1985, he transplanted this program to a personal computer, and Tetris began to spread.
1988, Rogers saw Tetris in an exhibition in Las Vegas, USA. It was very interesting, and he found that everyone he asked liked to play. As a professional who was born in the Netherlands, educated in the United States and engaged in the video game industry in Japan, Rogers immediately smelled huge business opportunities. He reached a verbal agreement with Nintendo, a Japanese game maker, and then set off for Moscow. Pa Kinov authorized Tetris to the computer center where he worked, making it public property, so Rogers faced the representative of the Soviet government at that time.
During the period of 1989, the negotiation process was full of culture, values and working methods. In the end, Rogers obtained the authorization of Tetris on the home computer on behalf of Nintendo. Rogers and Pa Kinov met and became good friends because of this negotiation, which laid the foundation for their close cooperation around Tetris for many years.
1990 After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Pa Kinov moved to the United States with the help of Rogers and continued to engage in game development.
1996, PaKinov recovered the intellectual property rights of Tetris and established Blue Planet Software Company together with Rogers, which is the sole agent for Tetris to grant copyright to game manufacturers.
In 2002, an over-addicted British player was sentenced to four months in prison for playing Tetris on the plane and not listening to the crew.
In 2009, the charm of Tetris lasted for a long time. Tetris sold 65.438+0.25 billion copies, which was loved by players in more than 50 countries and regions. It is available in more than 50 languages and can run on dozens of game platforms, from palmtop computers, arcades and personal computers to mobile phones and PDA. Rogers said that mobile devices have become the new main platform of Tetris, and the sales volume in this field has exceeded 75 million, and it is still growing rapidly. More than 654.38+00000 people play this game every day in Tetris online version of North America and European official website.
On June 5th, 2009, PaKinov and his partners announced that the 25th anniversary celebration of Tetris was launched at the Electronic Entertainment Exhibition held in Los Angeles, USA. After 25 years, great changes have taken place in the computer industry and the video game industry. Large-scale games with gorgeous pictures, shocking sound effects and rich plots emerge one after another, opening up and occupying new markets. Tetris drama caused quite a storm in the future because of copyright and other issues. Many companies were involved in this lawsuit, some made big money later, while others went bankrupt. It's a long story
1988 1 Tetris's popularity on the computer platform has caused the situation that "Luoyang paper is expensive" for some time. When CBS Evening News interviewed Pa Kinov, the "father of Tetris", Stein's plan to steal copyright was completely ruined. A new company, ELORG(Electronorgtechinca, a software company in the Soviet Union), began to negotiate with Stein about the game program. Alexander Alexinko, the head of ELORG, knew that Stein had no copyright, but threatened to interrupt the negotiations with his game development plan as a bargaining chip.
1988 May After months of quarreling, the exhausted Stein finally signed the copyright of PC Tetris with ELORG. At that time, the contract prohibited the development of arcade and handheld Tetris games, while the computer version of Tetris became the best-selling game at that time.
1In July, 988, Stein and Alechenko discussed the development of the arcade version of Tetris. Redchenko didn't get a penny of copyright fee from Stein at that time, but at the same time, Spectrum and Mirrorsoft had started to sell Tetris copyright to exterior gateway protocol. Spectrum sold the copyright of Tetris game console and PC in Japan to bulletproof software (FC and GB Tetris manufacturer FC), and Mirrorsoft sold the copyright of Japan and North America to Atari in the United States. So the contradiction between the two companies began. 1988165438+10 In October, Tetris 1 released by BPS on FC was sold in Japan, with a sales volume of 2 million copies.
1988 1 1 With the development of GB, NOA manager Arakawa Shinichi (son-in-law of Nintendo Yamauchi Pu) hopes to make Tetris a game on GB. So he contacted Heng Ke Rogers, the president of the BBC, and when he contacted Stan again, he was rejected. So he went directly to Moscow to buy the copyright. Stan, who realized that he was in the limelight, also flew to Moscow; At the same time, Kevin Maxwell, the son of spectrum director Robert Maxwell, is also going to Moscow. In this way, three people arrived at the Red Snow City almost at the same time.
On February 2 1989, Rogers first met yevgeny Belicov, the representative of Errog (with the same name as the man in the condom). He left a deep impression on Kinov and other Soviets, and signed the copyright of the game. Later, he showed the Russians the FC version of Tetris, which greatly shocked Rykov. Because he didn't grant Rogers the copyright of his home computer! Rogers told them that he bought the copyright from Tianzheng, but Rykov had never heard of Tianzheng's name. In order to ease the embarrassing situation, Rogers told Rykov all the facts that Stein had concealed, and promised to pay more checks to the Soviet Union as the copyright fee for the FC version of Tetris that had been sold. At this time, Rogers found that he had a chance to buy the copyright of all Tetris models (but he didn't buy them at that time). Although Atari will be eyeing him, don't forget that he and BPS are backed by Nintendo.
Note: The original agreement signed by Robert Stein is only the copyright of the computer version of Tetris, and other copyrights are not his.
