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The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World
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.
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.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published September 6, 2016
100 people are currently reading
1350 people want to read
About the author
Dan Ackerman
2Ìýbooks18ÌýfollowersDan Ackerman is a former radio DJ turned journalist. An editor at leading technology news website CNET, he writes about hot-button consumer technology topics, from virtual reality to cybersecurity, and appears regularly as an in-house tech expert on CBS This Morning. He lives in Brooklyn with his family and a large collection of vinyl records.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
August 11, 2017
My grandfather once boasted to me that back in the day children could fill a whole afternoon of fun and frolicking using only two bricks. The day that I have grandchildren, I'll be vaunting I needed only eight to occupy myself during an entire Christmas holiday. The seven bricks provided by Tetris, and the grey brick necessary to play it (also known as a Game Boy) were enough to keep me entertained.
I'll admit it wasn't a love story straight from the start. I didn't actually own a Game Boy as a kid, but my best friend did. Tetris was the game my friend's mother would play, while I was more of a Mario guy. Tetris meant having to wait precious hours until she was finally done until we could start up Super Mario World or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Tetris was the free game that came with the Game Boy and lacked characters, stories and end bosses. Tetris stood for boring repetition while Mario adventured around in Egypt, the Orient and under the sea. And yet, in the end, those bricks falling from the sky in a way that would amaze even René Magritte managed to capture my attention. The day my friend actually lent me his Game Boy for the holidays (no greater act of generosity has been known to man) I played Mario, but once I'd beaten that game it was Tetris Tetris Tetris all the days that followed. Part of the reason was that you couldn't beat the game, you could only beat your previous self. So it was that Tetris became my first self-inflicted quest for self-improvement. Another motivation was of course the melody of Tetris' siren's call: (warning: after an hour this clip ends abruptly and will leave you wanting for more).
When I saw this book by Dan Ackerman in the airport bookshop, I put my other reading activities on hold and dived right into this one. I'm a Tetris fanboy, but I didn't know the first bit about its background story. This book filled up that gap in the same fulfilling way the long Tetris bar does. It's written by someone who loves Tetris even more than I do, evident through the various poetic ways he manages to describe a Tetris gameplaying experience. But this non-fictional tale has more than prose and passion to offer: it's got a plot. This is a Tetris thriller, where the author uses the different perspectives of the various protagonists to great effect. The tale takes us from the early seventies to the early nineties, from a grey office in a cellar under a Soviet highrise bunker behind an Iron Curtain to a sandy beach in Hawaii.
An inventor working in the bowels of the lumbering machine that was the Soviet State. Supervisors flocking around him like vultures. American, British and Japanese business sharks circling them. A shadow network of Go-players could be of help. Even Gorbatchev gets in the mix. But who will get the Tetris Treasure, and how? This book is where you find out.
Aside from its great story-telling, the book comes with references to hardware from the seventies and eighties and is chock-full of information nuggets on Tetris, the origins of its theme, and the people who worked on it. It prompted me to go to the flagship Nintendo store in New York (as I was in the neighbourhood) and see the Game Boy that survived a bombing in the Gulf War with my own eyes. It's still playing Tetris. It turned my attention to Tetris Championships that are still being organised, and attract quite some attention: (). It's mind-blowing what some people can do with this game and very exciting to see them compete.
My only gripe is that, for a non-fictional account, the author's story was a bit one-sided to the benefit of Nintendo and the inventor, with all other parties involved coming off as bad guys and losers. Some of these real people became charicatures and I get the feeling Ackerman freewheels a bit when it comes to describing their moods and thoughts. But I do concede this choice helped making the plot more engaging. Every chapter ends with a kind of a cliffhanger, a sense of more to come. For a topic dealing mostly with boxes full of paperwork and contracts, this book manages to circumnavigate the boring very effectively.
There are "bonus chapters" dealing specifcally with what is mentioned in the title, "The Tetris Effect", which refers to the psychological impact this game has. It introduced the idea of pharmatronics, a concept by which the cause of technology addiction can be laid squarily on technology itself. People constantly playing Tetris started seeing reality in a certain way through the frequent repetition of their simple actions in tetris, and started seeing shapes and holes everywhere they looked. The Tetris Effect describes this shaping of thoughts and imagination through repetitive, pattern-based activity. Because of its characteristics, both addictive and beneficial, many tests have been conducted with Tetris and scientific progress has been made, for instance in the field of psychological trauma.
A book I greatly enjoyed reading. I even enjoyed placing it on my shelf, paying extra care to get a full line of books while doing so.
I'll admit it wasn't a love story straight from the start. I didn't actually own a Game Boy as a kid, but my best friend did. Tetris was the game my friend's mother would play, while I was more of a Mario guy. Tetris meant having to wait precious hours until she was finally done until we could start up Super Mario World or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Tetris was the free game that came with the Game Boy and lacked characters, stories and end bosses. Tetris stood for boring repetition while Mario adventured around in Egypt, the Orient and under the sea. And yet, in the end, those bricks falling from the sky in a way that would amaze even René Magritte managed to capture my attention. The day my friend actually lent me his Game Boy for the holidays (no greater act of generosity has been known to man) I played Mario, but once I'd beaten that game it was Tetris Tetris Tetris all the days that followed. Part of the reason was that you couldn't beat the game, you could only beat your previous self. So it was that Tetris became my first self-inflicted quest for self-improvement. Another motivation was of course the melody of Tetris' siren's call: (warning: after an hour this clip ends abruptly and will leave you wanting for more).
When I saw this book by Dan Ackerman in the airport bookshop, I put my other reading activities on hold and dived right into this one. I'm a Tetris fanboy, but I didn't know the first bit about its background story. This book filled up that gap in the same fulfilling way the long Tetris bar does. It's written by someone who loves Tetris even more than I do, evident through the various poetic ways he manages to describe a Tetris gameplaying experience. But this non-fictional tale has more than prose and passion to offer: it's got a plot. This is a Tetris thriller, where the author uses the different perspectives of the various protagonists to great effect. The tale takes us from the early seventies to the early nineties, from a grey office in a cellar under a Soviet highrise bunker behind an Iron Curtain to a sandy beach in Hawaii.
