Tetris founder – and Seattle-area resident – reflects on iconic game’s legacy

Tetris is beloved in part for its simplicity. The game has no guns, no Marios, no apocalypses. Just colored blocks of varying shapes, all falling into flat-line harmony.

But the story of how the game was created by a Russian computer engineer, exported from the Soviet Union and then made its way through our Game Boys and into our hearts is far more complex.

The saga is detailed in “Tetris,” the surprisingly action-packed film released earlier this year by Apple TV that follows Henk Rogers (played by Taron Egerton) as he works to license Tetris and give credit to creator Alexey Pajitnov, who developed the game’s first version on an Electronika 60 computer in 1984. With both the game and creator behind the Iron Curtain, the movie shows Rogers facing obstacles – ones far bigger than Tetris players getting T-shaped blocks when they just need a square – of Cold War politics, licensing battles and money problems.

Spoiler alert: Rogers succeeds, Tetris becomes one of the most popular games in history and Pajitnov moves to the U.S. He now lives in Clyde Hill, where fans still send him cartridges to sign.

“Tetris” is faithful to the spirit of the game and the story of how it got to the masses, Pajitnov said. The Russian actor who plays Pajitnov, Nikita Efremov, looks similar to the real young Pajitnov with brown hair and a beard. He’s seen in the movie playing tennis, a game the real-life Pajitnov still loves and plays weekly, which partially inspired the iconic game’s name. (Tetris is a combination of “tetra,” the Greek prefix for four, and “tennis.”) The film accurately re-created the 1980s era Soviet atmosphere of computer scientists crammed into a room, trying to program on ugly, slow computers over long working hours.

But the film does take some liberties. Viewers see Pajitnov in a Soviet store line, giving food to a mother who says she doesn’t have anything to feed her children. That was too much, Pajitnov said. Lines were long, but it wasn’t quite that bad.

In another scene, Rogers says he wants to see the “real Moscow,” so Pajitnov takes him to a secret party where they dance to “The Final Countdown.” Pajitnov did take Rogers out, but it was to a spot playing Russian folk songs, not rock music. And the dramatic car chase where Pajitnov, Rogers and two Nintendo executives drive to the airport as a Russian version of “Holding Out for a Hero” plays? All movie magic, though Pajitnov jokes that he was a stunt driver.

In a recent interview, Pajitnov – wearing a shirt with his original Tetris code – spoke with the Seattle Times about the movie, the lasting impact of Tetris and his thoughts on the future of technology and artificial intelligence. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

“Tetris” was released in March. Has the movie led to more attention from fans and players?

Yes, I got more attention. Usually, the fans send me some pictures or cartridges to sign, and now I got about two times more of them in the mail. I’m very strict. I just sign the cartridges or something that is related and I put just one signature for the mail because I don’t like to encourage the collectors to sell them. It’s something which takes my time, but I am very grateful because I get really warm letters. People describe how they like the game, how they are addicted and how the game kind of helps them in their life and in some interesting circumstances. Warm letters.

Why do you think Tetris continues to be universally loved by audiences?

There are two main reasons. One reason is the game is abstract. It’s based on just geometrical figures. So they don’t have any kind of strong cultural reference. And the other reason is that most games are about the fighting, about the competition. And Tetris is a rather peaceful game. It has a more constructive spirit. You create some profile and you order the stuff, rather than destroying them. And that’s why a very big part of the main audience really appreciates the game.

Your character is played by the Russian actor Nikita Efremov. What was it like seeing yourself and your friend Henk Rogers being portrayed by other people in this film?

(Nikita) did his best, definitely, and I’m very grateful. I think it was a great job. We didn’t know each other before the movie obviously but we had a Zoom for a long time and, and we became kind of like each other. We had a very long conversation discussing all the strange stuff.

Later, after the movie, I met him in Moscow and we had dinner and I could say we became kind of good friends. He’s a very, very talented guy. I looked at the screen and saw that maybe I was similar when I was that young. I even became emotional sometimes because the energy and the temper (Taron Egerton) shows in some moments, reminds me of Henk very, very much during his first visit, because I remember it very well.

You were an executive producer of the movie, but did anything surprise you once it came out?

What was a very big surprise for me in the movie, all of a sudden, I discovered a new person in the movie. It’s the (Nintendo) Game Boy. So every time when it was mentioned from the screen, the public started applause and became really excited. People still remember and still so appreciate the small machine, the small source of enjoyment and pleasure that it became kind of a person in the movie, believe it or not. So for some people, it was kind of a Game Boy movie. That was a very unexpected and very surprising kind of phenomenon.

You’re still head of the Tetris brand and previously worked for Microsoft. What are your thoughts on the current state of AI in technology?

It’s a strange period in the AI science now because they have a very, very impressive show but underneath they didn’t get a really serious progress here, because most of this stuff is the amazing result (from) a very simple kind of neural network. Neural networks showing absolutely great effect in the appearance of something reasonable and intelligent. But in most cases, it’s just illusion. Very shallow, very showing, very well-displayed, but not very deep.

But because of the deep human interest to artificial intelligence, I guess it’s got some serious acceleration now. I hope in the nearest three to four years they will go deep in their research and will get really serious results in this area.

When creating this game all those years ago, did you have any thought that it would become what it was, that you would be so successful and wind up in Washington?

Not really. I didn’t have any big expectations at that time. I was very preoccupied with my problem in the Soviet Union, my family and stuff. So basically, I realized that I got very lucky, that I came to this wonderful game and I tried to squeeze everything I could out of this luck. And I think I did a good job.