the pressure of the Soviet government. In the middle of the night, NOA called him and said that Tengen had sued Nintendo. The next day, he met with Belikov, Pajitnov, and several other ELORG members to ensure that they could support Nintendo's lawsuit. (This time the terms in the contract took effect.) NOA immediately countersued Tengen and began to collect evidence. On May 17, 1989, Tengen placed a large Tetris ad in USA Today, even as a court battle loomed. In June 1989, the case between Tengen and Nintendo finally came to trial. The debate mainly revolves around one issue: Is the NES (FC) a computer or a video game console? Atari believes that the NES is a computer system because it has expansion functions, and Japan's Famicom also has network functions. Nintendo's evidence is even more pertinent: the Soviets in ELORG had never intended to sell Tetris' home console copyright, and the concept of a so-called "computer" had already been mentioned in the agreement with Stein. June 15, 1989 A court hearing was held to discuss Nintendo and Tengen's mutual orders to cease production and sales of their respective Tetris software. Judge Fern Smith declared that neither Mirrorsoft nor Spectrum Holobyte owned the console rights, so the rights they provided to Tengen could not be enforced. Nintendo's request was eventually granted. On June 21, 1989, all Tengen versions of Tetris were withdrawn from shelves, and production of the game cartridges was also suspended. Hundreds of thousands of copies of software remain in boxes and sealed in warehouses. In July 1989, the Nintendo NES version of Tetris was released in the United States. U.S. sales are approximately 3 million.

At the same time, the Game Boy bundled with the GB version of Tetris swept the United States, and a whirlwind of cubes blew across the land of America. The melee about Tetris has come to an end at this time. The court dispute between Nintendo and Tengen lasted until 1993. At the end, Atari Games still developed the arcade version of Tetris, selling approximately 20,000 machines. Atari Games was recently acquired by Williams/WMS, and the fate of the NES version of Tetris stored in warehouses is unknown. Tengen could not dispose of them through other means, so the software was presumably destroyed. However, it is said that there are still about 100,000 copies of the Tengen version of Tetris flowing into the market. Robert Stein, the initiator of this copyright issue, only made a total of $250,000 on Tetris. He could have made more money, but Atari and Mirrorsoft didn't pay him enough royalties. Spectrum Holobyte needs to renegotiate with ELORG to ensure the copyright of the computer version of Tetris. Robert Maxwell's media fortress gradually fell apart in the melee. The fact that the old Maxwell was the mastermind behind the business was also under investigation, but he suddenly fell ill and died. Mirrorsoft UK also sadly withdrew from the stage of history. The real big winner is BPS president Henk Rogers, and Nintendo behind the scenes. How much money did Tetris make for Nintendo? The answer may never be clear. Think about it, in the United States, GB is sold bundled with Tetris to increase GB shipments... And people who buy GB because of Tetris will also buy other GB cards... If you calculate it like this, the profit is simply It just snowballed. Now a total of 30 million copies of the GB version of Tetris have been produced, making it an immortal work. As for the Soviet Union, no one except the Soviet government benefited much from Tetris. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the original ELORG personnel were scattered across the country and even around the world, and many people continued to develop games (such as Pajitnov). Alexey Pajitnov barely made a penny from Tetris. ELORG originally planned to give him the right to sell Tetris, but then canceled the deal. But Pajitnov is still pleased that he was able to produce such a world-famous excellent game. He received a 286 (a great computer in the Soviet Union at the time) as a reward from the Academy of Sciences. And I was assigned a house that was more spacious and brighter than my colleagues’ homes. In 1996, Henk Rogers paid him a reward, and Pajitnov formed Tetris Company LLC, finally able to create his own games and collect royalties. Now, all authentic Tetris games officially licensed by The Tetris Company will bear the "Authentic Tetris Game" trademark.

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