An inventor working in the bowels of the lumbering machine that was the Soviet State. Supervisors flocking around him like vultures. American, British and Japanese business sharks circling them. A shadow network of Go-players could be of help. Even Gorbatchev gets in the mix. But who will get the Tetris Treasure, and how? This book is where you find out.
Aside from its great story-telling, the book comes with references to hardware from the seventies and eighties and is chock-full of information nuggets on Tetris, the origins of its theme, and the people who worked on it. It prompted me to go to the flagship Nintendo store in New York (as I was in the neighbourhood) and see the Game Boy that survived a bombing in the Gulf War with my own eyes. It's still playing Tetris. It turned my attention to Tetris Championships that are still being organised, and attract quite some attention: (). It's mind-blowing what some people can do with this game and very exciting to see them compete.
My only gripe is that, for a non-fictional account, the author's story was a bit one-sided to the benefit of Nintendo and the inventor, with all other parties involved coming off as bad guys and losers. Some of these real people became charicatures and I get the feeling Ackerman freewheels a bit when it comes to describing their moods and thoughts. But I do concede this choice helped making the plot more engaging. Every chapter ends with a kind of a cliffhanger, a sense of more to come. For a topic dealing mostly with boxes full of paperwork and contracts, this book manages to circumnavigate the boring very effectively.
There are "bonus chapters" dealing specifcally with what is mentioned in the title, "The Tetris Effect", which refers to the psychological impact this game has. It introduced the idea of pharmatronics, a concept by which the cause of technology addiction can be laid squarily on technology itself. People constantly playing Tetris started seeing reality in a certain way through the frequent repetition of their simple actions in tetris, and started seeing shapes and holes everywhere they looked. The Tetris Effect describes this shaping of thoughts and imagination through repetitive, pattern-based activity. Because of its characteristics, both addictive and beneficial, many tests have been conducted with Tetris and scientific progress has been made, for instance in the field of psychological trauma.
A book I greatly enjoyed reading. I even enjoyed placing it on my shelf, paying extra care to get a full line of books while doing so.
October 14, 2016
There are three interesting things about Tetris: its rights were temporarily owned by the USSR government, it was ported and sold around the world before the USSR actually gave anyone the rights to do so and Atari lost the rights to distribute it in courts and thus had to absorb huge deficits for all the produced games and printed boxes they had prepared in advance.
I just told you the three interesting things about Tetris in a single sentence. Dan Ackerman did so in 275 pages.
I just told you the three interesting things about Tetris in a single sentence. Dan Ackerman did so in 275 pages.
February 7, 2017
Remember Tetris, the most popular video game of the nineties? Well, it turns out to have a pretty interesting back story that will take you behind the Iron Curtain and into the highest echelons of the gaming industry. The book is similar in style to � in that it’s a David and Goliath story focusing on the people, in this case rogue game designers daring to challenge both Soviet authority and some major corporate monoliths. The wheeling and dealing over the rights and sublicenses did get a little confusing at times, but the overall story was one of triumph for the little guy, and who doesn’t like that? Warning: You can’t read this book without wanting to play Tetris, and if you do, you’re likely to get addicted all over again.
June 21, 2023
A marvelous case study for a game which turned out to be much more than just a video game.
The science behind the game, its evolution into different avatars, the fate of its creator, the business deals, contracts, difficult circumstances behind the iron curtain, court cases, legal corporate cases between the giants of video game industry.
Gave some good insights on the complex copyrights and distribution rights of digital content of that era. The usage of Tetris as a medical treatment was pretty fascinating!
Absolutely loved the trivia section, especially the Bonus Levels.
Recommended if you are seeking a fast paced business thriller.
The science behind the game, its evolution into different avatars, the fate of its creator, the business deals, contracts, difficult circumstances behind the iron curtain, court cases, legal corporate cases between the giants of video game industry.
Gave some good insights on the complex copyrights and distribution rights of digital content of that era. The usage of Tetris as a medical treatment was pretty fascinating!
Absolutely loved the trivia section, especially the Bonus Levels.
Recommended if you are seeking a fast paced business thriller.
December 19, 2016
In cases where the historical record is unclear, or when my interviews conflicted with previously published accounts, I’ve attempted to recount the most likely version of what happened, based on research and my own conversations with many of the primary participants. A certain amount of historical interpolation was required to offer a clear narrative understanding, including into the thought processes and motivations of those involved.“Historical interpolation�; As in, I made stuff up and this disclaimer is on page 248 of a 264 page book. Also of note in the sparse bibliography is the lack of citation for the sentence, �...the Maxwell family proved the old adage about starting a war of words with someone who buys ink by the barrel.� Which actually comes up twice. And is not an idiom I am familiar with, even a little bit; it has hasty attributions ranging from Mark Twain to Charles Bownson to William Greener; its shrouded origin lies further from the Tetris era than Tetris is from now. It felt archaic even within this Cold War tale, and it is the type of nit I tried very hard not to pick while reading The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World.
If you leave idiom etymology aside and remind yourself it is a combination of fuzzy memories and interpolations, you can get caught up in the story quite easily. Still—like most corporate memoirs—it is woven more than researched; a descendant of folklore more than non-fiction. It is the Law & Order of Tetris, with facts ripped from the headlines and streamlined into an hour-long digestible diversion. Fly-on-the-wall false forthrightness is on trend, but honestly:
These guys resent being treated like a bunch of rubes, Lincoln reasoned. He pegged Belikov as not particularly business-savvy but at least admirably upfront about the troubles he’d had to date. Look, we’re a legitimate company, Lincoln explained. We’re not going to play games with you, and we’re going to pay you a lot of money.This is not “historical interpolation,� this is ascribing motivation to a character in a story because it moves the plot in the way the author would like it to move. And it really bugs me that it is presented as anything other than fabrication, than storytelling.