Later, Stan and Errog re-signed the agreement. Did Rykov force him to re-sign the contract, and the contract was amended to read: "The definition of a computer: a machine including a central processing unit, a monitor, a disk drive, a keyboard and an operating system"? Stan didn't look at these definitions carefully at the time. Later, he realized that it was a trick for Rogers to steal the copyright from himself. But it's too late. The next day, he was told that although the signed document could not be changed, he could still get the development right of the arcade version of Tetris. Three days later, he signed the arcade version of the agreement.
1989 On February 22nd, Kevin Maxwell visited Errog. Didn't Rykov take out the FC game card that Rogers gave him and ask him about it? Maxwell saw the name of Mirrorsoft on the tape and remembered that his company had sold part of the copyright to Atari. When he wanted to continue talking about the copyright of arcade and handheld, he found that all he could sign was an agreement except computer, arcade, mainframe and handheld. In the confusion, this guy had a brainwave and told Rykov that the tape was pirated, and then he had to sign an agreement for home computers.
The final result: Kevin Maxwell only took a blank sheet of paper, and Robert Stein took the arcade agreement. Because Maxwell claimed that all FC cards were pirated, Errog kept the copyright of the home computer and didn't sell it to anyone. If Maxwell wants to get the copyright of the home computer, he must bid higher than Nintendo. Heng Ke Rogers bought the copyright of the PDA and informed Arakawa. BPS made a deal with Nintendo to produce a GB version of Tetris: the transaction amount was $5 million-10/00000.
1March, 989 15, Heng Ke Rogers returned to Moscow and paid a huge sum of money on behalf of Nintendo to buy the copyright of Tetris. Although the price of copyright fee has not been disclosed, this figure Mirrorsoft will never know. Even Arakawa and NOA CEO Howard Lincoln personally went to the Soviet Union to help.
1989 On March 22nd, the agreement between ELORG and Nintendo was finally reached. Nintendo insisted on adding that after the signing of the agreement, if there is a legal dispute with others, the Soviet Union must send someone to testify in the American court. In fact, this kind of legal dispute will be inevitable. It is said that Errog only got a deposit of $3-5 million. Didn't Rykov inform Mirrorsoft that Mirrorsoft, Andromeda and Tengen don't own the copyright of home computers, but the copyright belongs to Nintendo? That night, Nintendo and BPS leaders held a celebration party in Moscow Hotel.
(That is to say, the copyrights of the host and the handheld have been held by Nintendo and BPS respectively. Neither Atari nor Tianzheng has the right to make FC version of Tetris. )
On March 3 1989, Howard Lincoln sent an ultimatum (fax) to Atari, telling them to stop the FC(NES) version of Tetris immediately. This made Atari and Maxwell very angry. In the name of Tiangen, they wrote back that they had enjoyed the copyright of Tetris, a home computer, on April 7.
1April 3, 989, Tianzheng wrote an application for the copyright of Tetris "audio-visual works, source programs and game music". However, the application did not mention the copyrights of Alexei Pakinov and Nintendo.
At the same time, Maxwell used his media power to try to regain the status of Tetris. Even moved out of the Soviet Union and the British government to intervene in Tetris copyright issues. As a result, the contradiction between CPSU and Errog was provoked. Even Gorbachev assured Maxwell that "there is no need to worry about Japanese companies in the future."
When Howard Lincoln returned to Moscow in late April, he found that Errog had lost his mind under the pressure of the Soviet government, and in the middle of that night, NOA called him and said that Nintendo had been sued.
The next day, he met with Rykov, PaKinov and several other members of Errog to ensure that they could support Nintendo's lawsuit. NOA immediately counterclaimed Tianzheng and began to collect evidence.
1On May 7th, 989, a large Tetris advertisement was published in USA-Today, although a court battle was imminent.
1June, 989, the case between Tianzheng and Nintendo finally opened. The debate mainly revolves around a topic: whether NES(FC) is a computer or an electronic game machine .......... Atari thinks NES is a computer system because it has extensible functions, and Famicom in Japan also has network functions. Nintendo's evidence is even more relevant: the Soviets of Errog never intended to sell the copyright of Tetris home computer, and mentioned the so-called "computer" concept in the agreement with Stein.
1June 5, 989, the court held a hearing to hear Nintendo and Tianzheng ordering each other to stop making and selling their Tetris software. Judge Fern Smith declared that neither Mirrorsoft nor Spectrum Holobyte owned the copyright of home computers, so the rights they provided to Tengen could not take effect. Nintendo's request was finally approved.
On June 2 1, 65438,989, all Tetris versions of Tengen were taken off the shelves, and the production of game cassettes was forced to stop. Thousands of copies of software are put in boxes and sealed in warehouses.
1July, 989, Nintendo NES Tetris was released in the United States. Sales in the United States are around 3 million. At the same time, Game Boy bound with GB version of Tetris swept across the United States, and a whirlwind of diamonds was blown up on American soil.
The scuffle about Tetris has come to an end. The court dispute between Nintendo and Tianzheng continued until 1993.