The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World

by Dan Ackerman

Overview

The definitive story of a game so great, even the Cold War couldn't stop it

Tetris is perhaps the most instantly recognizable, popular video game ever made. But how did an obscure Soviet programmer, working on frail, antiquated computers, create a product which has now earned nearly 1 billion in sales? How did a makeshift game turn into a worldwide sensation, which has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, inspired a big-budget sci-fi movie, and been played in outer space?

A quiet but brilliant young man, Alexey Pajitnov had long nurtured a love for the obscure puzzle game pentominoes, and became obsessed with turning it into a computer game. Little did he know that the project that he labored on alone, hour after hour, would soon become the most addictive game ever made.

In this fast-paced business story, reporter Dan Ackerman reveals how Tetris became one of the world's first viral hits, passed from player to player, eventually breaking through the Iron Curtain into the West. British, American, and Japanese moguls waged a bitter fight over the rights, sending their fixers racing around the globe to secure backroom deals, while a secretive Soviet organization named ELORG chased down the game's growing global profits.

The Tetris Effect is an homage to both creator and creation, and a must-read for anyone who's ever played the game-which is to say everyone.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610396110
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	869,472
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

New York native Dan Ackerman is currently a section editor at the leading technology news site CNET, where he oversees a team running CNET's New York gadget testing lab, reviews laptops and tablets, hosts videos, and writes about hot-button consumer technology topics.

He's a well-known TV talking head, seen on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, BBC News, ABC, CBS, and NBC News, and other outlets, and he regularly appears as an in-house technology expert on CBS This Morning. As a writer and columnist, Ackerman has contributed regularly to magazines, including Men's Journal, Maxim, Blender, and Sync, and he's previously served as a monthly technology columnist for both SPIN and WWE Magazine. As an industry expert, he's been interviewed by or quoted in the New York Times, USA Today, the Atlantic, Mother Jones, Fast Company, and many other publications.

Table of Contents

Part I

1 The Great Race 3

2 Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov 13

3 Coming to America 21

4 The First Blocks 29

5 The Black Onyx 37

6 Going Viral 53

Bonus Level 1

7 This Is Your Brain on Tetris 73

Part II

8 From Behind the Iron Curtain 89

9 Into the Mirror 101

10 The Russians Are Coming 111

11 "A Diabolical Plot" 123

12 Welcome to ELORG 129

13 Tetris Takes Las Vegas 137

Bonus Level 2

14 Tetris into Infinity 149

Part III

15 A Bulletproof Deal 163

16 A Secret Plan 167

17 The Gathering Storm 177

18 The Big Bet 181

19 Enemies at the Gate 191

20 "Meet at the Chicken" 201

21 A Tale of Two Tetrises 215

Bonus Level 3

22 The Cognitive Vaccine 229

Epilogue: The Final Bricks 237

Acknowledgments 245

Selected Bibliography 247

Index 251

Editorial Reviews

“The definitive telling of one of the most fascinating stories in videogame history.” —WIRED

“Ackerman's account of the rise of Tetris is as captivating as watching the game's multi-colored, four-squared objects (known as “tetrominoes”) vanish before your eyes with the right move.” —Fortune Online


"Half-origin story, half-cultural commentary, Ackerman leaves no block unturned, fitting the pieces together with effortless precision."—Steven Petite, Yahoo! Finance

From the Publisher

07/01/2016
With this impressive first effort, journalist Ackerman (CNET) explains the complicated and fraught history of a ubiquitous video game classic. Tracing the history of Tetris from its inception behind the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union as the Cold War waned through the drawn out comedy of miscommunications surrounding its licensing, the author strikes a balance between fleshing out the characters involved in the game's epic rise and untangling the web of misunderstandings that accompanied it into the world. He covers this background nicely and without judgment, not just evoking feelings for figures such as Alexey Pajitnov, the game's creator; and Henk Rogers, the man responsible for bringing Tetris to the video game device Game Boy but also creating a desire to understand how, under a government that did not acknowledge individuals' rights to license their own creations, the final agreements were finally struck. Despite the implications of the title, Ackerman focuses considerably less on the body of scientific research involving Tetris—there are three "bonus level" chapters devoted to the topic, each one a treat—but that is probably a subject for another book. VERDICT A must-read for Tetris fans.—Paul Stenis, Pepperdine Univ. Lib., Malibu, CA

Library Journal

2016-06-30
How a simple computer game of cascading geometric shapes became a worldwide phenomenon.In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov, a “lone computer scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences,” invented “Tetris,” the massively popular computer game that combines hand-eye coordination and geometry. Impressively, he created it during his off hours using what today would be considered primitive software and antiquated computers. When the game was reprogrammed to work on Nintendo’s Game Boy, making it accessible to almost everyone with a handheld console, it took off. As CNET section editor Ackerman notes, “it’s estimated that the dozens of official versions of Tetris have generated more than $1 billion in lifetime sales, and the game’s legacy has directly influenced time-sucking moneymakers from Bejeweled to Candy Crush Saga.” The author provides a meticulous accounting of the rise of “Tetris” from its earliest inception to its release from behind Russia’s walls and into the rest of the computer world. He details the background of Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, a Dutch-born computer programmer who had worked in his family’s gem business for years before following his passion with computers and eventually inventing the role-playing game “The Black Onyx.” Ackerman also includes side notes on how the playing of “Tetris” alters the brain—not necessarily in a good way—and how addictive the game can be. For those fascinated with the way video games are created and intrigued by the history of early computers, the book will provide great entertainment, just like the game. However, most ordinary players of “Tetris” will get bogged down in the nitty-gritty details that Ackerman includes in his exhaustive reporting of a game that “is everything from a cultural shorthand for crowded elevators, closets, and parking lots to the first game many people download on their new tablets and smartphones.” An all-inclusive history behind one of the most popular video games ever.

Kirkus Reviews