In his head he added, Well, maybe not a lot of money for us, but a lot for you.
That The Tetris Effect saves the reader time by collecting Tetris-historical facts typically found scattered across the internet is wiped away by pages laden with bloat, assumption, and conjecture. Upside: for a book about a structural puzzle, the form of the tale is the highlight; multiple timelines hop back and forth, reaching peak excitement when the major players—previously sequestered into their own solo chapters—begin to intermingle and then race toward the same goal. I will refrain from likening their meet-up to a row-clearing tetris, but it induces a similar thrill. The Tetris Effect may lack its namesake’s power of fascination, but it functions well enough if you're looking to pass some time.
December 11, 2016
low 3, it was kind of dry, and filled with long bits of buisness dealings that were super boring to me.
the actual conception of the game, and why it appealed to people, and the physiological effect it has is interesting, BUT the whole book could've been 50 pages and had a better effect than 300.
the actual conception of the game, and why it appealed to people, and the physiological effect it has is interesting, BUT the whole book could've been 50 pages and had a better effect than 300.
April 9, 2019
It's interesting to read how Tetris became what it is, but it's also a testimony to what lengths people go to deny someone else getting money. Some things never change, do they Nintendo?
March 13, 2020
Ah, Tetris; a wonderful game that almost everyone has heard of. Developed for an ancient computer back in the 1980s by Alexey Pajitnov, the game became a worldwide phenomenon. It has simple rules, is fun to play, requires no localization, and is almost limitless in how far you can go. I owned a copy for the NES when I was a child, but I was terrible at it.
The book known as The Tetris Effect recounts the development and subsequent spread of Tetris as a game and a pop-culture phenomenon. Since it was developed in the USSR none of the programmers had any idea of how to market the game they had made. I did say, programmers, yes. Although Pajitnov originated the idea, he did not have the programming chops required to port the program to a more recent system, so he recruited the assistance of a young high-schooler.
So with Tetris, we find that a lot of ideas went into it despite its simplicity. For example, the earliest iterations of the game had it where you filled the entire screen with pieces. Pajitnov realized that this would make the game have a limit. Basically, once you filled the screen there was nothing else to do. So Pajitnov came up with the idea of having the lines disappear. There were plenty of little refinements done to the game program before it was released for mass consumption. The addition of a score was another great idea.
While it depends on the system and processing power, the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Tetris only has a score that goes up to 999,999. I know the Game Boy edition of the game has a kill screen but I never made it there. Eventually, in 1994, an article came out called ‘This is Your Brain on Tetris.� It became one of the most cited articles of all time. It talks about The Tetris Effect, where Tetris forces your mind to engage the world in a more organized manner.
The game even led to a legal battle and some confusion about who owns the rights.
This book is pretty good. I found it to be really enjoyable.
The book known as The Tetris Effect recounts the development and subsequent spread of Tetris as a game and a pop-culture phenomenon. Since it was developed in the USSR none of the programmers had any idea of how to market the game they had made. I did say, programmers, yes. Although Pajitnov originated the idea, he did not have the programming chops required to port the program to a more recent system, so he recruited the assistance of a young high-schooler.
So with Tetris, we find that a lot of ideas went into it despite its simplicity. For example, the earliest iterations of the game had it where you filled the entire screen with pieces. Pajitnov realized that this would make the game have a limit. Basically, once you filled the screen there was nothing else to do. So Pajitnov came up with the idea of having the lines disappear. There were plenty of little refinements done to the game program before it was released for mass consumption. The addition of a score was another great idea.
While it depends on the system and processing power, the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Tetris only has a score that goes up to 999,999. I know the Game Boy edition of the game has a kill screen but I never made it there. Eventually, in 1994, an article came out called ‘This is Your Brain on Tetris.� It became one of the most cited articles of all time. It talks about The Tetris Effect, where Tetris forces your mind to engage the world in a more organized manner.
The game even led to a legal battle and some confusion about who owns the rights.
This book is pretty good. I found it to be really enjoyable.
July 7, 2023
"I played Tetris for five minutes, yeah. I still see falling blocks in my dreams.
This game isn't just addictive. It stays with you. It's poetry. Art and math all working in magical synchronicity. It's the perfect game". - Henk Rogers
Within the mesmerizing pages of The Tetris Effect, Dan Ackerman unveils a riveting tale that transcends the boundaries of a mere video game. Through the lens of Tetris, Ackerman reveals the epic story of Henk Rogers, a visionary entrepreneur who dared to challenge the Soviet Union in a battle for copyrights and creative freedom.
Ackerman skillfully explores the significance of Tetris beyond its addictive gameplay, delving into its cultural impact and its role in bridging the gap between East and West. The battle for copyrights becomes a metaphor for the clash of ideologies and the quest for creative freedom in a rapidly changing world.
Throughout the book, Ackerman's narrative style captivates readers, immersing them in the vividly depicted settings and the emotional turmoil of its characters. The story of Henk Rogers serves as a testament to the power of determination, innovation, and unwavering belief in the value of one's creations.
In the words of Dan Ackerman, In the realm of Tetris, where blocks align and destinies intertwine, one man's battle for ownership became a saga of strategic maneuvers and legal conquests." Immerse yourself in The Tetris Effect and prepare to be captivated by this extraordinary journey into the heart of creativity, innovation, and the human spirit.
Rana Dil Nawaz.
Khi, Pakistan.
This game isn't just addictive. It stays with you. It's poetry. Art and math all working in magical synchronicity. It's the perfect game". - Henk Rogers
Within the mesmerizing pages of The Tetris Effect, Dan Ackerman unveils a riveting tale that transcends the boundaries of a mere video game. Through the lens of Tetris, Ackerman reveals the epic story of Henk Rogers, a visionary entrepreneur who dared to challenge the Soviet Union in a battle for copyrights and creative freedom.
Ackerman skillfully explores the significance of Tetris beyond its addictive gameplay, delving into its cultural impact and its role in bridging the gap between East and West. The battle for copyrights becomes a metaphor for the clash of ideologies and the quest for creative freedom in a rapidly changing world.
Throughout the book, Ackerman's narrative style captivates readers, immersing them in the vividly depicted settings and the emotional turmoil of its characters. The story of Henk Rogers serves as a testament to the power of determination, innovation, and unwavering belief in the value of one's creations.
In the words of Dan Ackerman, In the realm of Tetris, where blocks align and destinies intertwine, one man's battle for ownership became a saga of strategic maneuvers and legal conquests." Immerse yourself in The Tetris Effect and prepare to be captivated by this extraordinary journey into the heart of creativity, innovation, and the human spirit.
Rana Dil Nawaz.
Khi, Pakistan.
April 16, 2017
I'm still shocked that I was able to whip right through this despite it being chock full of stuff I don't usually enjoy (e.g. business, or even worse, business history!). But if I have to speculate on how I made it through 200+ pages license-wrangling, I'd say it had to do with the author's ability to make me care about the people involved. For example, as an American, I was desperate for Alexey Pajitnov to get reap some of the financial reward for creating such an awesome game. And I was really, really vested in Henk Rogers acquiring the rights for hand-held devices because, of course, I was introduced to the delights of Tetris on the Game Boy. So, yeah, it was also probably my obsession with the game that kept me reading.
The author also tossed in a few chapters of research-related tidbits. I wonder how getting Tetris in hospitals as a "cognitive vaccine" against PTSD is progressing (sounds like an uphill battle to me)! And I just might have to use the library databases to search the literature on Tetris. Sounds like there is some amusing research still being done (and not just on its cultural impact).
A quick, good read all around. Now excuse me while I go play some Tetris...
The author also tossed in a few chapters of research-related tidbits. I wonder how getting Tetris in hospitals as a "cognitive vaccine" against PTSD is progressing (sounds like an uphill battle to me)! And I just might have to use the library databases to search the literature on Tetris. Sounds like there is some amusing research still being done (and not just on its cultural impact).
A quick, good read all around. Now excuse me while I go play some Tetris...
August 15, 2022
An interesting but at the same time a dry read.
This book was broken up into 3 parts that went over how this make shift game became one of the first viral phenomenons as well as the history of all the wheelings and dealings the key players (there was a lot of names to keep track of) did to get the rights to sell this addictive game on home computers, consoles etc. At the end of each of those sections was a ‘Bonus Level� chapter that delved into the addictiveness of the game, is the game winnable? And to me the most interesting chapter, the application of playing Tetris in helping those suffering from PTSD. I wish more of the book was like these bonus chapters.
This book was broken up into 3 parts that went over how this make shift game became one of the first viral phenomenons as well as the history of all the wheelings and dealings the key players (there was a lot of names to keep track of) did to get the rights to sell this addictive game on home computers, consoles etc. At the end of each of those sections was a ‘Bonus Level� chapter that delved into the addictiveness of the game, is the game winnable? And to me the most interesting chapter, the application of playing Tetris in helping those suffering from PTSD. I wish more of the book was like these bonus chapters.
March 3, 2021
Not a book you'd read for the prose, but it's a great story about Tetris' complex path out of the Soviet Union and onto every gaming platform in existence. At first I only really cared about Tetris' creation and dissemination, and was initially annoyed that it spent so much time on the backstories of various key players. But I came around -- those backstories are genuinely interesting, and the way the book weaves them together towards the end makes for an exciting final third.
The author is clearly "filling in the gaps" at times, which felt unnecessary since the book was overly wordy. But it's a decent enough account cobbled together from existing online interviews and original interviews done by the author.
It was kind of fascinating to read about the thought processes and conversations of game designers who know they're onto a hit, but can't capitalise on it due to the lack of IP law in the Soviet Union. Learning about the jumbled mess of Tetris' rights on various platforms as it found its way into the wider world was illuminating, and sheds light on other areas too, such as the continued troubles of Atari.
The author is clearly "filling in the gaps" at times, which felt unnecessary since the book was overly wordy. But it's a decent enough account cobbled together from existing online interviews and original interviews done by the author.
It was kind of fascinating to read about the thought processes and conversations of game designers who know they're onto a hit, but can't capitalise on it due to the lack of IP law in the Soviet Union. Learning about the jumbled mess of Tetris' rights on various platforms as it found its way into the wider world was illuminating, and sheds light on other areas too, such as the continued troubles of Atari.
June 6, 2018
A good book about the complex history of the video game Tetris. Before reading this book I had no idea that Tetris was invented in the Soviet Union during the cold war and that the rights to the game were so contested back then. I enjoyed how this book included childhood stories about Henk Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov because it made the book less dry and more like a fiction book, which made me want to continue reading, because at times, this book could be a little boring and some parts seemed to drone on and on.
February 22, 2025
The story behind the game�
The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World by Dan Ackerman is a wonderful exhaustive history to all the power players and development to the iconic game.
If you have seen the Tetris movie or some of the short documentary videos, then you probably know the basics of the story. Fortunately this significantly expands the material and goes into untapped areas.
The book covers a great deal of the background on the original Russian creator and the three major figures that worked towards licensing Tetris. It also goes into great detail on the labyrinthine rights scam perpetrated by one of the more duplicitous businessmen involved and how it led to numerous legal entanglements.
Still, it’s a very nice history of Tetris and how it came to be…with chapters peppered with total Tetris anecdotes that show the importance of Tetris to the culture.
The Tetris Effect: The Game that Hypnotized the World by Dan Ackerman is a wonderful exhaustive history to all the power players and development to the iconic game.
If you have seen the Tetris movie or some of the short documentary videos, then you probably know the basics of the story. Fortunately this significantly expands the material and goes into untapped areas.
The book covers a great deal of the background on the original Russian creator and the three major figures that worked towards licensing Tetris. It also goes into great detail on the labyrinthine rights scam perpetrated by one of the more duplicitous businessmen involved and how it led to numerous legal entanglements.
Still, it’s a very nice history of Tetris and how it came to be…with chapters peppered with total Tetris anecdotes that show the importance of Tetris to the culture.
February 21, 2023
Very entertaining. I still prefer the recounting on Game Over, but still, very enjoyable. Specially, without a doubt, the meeting at ELORG by Henk Rogers. Pure diamond.
June 1, 2025
I think this will be in my top 5 books of this year. I’m not 100% sure how accurate the story is, but Ackerman seems to provide a very well rounded account of the development of Russia, without making it too technical. I loved it
September 30, 2016
Tetris: the colours are bright, the music is instantly recognizable and the game is intensely addictive.
In case you’re one of the few people who’s never played the video game, red, green, yellow, blue and orange blocks in different configurations fall from the top of the screen to the tune of faux-folksy Russian music.
The blocks keep coming and coming and coming, and your job is to create solid lines from these seemingly-random shapes. Eventually, they start falling so fast you can’t keep up, and the screen fills up, bringing the game to an end. Once it does, most people just start all over again.
Now, the history behind this more than 30-year-old video game reveals a story almost as fascinating as the game itself. In The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World, New York technology writer and editor Dan Ackerman has crafted a detailed look at the complex negotiations for the rights to this seemingly simple game.
"Tetris is bringing order to disorder. It’s the internal struggle against the non-stop onslaught of daily life, in all its colourful randomness, seeming to fall on you from the sky," he writes.
Ackerman’s approach is to start the story in the middle, then move back to the beginning, building curiosity and tension as he goes. He obviously did his research, particularly with first-person interviews, but uses a more narrative flow, without citations and quoted interviews to slow things down.
The original Tetris file was only 27 kilobytes, about half the size of most Word document files. Created as a side project by Russian programmer Alexy Pajitnov, it went through several iterations before being shared widely throughout the country and the Eastern Bloc, after which it was noticed by commercial distributors in the West.
Once the West became interested in the game, the Soviet bureaucracy got involved.
Eventually, the Soviet-state computer programmer had to waive his rights to the game and sign ownership over to the state.
Soviet bureaucrats had never dealt with a negotiation like this before, and struggled to understand the concepts of capitalism and intellectual property.
The behind-the-scenes drama of the licensing rights should be made into a movie. A Hungarian-born software licenser, a Czech-born media mogul, representatives from Nintendo and American software distributors were all involved in some of the first commercial deals for the project.
Ackerman deftly puts the pieces of the story together, from the chronological history of events to the personal and technical aspects of this convoluted tale. He peppers the story with interesting Tetris facts, such as the rarest artifact or different world records.
For a non-gamer or someone who started gaming after the 1980s, it can be a bit technical, but the history of technology is important, and the story of Tetris lays the groundwork for better understanding the roots of computing and gaming today.
"Tetris is a unique example of an idea, a product and an era coming together at exactly the right moment," Ackerman says.
He also talks about the game’s addictive qualities and how it affects the brain, a phenomenon actually known as the Tetris effect. If you’ve ended up imagining the shapes and playing the game in your mind’s eye, well, you’re not alone.
He notes, "Tetris can change your mental state and can literally rewire memory or perception, sometimes permanently." There’s even new research that shows Tetris might be able to help reduce cravings and aid with addictions treatment.
The back and forth between the various interested parties dealing with the game was vastly complicated, but Ackerman manages to make it accessible and easy to read. He includes an epilogue and updates the outcomes for everyone involved in the story.
In The Tetris Effect, Ackerman has put the right pieces in the right places to create a well-written history of a game that still fascinates the world.
In case you’re one of the few people who’s never played the video game, red, green, yellow, blue and orange blocks in different configurations fall from the top of the screen to the tune of faux-folksy Russian music.
The blocks keep coming and coming and coming, and your job is to create solid lines from these seemingly-random shapes. Eventually, they start falling so fast you can’t keep up, and the screen fills up, bringing the game to an end. Once it does, most people just start all over again.
Now, the history behind this more than 30-year-old video game reveals a story almost as fascinating as the game itself. In The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World, New York technology writer and editor Dan Ackerman has crafted a detailed look at the complex negotiations for the rights to this seemingly simple game.
"Tetris is bringing order to disorder. It’s the internal struggle against the non-stop onslaught of daily life, in all its colourful randomness, seeming to fall on you from the sky," he writes.
Ackerman’s approach is to start the story in the middle, then move back to the beginning, building curiosity and tension as he goes. He obviously did his research, particularly with first-person interviews, but uses a more narrative flow, without citations and quoted interviews to slow things down.
The original Tetris file was only 27 kilobytes, about half the size of most Word document files. Created as a side project by Russian programmer Alexy Pajitnov, it went through several iterations before being shared widely throughout the country and the Eastern Bloc, after which it was noticed by commercial distributors in the West.
Once the West became interested in the game, the Soviet bureaucracy got involved.
Eventually, the Soviet-state computer programmer had to waive his rights to the game and sign ownership over to the state.
Soviet bureaucrats had never dealt with a negotiation like this before, and struggled to understand the concepts of capitalism and intellectual property.
The behind-the-scenes drama of the licensing rights should be made into a movie. A Hungarian-born software licenser, a Czech-born media mogul, representatives from Nintendo and American software distributors were all involved in some of the first commercial deals for the project.
Ackerman deftly puts the pieces of the story together, from the chronological history of events to the personal and technical aspects of this convoluted tale. He peppers the story with interesting Tetris facts, such as the rarest artifact or different world records.
For a non-gamer or someone who started gaming after the 1980s, it can be a bit technical, but the history of technology is important, and the story of Tetris lays the groundwork for better understanding the roots of computing and gaming today.
"Tetris is a unique example of an idea, a product and an era coming together at exactly the right moment," Ackerman says.
He also talks about the game’s addictive qualities and how it affects the brain, a phenomenon actually known as the Tetris effect. If you’ve ended up imagining the shapes and playing the game in your mind’s eye, well, you’re not alone.
He notes, "Tetris can change your mental state and can literally rewire memory or perception, sometimes permanently." There’s even new research that shows Tetris might be able to help reduce cravings and aid with addictions treatment.
The back and forth between the various interested parties dealing with the game was vastly complicated, but Ackerman manages to make it accessible and easy to read. He includes an epilogue and updates the outcomes for everyone involved in the story.
In The Tetris Effect, Ackerman has put the right pieces in the right places to create a well-written history of a game that still fascinates the world.
December 29, 2023
I genuinely had to stop reading this book several times because I wanted to play Tetris.
June 17, 2018
More of a book about the rights of Tetris than the creation of the game, this book did have a lot of interesting bits. Unfortunately, they were sandwiched between bad writing and pure supposition about the dialogue and thoughts of the principals in this short book.
Put into an even smaller nutshell, this is an urban legend version of the Tetris story. A few chapters about the Tetris Effect (see Wired magazine article) and some studies on PTSD recovery using Tetris were some of the most interesting parts. This book also described the whole battle between Nintendo and Tengen and the rights to the handheld version of the game, shipped with every GameBoy.
The author is a frequent contributor of technology reviews and essays to CNET, and what I've read there is fine. By difference, they have more facts and reporting and less folklore and ruminations.
Put into an even smaller nutshell, this is an urban legend version of the Tetris story. A few chapters about the Tetris Effect (see Wired magazine article) and some studies on PTSD recovery using Tetris were some of the most interesting parts. This book also described the whole battle between Nintendo and Tengen and the rights to the handheld version of the game, shipped with every GameBoy.
The author is a frequent contributor of technology reviews and essays to CNET, and what I've read there is fine. By difference, they have more facts and reporting and less folklore and ruminations.
February 19, 2017
Excellent story of how the game Tetris came from humble Russian roots to spread across the world as one of the most popular games in video game history. I learned a lot about the video game industry of the early 80's and how software was developed for the many versions of computers that were available at the time. I think this is probably one of the few books that could make contract negotiations over international IP rights interesting.
Very easy to read, I found myself staying up way too late to keep reading... much like if I was actually playing Tetris. This is a must read for anyone who has interest in electronic entertainment history.
Very easy to read, I found myself staying up way too late to keep reading... much like if I was actually playing Tetris. This is a must read for anyone who has interest in electronic entertainment history.
January 23, 2020
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I review video game themed books a lot, so to be sure you don’t miss future reviews.
I review video game themed books a lot, so to be sure you don’t miss future reviews.
August 17, 2016
The Tetris Effect by Dan Ackerman is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in mid-August.
This book is made up of brief biographies of Tetris' creator and its UK & US investors, Tetris' therapeutic psychological effect, being sold to Nintendo, as well as its design, success, and geometric perfection (being based on the shape of pentomino, though it's more of a tetramino).
This book is made up of brief biographies of Tetris' creator and its UK & US investors, Tetris' therapeutic psychological effect, being sold to Nintendo, as well as its design, success, and geometric perfection (being based on the shape of pentomino, though it's more of a tetramino).
October 8, 2016
If only the whole book were like the "Bonus Level Chapters."
September 15, 2024
maybe business memoirs are just not for me
December 11, 2022
I feared somewhat going into this book that it might end up being like Console Wars...and to some extent this was true. Both are dramatisations of a bunch of businessmen competing to make a bunch of money, in this case trying to get the rights to distribute one specific video game.
The book's perspective is as American capitalist as its premise, seemingly going out of its way every few paragraphs (especially early in the book) to remind you that The Soviet Union Is Bad and It's Bad Because Its Communist and Its Horrible To Live In Because Its Communist and Russian Culture Is Also Bad And Inhospitable And Rude Probably Because Its Communist Too and This Aspect of Moscow Is So Horrible And Orwellian. Oh, did you forget that The Soviet Union Is Communist And Bad? Better throw in another reminder. There's a few complaints about cultures of other foreign countries like Japan here too, and as you might expect, absolutely no issues to be had with the USA or capitalism. Game creators not getting credit or money for their work is obviously a communist specific issue! That totally never happens in the West!
To be fair, this book isn't all bad. There are parts of this story about Tetris rights that are more complicated than you might expect and are genuinely interesting to see unfold, but that's ultimately all they are - parts. And what is there is often spoiled by Ackerman's need to reinforce how much he dislikes the Soviet Union at every twist and turn (apparently encouraging a focus on STEM in schools is indoctrination??). The book also spends a lot of time skirting the central conflict to give you more detailed background information about the characters and companies that you could ever need, possibly so the book could be a book and not just a few chapters of a larger book containing other stories. I certainly don't dislike this book as much as Console Wars, or some of my other 1-star books on this site, but I can't say I got enough out of it to give it 2 stars either.
The book's perspective is as American capitalist as its premise, seemingly going out of its way every few paragraphs (especially early in the book) to remind you that The Soviet Union Is Bad and It's Bad Because Its Communist and Its Horrible To Live In Because Its Communist and Russian Culture Is Also Bad And Inhospitable And Rude Probably Because Its Communist Too and This Aspect of Moscow Is So Horrible And Orwellian. Oh, did you forget that The Soviet Union Is Communist And Bad? Better throw in another reminder. There's a few complaints about cultures of other foreign countries like Japan here too, and as you might expect, absolutely no issues to be had with the USA or capitalism. Game creators not getting credit or money for their work is obviously a communist specific issue! That totally never happens in the West!
To be fair, this book isn't all bad. There are parts of this story about Tetris rights that are more complicated than you might expect and are genuinely interesting to see unfold, but that's ultimately all they are - parts. And what is there is often spoiled by Ackerman's need to reinforce how much he dislikes the Soviet Union at every twist and turn (apparently encouraging a focus on STEM in schools is indoctrination??). The book also spends a lot of time skirting the central conflict to give you more detailed background information about the characters and companies that you could ever need, possibly so the book could be a book and not just a few chapters of a larger book containing other stories. I certainly don't dislike this book as much as Console Wars, or some of my other 1-star books on this site, but I can't say I got enough out of it to give it 2 stars either.
January 1, 2022
2.5 stars rounded down as this "journalist" admits to making things up in the afterword.
The heroes of the tale are Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of Tetris inside the Soviet bureaucracy called ELORG, as well as Henk Rogers, an interesting Dutch-American programming whiz who impressed the Nintendo bosses with a Black Onyx game he designed.
Pajitnov and Rogers connected, the former didn't make real money until after he immigrated to the US and started working with the latter. Rogers took computer classes at the University of Hawaii, followed a girlfriend to Japan, where his family's business had relocated, and then went into the gaming industry. The author drastically overplays the difficulty Rogers had getting into meetings with ELORG (it took him <48 hours in the country and he was representing Nintendo).
The villains are Robert Stein, who tried to rip the Soviets off on licensing deals, as well as Kevin Maxwell, son of Mirrorsoft founder, tabloid publisher, and noted thief Robert Maxwell. The latter escaped the Nazis and then proceeded to stab the West in the back, something passed on to his scumbag sun who lost a deal here and then cried for daddy to call Gorbachev on his behalf, as well as to his scumbag daughter, a human trafficker who you may know as an associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Robert named the ship he died on the same as this daughter - Ghislaine.
Atari and Nintendo also battle it out over licensing deals, as Atari tried to make Tetris for NES after reverse-engineering the system's lockout chips. The game sold well in console form, but what really made it a hit was its inclusion in the initial launch of the Gameboy.
This probably could have been a long article instead of a book, and would have been benefitted from a more truthful author.
The heroes of the tale are Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of Tetris inside the Soviet bureaucracy called ELORG, as well as Henk Rogers, an interesting Dutch-American programming whiz who impressed the Nintendo bosses with a Black Onyx game he designed.
Pajitnov and Rogers connected, the former didn't make real money until after he immigrated to the US and started working with the latter. Rogers took computer classes at the University of Hawaii, followed a girlfriend to Japan, where his family's business had relocated, and then went into the gaming industry. The author drastically overplays the difficulty Rogers had getting into meetings with ELORG (it took him <48 hours in the country and he was representing Nintendo).
The villains are Robert Stein, who tried to rip the Soviets off on licensing deals, as well as Kevin Maxwell, son of Mirrorsoft founder, tabloid publisher, and noted thief Robert Maxwell. The latter escaped the Nazis and then proceeded to stab the West in the back, something passed on to his scumbag sun who lost a deal here and then cried for daddy to call Gorbachev on his behalf, as well as to his scumbag daughter, a human trafficker who you may know as an associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Robert named the ship he died on the same as this daughter - Ghislaine.
Atari and Nintendo also battle it out over licensing deals, as Atari tried to make Tetris for NES after reverse-engineering the system's lockout chips. The game sold well in console form, but what really made it a hit was its inclusion in the initial launch of the Gameboy.
This probably could have been a long article instead of a book, and would have been benefitted from a more truthful author.
March 18, 2020
This book got me playing Tetris again. No, it got me addicted to playing the game once more.
It got me in the first part, but the next two parts of the story are left to be desired. I loved the aspect of reading about the 'creative process', which is in the first part of the 3-part story by Dan Ackerman. It gives us the beginnings of two major individuals we are to focus on in the book: Alexey Pajitnov & Henk Rogers, who are the essential powers that drive the story forward.
They come from different countries, and that's also what made it more interesting - to see how and when they'd find each other in the latter parts of the story.
The second part, which is 'the growing chaos' gives us a bulky but condensed rundown of the things that happen that would cause Tetris's rights to go to very questionable people, caused alone by being in different countries, language barriers, devious agendas, and the human desire to acquire something that's essentially more valuable than a million diamonds combined.
The third part is about 'getting in control' of all the chaos that's been happening around. I won't spoil it, but just understand that in reality, we already know that Tetris is one of the best and most important video games of all time out there. It can be played in various consoles and computer systems, it's probably in your smartphone right now, waiting for you to play it.
The Tetris Effect is as intense as the Social Network. It's not the 'when will it happen' that's interesting about it all, cause we already know that happens, it's the 'how it will happen' that gets you glued to the pages.
It got me in the first part, but the next two parts of the story are left to be desired. I loved the aspect of reading about the 'creative process', which is in the first part of the 3-part story by Dan Ackerman. It gives us the beginnings of two major individuals we are to focus on in the book: Alexey Pajitnov & Henk Rogers, who are the essential powers that drive the story forward.
They come from different countries, and that's also what made it more interesting - to see how and when they'd find each other in the latter parts of the story.
The second part, which is 'the growing chaos' gives us a bulky but condensed rundown of the things that happen that would cause Tetris's rights to go to very questionable people, caused alone by being in different countries, language barriers, devious agendas, and the human desire to acquire something that's essentially more valuable than a million diamonds combined.
The third part is about 'getting in control' of all the chaos that's been happening around. I won't spoil it, but just understand that in reality, we already know that Tetris is one of the best and most important video games of all time out there. It can be played in various consoles and computer systems, it's probably in your smartphone right now, waiting for you to play it.
The Tetris Effect is as intense as the Social Network. It's not the 'when will it happen' that's interesting about it all, cause we already know that happens, it's the 'how it will happen' that gets you glued to the pages.
December 12, 2023
I came to this book having already seen the Apple TV+ movie about the same events -- which was ostensibly not based on the book, though a recent lawsuit from the author alleges otherwise -- so I was already familiar with the basic shape of the story, but I was curious about some of the details the movie obviously dramatized. While the movie (understandably) centers Henk Rogers, the Dutch-born American living in Japan who ultimately brings Tetris to the NES and Game Boy, the book fixes its eyes on Tetris itself as the main character. The result is a more complete biography of one of the few perfect videogames ever made.
Some of the most interesting parts of Tetris' journey to the west happen in its earliest days, well before Rogers was ever involved. (Incidentally, some of the most interesting parts of Rogers' life happened before Tetris was ever involved.) From its birth in a Soviet research center to its ad hoc translation to different platforms, from its viral hand-to-hand spread to the spiderweb of publishing rights (both real and imagined), Tetris stumbled through a legal and technological swamp to eventually reach all of our screens. Its ascendancy feels somehow both impossible and inevitable.
Structurally, the book feels a bit padded out at times. Three interstitial chapters bring any narrative momentum to a dead stop to delve into some of the scientific research that has involved Tetris over the years; the book would have been better served to relegate these digressions to an appendix. But at 244 pages it's hardly an imposing read. Well worth the time for anyone interested in in videogame history.
Some of the most interesting parts of Tetris' journey to the west happen in its earliest days, well before Rogers was ever involved. (Incidentally, some of the most interesting parts of Rogers' life happened before Tetris was ever involved.) From its birth in a Soviet research center to its ad hoc translation to different platforms, from its viral hand-to-hand spread to the spiderweb of publishing rights (both real and imagined), Tetris stumbled through a legal and technological swamp to eventually reach all of our screens. Its ascendancy feels somehow both impossible and inevitable.
Structurally, the book feels a bit padded out at times. Three interstitial chapters bring any narrative momentum to a dead stop to delve into some of the scientific research that has involved Tetris over the years; the book would have been better served to relegate these digressions to an appendix. But at 244 pages it's hardly an imposing read. Well worth the time for anyone interested in in videogame history.
January 19, 2021
I paid more attention to the main title (The Tetris Effect) and not enough to the subtitle (The Game that Hypnotized the World). I wanted this book to be about the Tetris Effect. I wanted to learn more about why the game is so addictive, why playing it can actually rewire you brain, about how it sneaks into the way you organize your junk drawer, and why it is STILL so popular after all these years.
If that's also what you want to know, read the Bonus Level chapters and skip the rest. They do touch on all that info, and a little more, and it's fascinating.
The rest of this really long book, though? It's about the history of Tetris. It covers the original programming by a Russian in the 80s (interesting), the biography of that man (kind of interesting), the business wheelings and dealings of those who brought it from Russia to Europe to America (less interesting) and the biographies of ALL THOSE PEOPLE (oh come on).
The prose is clunky and mostly dull. Ackerman repeats himself in a way that suggests his editor was also snoozing, and attempts to uses rhetorical tricks to make the story more interesting in a way that suggests his editor knew how dull it was and at least tried to help spice it up a little.
True Tetris aficionados and political and business enthusiasts are this book's real audience. It's not the book's fault that I really only wanted the psychology and the rest felt like baggage.
If that's also what you want to know, read the Bonus Level chapters and skip the rest. They do touch on all that info, and a little more, and it's fascinating.
The rest of this really long book, though? It's about the history of Tetris. It covers the original programming by a Russian in the 80s (interesting), the biography of that man (kind of interesting), the business wheelings and dealings of those who brought it from Russia to Europe to America (less interesting) and the biographies of ALL THOSE PEOPLE (oh come on).
The prose is clunky and mostly dull. Ackerman repeats himself in a way that suggests his editor was also snoozing, and attempts to uses rhetorical tricks to make the story more interesting in a way that suggests his editor knew how dull it was and at least tried to help spice it up a little.
True Tetris aficionados and political and business enthusiasts are this book's real audience. It's not the book's fault that I really only wanted the psychology and the rest felt like baggage.
July 6, 2023
Is the story behind Tetris fascinating? Yes. Is this book as fascinating? Kind of. Ackerman has written a quick and punchy book. He explores the story of Tetris and it's unusual origins as a Soviet computer engineers pet project to a multi-million dollar industry. The book provides some excellent anecdotes and provides an insight into some of the characters like Henk Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov.
There were a series of passages in the book that were about what Tetris means to the consumer, why it is popular and praise for simplicity. I thought these parts felt like the author was trying to pad out the length of the book. Some of the most interesting sections are really short. The response of the Maxwells to losing the rights to Tetris feels short and possibly under researched.
Some people have criticised the author taking artistic license with some of the events. I personally think it was fine, I don't think those touches radically shifted the narrative that the author was trying to describe.
I wouldn't recommend this book to someone with no interest in the subject but if you saw the recent movie about Tetris and want to find out a few extra things then this book is worthwhile. Although be warned that there isn't a lot more to tell.
There were a series of passages in the book that were about what Tetris means to the consumer, why it is popular and praise for simplicity. I thought these parts felt like the author was trying to pad out the length of the book. Some of the most interesting sections are really short. The response of the Maxwells to losing the rights to Tetris feels short and possibly under researched.
Some people have criticised the author taking artistic license with some of the events. I personally think it was fine, I don't think those touches radically shifted the narrative that the author was trying to describe.
I wouldn't recommend this book to someone with no interest in the subject but if you saw the recent movie about Tetris and want to find out a few extra things then this book is worthwhile. Although be warned that there isn't a lot more to tell.
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